Cancelled GP after progress in the wet for Odendaal and NTS
English weather and tricky conditions overall were reigning over the circuit of Silverstone last weekend during the British Grand Prix, culminating in the cancellation of all three races on Sunday, due to poor track conditions.
With one dry and one wet free practice session on Friday, teams and riders including Steven Odendaal and his NTS RW Racing were getting ready for what seemed to be an unpredictable weekend ahead. “Strategy was the key this weekend and trying to respond to changing conditions quickly. I felt a lot more comfortable on Saturday than on Friday, we made a step forward and I was looking forward to the qualifying session.
We started in completely wet conditions but the track was drying quickly and times were dropping lap by lap. We were in the Top15 the whole session and on my last flying lap I was up 3-4 tenths but got held up in the last sector, dropping down to 25th at the very end, which was disappointing after such a promising start. I was still very confident for the race; although we did not feel as comfortable in the wet as in Austria, this was mainly due to the difficult track conditions, that eventually resulted in the races being cancelled. The new surface was very bumpy, retaining excess water in certain places, which was unsafe for the riders. It is a pity because I am sure we could have done a nice job in the race, however, the weather wasn’t on our side on Sunday. I am now heading back to South Africa for a week of intense training before Misano. I am also working on finalising my plans for next season, which I hope I will be able to announce soon and then concentrate fully on finishing this season as strong as possible. We also have some testing after Misano so it’s going to be a busy month again but I am ready, working harder than ever. I like the track in Misano and I know we can make a good result there.”
