ENG // MotoRC 4 – Lost the race, but got the championship lead

Cazacu crashed during practice, so we saw an opportunity

The practice days went well, I managed to get another pole position. For the race we had a treat. The temperature went quite low and all the settings were a bit terrible for me. My main opponent, Cătălin Cazacu – who was then leading the championship – had it worse. During practice, he had a crash and, while he was alright, his bike got a little shaken. He had to use a spare motorcycle for the rest of the weekend. We understood it was kind of an important moment, so we devised a strategy to focus on him. During the race, I would receive information about his current position and time.

My cold race

Finally, the time for racing arrived. I started and immediately noticed that my front feeling was kind of off. I did not trust the bike so much, the sudden low temperature made it a difficult race for me. I could have risked it, but I started to think about the overall championship.

In the final lap, I was in the third place, while Cătălin would recover to the fourth. I had the option to attack the second place, because the third was not enough to take the lead in the standings. In the end, with a pass I did in the final sector, I got the second place in the race and took the lead in the championship by just three points.

I didn’t have the pace to win the race, but we ultimately chose the right thing to do. To realize that it was not our race, not our day and to focus on what we could achieve for the championship. These three points would turn out to be huge in terms of pressure. So while it did not feel good to be in this race where I felt that I couldn’t ride at my best pace, I accepted that we did what we had to do for the big picture.

Even though we got the lead, I couldn’t afford to have the same performance for the next race. It’s a good thing that I realized this and started to train hard for the fifth race of the season. If we wanted to win the title, the next race would be the check move for the championship. While I’m pretty terrible at playing chess, I can ride the motorcycle in a decent way.