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<\/a>We caught up with Cru at a rained-out One Raceway Test earlier this week \u2013 Image RbMotoLens<\/p>\nCru Halliday: \u201cRobbie had planned to race the Yamaha all year, as you know, there\u2019s a great relationship there, and the plan was to do the whole year out on the Yamaha on Michelins. But Robbie Bolger\u2019s a very outgoing person, which is good for me because everything he says he\u2019ll do, he does. And he turned around to me after Queensland, and said \u2013 \u2018You\u2019ll be on a Ducati\u2019 at the next round.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I didn\u2019t believe it at first. And then I got a phone call from Craig (McMartin) and Robbie (Bolger) almost within five minutes of each other. And I thought, oh, this is actually happening. It\u2019s good. We had our first hit out on the weekend. At the second part of the St. George Club meeting on Sunday. It\u2019s a track I know pretty well, so that\u2019s probably a good starting ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bike\u2019s obviously fast.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen the top speeds of that at every track. It\u2019s pretty fast. And to be on that bike\u2026 To actually get on that bike\u2026 I\u2019m very thankful for Craig letting me have a crack on it. And I\u2019m very grateful to Robbie and Claire for giving me the opportunity to be on the Ducati.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, you know, the two bikes have a lot of different characteristics. You\u2019ve got to ride it a lot differently than the Yamaha. I think I\u2019ve ridden almost 12 or 13 YZF-R1 bikes throughout my entire racing career.\u00a0 And when you ride a particular bike for so long, you start to have certain traits that, when I got onto the Ducati, I had to try to change. So I\u2019m still in the learning process of riding that bike. It is a lot different to ride. I\u2019m just trying to familiarise myself with the bike and get comfortable on it. We did some decent times out there.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting to go as well as we did, but Craig knows what he\u2019s doing with that team. They\u2019ve obviously got the championships and the race wins, and I think it\u2019s one of the most professional teams to be riding under. So for Craig and Robbie to hook this up, I\u2019m very thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n Trev: So you got straight down into the 29s on Sunday, first day out, how does that compare with your fastest times around there on the Yamaha?<\/p>\n Halliday: \u201cYeah, it\u2019s hard to explain because obviously a couple of us have done 28s around there before. But you do these St. George Club meetings, and conditions can vary. I\u2019ve been to Eastern Creek before and couldn\u2019t even get near a 30 flat on the R1, sometimes. It\u2019s just constantly up and down. The circuit has recently experienced a lot of rain. It\u2019s pulling a lot of water up, coming up around turn 12. So, you know, had to be a bit cautious coming through there. There\u2019s water coming through turn 10. It\u2019s just a bit dodgy here and there.\u00a0 \u00a0The last thing you want to do is throw it down the track. So I think to get to the 29 straight away\u2026 I had told the guys that if I got in the 30s, I would be happy\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cBut to see it go into the 29 straight away, I was like, oh, shit, now we\u2019re starting to move. It\u2019s so hard to describe. We\u2019re just doing constant 30s, which is good, and real low 30s, back-to-back. I think this bike\u2019s really good for consistently fast times. So we need to fine-tune it a little bit more; I need more time on the bike, as it\u2019s really about me tuning myself to the bike rather than the other way around. And yeah, I\u2019ve got to stop riding it like a Yamaha.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time I tried to ride it like the Yamaha, I actually went slower. And every time I relaxed and let the bike come to me, I actually started to go faster. I\u2019m pretty sure on Sunday, when we were racing, I wasn\u2019t even trying that hard, and that\u2019s when the 29s come\u2026 The lap after I tried, because you see the 29, you\u2019re like, \u2018I can go a bit faster.\u2019 And I then go slower\u2026 So it\u2019s almost the opposite of how you ride the Yamaha. And that\u2019s just going to come in time.\u201d<\/p>\n Trev: So the progress from here is probably looking at that data and more test days and then, like you say, adapting yourself. The bike\u2019s there. You\u2019ve just got to learn how to ride it. Learn how to get the best out of it?<\/p>\n Halliday: \u201cThe bike\u2019s definitely there, obviously. It\u2019s the same as Josh\u2019s. He\u2019s doing marvellous things on the thing. It\u2019s all on me now, so it\u2019s good. I know I\u2019ve got the equipment under me, it\u2019s just now I\u2019ve got to adapt to that bike. And it\u2019s going to be hard because obviously I\u2019ve been on the Yamaha for so long, like I said, I\u2019ve just got to break those old habits.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sucks that we can\u2019t ride here today. It would have been beneficial to complete some laps around a different track than Eastern Creek. But next, we go down to Phillip Island, another track that I\u2019m pretty good at. And that bike is very good at.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s going to be interesting. Many people will expect me to do extraordinary things on it. But I said to my Crew Chief, Brent, we need to take this slow; we need to do our own thing, concentrate on ourselves, and slowly chip away at it. We don\u2019t want to go doing something too dramatic and ruin it all.\u201d<\/p>\n Trev: I\u2019m not saying you\u2019ve struggled with motivation; that\u2019s not what I\u2019m getting at. But you must be pretty excited to have a new challenge to try, adapt, learn some new things, and to get a new toy to play with\u2026<\/p>\n Halliday: \u201cYeah, for sure. Of course, it sucks what happened at Queensland Raceway (bike problems), but it\u2019s just electrical things. It\u2019s one of those things where\u2026 It wasn\u2019t quite two DNFs, obviously. I continued rolling around in that last one, but it was still a DNF in my eyes. I\u2019ve never had that happen to me in a race meeting before, but, you know, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that happened, and then Robbie\u2019s just put his foot down, he wants to win.<\/p>\n<\/a>The Craig McMartin prepared and Stop & Seal backed Ducati V4 R \u2013 Image RbMotoLens<\/p>\n<\/a>Cru Halliday with the Craig McMartin prepared and Stop & Seal backed Ducati V4 R \u2013 Image RbMotoLens<\/p>\n<\/a>Cru Halliday with the Craig McMartin prepared and Stop & Seal backed Ducati V4 R \u2013 Image RbMotoLens<\/p>\n<\/a>Cru Halliday with the Craig McMartin prepared and Stop & Seal backed Ducati V4 R \u2013 Image RbMotoLens<\/p>\n