from ... Alastair Seeley

The first four rounds of the British Supersport Championship have gone pretty well on the all-new GSX-R600, with the only real blip being the last round at Thruxton, but we must take the positives and if anything, despite being a new bike, my GSX-R600 is a match for anything on the grid.

Looking back it wasn't great to slip off with a DNF in the opening race of the season at Brands but I composed myself with a win on day two and got maximum points on the board. At that stage we were still trying to find the limit of the tyres being the first race of the year.

Oulton was good for me as I set the pole time with the Pirelli SC1 race tyre and scored more solid points. The problem is when the three of us (Wilson & Kennedy) get together we trip each other up and someone gets away; at the minute Wilson is that man.

At Croft I had the North West 200 in the back of my mind and just wanted no mishaps and was maybe a bit cautious, but it's a long season. I had been beating myself up a bit for not getting away at the front, as I didn't want to crash. But just before the red flag I was lining Plater and McConnell up, so I was disappointed to lose out on a few valuable points.

My game plan for race two was better and our set-up on the bike felt really good. I was losing out at the chicane and down the straight but that's something we have looked at and have already improved. I did get the holeshot but dropped back to fifth before fighting back to fourth with a strong finish.

I arrived at the North West 200 fit and healthy and proved how good the GSX-R Suzukis are with two pole positions in the Supersport and Superstock classes. It's just a pity a number of problems forced the organisers to abandon the meeting, but giving the all-new GSX-R600 its first international road race win was very pleasing.

I was disappointed to see the red flags in the Superbike race while I was in the lead as I felt very strong and the big Relentless Suzuki Superbike was the best bike out there. I really was ready to pull the pin and see who could follow me.

At Thruxton we qualified on the second row of the grid. It's not that important to be on the front row, but more important to get a good start which we did. I did get to the front in the first race but when I couldn't make a break for it I sat back and waited until the final chicane. I thought I'd done enough by getting a double slipstream for the win but fair play to Billy McConnell - he did us all on the brakes.

In the second race on Monday in the wet we had a game plan to break them early then settle into a rhythm and control it from the front. And for seven laps the wee GSX-R600 was superb but it just started to lose power and wouldn't rev so I had to pull in. Disappointed is an understatement, but we're still second in the championship and have plenty of races left to turn it around and I'm sure the other boys will get their portion of bad luck.

I'm heading off to the TT now for a few days, flying over on a wee puddle jumper out of Newtownards - so hopefully Guy can get his first TT win and we can have a big Relentless Suzuki celebration night.

Copy and photo courtesy of the Team Suzuki Press Office