Wow look at that suspension, must have been a heavy landing!
Makes all the difference when you get a good nights kip don’t it? The nipper didn’t wake me up in the middle of the night (just for a change) and I also went to bed early because I wasn’t gigging either, double joy!
So feeling fully refreshed, it was out the door at 6.30am for the 3 hour drive up to castle park.
An overcast day with a cold chilly wind greeted everybody but at least it was dry although a bit squelchy underfoot in places due to the recent rainfall.
So it was off to get scrutineerd, sign on and pick up the transponder. Well, to be honest I waited about 15 mins to get the bike checked and no one was there to check it! Perhaps the guys had gone for a cup of tea or something? Never mind, get it done later I thought, so I went to pick up the transponder. Now this was fun, everybody was walking backwards and forwards through the lap scoring area trying to get the things to work properly! Me included, sometimes the ‘bleep’ would sound (to record you number) and sometimes not. I saw Mark & Richie Tucker there who were also having fun doing the same thing, thankfully it all got sorted in the end.
I missed the sighting lap due to the hold ups with the bike and transponder farce and judging by the riders bikes as they came back from it, it was going to be another muddy one.
Onto the start itself, didn’t make a bad one but got past by a few up the long straight just after the first bend, I should have ‘nailed it’ more!
After a few tight twists and turns across the muddy fields it was onto the 4x4 track that had a few jumps in it and then we entered the woods. One word can describe this section………..RUTS! Yes indeed, it seemed like the things were endless and I knew that this could turn out to be quite a tough race as time went on as riding through them took more out of you after each lap.
Out of the woods we came and it was back out into the fields once more before more woods and more ruts and then finishing the lap back out on the 4x4 track that had a nice little bog situated after a jump that caught some riders out.
The lap was probably about 7-8 miles and I was lapping in about 35-38 mins.
After the 1st lap I knew I was well down in the clubman 2st class but like I said, I thought things would even themselves out later on due to the conditions and sure enough they did as I slowly began to pass riders and after a couple of hours a lot of guys were parked up (presumably knackered) in the wooded sections taking a breather.
One rider I was following on the 4x4 track lost control in front of me and slid down a bank, went straight over the bars and landed in a lovely deep muddy pit. I did quickly stop and asked him if he was ok, he was alright after his ‘you’ve been framed moment’ so off I went again. Must admit, it did look funny, no harmful intentions meant there mate, been there myself a few times!
So, I was plugging on and without any mishaps so far I felt quite good, time was getting on for a decision, and with 30 mins left on the clock as I passed lap scoring, I knew I would be on my last lap as I’d have a job to find 7 or 8 mins more speed a lap in order to get another one in.
Do I pit and make a quick ‘splash and dash’ or stay out and hope the little gasser makes it through to the end? I decided to stay out as the bike has done over 3 hours on one tank (Stonedown forest 19th October) before, but they were short laps and I didn’t take that into consideration, oh dear, what happened next left me fuming with myself!!! The word ‘twat’ springs to mind!
10 mins into the course and she coughed and spluttered and died on me, no problem, onto reserve she went and fired up again, but then it suddenly dawned on me, iv’e got at least another 25 mins of riding, will the reserve last that long? My fears came true when about 15 mins later and in the woods, I ran out of the stuff that the americans call ‘gas‘.
I was livid with myself and now every rider that passed me I kept looking at their numbers to see if they were in the clubman 2st class, and sure enough a few did pass which made me call myself a twat even more!
So I was stuck in the woods and stranded there thinking what to do next. I saw an ambulance in the distance parked up in one of the fields so I left the bike and went over there and begged them for some sort of cannister/bottle or anything so I could put some fuel in. Luckily then gave me an old coke can so I rushed back and started to flag some riders down to give us some fuel.
The 1st guy on a KTM stopped to help, but we could only get his fuel pipe off from the tap end so didn’t really manage to collect much as we couldn’t get the can near it to catch the fuel coming out, it was going everywhere! So off he went.
Another rider stopped on his KTM and we tried in vain for a good 5 mins to pull his fuel pipe off from the carb end, but we couldn’t budge the circlip that holds it on, so I then take off his petrol tank breather pipe and tried siphoning some out, that didn’t work either as the pipe wasn’t long enough but I still managed to get a mouth full of petrol in the process, yak! In the end I said cheers mate, thanks for trying, but had to let him go on his merry way.
3rd time lucky as I flagged another rider to stop and help me on a YZ 250, this time we managed to fill some of the can up, so lobbed it in, kicked her over and fired her up. It was at this point that I realized that when I threw my helmet down in disgust at running out of fuel that I’d broke my goggles, and furthermore because I was such in a rush to get my helmet on again and keep the motor ticking over that I smashed myself in the face with it and promptly cut my nose! Anyway, I was relieved to get going again and took it very easily indeed trying to nurse every little bit of fuel I had out of the tank to make it back home as I was still on reserve. Could anything else go wrong I thought? It bloody well did and as Victor Meldrew would say ‘I don’t believe it’.
With one last jump on the 4x4 track to get over and the little bog that accompanied it on the other side and only about ½ mile from the finsh I ran out of fuel again!
Only this time the engine died on me in the middle of the bog! I couldn’t push her out so yet again I left stranded and only yards from the finish. Someone else was stuck in the bog too on his (I think) Honda crf and he’d run out of fuel as well! As luck would have it he had a drinks bottle and got some petrol off another rider and gave me the bottle after he’d finished with it.
After about 5 more mins I managed to get some more petrol of a bloke who stopped on his GAS GAS and that was enough to get me back and finish.
That last lap took me 1hr 14 mins, that’ll teach me in the future to remember that short laps and I can make it back on reserve if I run out, but long laps? More sure you re-fuel you pillock.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse………………………………..................
While I was putting the bike on the trailer the back wheel slipped off the loading ramp and came crashing down on the lighting board (reg plate and tail lights) and smashed it!
Thank god for ‘gaffa’ tape as I managed to piece the thing together again with it so I could get home.
So lets run through that again, I ran out of fuel and threw my helmet down in a kiddies temper and smashed my goggles, I then put my helmet on too hastily and in doing so put a nice cut in the bridge of my nose, I then ran out of fuel a 2nd time and got stuck in a bog, last but not least I managed to smash my trailer board.
A good day? Er………………………I’ve had better.
Finishing position: 15/36 (clubman 2st)
Injuries: Cut nose
