It was a really slow start to practice week for me and I’ve find it difficult to get into this year, for various reasons, but it’s got better as the week’s gone and we’ve made constant improvements to all of the Bathams Racing bikes.

With the weather being so good, we’ve been able to try loads of different stuff, something that we wouldn’t normally get the chance to do, and we’ve found a reasonable set-up with the ‘hybrid’ Superbike. It worked well on Tuesday night when I did 129.583mph from a standing start and it felt better again on the first half of Wednesday’s lap.

I feel that the bike’s good enough now and although the likes of Dean (Harrison) have been pushing hard, I’m not too far off the front group and the pace I’m running is what I’m comfortable with at this stage of proceedings.

I’ve got two Superbikes this year, one that’s full Superbike-spec and another that’s half Superbike and half Superstock, hence dubbing it the hybrid. They’re completely different in characteristics – different suspension, different swinging arm etc – and with the hybrid now working well, the plan is to take the full Superbike out on Thursday evening.

One reason that I think I’ve been finding it a bit harder this year is I’ve found out how much involvement there is as a team manager. I’m not just the rider this year as I’m running the team too so there’s a lot of little things that I’m needing to do that normally someone else would do. It all adds up and takes up more time than I thought so it’s been a bit of a shock to the system.

As a rider, you need to be 100% focused and running the team, it means I’ve got two jobs this year and am possibly not doing either of them at 100% at the moment. I’m getting used to it all the time though and I’ve got a good set of mechanics around me so we’re getting there.

I’ve also got last year’s Paton with me and have managed three laps on it so far but the clutch was slipping quite a bit on Saturday which held me back a little. We fitted a new Suter clutch for Tuesday night and I was in the 116mph bracket again but I’m a bit off the pace compared to what some of the others are doing. You have to ride the wheels off the Lightweight bikes and I’m not quite there yet but we’ll keep chipping away.

Wednesday night was obviously a desperately sad night with the loss of Dan Kneen and I’d like to pass on my deepest condolences to his family and friends. My thoughts are also with Steve Mercer and wish him a speedy recovery.