8th round - Snetterton
08-10 July 2005

Well it was all looking good for Craig at the beginning of the weekend! As some of you may know Snetterton is one of the tracks that he knows best. As he began his racing career with New Era and he used to live close to Snetterton. First free practice went well and he slotted nicely into 2nd and feeling very relaxed indeed. The on bike relaxed feeling is something, every rider knows, that with it you get better laptimes and this was evident as Craig finished Qualifying 1 in 1st with a laptimes of 1.08.296 beating Adrian Coates by 0.25 of a sec. Then another confident approach to Qualifying 2 where he just sat and watched to see if the field went faster but fortunately they didn’t. So Craig was on poll for the second time this year and was again feeling on top of the world. Though in the race he got off the line behind Coates which was just where he needed to be as to not have to take the brunt of leading from the lights, however on lap 3 he began to feel that the bike was developing some problems when changing down the gears! The sunken feeling of potential problem's soon arrived as his fears were confirmed as the gears just wouldn’t select! As lap times began to suffer by large margins and riders began to pass Craig the goal was being taken away lap by lap because with almost home advantage and the relaxed feeing and confidence he displayed in Qualifying surely this should have been Craig’s maiden National Superstock Victory.