Taz Mackenzie plans to go all out for wins at Assen after scorching to his first ever front row start.
And the McAMS Yamaha rider admits he has nothing to lose when the flag drops tomorrow, as his rivals battle for championship points.
However, he admits there are many factors which could come into play and affect his progress and believes a lot will hinge on the weather.
“In a way we have the bike where we want it,” he said. “My one lap pace is better than my race pace at the moment but the bike seems to be better when it’s a bit warmer and struggles more when it’s a bit colder so can’t really make the tyre last at all.
“Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better. These boys have got a championship to think about, as do all the Showdown riders. But I’ve got nothing to lose at the end of the day and I’ll be giving it my all and see what happens.”
Mackenzie’s pace came late in the day and followed a frustrating morning at the Dutch track.
Changes overnight had given the opposite effect to what he had hoped for and much of the earlier part of the session was spent trying to rectify the problems.
“I struggled a little this morning, yesterday was quite positive from FP1, we tried a few things we all thought was going to be better but unfortunately it wasn’t,” he revealed.
“We were still changing things going into the last qualifying but the bike was progressively getting better and better so I was really happy with how the bike was in that last run, it allowed me to sort of push on a little bit more
“I thought a 35 would’ve been possible from Q2 because I’d made a few mistakes but wasn’t far off doing it. I didn’t really expect to be that close to pole so I’m really happy with that.”