The brutal rollercoaster of world championship motorcycle racing continues for Cormac Buchanan. A tough spell of results has forced the Southland teen to call on every ounce of resilience, including a crash at the latest round of the Moto3 World Championship at Assen in the Netherlands.
“I know what we are capable of, and I’m not going to give up. We will fight until the very end,” Buchanan said.
“I have a team that believes in me, and I know we will get through this together. These tough days aren’t going to last. It’s just a difficult period.
“Obviously, it’s not the way I wanted to end the weekend, and I know on paper it doesn’t look like much from this round, but actually, there were a lot of positive things happening.”
The famous Cathedral of Speed circuit initially failed to deliver, but Buchanan continued to improve his lap times on a positive trajectory.
“We had a really solid practice despite the hot conditions because usually I suffer a lot more in the intense heat, but we managed to stay in the top 10 for the first half of the session. We couldn’t make our time attack because of yellow flags and stuff like that, but to be in the top 10 was not bad, and it was good to be back up there,” he said.
“We made quite a big change from FP1 to the afternoon practice, which I was excited to try the following day and see how it worked in the faster cooler conditions.
“FP2, honestly, it was a bit of a disaster – we just had no real speed. The feeling wasn’t bad, it was just not coming. Luckily, we had a lot of data we could dig into, and it was very clear that only two corners were the challenge. The problem was, after those, you had the big straights, so you lost a lot more. Let’s say the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.
“For Q1, I just had to fix those two corners, and I knew we could make a massive step forward. The first run was just to put a lap on the board. When I came out for my second exit, everything just clicked. I had a good space in the group, had to make some overtakes in the first sector, and I just kept pushing on and was improving a lot.
“I was putting in red sectors and arriving at P1. I had perfect placement on the track until I came up to a rider exiting the second-to-last corner slowly. I caught him up really quickly in that section, and in that situation, you have to make a split decision – abort the lap or make the pass.
“I made the overtake, and as soon as I did that, he released the brakes, so I had to dive to the inside. If I didn’t, I would have lost the lap and my chance to go to Q2. I tucked the front, and that was really frustrating as we were arriving at P1 and would have gone to Q2 again, where we had two new tyres, so could have had two time-attack attempts.”
Instead, it left Buchanan languishing near the back of the grid.
“I had to start really far back, and I was angry because really the other rider should have looked where he was going, but that’s what racing is like. I know until that corner I did everything I could, and it was a big step forward from where we were in the morning,” he said.
“Going into the race, I felt confident and knew if I could put that pace to good use, I would get a good result.
“I had a strong start and made up some places and was in the big group battling for the points. But my race ended before it even really had gotten started.
“Another rider and I were battling back and forth. I got pushed off the track, rejoined with dirty tyres from the overnight rain and lost the front at the next corner, and that was my race over.
“It wasn’t the result we deserved after everything we’d done.”
The focus now switches to Germany’s Sachsenring from 10-12 July.
“It’s a track that I love, one of my favourites, and I’ve got good memories there from last year. It’s the track where I did my best Moto3 results. I aim to go there and turn this season around so we can head into the summer break with positive vibes,” Buchanan said.
“Germany is a place I know I can go fast, and I believe we can be in the mix again. That’s the goal, and we’re going to fight for it.”
Header Image: David Silgo Terol
As you said Your lap times were improving Keep your head high Support from New Zealand