The Main Event saw Jemma out for her first race meeting of the year.

We both tested the day before the event with Jemma running some strong 7.4s, I had the full auto motor in my bike and ran a 7.01, unfortunately
the bike span mid track causing damage to the motor. After pulling the motor we decided to put in the normal transmission motor. After discussions with Andy Sawyer at DME racing we made some changes to how my bike would usually be set up, I was a bit apprehensive to try these setting but a 7.01 off the trailer speaks for itself.

Day 1 of qualifying saw Jemma unable to make the first round as when trying to start her bike in the pairing lanes she had no power, on later inspection we found her water pump had stayed on causing it to flatten the batteries. My 1st qualifier saw me straight in the number 1 spot with a 7.01 @208mph.
Qualifier 2 saw Jemma in the burn out box when her oil filter decided to let go causing a huge oil down and once again no run, things were certainly against her. I went out and after knowing it felt like a strong run was told I’d ran a 6.93 @ 206, and this time on our regular transmission and setting the first half of a new et European record.

Day 2 saw Jemma determined to get a decent number on the board, after launching on full throttle the bike started to wheelie but she felt she could handle it, unfortunately the track was so sticky the back tyre hooked and the front kept coming up and ended with her completely flipping the bike, Santa Pod crew and medical services were with her very quickly and we can’t thank them all enough for their help. After being checked over in the medical centre she (very luckily) had no more the bruises and stiffness and was more concerned about the bike. Obviously I missed this round.
Qualifier 4, much to a lot of peoples surprise saw Jemma was on the start line to video me, I ran a 7.03 @ 210mph. This saw me set a new mph European record.

Eliminations day came and after looking at the data knew we had a head gasket going which we couldn’t do anything about so just prayed that it would hold on for the day, elim 1 saw a win with a 7.15, elim 2 saw another win with a 7.05 @ 207. The semi final saw me against Garry Bowe which is never an easy round for
either of us so I was very focused on a win, Garry red lit but I still had a better time of 7.09 @ 208 to his 7.16. The final saw me against Rick Stubbins and I took the win with a strong 7.005 @ 208 to his 7.14. A huge thank you to Andy at DME for help and input over the whole weekend even on his days off.

All in all a very mixed weekend with highs and lows. My bike is now having engines swapped and refreshed ahead of the Summer Nationals in a couple of weeks, Jemma’s bike is a bit of a mess, she smashed the front end handle bars, fairing, bracket and the motec pdm, she also smashed the marvic wheel and twisted the DME swing arm. A massive THANK YOU to the guys at DME for rushing a new arm through for her, I called Dimey on the Monday night and it was done by Wednesday, also to Mark at Owens Developments for checking her pdm which is now in Australia and (hopefully) repairable. The plan is to have
her bike fixed as soon as possible and she will get some testing in before the next European round at Hockenhein, Germany.