Bloomin nora, what an event this was!…………………………………………….
The previous couple of days it had been lashing down with rain so I thought to myself that this race could be a bit of a muddy one (that was an understatement) so I was looking forward to it as I love the mud and I always think that it’s a great leveller.
Arrived at smeartharpe moto park to be pleasantly surprised to find that the parking wasn’t in a field at all but in on a hardstanding concrete surface. What a result that was, that made a nice change, usually your fighting your way trying to steer in a straight line across some sodden grassy field just to get parked up!
The quads were already racing in their own event and it didn’t look pretty. Every rider was covered from head to toe in thick brown mud and judging by the state of the motocross track that was part of the course, the words ‘ we’re all going to get lagged’ sprang to mind. That coupled with a biting cold wind, things were going to be a bit tough today.
Parked up next to Steve Jose (story about him later) and also met Debbie, Mark and Richard Tucker who I had a chat with about various bike related aspects.
Got changed, done all the necessary and made sure I didn’t lock my keys in my van this time! And lined up ready for the sighting lap.
I was right, every inch of the motocross section was about 2ft deep with sludgy thick mud, one tiny mistake and off you slid into the stuff. There was a couple of table top jumps but you couldn’t get up enough speed to jump the buggers as you were sliding too much all over the show. The woods were boggy in places and a lot of riders were getting stuck which caused the usual mayhem, and this was just on the sighting lap! I made it back ok but it seemed like ages before the actual race got underway as I sat freezing my nuts off on the start line!
The flag dropped and I must admit it wasn’t one of my better starts but I made up a few places almost straight away until a rider in front ‘closed the door’ on me while I went for a gap on his outside and I went down like the Titanic straight into that thick mud, nice one! Half a lap gone and already one glove and one side of my bars covered in mud .
Into the wooded section and I passed quite a few riders that had got stuck, there were some lovely roots to make things even more tricky and 1 or 2 slippery little downhills, before going back out onto that gloopy motocross track to complete a lap which I reckon was about 5 miles long.
After about an hour into it, the spring on my gear lever broke which made gear shifting somewhat hit or miss, but nevertheless, I carried on. I pitted after about 1hr 40 mins, changed my ‘caked in mud’ gloves, wiped the bar down, and off I went again.
There was a rutted section in the woods that had become so deep then when you rode into it it was as high as the saddle! Took a bit of riding to get through that did, I bloody well got stuck in it once but luckily a couple of spectators came to my rescue with that one. There were a lot of riders taking a breather at this point just parked up or going round very slow due to tiredness.
Had a couple of ‘offs’ on the now almost impassable quagmire of a motocross track, it seemed like you were trying to ride through some sort of ‘fudge brownie mixture’! Big thanks to the marshal who helped me pick my bike up when I got buried in the stuff.
With about 30 mins to go I got a puncture on the front, the tyre was flat and the wheel was wobbling about a fair bit, but given the conditions with no hard ground at all, I decided to carry on and hope it wouldn’t come off the rim.
The last couple of laps I was almost going round in isolation as so many riders had pulled out due to it being so energy sapping or their bikes had simply ‘given up the ghost’, I must admit I was a bit ‘cream crackerd’ myself, but I was pleased to get another lap on the scoreboard with 10 mins to go and went on to finish.
Not really a technical course but due to it being cut up so badly and so much mud about, you didn’t really have any sort of breather on the bike as you were constantly trying to stay in control.
Steve Jose told me afterwards that he was so tired that he parked up in the pits halfway through the race and went and got a burger before carrying on! I thought that was a bloody cheek because the tight git didn’t get me one!
I was just about to go home when the mobile rung, it was Steve who told me that I’d come 2nd in the sports 2 stoke and there was a trophy to pick up. I was well pleased, and looking at the results, over 120 bikes started and there were over 70 dnf’s, yes that’s right over 70 dnf’s! Just goes to show how tough it was today, and with me having a broken gear lever and a front wheel puncture, I managed to finish and get a really good result to end the year with.
Finishing position: 2/43
Bike status: new handgaurds, gear lever
Injuries: none
