The Snetterton round of the Derby Phoenix championships came at the end of a seven week 'Summer break' for the club, during which I had decided that I would also take the opportunity for a break and purposely did not enter any races with other clubs.  The reason for this was two fold; firstly that it had been a hectic few months whereby we seemed to be racing almost every weekend and secondly, because Lesley and I had decided to go on holiday at some point during the break.  Our holiday was actually the two weeks immediately prior to this meeting and consisted of two weeks touring France and Italy on my road bike (Honda Blackbird)!

With the long break in mind, I'd booked the Friday practice day to try and get my head back into race mode as well as to 'run in' the bike a little bit after a mid season refresh and some head work (porting and raised compression).  It nearly didn't happen at all though.....when I got the bike back from RLR and was giving things the once over, I noticed some slack in the throttle and went to adjust it out (I'm a bit anal about not having any slack whatsoever in my twistgrip!).  It adjusted out, but the twistgrip was then sticking and when I stripped it to find out why I saw that the cable was very badly frayed and down to the last couple of strands!  It's a long story of crap service as to how I couldn't get hold of any cables in the two days before we had to leave on the Thursday, but needless to say I was frantically bodging the return cable to fit as a temporary measure before we could pack up and go!

As for the practice sessions, first time out it was painfully obvious that my two weeks road riding hadn't benefited my racing, when the first time I went to pass another rider I went to look in the mirrors!  Oh dear, maybe a seven week break and two weeks away riding across Europe weren't really a good idea!  Still, it got better as the day went by and come the afternoon I was putting in some consistent mid-high 1:12's and slowly but surely losing my road habits.....though I did still thumb for the indicators on the way back into the paddock from the last session!

This particular round of the championships was also host to round 5 of the ACU Star Championships, so there were no Derby Phoenix Allcomers races to allow sufficient time in the programme for qualifying and the three additional races.

The first Formula 600 race saw me take up pole position to reflect my championship standing. I'd had a new clutch fitted during the break, but it didn't help me much as I struggled off the line and ended up 4th going into the first corner.  With Mick Daly and James Slater up front, I needed to chase hard and thankfully within a lap I was past Richard Gibson to go up to 3rd and going after the front two.  I caught them by lap three, but it was another thing altogether to get past them.  I got close on a couple of occasions, but dropped off again after failing to complete passing moves and it was the best I could do to hold third to the line.

For the second race, a few of the fancied runners from the ACU Star Championship were now further up the grid after their finishes in the first race and Jamie Wheatley (New Era Superclub Championship leader) was also up there on a one off ride with the club to get some practice.  Once again, my start wasn't the best though this time at least I managed to only lose one place from my grid spot to go 4th into the first corner.  Richard Gibson was in front of me and I could see Mick Daly getting away, with Jamie Wheatley having made a terrific start to take the lead (more about that in a moment!).  I got past Richard on the second lap and gave chase after Mick, getting close enough to him on several occasions to make a challenge, but somehow lacking the aggression to make a good enough move to get past.  My last chance was at Russells Chicane on the last lap and I had it well planned out, but Mick missed a gear on the way through and blocked the corner to leave me with nowhere to go but queue up behind him and without any drive to get out the corner and challenge him over the line.  Jamie won the race a second or so in front of us, but there was a huge dispute in the race office as a number of riders complained about an alleged jump start by Jamie, all to no avail as there was no infringement called by the Clerk of the Course.  I didn't see his start, but I have to say he did get away a bit quick, so he could well have done.  The result suits me anyway.....if Mick had won and I been given 2nd it would have meant he gained another point on me!

Sunday saw a return to the usual programme and so first up were the Allcomers races. I was in the first heat and to my surprise ('cos I'm usually useless at pulling out decent grid spots) I pulled front row out of the bag and was 4th on the grid! I got a good start to this race as well, but being on a 600 I soon got hauled in by the 1,000cc bikes.  It got worse again as we went down the long back straight for the first time and I ended up around 8th place, but as we went into the twistier part of the circuit I made some places up again to go 5th.  I then had 8 laps of chasing Mike Chappell (Suzuki 1000), but as soon as we got onto the long fast straights, any time I had made up on the turns was more than disposed of by Mike on the bigger bike.  I was challenged by another rider on a Suzuki 1000 at one point and he came flying pat me down the back straight, only to clash with a back marker at The Esses and go onto the grass for me to pass him again!  I finished 5th in the end, but the early morning practice was good to get me in the swing of it for the 600 races.

Having dropped points in the F600 races the day previous, I was in determined mind to get away well and make up some lost ground on Sunday.  Unfortunately, this aggression was obviously channeled in all the wrong ways, because as I tried to get off the line quickly I wheelied badly and totally flunked my start, dropping me back to around 8th place into the first corner.  I was really angry with myself and immediately tried to make up for the error by some very late braking into the second turn, which was clearly a bit over ambitious as there was no way I was going to make the corner and I had no choice but to go straight on, narrowly missing Richard Gibson and then having cut up Tim Harness attempting the move in the first place, he collided with the back of my bike and we both went off circuit into the field.....oops!  I managed to stay on and grass tracked my way back onto the circuit in around 20th place, but soon blasted my way past a few riders and went over the line for the first lap in 14th.  I was a bit pissed off now to say the least and rode very hard for the next few laps to get past more riders, eventually reaching Sam Bishop in 4th place and in sight of the leaders.  I passed Sam on the turn into Riches and with Hayden Fitzgerald just in front of me now, I hoped to get good drive pass him down the back straight.  Unfortunately, this didn't work and I had to tail him all the way through the Esses and right through to Russells Chicane, where I hoped again to get good drive to pass him on the straight.  However, this plan all went wrong when I saw the chequered flag......seems in all the excitement I'd missed the last lap flag.  Oh well, 4th place after my 'off track excursion' was still pretty good!

For the last 600 race I was a bit more hopeful of a good result based on my charge through the field in the previous race, but then I had it in the back of my mind that staying on was the most important thing!  I got away ok and just dropped a place to 4th into Riches, but got this back in the first lap.  I then spent the next nine laps trying desperately to find a way past Mick Daly in 2nd, who himself was swapping places a couple of times with Jamie Wheatley.  During the race I could see that I was gaining on them in the turns, but losing out badly on drive out of corners and this was showing by the time we got to the end of the two main straights (not wishing to make excuses, but I guess this will be down to my two weeks road riding making me a bit reluctant to get on the throttle).  Towards the end of the race, the three of us were racing wheel to wheel in many places and I was just hoping for a mistake by one or both of them to get past.  It didn't happen and to make matters worse as far as the championship is concerned, Mick made a superb move on Jamie (who was riding a bit over defensive to be fair) to pass him going into The Esses on the last lap and take the win, with Jamie 2nd and me in 3rd. 

For the Allcomers final I was gridded 5th, but decided not to race on the basis of a worn rear tyre and the likelihood of a decent result being slim against the 1,000cc bikes. 

So at the end of what seemed a very long weekend, my championship lead has gone and Mick is now 15 points in front of me.  On a brighter note, we've got Mallory and Cadwell coming up next in August and these are both circuits I'm fairly good at, so I'm hopeful of some good results there.  That said, I reckon I still have to get some much needed race practice before I'm going to be back up to speed!

Thanks as usual go to Lesley and huge thanks also go to Pete, John and Karl, who between them went out of their way big time to pick up some spare throttle cables for me on Friday.  The 'bodge' using the return cable lasted, but it might not have done and then I'd have been stuck without the replacement cables, so thanks again guys for rallying round to help me!  Combined with some nightmare problems with the van (must also thank James Brennan for taking my bike over from Warwick to the circuit and back again), it was very nearly a shite weekend, but it didn't turn out too bad in the end thanks to the help and support of a few mates......cheers guys!