Race Report - Pembrey 20th/21st March 2004 (NGRRC)

Since the Pembrey test weekend, I'd painted up some new plastics and an NC30 tank I bought off E-Bay and they were ready to go on the bike. However, the weather forecast was for rain most of the weekend and given that I'd already watched one set of freshly painted plastics get ruined at Oulton Park, I decided to run with the patched up and gaffa taped old ones and the old tank for this first meeting of the year.  Little did I know, but that was a good call..... I'd decided that even though the test weekend was only two weeks before, I needed more track time and booked myself on the afternoon session of the Friday practice day.  We got to the circuit about noon having met with Glen 'Lucky' Watterson (races with NGRRC on an NC30) to collect his awning, the idea being we grabbed a space on the hard standing in the paddock and the rest of the lads would come down in the evening.  Now, when we met with Glen, he mentioned that he'd lost the instructions to the awning, but not to worry and we would work it out easily enough.  He was obviously having a laugh as there were dozens of unmarked poles and couplings that would have tested the best of Krypton Factor contestants.  Add to that some strong wind and you can imagine how much fun Lesley and I  had with this thing.....not!  An hour or so later and we got the awning up and then it was time to get out on track.

Despite some dreadful rain on the way down to the circuit, it was now bright and sunny and dry, albeit still very windy.  First session out and it was a case of just getting familiar with the track again and trying to understand where I could go quicker, particularly Brooklands Hairpin where I just don't see to have the right line to get good drive out of there.  Two sessions later and I was a bit better, but still only lapping in the 1.07's (which is only as fast as I was last year on the old  bike!) so it was time to get a bit quicker and dip into the 1.06's.  I began the third session out with a couple of warm up laps and then with a clear track in front, set myself up to go a bit quicker.  I went through Woodlands pretty quick and lined up for the right hand Honda Curve to begin a quick lap, but just as I approached the corner I lost concentration for a moment and missed the entry for the turn.  Realising what I'd done I turned it hard to correct it, but it was too much for the front tyre and down it went.....lowsided again!  Double bollocks!

Honda Curve is a pretty quick bend, so like the crash at Oulton I'd have been in fourth gear and near flat out....not nice.  I was lucky again though and did not hurt myself at all other than to bruise my right elbow.  I'm obviously learning to bounce well!  As for the bike, well aside from the now completely destroyed plastics and another dent in the tank, the first thing I noticed is the crash had flipped it and done both exhaust cans beyond help, so that was the end of play for the day.  When I got back from the Medical Centre (compulsory check up), I saw the bike and thought that's it, no racing for me this weekend.  But once we had it back at the awning and stripped the plastics off, it didn't look too bad and all of a sudden, talk came round to whether or not we could fix it up to salvage something out of the weekend.  This is when Martin Jones (bloody quick NC30/35 racer, but not doing the club circuits this year) starting suggesting he could fix up the cans, brackets and had some brand new spare plastics.

Martin went away on Friday night and Lesley and I went to the B&B we'd booked (too cold for camping this time of the year!), as I reflected on losing the front twice out of three outings on the bike.  Not exactly confidence inspiring.  It also meant that I was going to have to sit out the first races of the season on the Saturday and possibly Sunday if we couldn't get it fixed.  Getting up on the Saturday morning to heavy rain had me thinking it wasn't such a bad thing to be sitting it out, but once the racing starting I was pig sick to be watching and not taking part.  I've never watched a race I should have been in before, but it's a killer!  Also, I was missing out the chance of valuable championship points.  What's worse is I was on pole position for both Open 400 and Formula 400 (by way of I got my entry forms off first) and was missing out on probably my only chance to be at the front of the grid.

Martin came back around lunch time with the exhaust cans, brackets, plastics and other its I needed, so the rebuild started.  Martin also wisely suggested I clean out the airbox before I restart the engine......good call as it was full of Pembrey dirt and would have killed the motor.  We got on with the rebuilding and a couple of hours later it was looking in one piece again and it fired up first time.  In the meantime, the weather had dried out late morning and through the afternoon, although the wind was still very, very strong.  It was going to be a blustery night!

Up early Sunday morning and to the circuit as quickly as we could to get scrutineered.  I also changed the shite Dunlop 207RR's for a pair of Supercorsa's and got myself a couple of practice tickets to scrub the tyres in and make sure the bike was ok.  In the meantime, we listened to all the stories of the wind and rain during the night and how Glen had spent most of the night trying to keep the awning down!  It was still blustery and cold, but at least it was dry....until the afternoon at least!

I was on pole again for the two Sunday qualifying races.  I was always going to be taking it easy after the Friday crash, so not much to say about either of the qualifying races really.  Both were fairly non-eventful other than I managed to hold third place in the Formula 400 qualifier until early into the second lap and the got passed another three times to finish 7th.  As for the points races, this is where things started to go wrong on me again.  The Open 400 was a wet race and I was going fine with a massive lead for 11th place (something like 15 seconds!), which it turns out I needed because as the last lap started, the bike began to misfire.  Thinking this was water in the electrics, I worked frantically to get it all dried out before the Formula 400 race and it seemed to be a lot better, but as I started it to go out for the race things were clearly not right.  I lined up on the grid, but as the race got underway the misfire was getting worse again and I went backwards.  After three laps I was well outside the points and decided that to carry on would do more damage than good, so best to pull in.  The problem was, in fact, fuelling........the needle jets had picked up some dirt probably from the crash and the bike was flooding severely.

So a disappointing and expensive weekend all told, with very little to show for it points wise.  The only positives I could take from it was that at least I managed to get back out there and that I salvaged some points from the Open 400 race.  Also, a 7th in Formula 400 is my best result in the class so far.  However, I am now down in the dumps over the bad luck I've had and my confidence is not good at all, as well as having to fix the bike before I can ride it again.  Still, I've got some spare plastics now!

Cadwell Park is next up with Bemsee......ambitions for this are simple; stay on, get some steady practice, get the bike running good and build up confidence.  Easy!!

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