Castle Park- November 12th 2006

The weather now was starting to turn more wintry, dark mornings and nights, more rain, cold northerly winds, I was now leaving for some of the meetings in the dark and coming home in it as well, especially the ones that were a 2-3 hour drive away.

This event was organised by Track’n’trail, They usually have a lot of riders entering their races and judging by my first impressions when I got there, this was no exception.

Done all the necessary bits there was to do and off we went on our sighting lap.
Part of the course was used by 4x4’s as an off road track, there was also a motocross section, and of course woods, a good mixture I thought.
I started the race how I always usually start, near the back!
I’m still got to learn how to jump! I’m not really giving a commitment to taking off and landing at all, this will come in time I’m sure, must be a confidence thing surely? I mean I do jump, but not very far.

Made my pit stop ok, feeling ok and everything rolling along smoothly.
While in the wooded section going over some roots, the back wheel decided to grip when I didn’t expect it too, rearing up like a mad bull out of control and chucking me off the back onto my arse, the bike carried on for a few a yards and smacked into a tree.
Got up, picked up the bike, fired her up, off we went, no problem I thought, that is until a little while later, about an hour later. With the clock ticking on I managed to get in one more lap, I let some experts past me in the woods who were still absolutely flying and it was at this point when I stopped that steam was pouring out of my left radiator, I mean big time as well! I could hardly see anything at all there was so much bloody steam. I cut the engine and let it cool down a bit (at least until the thing had stopped acting like a kettle), then bravely took the cap off the rad. Oh b*llocks, no water left in it, turns out that when I had that ‘off’ earlier and the bike smacked the tree, it had put a hole in my rad and it’s slowly emptying itself, now of course, it’s bone dry!
Now I’m faced with a big decision, do I carry on slowly and get a finish but also risk seizing my engine? Or do I wait for a marshal to help me get back to the pits?
I choose to carry on, very, very slowly I might add.
Made it back to finish the race, relief or what, I was lucky this time, riding a bike with no coolant in is not advisable!

Finishing position: 35/63
Bike status: new radiator, new water pump
Injuries: none