Feisty Racing on the podium in Misano

Feisty Racing’s Susie Grayson grabbed a well-earned third in the European Women’s Superstock 1000 race at Misano last weekend, despite struggling with suspension problems.

Racing against the likes of factory-supported girls like Nina Prinz and Marketa Janacova is never a easy thing to do and Grayson soon found out they are fast out of the crate at any track.

She ended first practice 15-seconds off the pace but upbeat, and especially happy with some tyres Dunlop had made available.

It was Grayson’s first outing at the Circuito Santa Monica and she admits she was nervous from the start.

Grayson said: “I haven’t done anything like the amount of fitness training or testing that I should have done over the winter, and I am still getting used to the Yamaha R1, so I was a bit jittery come first practice.”
 
But it was suspension that caused Grayson the biggest problems as she had a leaky fork, which she had to send to a local mechanic to fix. But when they were put back in the Yamaha R1 Grayson then struggled with chatter and tank slapping.

Some alterations helped, but did not completely solve the problem and she was still struggling with speed.

But after getting some help from an Ohlins specialist at the Misano circuit she managed to shave more seconds off her lap times.

Grayson added: “We softened the suspension off again before the race and it worked better and better. I got a pretty good start but lost a couple of places in the opening laps. I then got my head down and started a battle with Elisabet Zannini which I knew I could win.

“I eventually got the better of her but started to suffer badly with arm-pump so I thought I slowed down, but I did my quickest lap at the end.

“It was great to stand on the podium after a weekend of problems.”