Today Saturday at Castle Combe
 

One word AWESOME
Many highs and a couple of lows

Highs
Getting there without getting rained on
My mates from North Glos club doing well,
Namely Simon Knowlson who qualified pole in the 600s and during the rain soaked 2nd Superbike quallifying was according to the time keeping quickest, ahead of Plater, Emmett, Kiyonari, Harris, etc. Rutter sat that session out, but watching Kiyonari come on to the start finish strait was I sit to be hold, backend trying to step out from under him and the front wheel pawing the air. Simon was then headed off by Big Robby Mac for a quick chat and given a real nice virgin Yamaha team T-shirt

In the 600s Simon later finished 2nd, With Tommy Garness in 3rd, Drew Dorling Should have been 3rd but fell off while trying to hold Tommy at bay.

In the Powerbike/SoT race NG regular Paul Mountstevens waltzed off to a win ahead of other NG riders Nick Pusey and Steve Lake. Nick later quallified in 8th place for tomorrows superbike races.

Some guy riding a CB500 and once had a Ducati won his class, Well done WJB nice win you trophy hunter. He bottled out of his 2nd race after watching how many fell on the final lap of his first race, but even with out the fallers he was the leading 500 all race and has a nice trophy for his efforts.

My mate Rob Jones who i was pitting for managed to qualify for tomorrows Superbike races although its on the back of the grid, but loosing 4th gear on his Fireblade the session before timed quallifying didn't help. Maybe he should nip home and get his 916

Biggest low of the day was when Simon Knowlson highsided during timed quallifying while slowly closing the gap and preparing to put a pass on Sean Emmetts on the ETI Ducati. Looks as if Simon has damaged his Collarbone and also his R1 will be out of action for a while. Yet he may be up to racing his R6 tomorrow. Any chance of borrowing a Virgin R1 ? as he still quallified in 10th for the Superbike race.

Kenny riding the Moto Rapido backed 999R was 1st Twin home in the SoT class, just holding off Kevin Jones's TLR on the line.

Roll on tomorrow and a big thanks to my friend from North Glos for the free ticket

Just got in from Sundays racing, what a day!
Some fantastic racing, in all the classes.
Rider of the day has to be Dean Ellison who was riding the wheels off his R1, and saved what would have been an horrendous highside out of Bobby's chicane, top rider!
Credit where it's due for Sean Emmet showing them all how it's done, and putting a Duke back where it should be!
Karl Harris already looks dangerous on the fireblade and John Kirkham put a great ride in too, oh, and slideycars still scare the c**p out of me! :P

YEP another excellent day spent at the Wiltshire circuit, Sorry I didn't meet up with anyone not even Bradders dispite a phone call. Didn't see that much of WJB either just a couple of times in the paddock and watched him cross the line as the 2nd CB500 in his first race (also the last CB500 not a strong class these days).

The Superbike races were excellent, I was acting as pit crew again for one of my mates which gave me free access to the pit lane and had me out on the grid with him fitting and removing tyre warmers and paddock stands just like the Rizzla Suzuki guys next to us.

Shame we didn't have a Brolly Dolly to match theirs (Ruth we could have done with your daughter especially with all those professional photographers there).
Doing the same job as me futher up the grid for HM plant Honda was none other than Taddy Okada.

Just before the first Superbike race all the participants plus a few others (Reynolds & Kagayama) took a trip around the circuit on a open top bus, it seemed really strange seeing so many of my mates up there with them and hopefully my mates wife got some decent pics.

Emmett and the ETi 998 looked and sounded awesome as it wipped past me as I stood at the pit wall.
It was nice to see that not all of the club racers got lapped the likes of Steve Lake and Phil Bevan putting in a good showing, even Drew Dorling only just got lapped and he was on his R6 in the first race.

got to watch a couple of races before I gave in to 'I'm bored!'. Thoughht Kenny did a great job on the 999, not sure how long hes been riding it but looked smooth and at home.

Who was the rider of what looked/sounded like a 125 in the 1st superbike race - well impressed that he kept all behind him if it was a little un!

Got to meet up with Paul Woodhead, the sidecar champ guy who I know from work - shame they had problems, as there had been a serious duel going on and think they ended up 5th, so not too bad for the title.

Not impressed with the pace tho - EVERYTHING had a cost (even to wander around paddock!), q for an hour for a drink and the loos.....dont think I'll venture back much

Paul that was Wayne Sullivan on his Honda RS250 in the superbike races, finished 19th in the 1st race one place ahead of Kenny on his 999Rrrrrrr. Kenny was a bit handicapped when his race silencer split on Saturday morning and he had to fit the standard can in its place. He was also struggling to find the right combination between rear grip and the bik,es ability to flick through the chicanes.

I agree with you on the catering front Paul ques were far to long and one of the food vans in the paddock ran out of food. Its as though they were catering for your normal club meet and had a BSB crowd decend on them. But hopefully with the crowd numbers that turned up they will run it again next year and learn some lessons from this years mistakes.

[Edited on 26-9-2004 by skidlids]

I was there. Parked near a very pretty yellow 998S in the car-park, 02 reg IIRC; I think it was chained to another Ducati, which was in that other colour they do.:P

Was that anyone here?

Agree about the food and facilities generally being overwhelmed. But as it's only up the road from me, seemed daft not to look in.

A rare sight this year Emmett leads Rutter. its hard to beat a good 998