Just got back from Pembrey where we were racing on Saturday and Sunday, bit of a weekend of mixed fortunes....
Saturday - Race 1: Managed three laps before the bike suffered a fuel starvation problem and went on to one cylinder forcing me to retire whilst running in fifth place, DNF.
Frantically went through all the obvious stuff, changed the tank,pump, filter etc. checked for kinked fuel pipes and got it all back together for Race 2 (the points race) my DNF from the first race meant I started from the back of the grid, bike seemed fine apart from a slight hesitation on the last lap, result 5th. Lap Time 1.02.0 - This was encouraging as my goal was to get into the 1.01s and I was now confident I would do this on Sunday.
Sunday - Race 1: Got a slow start initialy off the line but managed to find a gap through the riders in front once I was rolling towards the hairpin and was away with the leading pack, a couple of laps in two riders tumbled at the hairpin in front of me, I managed to avoid them and was now in second, got my head down until two or three laps later when all of a sudden the fuel starvation problem re occurred, looked behind and I had pulled out a very large gap on the following pack so decided to just try and get it home to preserve some sort of grid place, two laps later Phil Bevan came past and I managed third.
Race 2 - Off the line for the warm up lap all fine and then driving out of the hairpin it just died, consequently as we came back round to the grid I pulled in to pit lane and did not start the race - another DNF and no points.
Very disappointed, but hopefully we'll be ready for Donnington next month where I will be racing with New Era Superclub and NG.
Put it into perspective a bit when my mate Deano came back from hospital with a broken shoulder, 3 cracked ribs and a mangled hand following a crash in practice - best wishes for a rapid recovery mate
Hopefully Garry thats your bad luck over and done with for the rest of the season. Interested in hearing what the problem was caused by. And as for Deano, a season never goes by without him breaking the odd bone or two, about time he got out of that habit. Hope he mends quickly, he usually does but he is getting on a bit these days
Kev, I'll let you know what it turns out to be. It's a really strange one though.
When we were at Cadwell it was as if somebody had shut the fuel off everytime I went over the mountain which I thought at first was because I didn't have enough fuel to cover the pump when it was airborne but filling it more made no difference, then at Pembrey when it was wheelieing out of the hairpin the same thing occurred prompting me to think that as it did this whilst exiting a corner (i.e after being cranked over) or whilst wheelieing maybe because it was hot the mercury tilt switch which I have fitted was playing up, but I disconnected it and bypassed it and it made no difference and when I took the plugs out they were white so it was running really lean and hot whereas usually they look spot on when removed.
A total mystery, anyway it's now at JHP for John to wave the magic wand as I am desperate not to miss out on any more points as we only have a few meetings left until the end of this my first full season and now I have got rid of my orange bib results are what we want!
TP - Thanks for the comments. I won't make it to the C.C meeting as I am away on holiday, but are you D.D boys racing at the New Era Superclub meeting at Donnington in August? If so I'll see you there!