Its only Monday and already Mallory seems distant history, that could be due to my brain still rolling around inside my skull after my early departure from race 2 (more on that later)
As Mallory is only just up the road we did not need to set off until around 6.30am as I drove down to pick Chris and Cathy up the whole village was enveloped in fog so there was no real indication as to what the weather was going to turn out like although all reports were for a good dry sunny day, as we pulled in for egg mcmuffins breakfast at McDonalds Newark the sun was already burning the fog off and blue sky’s were overhead.
Arriving at Mallory it was clear there were little groups of DD guys scattered around the paddocks and very few spaces available, fortunately we were able to slot the van in to a space beside Ghost. Bike and rider scruted it was time for a wander round and listen to those who had arrived Friday for practice to hear what the new surface was like, from all accounts it was as gripy as my knee slider Velcro. A walk up to the track and I could see they had pulled the Armco back at Edwina’s making it easy to see straight through where as last year it always seemed to look daunting as I was approaching it.
Practice was called off we went, I was not out to set any fast lap times, more to get used to the circuit again and get a feel for the adjustments Chris.P had made to my front forks, all seemed well and the track was as grippy as I had heard so I had good feelings for a quick time in qualifying.
Qualifying called and I headed off to see if I could better my fastest lap of last year which stood at 1.09.15 I thought I would try to slip in behind Bradders and follow him round as I knew from what I had heard he had been going well in testing on the Friday however this was not to be as the only time I saw him was as he excited Gerrards and was lost from view, it was then I realised I needed to pull my finger out if I was to set a decent lap time. Not having a lap timer on the bike I had no idea what I had been doing until the timing sheets were out at the end of the session, I was happily surprised to see I had set a new record for myself of 1.05.405 putting me on row 5 of the grid an knocking 4 seconds off my fastest lap of last year, things were looking good.
Race one and I had no real plan in mind other than to go as fast as I could, a slow start off the grid saw a few riders pass me into Gerrards, I spent the rest of the race picking off as many of them as I could and watching my pit board to see what lap times I was putting in, the first few were quiet dismal in the 1.07 s and I put this down to having to try to pass slower bikes that had I gotten a better start I would not have had to contend with them, but hey ho that’s racing, with three laps to go I was starting to suffer with fatigue and was having to dig deep for some extra stamina to keep the pace, while I like these longer races this year I know I need to try to get myself a bit fitter to keep it up. Race over and I was shattered I wanted to get out of my leathers and jump in the lake, but with such a short time before race 2 I kept them on and tried to relax as much as I could, looking at the timing sheet I was happy to see I had finished 7th in class with a fastest lap of 1.04.588 knocking a second off my fastest lap in qualifying and not far behind Bradders who had been lapping in the 1.04s for the whole race, Hats off to Paul he has really upped his game and this could be seen in some gutsy passes going into Gerrards in race 2, but I had learnt a few lessons and felt I had a good chance to stay with him in race 2 Chris.p and I sat down to discuss where I could be doing better and how to achieve it, all to soon race 2 was called.
Race two and I had a better idea of what I needed to be doing and was soon putting it into practice as the lights went out, unfortunately 3 laps in and the race was red flagged so we all lined up on the grid again, we were held for quiet a while which was actually helpful as it gave me a chance to reflect on my first start, determined to get off the line quicker for the second start I was pumped up, I saw a bike move in the corner of my eye and dumped the clutch…
bugger the lights were still red, I realised it was Bradders who had jumped the lights fooling Craig and myself to follow suit, ah well what was done was done and we were still racing, sticking to my plan of going wide round Gerrards I passed 4-5 other bikes and was feeling good as I came out onto the straight to Edwinas in front I could see Bradders ahead of Phil The Drill (Phil Daruvalla) and Skidlids (Kev Ellis) with determination I stayed wide on the left and pushed past both Phil and Kev braking late for Edwinas I smiled in my helmet as I passed them and tucked into Edwinas cleanly, exiting Edwinas my only thought was on catching Bradders when all of a sudden my world turned upside down as I parted company with my bike and from spectator accounts did an amusing head slide down the track, coming to a stop I realised there would soon be a number of bikes bearing down on me so started to roll off the track and onto the grass out of the way, picking myself up I had no idea what had happened, one of the marshals said it looked as if number 88 (Skidlids) had clipped me but he could not be certain, anyway that was it race over for me and all I could do was sit and watch the rest of the guys battling it out.
After the race I got a chance to look at the damage to the bike, as far as I can see a scuffed fairing busted brake lever and throttle body was all the damage it had sustained unfortunately my helmet was retired to the skip
Speaking to kev it seems his boot somehow caught up with my fork crash bungs causing me to loose the front, personally I think he was miffed at me passing him into Edwenas and took the opportunity to kick my front wheel as he drew level
The end to another exciting round of DD and the next race at Anglesey to look forward to, hope that Matts shoulder heals fast and that all other fallers bikes are soon back in full fettle.
On a side note it was great to see such a full grid, and the amount of interest in DD racing shown by some of the spectators was encouraging, so I best get my forms filled in and in the post to secure a place on the grid for the next race. And once again a huge thanks to Chris and Cathy without their help and support DD for me would not have been possible
See you all at Anglesey