Race Report - Oulton Park 28th October 2006 (Wirral 100)
I wasn't planning to do this meeting at all and had for the most part convinced myself that my season was finished after the NG Thruxton meeting at the start of the month. As it was, I was actually booked on to do the New Era meeting at Mallory and was going to cancel this anyway, but Matt Brown convinced me last minute to do this race and although the weather forecast looked a bit dodgy, I figured that I'd rather do two 5 lap races at Oulton than two 10 lap races at Mallory!
We got there Friday night after a long and difficult journey up the M6, during which it had rained a fair bit already and it was a bit windy as well. It was actually dry up at Oulton Park and it stayed like that for most of the night, but then the rain came early Saturday morning and although it was on and off for most of the time, the cloud in the distance kept coming and every time it did rain it gave the track a good soaking.
This was the first time I'd ever ridden with Wirral 100 and they are supposed to grid riders by championship position for the first few rows and then by 'known ability' for the rest of the grid. Well they obviously didn't think much of me because in the first race my grid spot was way back down in 33rd place on the last but one row of the grid.....oh well, a bit of work to do in the first few laps then! I got away ok, but was boxed in a little bit down to the first corner so got held back a few places from where I had hoped to make up to. We were soon off and over the hill towards Cascades though and I made up a few more places and then a few more around Island bend and elsewhere on the circuit to get up into the top 15 at the end of the first lap. In a wet race, it's fairly easy to lose touch of the leaders fairly quickly and they were gone, but I knew I was up among the top 6 or so after three laps and I was having a good battle with a couple of riders, but not taking any chances in the awful conditions. I made a couple of passes to go 4th at one point and knew I could go faster (I'd done 1:57 laps a few weeks before chasing Mick Daly so I knew I could go quicker!), but I was a bit lack lustre and lost out again. I eventually finished 6th.
The weather was looking a bit better for the second race and I was a bit happier about it, with a pair of new tyres fitted and looking forward to the prospect of actually getting to race at Oulton Park in the dry (it would be the first time this year)! I lined up in my 6th grid spot and got a really good start, just getting beat into 3rd place by Joel Morris and with Kieran Hankin leading. I was tucked in behind Joel all the way for the first lap and was just planning how I could get past him when he put his hand up through Druids to signal a problem. I went around him and gave chase to Keiran, who was already pulling away by a second or so into Lodge Corner. I put my head down and gave chase, but I didn't seem to be making any ground as such and slipping back if anything. On lap three he really started to pull away and put what seemed to be a lot of distance between us to the point where his pit board was showing +5 seconds and without going daft on what was still a drying track (Hizzy's Chicane in particular was still very damp) I decided to stay safe and then if anything happened to him I might be able to pick up the lead. It didn't and I finished 2nd, but it was a comfortable result for me and a good way to finish my season off so I was happy enough.
Some bad news in the day was that Matt Brown, having convinced me to do this meeting, went and highsided at the Shell Oils Hairpin and beat himself up. He was unconscious for a while and was on a spine board as he gave concerns about a possible neck injury, but just as we got to the hospital a bit later on, he was just being released and although still a bit dazed he was ok. Amazingly, his bike got away with fairly light damage as well!
Usual thanks got to Lesley for looking after me and for looking out for Matt as well when he was being attended to in the Medical Centre. Thanks to Davo as well for turning up and helping out and for being so supportive generally....cheers mate.
So that's it for 2006! I'll get on and write up my season review soon, but in the meantime we're really looking forward to a well earned rest. Well sort of.....I'm already busy preparing the bike and trying to get fit for next year!