The third round of the Superbike World Championship at Valencia in Spain proved another saga filled race meeting for Steve Martin, with the ongoing events of the weekend leaving him speechless.
The vastly experienced Aussie rider was initially left perplexed when he was approached by fellow countryman Andrew Pitt, informing him that the DFX team had contacted him about testing the Honda CBR1000 machine.
This news was then compounded when, due to a lack of mechanics, team-mate Michel Fabrizio’s father was brought in as a substitute mechanic for Steve, having never worked in a Superbike paddock before.
Steve explained, “I’m pleased that Andrew came and spoke to me as at least we were able to have a good chat and establish how things stood. But needless to say it was a bit of a shocker and what with that and then finding out about my mechanic situation, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! ”
And with the bikes arriving at Valencia directly from the previous round at Donington, without any mechanical preparation or set up work, Steve’s crew chief and chief mechanic had their work cut out from the start.
Steve spent much of the first free practice session setting up the new HRC electronic system on his number one bike, which proved a much welcomed benefit to his Honda’s performance and helped Steve achieve 7th position in the morning timesheet.
A quick shifter problem and other niggling mechanical set-backs during the afternoon dry qualifying session caused Steve to switch to his number two bike, but, this didn’t have the new electronic system set up and, coupled with only minutes remaining of the qualifying session meant that Steve was unable to improve his lap time and qualify anywhere near his capability.
With a downpour on Saturday morning meaning that no riders would be able to better their lap times and therefore improve their qualifying positions from the previous day, Steve used the second qualifying session to set up the electronic system on his second bike as the quick shifter issue with his first bike remained unresolved.
“Although that session was wet, we were able to achieve quite a lot with the set up and I ended that session in 10th position, which wasn’t bad for an hour’s work, ” Steve continued.
Still lapping on wet tyres for Saturday afternoon’s second free practice session, Steve high sided coming out of turn one in the slippery conditions. Fortunately, he walked away with only minor bruising, but damage in the form of a hole was caused to the clutch cover, although this did not become apparent until race two when it provided the channel for an oil leak oil, on to Steve’s boot and bike.
“For the morning warm up on Sunday I just rode round to shake down the bike ready for the race, as there was no point in pushing for a lap time and I also wanted to preserve the bike as it was the only one I had that was set up, ” Steve explained.
He continued, “Although the track was still damp, everyone started race one on slicks and up until lap nine, when my race was over, I had achieved the second fastest lap time of the race behind James Toseland. It was at this point, having managed to catch up with the group of riders who were dicing for the sixth position, that the throttle assembly just fell off my handle bar and almost caused me to crash! ”
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