Having to work on the Friday, we couldn't set off from the Midlands until around 7pm and so didn't arrive at Cadwell until gone 10 o'clock. This meant we were going to have to put up the awning in the dark so that we could empty the van to sleep in it. Putting the awning up in the daylight is bad enough, but without light it was even worse. Not only that, but once it was up we still had to empty the van and blow up the airbed, so it was gone 12.30 by the time we were sorted out. Oh, forgot to mention that Lesley nearly sliced her thumb off on one of the awning poles about five minutes into putting it up and then we ended up having to make shift a bandage with duck tape......must put a first aid kit on the shopping list!
Saturday Races
I'd decided to enter the 125-1300cc Allcomers race as well as the Formula 400 class, as I thought it would at least give me some more track time. This class is exactly what it says, any size of bike allowed from 125cc up to 1300cc, so you can imagine what the grid looked like. As I lined up on my 25th allocated grid position, I looked around at nothing but 600's and 1000's and took a large gulp as I faced the prospect of having to race against bikes considerably faster than my 400. But we all know that a well ridden 400 will run rings around a larger bike round bends, so just need to get my head down and get on with it.
Off we went and I found myself completely mugged by the first bend and then the usual arrangement of parked bikes as we go around Coppice and into Charlies. I managed to pass a couple back and then tucked in for Park straight, when what seemed like a dozen bikes passed me under power before we got to Park corner and I'm straight past half of them again on the brakes and through the corner. This was going to be interesting! It carried on like that for a while, with me passing a group of riders on the brakes and in corners and then being passed again down the straights, but at least I was gaining track experience for the F400 races. Towards the end I'd managed to pull enough gap on many of the slower riders, which meant they simply didn't have enough straight to get past me again and I was then focussed on just a couple of guys who were holding me up. I passed the guy at the front of our little pack god knows how many times and had to put up with him coming past me again. When I decided to make a move on him into the hairpin in the Woodland section, got past and then stayed in front through Barn, when I expected him to come past me down the start/finish straight. He didn't and I carried on for the remaining lap and a half to finish 23rd. As he'd not come by me again I thought I might have knocked him off, but I saw him next day in the holding area and he was fine and said that he just simply let me go as I was going much quicker through the bends.
Next up was the first F400 race and I was allocated 15th on the grid, which I was quite pleased about as I didn't get my application for this race in until quite late (your first grid placing is by order they receive the entries). I lined up looking at Dan on pole and I'd also seen Tim Bradley (NC35 won EMRA 400 championship last year....fast and smooth) a couple of rows behind me. Off we went and I didn't get a brilliant start, but was up around 10th. Tim came past me into Charlies 1 and I thought it was time to get on with it and keep with the front pack as much as I could. After a lap or so I'd passed a few more riders and then came across the back of Ady Warrant on Tim Bradley's spare bike. Apparently, Ady had engine trouble and couldn't use his own bike (ZXR400) so Tim lent him his spare.....he's a nice bloke that Tim! We battled for a while and I just stuck in behind him to find a place to pass, which I did on the brakes into the new chicane. I carried on through the Mountain and Woodlands and round to complete the 4th lap, then near disaster struck as I went down Park Straight. I wanted to see how much gap I had on Ady and whether or not I was under threat again, so I decided to look round. This was a bad idea, because as I looked round the visor shot up and nearly ripped off so that it was hanging on by just one fixing and I still had two laps to go....nightmare! I carried on and tried to move the visor around to make sure it wouldn't come off, but it wasn't good and certainly doomed my chances of going any quicker. Still, I finished the race ok and got 6th place, which is my best ever Formula 400 result so I was well chuffed. Also, Lesley timed me running consistent low 1.46's which is a full two seconds off my Cadwell lap times in April.
The next race was the 2nd F400 race and being gridded 6th (from my race one result), I was really looking forward to it. We lined up and I was determined to get away well, which I did and found myself in 5th place after Charlies 2, but then dropped a place to Ady Warrant into Park corner (not a good corner for me and I really need to work at it). We battled again for a while and I got past him again on lap three with a cracking move around the outside of him through Coppice, giving me the inside line through Charlies 1. It was sharp, but clean and it gave me a good enough lead that Ady then was too far off me to outbrake me into Park corner. I was then focussed on chasing fourth place and was catching, until I did the daft thing of looking round again down Park straight to see if Ady was near and the visor unhooked again from the right, except this time it was far more serious and I was really worried about losing it, which would have meant I would have had to pull in. This slowed me up completely and I went from 1.46's to 1.50 and Ady had caught me again. I kept my head as still as I could to keep it away from any windblast that might rip the visor off and I got on with it again. Apparently, Ady came very close to me and Lesley was having kittens as she saw me lose a good lead and him close right up behind me on the last few corners, but I held him off for another best ever result of 5th place. Brilliant!
Sunday Races
The club ran short of time on Saturday as they were struggling to find enough marshals, so they delayed the Saturday Allcomers race finals until first thing Sunday morning. This didn't really matter as I decided not to race as I'd managed to make the B final (they run the heats first race and the second is the 'final' A, B or C depending on where you finished in your heat), but was at the back of the grid and likely to get caught up with the same group I did in the first race. However, to warm up for the first of the F400 races I did decide to go out for the first heat of the Sunday Allcomers races, which was to turn out to be a big mistake!
I'd managed to get one of the 'first come, first served' practice passes and went out for three laps to get warmed up, which went well. I lined up for the first Allcomers race in my 25th grid spot allocated in the programme and off we went. First bend and it was the usual chaos, but I held my nerve and remembering it was only a warm up as far as I was concerned, I let people come by me and thought I'd sit back and pick them off after the first lap mayhem. However, through Park and into Chris Curve, the guy in front of me on a CBR600 highsided and I had nowhere to go except onto the grass and with the tyre wall looming, I took the sensible option and put it down. It crashed quite gentle and when I went over to it to pick it up there was no damage as such, but the fairing had become detached and it was flooded. The guy on the CBR600 was hurt quite badly (I went to him first and he was screaming in pain, so being a wussie I just turned round and went to my bike instead!) so the race was red flagged. I got a lift back in the rescue truck and was trying to get a message to Lesley that I was ok, but to no avail and she spent half an hour running around the Medical Centre worrying sick whilst I was back at the awning spannering. She wasn't impressed!
I had to put right the albeit minimal damage and I knew that I needed to clean the airbox and carbs out before I could run it again, which was going to take me about 20-30 minutes. Problem was I crashed out on race three and the first leg of the F400 was race five, so even though I got it fixed up and running there was not time to get scrutineered again and signed off by the medical centre. This meant that my hard earned 5th on Saturday had gone to waste as far as my grid place for Sunday was concerned and I left an empty space on the second row of the grid for the first F400 race. What's more, because I didn't race I only get to start from the back of the grid for race two. I wasn't very happy to say the least, but that's racing as everybody keeps telling me.
Last F400 race and I'm lined up at the back of the grid in 26th place. Still, I had a great start and managed to get up to about 15th after the first couple of corners and then I concentrated on getting further up the field. I don't remember too much about it other than I passed what seems like loads of people and I hadn't got a clue where I was sitting, but wasn't making much ground on the guy in front. As I came through the Woodland section for the penultimate lap, there were yellow flags and a guy was lying just off the circuit not moving. I carried on and went through the last lap flag and through Coppice and Charlies, when I saw red flags presumably for the guy down in Woodland. As the race was stopped on the last lap, that was declared as a result and much to my delight I finished 8th (I only expected 10th or worse). That said, I'm a bit pissed off that I didn't get the chance to start 5th as I was hoping for a sniff of the podium, but there you go.
Pembrey up next in the NGRRC championship, so let's see if I can put the experiences of the MRO and this weekend to good practice and try to improve my points standing.
