Race Report - Croft 8/9th April 2006 (Derby Phoenix)

Croft was first up with Derby Phoenix last year and I had good memories of the circuit, which is reasonably fast, bumpy in lots of places and has plenty of challenging sections, but with plenty of run off area actually feels quite safe.  Also, I remember doing reasonably well there last year on the RVF so was looking forward to tackling it on a 600.

I’d booked the Friday practice, so we travelled up there Thursday night.  This turned out to be quite a drama when about 20 miles away from the circuit the van started to struggle, with a strange vibration noise.  No warning lights were on, but I could tell there was definitely something wrong and when I looked in the mirror I could see thick smoke pluming out of the back end, followed a few seconds later by a stream of sparks from the caravan.  Something was definitely wrong!  It turned out the offside tyre of the caravan had blown completely and the result was a totally destroyed wheel.  At the side of the A1 in the pitch black with wagons blasting past every few seconds, changing the wheel with the caravan propped up on the ill fitting jack from the van wasn’t my idea of fun!  All’s well that ended well though and we were on our way again in 20 minutes.

 Saturday Races

My grid spot for the first of the 600 races was 12^th (no qualifying so by ballot at this point in the season), so last place on the third row.  I got a fairly good start and by the first corner was up to around 8^th and then started to battle my way through the rest of the field.  All the time I was trying to get past other riders I could see the leading three get away and by the time I got clear and into third place, the front two had gone beyond reach.  So a 3^rd place finish it was and not at all a bad start to my Formula 600 career with Derby Phoenix.  I was well chuffed and big smiles all round!

The second Formula 600 race was quite a late start at nearly 4.30pm and by this time, we had seen all types of weather including rain, hail, snow and more wind, as well as still being bitterly cold.  It had rained quite a bit just before our race was due to be called and it was the usual dilemma in these situations of do you choose dry tyres (very dodgy), intermediates (possibly less so) or full wets (good choice if there’s standing water).  I took a final look at the track at decision time and chose a wet front and intermediate rear, which turned out to be the wrong choice!  I got out on circuit and the surface was very slippery, the back end simply providing hardly any grip at all and I was losing the rear all the time on the warm up.  This wasn’t going to be good!  The lights went out and come the first corner I went backwards, but no sooner had we got just over half way around and the red flags came out......obviously others were suffering as well!  We re-gridded and the race started again, but despite the few minutes clearing up the accident, the track was no drier and I had the same grip problems.  I just decided to hold onto the bike and get a finish rather than chance anything this early in the season, so I had to watch all those on full wets sail past me and I hung on for 9^th.  

It turned dry again for the final race of the day, the Allcomers A final.  I’d said I wasn’t really taking these Allcomers races seriously, but doing so well in the heat meant I was gridded quite well for the final (7^th) and everything to go for!  As it turned out, it was a cracking race and once we got the usual first lap mayhem out the way it turned into a great dice between me and Paul Whyatt (again!).  For nearly 8 laps I held Paul behind me, him occasionally getting by me on the power, but me outbraking him into turns.  Eventually, he took me coming into the complex at the end of lap 8 and there was nothing I could do to get past him again.  We were lying 4^th and 5^th at this point and had been for a while with 2^nd and 3^rd just a second or so in front, but then on the penultimate lap Lee Taylor tried a move on Steve Black at the hairpin resulting in them both falling and leaving Paul and me to be promoted to 2^nd and 3^rd.......fantastic!  I should say as well that there was a bit of panic before the race in the holding area when I got there to see that the race was to be held over 10 LAPS!  I’d only judged enough fuel for 7 laps plus a splash for good luck, so it was tight all the way and in fact, it spluttered as I came out the hairpin for the last time and got me worried, but it picked back up again and made it home……phew!

Sunday Races

The forecast was for cloud and wintry showers in the morning, but then brightening up later in the day, although it didn’t actually work out entirely that way!  Local Authority regulations mean that you can’t race at Croft on a Sunday until noon so I wasn’t worried about the morning anyway, but it didn’t look that much better come 12.15pm for the Allcomers heat. 

I picked row five out of the bag so wasn’t too happy about that, but I knew I could make up some ground.  The cloud was looking dodgy though by now and by the time we had got half way around the first lap, a white wall of hailstones hit us going into Sunny!  I immediately slowed down and looking at how it was going to come down, decided to pull in rather than take any chances.  The commentators were saying that I must have had some mechanical problems, but basically discretion got the better part of valour (or I’m just a wimp!) and I decided not to race on in what for me was only a practice run for the Formula 600.

Come the first of the 600 races and the weather was better, with the track now dry again.  Having finished 9^th in the second 600 race the previous day, this was my grid spot for the first Sunday race, so I had a little bit of work to do to get up to the front.  Having made my way up to 4^th, I was locked in a battle with Mick Daly and swapped places a couple of times before we came up behind Graeme Banfield.  We were locked together as a three for the last lap and with Mick climbing all over the back of him, I was just hoping I could pick up the spoils if they got in each others way.  It didn’t happen though and we followed each other home in that order, so I had to settle for 4^th.  Still, that’s another 13 points and a front row start for race two!

For the second 600 race, the weather was once again looking very suspect and there were large black clouds near with obvious rain or sleet.  I decided to chance it with dry tyres and hope that if it did come down badly before the actual race started, then they would send us back to change wheels.  As it turned out, the sleet/hail started in the holding area and on the warm up lap we were confronted by the now familiar white wall of weather coming down over Sunny.  We all got back to the grid and called the officials over to tell them we couldn’t go out on dry tyres with this downfall and thankfully they saw sense and agreed we should leave it 10 minutes to clear.  

As soon as the weather had arrived it had gone again and the sun was out with a brisk wind, so I decided to stick with dry tyres on the basis that even if the first couple of laps were still damp, it would dry out.  This turned out to be a good gamble as most others had opted for wets and even on the warm up lap it was drying out.  When the lights went out, I had a dreadful start and missed second gear twice, sending me backwards to around 14th.  I picked up a few places before the back straight to go to 11th and then held that position for the first lap whilst I sussed out the track conditions.  By the end of lap two I realised the track was drying out and I started to push a bit harder, so by laps three and four I was making my way up the field.  Come lap six and I’d got myself up to 4th with Richard Gibson about a couple of seconds in front of me, but I decided to push hard and by the time we reached the Esses I was virtually with him.  Coming out of Sunny Out I got superb drive and managed to get my front wheel in front of Richard before the left hander into The Complex and passed him for 3rd, which I held to the line.  It made for good racing to battle my way back from outside the top 10 on lap 1 to get 3rd and even better was that I got the fastest lap of 1:30.46…..excellent!

Not having finished the Allcomers Heat in the morning, I would have had to start this race at the back of the grid.  Also, with the day’s racing not starting until noon, it was getting very late and unlikely to be much before 6pm before the final got going, so I decided not to bother.

All in all a successful first meeting of the season with Derby Phoenix and I was quite pleased with my results.  I got a hatful of points to place me 4^th in the Formula 600 championship (therefore gets me a front row start for Mallory the next weekend) and I got a couple of pieces of silverware for the 3^rd placed Allcomers final on Saturday and the 3^rd place Formula 600 on Sunday…..great!

Thanks as ever go to Lesley for all her help and for looking after me so well all weekend.  There were a couple of traumas along the way, firstly with the caravan blow out on Thursday night and then on Saturday when she witnessed a horrific highside and thinking it was me, legged it down to the Medical Centre almost physically sick with worry only to see me riding up the back of the paddock having been directed off the circuit to re-grid!

Next up Mallory in just over a weeks time……….

Home