That night, we attended the amazing event that was the Dave Holland festival. The effort and expense that must have gone into it was unimaginable, and we were only sorry that we had to leave relatively early due to Erin needing some sleep. Mr Holland was an amazing bloke who had some amazing friends that loved him dearly. Huge respect.
It was extremely cool to be awarded the 3rd placed trophy, and I figured Paul Payne deserved the 2nd place trophy, especially considering the physical grief he's endured over recent seasons. Shep rightly had number 1 on his bike and the podium, well done fella. Kev Palmer recieving his pot was a nice sight too. Great rides dude.
Apparently, the giutarist in the band playing that evening was the spitting image of me, and Andy Pike thought I was moonlighting..haha!
The weather was the complete antithesis of the previuos day, which had resembled a National Geographic wild weather show, more than a club race at Cadwell Park. Fortunately, we now had sunshine and clear skies. Awesome. Trouble was, it was still pretty cold.
I had a brand new set of tyres to scrub in during qualifying, and took it steady as I went out. despite this, I very nearly made a cat turd of the whole proceedings as the bike slewed sideways on the exit of the old hairpin. I backed off and let a few people by.
After a lap or so, normal service was resumed, so I upped the pace, eventually passing and gapping Shep. I figured that being as I'd come from behind and made some space, surely I had pole?
Yes, was the pleasant answer, and all in time for my guest to start arriving, with quite a few of the crew from work turning up too. Cheers guys.
I kept feeling stings on my arse, and when I turned around, I noticed Mrs Sheppard on a grassy Knoll with an air rifle. I was beginning to wonder if pole position was worth the hassle.
We got the BBQ on the go, and my Mum and Kate did a stand up job of feeding the guests. Thanks ladies, love ya lots.
Main sponsor, Andy Green of Ultimate Finish was lamenting the fact that he'd forgotten to bring an onion with him, cos he loves onions with his burgers, so I lined up in the cafe with everyone else ordering their hot grub and straight faced, asked the dude at the till to sell me a couple of raw spanish onions. To his credit, he did. I sauntered up to Andy and said " It's amazing what you find growing out near Hall bends".
Having had a good chat with loads of folks, I was about as relaxed as I've ever been for the first race and lined up feeling great.
Starting from pole, I was unlikely to be beaten into the first turn, and that's how it turned out. I got my head down and Shep didn't come by into Park...made a pleasant change. First time over the line and I had a 2.5 second lead...eh?
Next lap it was 6 seconds, 9 the next and so on. Something wasn't right, because I beat Shep by 22 seconds at the end of the race. That simply DOES NOT HAPPEN. I was a bit confused, but happy about the victory nonetheless as I never put a foot wrong all race and got into the 47's. To be fair, I'd hoped to have a go at the lap record as I'd come so close at the previous Cadders round, but I was missing a couple of things. One was the same track conditions as August, and the second was me old mate Shep chasing my tail.
It seemed like a hell of a wait until the final DD race of the season, and the dark clouds had started to move in, threatening rain. My hopes of another clean sweep of pole, fastest lap and double race wins were looking mildly sketchy.
I sat in the holding bay looking like a retarded gibbon that was having bananas on strings waved above its head repeatedly. Drops of rain would come, then go, and Chris P tried to look unflustered by it all as he waited to go down to pit lane.
We lined up on the grid and it started to rain properly. I could see shep smiling through his perenniallydark visor and figured I'd see how things panned out.
Tom parkes had finished within a gnats todger of Shep in race 1, and was obviously hoping to grab another podium in this one, to secure 4th in the championship.
I held back on the warm up lap, which is rare for me as I like to lead it, and let a confident and smooth looking Tom Tom lead the way round. I figured that if there were any dodgy spots that he'd find them first. As it happened though, he looked well smooth and in control. Then, just as he crested the rise leading out of Hall Bands, the bike snapped sideways and got into shapes that the Kama Sutra would blush at. Having obviously practised on the rodeo bull the night before, he hung on gamely until the Desmo face planted him out of the front door and into a possible 5th in the championship. Gutted for him.
We lined up on the grid and weren't held for long. Tom was obviously unhurt. Thank god for that.
I let Shep creep ahead on the start and followed him for a lap to see where the grip was and again use him as a marker for any surprises. Things seemed good though, so I pushed past into hall bends and pressed on. Shep was definitely not himself and I pondered it as I wondered whether the rain would return.
Fortunately it didn't, although I reckon I'd have been ok in the conditions, cos I was feeling smooth and relaxed and had let my tyres warm up enough to cope with it.
Once again I pulled a gap, but it was only 9 seconds this time. Big surprise afterwards was that the gap was to Cleggy, who had put in a mega ride to be 2nd overall. Add that to the fabulous new lap record he added the day before and he was having a fine return to form.
Pikey had moved into second, and newbie Neil Appleby had done a blinding job on Rich Foggs old bike to come in 3rd. Nice work son. Shep being off the podium was a huge shock.
So then, another gentlemans set on the championship race day, but it felt hollow and frankly, I was so bored in the second race, not having Shep breathing down my neck that I was working out the points situation between Tom Parkes and Andy Pike to work out if Andy could leap frog Tom.
The presentation was a particularly nice affair, with Andy Shep handing out some mega looking Novice trophies for the action Alarms championship, not to mention a season opening race entry in 2010 for the winners. fabulous.
I got to heckle Chas then give him a very well deserved Steve Hambrook trophy. I think he was surprised by the amont of votes he recieved, don't be mate, you're a legend.
Trudi once again did a great job as riders rep, then made us all take a step back by performing some impromptu gymnastics in the paddock. Really quite impressive.
It suddenly seemed a long way off until March or April, but I'm sure we'll find stuff to amuse ourselves until battle commences again next year.
Final thanks.
Once again to my sponsors, who have been ever generous and amazing.
My lovely wife and daughter, who brighten my life and add that something extra to my racing.
To the rest of my family, Mum and Dad, who continue to support me, year after year.
To Chris P and Cathy, what a pair of diamonds. The victories this year weren't mine, they were ours. Thank you Chris.
Well done to Andy And Sam and everyone in the paddock for being great people....can we race again yet?
Otei #85
