| Well the weekend started well.
We had a No Limits trackday on Good Friday and we had a belting day - very busy, lots of instructing and no time to have a decent blast on my RR, but everyone seemed to enjoy the day, with the exception of Ruth, (hope you're feeling better). The weather was really kind to us all day. Nick and Rattler were there having fun on their race bikes. I didn't get to go out with them, but watched them a couple of times through Hall Bends - they were holding their own through the Woodlands section, but the couple of times I watched, there was a queue of bikes behind them waiting to pass, which they could only really do when they got to the start/stop straight - some nice riding through the twisties - can't wait to see a full grid out there. It was a fast day with a lot of racers 'testing'. I have to say they were all very well behaved and we had very few incidents all day. MCN and Performance Bikes were there testing and Adam Child took my old CB5 out - you should have seen the grin on his face when he came back in. His wheelies over the mountain were imense, almost vertical, excellent to watch.
Monty arrived with the Wee Beastie just in time to get out on cold tyres in the final Inters session. We needed to run her in after some fettling over the winter. Two laps at 8,000 then two at 9, 10, 11 and 12. I managed a few laps in the final novice group, but obviously couldn't open her up and as luck would have it, it started to rain anyway. So we never quite got her up to speed, but I'd felt what she was like again and was really looking forward to testing and racing.
A couple of beers and an early night was in order as I needed all my energy for a full days testing on Saturday, followed by two race days.
I'd left the caravan at home as Monty had the Betsie Bus and I could sleep in the No Limits van, but one of the No Limits instructors offered to let me sleep in his mega motorhome. Luckily for me as it turns out. I woke at about 3.00am with my guts trying to escape from my body - a quick dash to the loo and I didn't know whether to sit down or kneel in front of it. This continued all night and into Saturday morning. I couldn't have ridden a bike - standing up was a problem - but it was irrelevant in any case as Cadwell was completely fog-bound. I finally got up after lunch with some help from Dr Montgomery and Nurse Jo and could have ridden by the end of the day, but we didn't think it was safe - visability was severely limited and the brave souls that went out, came back in to say they couldn't see far enough to to open it up. So we decided it was too dangerous to go out, as did most of the paddock. So no riding at all on Saturday, £90 lost in the fog.
Another early night, still feeling a bit weak, but looking forward to racing on Sunday. Got up Sunday to find the weather was just the same - couldn't see a thing. They were considering running races on the Woodland circuit, but having spoken to a number of other racers, it turns out that there was a lot of mud on the track, particularly at the hairpins and there were thousands of worms on the track at Barn. We checked the weather on a mates laptop and more of the same was forecast for Monday. By lunchtime we decided to call it a day and go home.
So no testing or racing for us all weekend. Sitting at home in sunny St Albans watching BSB I was wishing we'd stayed for Monday. Turns out they ran a full race program on Monday on the Woodlands circuit, so we've missed out on some points and the opportunity to get out on the bike.
Next is Mallory at the end of April, so a long wait and I'm on a course at work, so may not make it. All winter waiting to race and I may not be out until May - gutted.
WeeJohnyB  |