Paul's 2013 season
Croft - April
Paul began 2013 in the Superstock 600 class at Croft on April 6th & 7th riding his new(ish) Kawasaki ZX6R - a bike with radically different weight distribution & power delivery.
Paul got off to a good start, qualifying in 3rd place only 1.377 seconds off the lead and 0.198 behind second place. His first race went similarly, with Paul finishing in 3rd place 5.275 seconds behind the winner.
Focussing...
In Saturday's 5-lap second race Paul took his first win of the new season, finishing just 0.324s ahead of the two Superbikes but shaving a tenth off his best lap time.
Sunday's race saw Paul improve his lap times again, but better conditions meant so did the rest of the field with Paul back to 3rd place, this time only 2.436s off the leader and less than half a second behind second place.
East Fortune next, on 13th & 14th april.
East Fortune - April
Paul qualified in 6th position in cold, damp, windy conditions, leaving him on the second row of the grid for the weekend.
Despite the weather, Paul's first Saturday race saw him moving quickly through the traffic to second place, finishing 1.036s behind the leader.
The second race ended with Paul again in second place, only 0.241s behind but unwilling to risk the bike (and himself!) overtaking on a worn rear tyre.
Sunday's weather was even worse, with strong gusting winds and early showers. In the first race Paul again set off to overtake the traffic but again was stuck behind the leader - this time by only 0.082s
The final race of a weekend shortened by wind and injury saw Paul at last break free of the pack, extending his lead rapidly to win by a convincing 6.506s. Paul also drove the fastest laps in all four of the weekend's races.
Knockhill - April
With early-season tyre & exhaust problems hopefully behind him, Paul qualified 3rd on a full grid and finished Saturday with 2 3rd place results after some very close racing.
Driver debriefing...
Sunday brought another third place in the first race before a fall in the second event, leaving Paul to start from 27th place on the grid. He showed what he was capable of with a great performance, cutting through the traffic to finish in 5th place.
East Fortune - May
The NEMCRC meeting started on a wet Saturday with Paul qualifying in 8th position. Saturday's race saw Paul finish in 4th place in poor conditions.
Sunday's racing was delayed by early fog but when visibility improved Paul won the first, wet, race and the remaining two, constantly improving his lap times to finish the weekend with a best time of 1:02.010.
Knockhill - June
After his own bike swallowed a valve, Paul qualified in 12th place on a borrowed machine on Saturday.
Back on his own machine on Sunday he notched up a 5th place in the Scottish Championship round and finished with a 3rd in the last race of the weekend.
A word in your shell, like...
Teamwork
Knockhill - June - British Superbikes
Paul qualified in 12th position on a packed grid, only 0.6s off pole position, for his first British Superbike round on a track washed clean by the rain.
In a race beset by incident, waved yellow flags and safety cars Paul coolly made his way past BSB regulars up to seventhth position before retiring, a lap before the race was finally red-flagged, with mechanical problems.
East Fortune - July
In blazing sunshine and on a dry, warm track Paul put himself in pole position with a lap time of 01:01.918, 0.25s ahead of the field.
Free of traffic and reliability problems Paul took four wins from four races - two of them Scottish Championship rounds.
"I could have gone faster", he said after the race, but, perhaps mindful of reliability problems earlier in the year, he pushed the bike and the tyres only as much as he had to, showing the maturity of a champion.
At the half-way mark of the 2013 Scottish Championships Paul is leading by 27 points with a total of 122.
Winning at East Fortune, September
Knockhill - August
Paul qualified in pole position in windy conditions and went on to take a 2nd and a 3rd place on Saturday, setting a new lap record in the process.
Sunday's rain and an unfortunate tyre choice on a drying track meant a fifth place in the first race, but his third place in the second race came with another lap record, taking three tenths off his Saturday time.
East Fortune - August
Paul collected twenty points in the first champonship race but retired with gearbox failure in the second.
East Fortune - September
Gearbox reconditioned, Paul took pole and a win in the closely-fought first race. His second race ended when he was knocked off the track in an incident at Railway Bend. A third race was cancelled after several red-flag incidents, and Sunday racing was cancelled due to weather.
Knockhill - September
Paul ends his season with a win, giving him a total of 228 championship points and confirming his Scottish Superstock 600 title by a margin of 65 points.
