| Pembrey and Cadwell - Good luck out of Bad?
Well, where to start?!! I left Snetterton (somehow) with a slight lead in the championship and feeling very good about things. Then, as many of you know, I was punted off on the practice day at Pembrey whilst minding my own business. The unfortunate thing was the hole in my leathers and arm and boots (oh, and later diagnosed broken finger), the fortunate thing was that because the bike flipped straight onto the tank first, the damage to the bike was minimal. I was saved by Neal nipping into Riders to get me a new screen on his way to the track, and by Neil helping patch my bike together whilst I had the turf removed from the rim of my back wheel. Despite gaffer taping my arm back up and getting back out on the bike, I can assure you I nearly drove home Friday night, giving up racing for good.
The racing at Pembrey was alright. First race I managed 3rd, but in the second race I felt all over the place and had no confidence in the bike at all (later tracked to a twitchy front end because the head bearing assembly was loose). Anyway, I wobbled home to 8th and had lost the lead in the championship by 3 points to the flying duo of Hugh and Neal. Now, these guys are fast, and we have no secrets in our “team”, so I had resigned myself to aiming at 3rd in the championship… so on to Cadwell.
Obviously praying for rain to repeat my double win from last year, we arrived to brilliant sunshine for the practice day. 600’s were buzzing all around me, and I couldn’t get much below a 1m55s lap. Poor old Scott succumbed to another 600 kamikazee attack, and I actually went to bed in a fairly positive frame of mind. I felt pretty relaxed in warm up on Saturday, but only managed a 1m55s lap following Kev to learn what I was doing wrong in the first 2 bends. Qualifying was like a freight train…. Kev, me, Hugh, Phil, Bradders, and (I’m sure someone else was there? Alan?). I felt I was quicker than Kev, but as usual had trouble passing him. So, on lap 5 I dropped back a couple of seconds and made a real effort to catch him the next lap, setting a best time of 1m51.4s, 3-4 seconds faster than I had been all weekend! Unfotunately Bradders had beaten me to pole by a whole second, but I was happy.
Race 1 was odd. I got stood up at the apex of Park on the first lap, and just about scrubbed off enough speed to avoid the grass. It took me a lap to get going after that, but then it took me until lap 4 to pass Hugh and until lap 6 to get past Kev……. But from lap 6, I was possessed! My final 6 laps were the fastest I managed all weekend, all 1m50/51s laps (with one being the fastest of the race at 1m50.2s), and I was closing down Bradders at over 1 second a lap until the flag. I was a little gutted at not winning, but fastest lap and 2nd were pretty good going compared to my nightmare at Pembrey. Poor old Hugh though, suffered an off at the Gooseneck just after I passed him, he was nearly run over by Neal, and the damage (despite the best efforts of the now legendary DD paddock to fix it) was enough to ruin his weekend.
Race 2 was another slightly strange affair. The bike felt slow and I was 2 seconds per lap slower than the previous race. With hindsight, I think I was just too tired to fully throw myself into my usual riding style, and the bike was probably fine. Anyway, I tried to cling grimly to the Back of Neal, was overtaken by Alan in the last lap (only for him to ride right off onto the grass trying to see what Bradders had done at Park), and managed a safe 5th. With us able to drop a result this weekend, I saw this as a nice “banker”, and decided to concentrate on a better race on Sunday.
Race 3 on Sunday was really turning into a thriller. By lap 6 Bradders had a 1.2s lead from Kev, who was leading a battling train of me, Neal, Phil, and Dave “Race winner” Jenkins. Neal had just passed me into Park and had lucked into a late pass of Kev into Mansfield. Seeing Bradders only just up the road, knowing how relentless Neal can be, and feeling much stronger today, I decided to get a run on Kev through Mansfield to out-brake him into the chicane so that I could follow Neal onto Bradders’ tail….. that was when all hell broke loose! Neal went absolutely as sideways as you can get without going backwards, and was catapulted over the side of the bike just after the apex of Mansfield. Poor old Kev slammed into his bike, and me, already closing on Kev, had no choice but to slow and pray to miss everything…. I managed to miss everything important, but decided to use Neal’s ribcage as a launch ramp (maybe to jump the carnage?!), and immediately crashed to earth with the other two. It was a crazy scene, with bikes and riders and marshalls everywhere. Fortunately, despite a few broken bones, Neal was alright. I have to admit I hope none of you have to experience the feeling of running over another rider, because it is truly sickening. Unfortunately, because I was involved in the incident, I could not be classed as a finisher. However, fortunately, my other 2 results from the weekend were not bad, and so I would leave Cadwell (more or less) in the lead of the championship with 2 rounds to go.
A big thanks to the Ghost crew and Nog for helping to get Hugh back on track; to Hugh for pestering the Med centre into revealing Neals whereabouts (they denied him even being in the Med centre for a while!); to Dean (and his missus and mate) for packing Neals van, going to Grimsby, and fetching Neal home; to Kev for not punching Neal; to Trudi for not punching Neal; and finally to Anna, who, despite me being involved in a Red flag incident and being the last to be fetched off track, is learning to cope with the stresses of wondering if I will be alright (a sign that it is starting to happen too often or that she has stopped caring!!).
See you all at Castle Combe!  |
25-Aug-2011, 17:56 
) and the first two laps when I have my bulk to get off the line are critical if I'm to stay with you front lot so I see a space I need to take it, long as I don't punt anyone off 
) and will be down the the wire at Oulton barring any catastrophe at Doom
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