Why have put a picture of my hammer on here? Read on and I’ll tell ya!
Another of the ORE championship races, yes it’s a long season, and this is round 10 of the series. I’ve rode at this venue before earlier in the year so knew what to expect. Very open, hardly any woods, a few little jumps, so very much a motocross type venue (as is most of the ORE events). Short laps, only about 8-9 mins, so not a very long course. With the decision to cut the race to just 2 hours because of lack of daylight due to the 2pm start, racing was going to be fast and furious.
Not bad weather seeing as it’s November, overcast and a bit chilly, but dry. I traveled up on my own for this one as marie stayed at home for ‘parental duties‘ and no one else was available to give us a hand, it took about 2 ½ hours, I left early, so got there with plenty of time to spare.
After doing all the necessary and hiking the gear up a bloody steep hill to where the pits were, it was off on the sighting lap. Yet again I’d realized that I’d forgot to put my transponder on (been there before) so I rushed back to the van and quickly attached them to my shirt. It was at this point that I didn’t think I’d have enough time to put the keys back in the toolbox in the pits for fear of missing the start, so I just threw them in the back of the van and shut the door (bad mistake that).
Anyway, made a good start, lost a few places early on but kept a fairly good pace up so I was quite pleased. After about 30 mins the course was shortened due to a rider being injured, in fact it stayed that way until the end, so the laps were even shorter!
Not much to say really, I had no ‘offs’ so quite uneventful really and made a quick ‘splash and dash’ pit stop with 15 mins to go. To be honest, with such a short course, you were constantly overtaking someone or being overtaken!
Finished ok no problem.
Got back to van and guess what? I’d only gone and locked the keys inside the back of the van hadn’t I!!!! What a twat! I knew exactly when I done as well, it was when I forgot to put the transponders on and had to go back to do it, that’s when I just threw the keys in there and shut the door. Obviously the central locking was on!
Word got round, and it seemed like everyone tried to get into my van one way or another and a big thanks must surely go out to Richard Batstone (no 321) who tried for ages with an assortment of tools to get the door to open, but to no avail. So, in the end it was down to the hammer to smash the side glass so I could get my keys and drive home. I said ’ who wants to do it?’ this other rider almost grabbed the hammer out of my hand, he was keen! He smashed it 1st time (reckon he’s done it before, could be an ex car thief!) any way I was relieved to finally get going and drive home albeit at a reduced speed due to tiny pieces of glass everywhere and no side window and a cracked windscreen for good measure!
It took me 3 ½ hours to make it home.
A disappointing result today as I was only placed 12th in the 2 strokes.
My riding over the past couple of months hasn’t been at all spectacular, and I’ve had some pretty poor results. I don’t know weather it’s because of the accident at the Trewint race in September or indeed my lack of fitness or sleep since the baby was born that’s affected me, or maybe a combination of both!!!! But anyway, even with to days result, I’ve earned enough points to win the ORE sports 2 stroke championship due to some good results earlier in the season.
Not much to some people I know, but it's my first full year of riding. I’ve rode 8 rounds all through the year and at 43 years young I’ve beat some guys a lot younger than me along the way, on bigger bikes than mine, and nearly all the tracks have been a motocross type layout rather than a proper enduro one. So I’m really pleased with that.
Finishing position: 21/41
Bike status: ok
Injuries: none
