Another round of the 2 stroke championship, and lets hope I can have the same sort of result as I did in the first round.The race was due to start at 2.30pm, My mate Lester was helping out with this one, so we set off with plenty of time to get there at 10.30am.
We hit some traffic on the way and the A303 was very slow in places, and then………………………………………….we got lost!
Couldn’t find the little ‘B’ road that we had to turn off of to get there, I was panicking, when in the nick of time a local appeared pulling out of a driveway that we were passing.
He pointed us in the right direction and we managed to arrive at 2.05pm.
I only had 10 minutes to sign on, enter on the day, get changed, mix the fuel, get the gear ready for the pits, get scrutineerd, and get to the start before the sighting lap got underway.
Not the ideal preparation I admit, I was sweating before I even got on the bike.
I just got the gear on, got on the bike, and left my mate to do everything else, I just said to him, ‘see you in the pits at halfway’ and left.
The bikes had just left for the sighting lap but I managed to catch them up. Phew!
I then calmed down a bit and waited for the start proper after the lap was over.
Off we went then, I kicked her and she fired up instantly, this was going to be another decent start, until I dropped the clutch and stalled it (twat).
Kicked again instantly and got away in about 8th or 9th.
Another fast course this one, very much in the motocross style (probably due to the quad racing that goes before us), not very technical, only a little tree rooted climb to worry about.
A couple of nice jumps to go off, and a steep downhill that was ‘stepped’ with a sharp left hander at the bottom (certainly tested your braking that did).
Due to the dry weather, the track was bone hard and dusty in places, a real ‘boneshaker’ in some parts.
Trying really hard on the penultimate lap, I approached a right hander, the front wheel went from under me and I went through the ropes by the transponder area and landed face first and tasted dirt!
The lap scorer came over to me, ‘you alright’, ‘yeah, no worries’ I said, quickly got back up and carried on.
I went into my last lap still trying hard, I went round a tight turn around a tree and got on the gas too early and promptly smacked my right hand into a fence post. Ouch! That hurt!
2 mistakes on the last 2 laps, simply due to‘trying too hard’.
Finished the race and managed to get 3rd in the sportsman 2 stroke.
Now for the bad news!
The shock bolt on the Ohlins had worked loose, come out during the race and snapped the shock link underneath!
I’ve got no idea at what stage it happened, but I’m thankful the suspension held together.
Finishing position: 9/38
Bike status: new shock bolt and link, shock absorber to be serviced.
Injuries: bruised right hand
