Arrived Thurs evening approx same time as Senna and Skids. Down at the Pikey end on my own.
Unloded and a beer and orf to bed in the van, I was fkin freezing all night.
My corner men of my brother Rod and his son Dean arrived very early Fri morn. Out for first run in the orange group, first time on the bike didn't know what to expect of it. Seemed ok but nothing exceptional, circulated with Kev P for ages, our bikes seemed perfectly equal.
Second session bike lost power with backfires and misfires etc, came in and had two perfect holes in the filter material that was covering the intakes. Had it been sucked in or blown out?? Used the other sessions for tests but bike still not good enough.
Removed power commander and it ran better. We then tried blocking the camera hole so ram air was not influencing the baro sensor and fashioned air filters from a tent flyscreen.
Bike ran a lot better, so left it at that for the Friday. Did qually and like everyone else did not know about the first 5 mins not being timed. But got on row 4, 13th position. I like many others absolutely amazed at How Chris Clarke performed on the ex Alan Parkes class B bike. Also Dave Jenkins who had never been to Brands and had not done the test day either, well done guys.
Race 1, start was terrible clutch grabbed early and bogged down the pickup, Paul Pullen told me that I was almost collected by him, giving him Deja veu of Snetterton.
Got going and was following Kev Palmer, with his big noisy megaphones barking at me. But I could hear a piston rattle type noise, I was thinking I'd blown my engine from a weak mixture. Kev pulled away as I relaxed the twistgrip. I didn't hear the noise closed up on Kev and the noise appeared, so thinking he has blown his engine, but he was going to well. Then just as I'm following into Paddock Hill his rear caliper comes adrift and is going in and out of the wheel like a roulette ball. I thought I was going to end up wearing it.
Race got cut short to 8 laps and I finished 8th from 14 class A finishers, but got beat by Mad48 and Brummie Dave who were in class B. Bugger.
Sun morn we fitted new tyres, thanks to my bro' Rod for buying them. Also elected to put the power commander back on. Ran in the 7 lap warmup to scrub tyres and try to get some pace as I was thinking i'm way off and should not be out here.
Race 2. Good start and mixing up front, bit of a dice with Paul Payne until he retired with problems. Ended up finishing 6th with Bradders 5th and Dallas 4th with 3 secs seperating us. Felt things were looking up.
Race 3. Again a good start, had some close tussles with Bradders, he was much quicker than me thru Graham Hill bend and passed me. I was quicker than him through Paddock Hill and made a move. Got past but was unaware that I had done it on a yellow flag. Sorry Paul. When focussed on a rider and track space the peripheral does not always stretch to the track extremities. So came away from the last race also being cut short with a 5th.
Even tho' I won class B last year I was under no illusion that I could carry on at the sharp end and these A bikes are subtley different to race. As you know I'm no spring chicken & will not use that as an excuse for failure. But by the end of Brands I was enjoying it, I am sure it will carry on this way.
Great to meet up with everyone again and also say hello to a few new faces. Here is to a safe seasons racing, good luck to all.
