 Badger Blog part 2 - Mallory
Well here goes folks, won’t be quite the usual War And Peace as you’ll work out later.
With a loaded van fuelled by a sense of fear and intrepidation the journey to sunny Leicester began. Weather reports had conflicting views, showers with cloud or just cold with cloud, oh how I wished for the latter! But bright, warm patches lightened my heart along the way and 2.5 hours after take off the gates to Mallory Park (stirring memories of my visit to Auschwitz) were in front of me (guarded by a shitty nosed jobsworth with all the heirs and graces of Rudolf Hess). A 15 minute wait later I was in the paddock and perched Rachel the van opposite a beavering Neil Appleby who was being abley assisted by red rompersuit wearing Toni, upon further greetings he informed me he was ‘just changing the engine cos the other blew up’ as calm as you like through grinning teeth! If that was me I’d have been running round screaming, crying into my overdraft and looking for Skids or Ghost, he’s one cool dude.
After dinner I got myself an afternoon wristband for the grand sum of 40 English pounds Sterling (that was for the benefit of Paul Nelson who paid the full £90 and got just 1 more session than me, grins smugly to one’s self), once kitted up and Badger brimmed I set off onto the dreaded track/car park tarmac. End of session 1 and I really liked the place, 2 chicanes that definitely set you up for a quick or slow lap and a mahoosive bend that would require Buster Gonad sized plums to take flat out. 2 more sessions and a few chats later we were all sat in the queue for scrutineering talking our way round a perfect lap, Bradders was saying he was doing constant 1:07s so I found it impossible not to slip in I’d done a 1:05.36 and showed my lap timer. His mush dropped and my ego grew, oh yeh Bumble Boy, you been Badger spanked!
Next morning in free practice I was clocking mid 1:06s and couldn’t for the life of me find my lost second anywhere, I was positive Bradders had nicked it so I kept away in case he asked how I was going. No hiding after qualifying though, he was down in the 1:04s with myself 2 seconds behind, fair play, the big guy was going great! I recalled a scuffle or 2 with the Ghostmeister during qually and during dinner he popped over to check on the once more beavering Mr Appleby and upon seeing me Ghost commented on how well I was going. Certainly a confidence booster coming from him, especially as this was his local track, so, with a slightly re-inflated ego I awaited race 1.
Lights on, then off and away we went! I shot past Bradders (admittedly with a wry smirk on my countenance) who was looking in the wrong place for his gears and into Gerrard’s with knee down and not quite on full throttle (cold tyres and balls too small). Then meeow, Bradders came past, obviously pinned and on a mission. The chase was on! Alas 14 laps later the chase was still going on, nobody from class B had come past or been passed, Brads was an extra 100 yards ahead due to 2 missed gears coming out of the Bus Stop but places remained the same. 6th place with a best of 1:04.765, I was happy with that as I set out the day before to go under 1:10. Wonder what race 2 would bring?
Broken screen, bent gear shift lever, clutch that wont work, various cracked panels and a pulled groin muscle that’s what!
Off the line Phil the Drill got a flyer and was just ahead into Gerrard’s so I was going round the outside when he drifted out, I lifted up, went too straight, onto the green stuff, locked the rear, hung on, shat myself, hit the tyre wall, did a marvellous 20 yards long front flip over the bars, landed flat on my back, got up and received a 8.8 off the marshals, losing the 1.2 for not landing on my tip toes and throwing my arms back. Evidence of my ‘exit stage left’ can be seen by following the link on Mr Fisher’s thread, Race 2 start 1. But just how fecking long is that walk of shame down to Edwina’s with the gathered crowd watching you? I should’ve waited for the meat wagon and slipped past like a convict in the back!
All things said there were lessons learnt this weekend:-
Don’t try and upstage Neil Appleby, 2 crashes, 2 trashed engines, a vanfull of broken panels, a lap record and a winners trophy.
Mallory is a good track.
Bradders has upped his game big time, respect fella.
I need bigger nuts.
Badgers really do feel at home on grass.
Dianese make superb back protectors, worth every penny.
The DD paddock is still the best one to be in. Thanks to Dean (Killerbunny) and Lara for help loading up.
Well done to the 4 different winners along with Alan Parkes for his first pot and a splendid lap time.
Hope all the injured recover swiftly, in particular Mr Awesome (even though he stole my crash thunder) and see you all at Anglesea. Laters dudes and dudettes.
Ps I lied about the War And Peace bit didn’t I? Sorry.
It's not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog.
Scott #50 | 
18-Apr-2011, 18:37 
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