 Brands report in a War and Peace style
Ok, here goes.
As most of the DD folk know, 2011 wasn't a great year for me either on or off the track so it was with great anticipation and concerns I began to get Badger ready for Brands around mid-January but by Thursday evening he was ready to be loaded up for the following day's long haul. Nervous was an understatement as we entered the circuit on Friday dinner and parked up by Dean and Lara's plot, a warm welcome and a customary non-running number 14 (this time not in a gay 'Parisienne' blue) made it feel as if I'd never been away. A walk through the peasants paddock up to the posh garages brought many familiar faces and smiles as always. Handing over a handful of hard-earned and signing my life away got me entered for the weekends frivolity along with the last 2 sessions of the test day, so back to the lower echelons in the bowels of Brands car park to get ready for my first taste of track life since I was unceremoniously dumped on my ar*e back at Cadwell last year. The 1st session was only a cobweb remover and demon banisher so was treated as such, however the 2nd was more of a blast proving to be truly enjoyable. Badger and pilot were back!
Saturday morning brought a horrible hangover and straight into qualifying (praise be for an extra hour lie-in!). Out on track I felt really comfy, trying to just be smooth instead of my normal thrashing it everywhere (I'm referring to the bike riding style here) and was pleasantly surprised to be mixing it with Ghosty. Whether it was being pulled along by him (again referring to bike riding) or my new style, I ended up qualifying 3rd in class B going 2seconds faster than my race time last year, chuffed was an understatement! Race 1 wasn't what my aspirations amounted to, a rather poor start and I saw 3 class Bs zoom by me by the first corner and the 2 already in front go further so. Head down and riding my own way got me back past Richy Spence and Phil the Drill with Jimbo in my sights and by the 6th time around Clearways I sneaked past him onto the start finish straight. I was liking Paddock Hill bend and felt comfy merely rolling off a touch at tip-in and back on the full gas at the apex, only this time I was expecting Jimbo to dive underneath me and left my tip-in a bit too late. Somebody must have moved the tarmac because as I looked for the apex it wasn't there and the black stuff had a rather red/white then green hue to it, I don't quite know how but I managed to enter the kitty litter bolt upright and Badger was off on one of his foraging expeditions. Staying vertical with a rather natty rear wheel steering display soon brought some tyres my way and it was time to bail. Covered in sh*te I had a proper strop, throwing gloves and swearing at myself, I binned it while running in 3rd, gutted! After walking to get my gloves back I was carted off in the recovery van to pick Bradders bike up, “wey hey you muppet” I exclaimed at him as the van door opened, “no surprise to see you already in there” was the retort. Happy smiling times were back!
Race 2 on the Sunday went the same as race 1 apart from I didn't fall off, this time I held on till the end and during the final circumnavigation I could of grabbed Brummy Dave's leathers a few times, damn those missed gears but 3rd place was mine and I'd won my first ever point-scoring pot. Race 3 had a deja vu beginning (I really need to sort my starts out) only this time I didn't need to retake Richy Spence, he went for a sit down to watch at Clearways a couple of laps in. No missed gears meant I was right on Brummy's tail eyeing 2nd place up at half race distance, a mis-calculation as he went the wrong side of Nog and onto the rumbly stuff after Graham Hill meant I could slide by Dave into 2nd spot. We swapped places all over the show and were having a right enjoyable scrap, I kept trying to out brake Dave at Druids and when I finally managed it there was some orange-clad spoilsport wafting a red flag around. Race stopped and I was in 2nd place, I was more miffed by it being the end of a great race than being dropped back to 3rd but flags are flags and it was the end of a brilliant weekend's racing.
To summarize, I had 1 crash, 2 3rd places and smashed my best lap time. As always the DD paddock (both sides of the tunnel, you know, the one Dean fell off in) was a joy to be part of, big thanks to Trudi, Kev, Skids and the RC for getting us going this year, Brummy Dave, Jimbo, Richy Spence and Phil the Drill for amazing close racing, Chris and Jo Norris, Dean and Lara for their superb company, Nancy for not laughing too much then cleaning my leathers after the fall and the rest of the racers for making it worthwhile doing such a stupidly dangerous and expensive hobby. Big congrats to all the pot winners, hope the fallers didn't damage more than their pride and see you all at Snett.
It's not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog.
Scott #50 | 
14-Mar-2012, 05:39 
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