| I closed down on the rider in front, who to be honest, I thought was Matt Lawson. This pleased me immensely as he had been saying that he hoped he didn’t see me in the race, seeing as I was coming from the back of beyond. As I crested the brow into Goddards, my eyes went to dinnerplate radius as he lost the front and skittled unceremoniously onto his ass. It turned out that the mushrooms I had been served with my breakfast that morning were deceiving me though, and it was the tattooed, car tyre testing, cycle masochist, “Boo” Hadley that had suffered arm pump from an entire night of masturbatory experimentation with Scott’s pet monkey and had unexpectedly decided to indulge in a spot of close up asphalt analysis. A committed scientist in this field, he sacrificed himself yet again in the second race to make a reasoned and unbiased report on the differences in grip coefficient between wet and dry versions of the stuff that he regularly skips around on four wheels. Nobody took the ****..he looks a bit hard. He’s actually a total softie and a gentleman.
At this point, I had moved up to 5th place in class A with no B class bikes in front of me. I was more than happy with that, but my back was seriously starting to give me grief and my consistent laptimes started to suffer as my concentration wandered towards the invisible Gremlin that was ramming bbq skewers into my lower spine.
Not long after this, Tim Sayers sailed past into the Foggy Esses and gapped me instantly. To be fair, I tried to keep up and repass, but I think his fitness level and determination had the better of me that day, so fair play, Tim…you deserved it mate.
I crossed the line in 6th and pulled into Redgate. Chris Pullen, who has seen my lightning starts bite me in the ass in the past as he was my crew chief, had a slightly disappointed yet slightly amused look on his grill as he told me he thought I might have a jump start. ********. I was sure I hadn’t..and it turned out I was right. Phew!
I was delighted, yet strangely disappointed with 6th. I knew it would be tough and I think that if I had been at the front at the start I could have challenged for 4th. Truth is though, I just haven’t gotten used to the amount of grip these new Dunlops offer. The last time I raced at Donington was on the old Pirelli tyres and I set the lap record at 1:54.10. My fastest lap in the race was 1:54.29, so I was at least nearly as fast as the last time I was there. I just need to maybe stiffen the bike up a touch and get used to opening the throttle much, much earlier than you used to be able to.
The second race was simply underwater..and I race for pleasure these days. That simply doesn’t give me any pleasure whatsoever.
Shout outs go to Scott Wilson, who has been a loyal and supportive friend throughout my hard times..and an inspiration to get back into this.
Also, as well as James Gerrard who looked fast all weekend, I want to say a massive big up to Andy Pike, who isn’t young (no offence, officer) but still manages to be incredibly fast and smooth. Well done fella.
Commiserations to Dallas, who spent a sheetload more than me and ended up with very little. He was still super cool about the whole thing though. Nice one, geezer!
Best moment of the weekend for everyone though, was when “Ghosty” turned up in his bathchair with ear trumpet. I even gave him a giant kiss on the cheek, but avoided any tongues because his daughters are all well fit and I don’t want to spoil my chances.
Soooooo then…Snetterton next…if I can afford to do a test day as I haven’t ridden the 300 layout. And obviously if it’s raining, I’ll be in Dallas’ van getting tattooed.
Peace out,
Otei #85  |