| As posted on the DDforum;
Sunday was a funny old day!!! there's a hosepipe ban in the South and blizzards in the North - funny en it!!!
Cadwell 12/3/06 - The weather was arctic, the company was great, No Limits did a top job and I crashed!!!
Was great to catch up with a few old sages and to meet some new DD faces.
I don't know Cadwell very well (my 4th visit and 2 or those were DD races!!!) and it was useful practice, its funny how your memory kids you into thinking the wrong things about a track - there are many elevation changes that I'd just forgotten about, even Charlies, which I remembered as being flat (2D memory?) is quite up and down. The start/finish straight is quite a lot downhill from Barn and then up hill, before you get to Coppice - and Coppice is a lot steeper than I remember it!!
Things were going pretty well, the bike was running nicely, no real heroics, just steadily getting more used to the bike and working on a few things.
I did 3 sessions in the morning (there were 4) and 3 in the afternoon - I was a bit knakered by the afternoon as I'd driven up that morning (leaving at 4am!!!).
I went out on the final session (my last - no ****!!!) just to try to practice tackling the mountain - I'd been trying a few different lines and options there. Just before I went out one of the guys said he'd been texted by his missus who said it was snowing heavily in Lincoln, the wind seemed to be coming from that direction, so I was expecting some trciky conditions!!!
We'd been pretty lucky without any snow - it was too cold I reckon !!!
I did a few laps and was specifically working on my mountain approach, I was only doing steady laps in order to get me back to the mountain again - on the fifth or sixth lap, I was just exiting Chris curve (I think) and flicked left for the gooseneck and just lost the front - fcuk!!! - I slid for a while, the bike went down on the left and then flicked over, aslid some more and ended up claiming some Cadwell turf. I remember trying to get up before I'd stopped sliding and not being able to!!!
The medics checked me over, all was pretty much OK, my ego was bruised though - it had been a good day up until then.
Got back to the paddock and was please to get some help with the bike, thanks to all that helped - Grib, Nick (GTH), Chris, Tony (sorry if I forgot anyone - my mind was fcuked!!)
And also thanks to the messages I got from Domski, TP, Dibble, Jon, Ali, Nelly - much appreciated.
After removing the damaged panels and 2 tons of sod!!, she was quickly loaded into the wagon and I was off!!, I was battered and bruised and the bike wasn't looking to good either!! - but sod it - time for some beer!!!
I was crashing!!!!! (oopppsss) at Nelly's and went for a curry and plenty of beer!!!
So I spent today cleaning her up and farting - great Madras!!! - the damage seemed to be well distributed across the bike.
I had a few aches today though, my shoulder took most of the ground impact, (wimp!!!), my hand doesn't seem quite right, but my legs also ache from general trackday activity - but I'll survive.
I bent both clipons, smashed the screen, cracked the seat unit, scratched both side panels and split the nose cone, broke the front brake lever, lost a footpeg, bent the gear lever, bent the clutch lever, scratched the tank, marked the leathers, scraped my boots and damaged the lid.
But after a few hours of bending, swapping, cleaning, replacing, borrowing and stripping the turf off - she is lovely again!!!
I do now have some track fairings that I can use for practice - good job I decided not to fit the decent panels for the day!!!
I now need to get a race screen, glass up the rear seat unit and she's ready to go - I've used up all my race spares now, so I'm off to ebay!!! - anyone got a 996 clear race screen????
I'm back at Cadwell for the ACU day on the 24th and will need to kick the Goosenecks arse (so to speak!!! ) for scratching my bike!!!
I'm well up for the 26th - I'd best bring lots of spares!!!
Tim #5  |