Early start, up at 4.30am. Out the door at 5.30am to take a 30 min drive to meet Andy Smith at his place as he was going to give us a lift in his van up to Stonedown forest. Andy was riding as well, although he wasn’t looking forward to it as much as me as he was feeling a bit under the weather. Also riding ’shotgun’ was Andy’s mate James who came along to give us a hand.
Off we set then for a 3 hour or more journey ending up somewhere near Salisbury.
I was looking forward to my 2nd race on the new bike, and after that ’marathon’ enduro at Dunmere a couple of weeks ago, I certainly had no doubts about my fitness!
About 10 miles or so from ‘Stonedown’ on the A354, Andy decided to abuse his position of driver of the van with a ’whatever gets in my way, better get out my way’ attitude when a pheasant with ‘no brains’ who looked like it was sightseeing and acting rather clueless, got in the way of the van at 70mph. BANG! With oncoming traffic and cars behind, Andy had no option but to add one more ‘road kill’ to the stats of this country. The funny thing was we could see the thing about ½ mile away and as we got closer we were all thinking, oh no, ‘GET OUT THE WAY YOU STUPID IDIOT’. You should have seen Andy’s face when he hit it, and his white knuckles from gripping onto the steering wheel as he ran over it!
Arrived at Stonedown with plenty of time to spare, but everyone else had ’inside information’ and got there before us as the single track parking left us with a bloody great long hike up to the signing on and pits area. I spoke to Steve Jose the night before who was marshalling at the event who did tell me that might happen, and bugger me it did!
Anyway, after the usual signing on, scrutineering and riders briefing, it was off to the start.
The flag dropped and off we went, I didn’t make too bad a start, probably about halfway but within about 10 mins it seemed I was getting overtaken by everyone! Not surprising really with only 1 race behind me in 4 months! Still, with the nice weather that had blessed us for the day and a brand new bit of machinery underneath me, I was here to enjoy it and that’s what I did.
The course itself didn’t have anything technical to test you, a few roots, some fire roads, a few off cambers, a couple of hills, but with it being ‘bone dry’ the flowing forest trails made it a fast race. Might have been different if it was p*ssing down with rain though but I’m not complaining, it is nice sometimes when the bike goes back home and doesn’t hardly need jet washing! The circuit was about 5 miles in length, so fairly short and with it being dry, I was doing about 15/16 min lap times.
After a few laps I was getting into the swing of things and everything was going splendidly, I was really enjoying it and trying to get used to riding on a faster track. After about 1 ¾ hours I was thinking of pitting, but I took a look down at the tank and thought to myself ’bloody hell, there’s still loads left in there’ and decided to carry on.
After 2 ½ hours and with everything bowling along nicely I still hadn’t stopped for fuel and I didn’t want to stop either, I was loving it out there! I took another quick look down at the tank, and I still had what I thought could be enough to go all the way to the end, so I carried on knowing that if I did run out, I could stick her on reserve and with it being short laps, I’d make it back to the pits no problem for a quick ‘splash and dash’.
I had a little ‘off’ soon after on some roots on an off camber hill, nothing spectacular, but wasted a bit of time picking the bike back up and pointing it the right way again. I passed the clock with 10 mins to go and new it was going to be my last lap, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t stopped for fuel yet, well pleased!
I passed Steve jose and 5 mins later dead on the 3 hour mark, the engine died and I knew that the tank was virtually empty. Steve caught me up just as I stuck her on reserve and was kicking her over, she fired up like a ‘good un’ and off I went on to finish the rest of the lap and the race.
3hrs and 4 mins on the bike on one tank of fuel, ‘I don’t believe it’ as Victor Meldrew would say, neither do I, but it did it and I’m bloody impressed!
All in all, a good day out, nice little course, nothing too demanding and the bike is still clean (don’t get that very often).
Thanks to Andy ‘road kill’ Smith for the lift in the van.
Finishing position: 15/19 (clubman E1)
Bike status: ok
Injuries: none
