Race Report - Pembrey 19/20th March 2005 (North Gloucester)
I'm writing this report a good while since this meeting took place, simply because I've not really had the motivation to do it after what turned out to be a tragic weekend and start to the season.
This was the opening round of the season both for Splat Racing and NGRRC and although I'm not terribly keen on Pembrey, I was looking forward to it. Having made various minor changes to the bike over the closed season (albeit with a complete engine rebuild and blueprint), I was hoping for some reasonable results to kick the year off. Little did I know how the weekend would turn out.......
I'd booked the afternoon practice session just to get back into the swing of things and scrub up some new tyres, so we got there around lunchtime and set up the awning. I went out for some fairly uneventful sessions and finished the day off ready for the weekend's racing. We got the bike scrutineered on Friday evening and made our way around the paddock to meet a few people as you do. It was good to be back in the paddock as you really do miss it in the winter.
Saturday Races
I don't really recall anything particularly exciting about the races on Saturday. I qualified 7th in both the Formula 400 and Open 400 races from 3rd and 2nd respectively on the grid and then had finishes of 8th and 10th in the finals (points races), so no great shakes and I was a bit disappointed to be honest. That said, there was some fairly stiff competition around with the likes of Simon Gates and Martin Sharpe (both serious MRO competitors) as well as Pete Thompson, Andy Whitehead and Tim Bradley, so I didn't fair too badly. Also, in the Open 400 points race I had a great battle with James Parry, ending up with us being separated by just 5/100ths of a second at the line! Some good news is that I broke the 1:05's at long last with a 1:05.91 in the Open 400 points race.....nothing brilliant, but Pembrey is a bogey circuit for me so any progress is good!
Sunday Races
The day started quite normal, getting up at around 9am to the sound of gennies humming away and the usual chat around the paddock. Again, I don't remember a great deal about the qualifying races or the Formula 400 points race, although I do remember having a decent scrap with Rich Bearcroft and Bob Beach, only to come off worst and finish behind the pair of them by a few hundredths of a second. Again, I was a bit disappointed with my results of 7th and 9th in the Formula 400 and Open 400 qualifier races respectively and even more so with the 9th place finish in the Formula 400 points race, as I felt that I was being held back a lot by Rich and then Bob when he passed me as we queued behind Rich. The Open 400 points race didn't take place as the meeting was abandoned with the terrible accident to Miles Tripp.
Miles Tripp
It was while we were waiting for the last race of the day, the Open 400 points race, that the tragedy occurred with Miles. I was in the caravan with my leathers on ready and waiting and had even put my earplugs in ready to put my helmet on when the Streetstocks race started and then promptly stopped with a startline incident. For a while we just sat there looking out for the restart, but it didn't happen and after about 30 minutes we then saw the marshals leaving their posts and feared the incident was worse than we first thought. When the announcement came that the meeting was to be brought to a close you could have heard a pin drop in the paddock, it was so quiet. Knowing there has been a fellow competitor lose his life affects all the racers. You never think it's going to happen to you, but this brings it home to you that there is a danger to this sport and that a incident can result in terrible consequences
We travelled home Sunday evening concerned, but we didn't actually know who it was or how many were involved until the news filtered out on the NG website on the Monday. Both Lesley and I were completely shocked at the news and it's still difficult to believe now. On the Saturday night, we went for a walk around the paddock and dropped in to Nick Pusey's awning to see him, Glen Watterson, Rich Halford and a few others, including Miles and his girlfriend Liz. We chatted for a while and he talked about the fact that he had recently bought an NC30 and was looking forward to riding it. He was as enthusiastic and cheery as ever and looking forward to his Sunday races. If you didn't know Miles, he was a thoroughly smashing and genuine guy who was passionate about bikes and racing and was always with a smile on his face.
RIP Miles......you will be sadly missed by all who knew you.