Race Report - Oulton Park 8th May 2004 (MRO)

To say I was nervous about this race is an understatement!  MRO is the pinnacle of club motorcycle road racing and is considered one step down from National level, which meant that I was going to up against the best 400 riders in the country.  Hang on, I've only been racing a year or so.....!

I tried to get a Friday practice ticket, but they were full up and there was no chance.  However, I decided to go up there anyway to see if I could benefit with a ticket from a fallen rider or at the very least settle into the paddock.  Good news is I'd got garage space with Andy Turner (NC30 racer with Bemsee) after he advertised on www.400greybike.co.uk that he had bagged one and we shared with Greville Ball also (fast and smooth ZXR400 racer and Bemsee championship front runer).  I watched as they went out for practice and felt reasonably confident that even though the quick guys were lapping in 1.55's I had myself been close to the 2 minute mark back in February before the crash and I was sure I could get under that time and therefore at least qualify.

The garage turned out to be really useful, as overnight the rain came and it simply didn't stop.  It woke me up early on as it battered against the side of the van and it dawned on me as the morning went on that even if it dried up later I was going to have to at least try and qualify in the rain.  This was not good as I have very little experience in the wet and quite frankly it scares me!  With the prospect of not qualifying looming heavily, I fitted the wet wheels and changed to my spare unpainted plastics so that if I was to fall off I wouldn't damage yet another set of painted bodywork.  Now that's optimism for you!

First up is a 5 minute practice.  This isn't a great deal of time to get used to riding wet and around Oulton I struggled to get three laps in, but I realised that some riders were as slow as me so I wasn't on my own.  We then had to go out for 15 minutes of qualifying and again I was scared stiff.  My objective was to just keep upright and hope that I got gridded, although to be honest if I hadn't been I wouldn't have been that bothered.  As it turned out, my pathetic time of 2.22.76 was not enough to officially qualify (although I was only two seconds off), but the grid wasn't full so they let me and a bunch of other riders start at the back, my place being a lowly 29th.

The Supersport 400 was race two and was being run for 14 laps, twice the distance I'm used to!  Just before we went out the rain turned a bit heavier (it was bouncing off the track sometimes) and we went through the holding area to read a sign telling us there was standing water on the first bend.  It was at this point that I was seriously wondering what I was doing out there, but we lined up on the grid and were soon off.  I got a good start and made a couple of places before the first bend, then just concentrated on staying on.  I was feeling a bit better about it as the next few bends came and went and I even passed a few more riders as we got around.  It was then just a case of settling down to see how I could get on and concentrating to stay upright, unlike the many riders who were falling at every other bend.  By around lap 7 or 8 (which is usually race distance for a club race) I was actually getting a bit more confident and started to go a bit quicker.  Then low and behold I actually touched my knee down through the new chicane and I was discovering that there was plenty more grip to be had.  I carried on going a bit quicker and next thing I knew I was braking later and later and getting the bike leaned over knee down virtually every corner.  I didn't have anybody in front of me, but I could see at the hairpin that I was getting caught up and knew I had to up the pace even more.  I did and it seemed to do the trick, but as I relaxed again this guy was catching me again.  Turns out it was Andy Turner, but I'd done enough and I went over the line for the last time and the race finished.  It didn't seem like we'd done the race distance, but we had and I realised then that I really enjoyed these longer races.....even if it was raining!

Something else I wasn't used to is that as we came off the circuit, we were held in Parc Fermé for five minutes.  At first, I wondered what the hell was going on, but was told it was standard practice after an MRO race in order to allow for any protest against the race result.  They let us go after the five minutes was up and we went back to the garage.  I didn't have a clue where I'd finished and Lesley said that she had counted me in at about 20th, which didn't surprise me.  When I got a copy of the official results sheet, I saw that I had finished an incredible 15th and therefore in the points!  Also, I had managed to cut 10 seconds off my laptime to record a 2.12.04 fastest.

A fantastic experience and I'm really happy with both the result and the way I rode.  I really got to grips with the wet weather and the experience is invaluable for the future.  Also, I really like the MRO structure and although you only get one race, it is twice the normal distance and there is the whole qualifying experience as well.  Can't wait for the next MRO round I've entered, which is Cadwell 22nd August 2004.


Home