I’ve now got a break from gigging for a few months so I can get some early nights on a Friday and Saturday, so hopefully I won’t wake up feeling knackerd when I go racing on a Sunday!
Not too bad a drive today as Honiton was only a couple of hours away. It was a cold and chilly morning again when I set off and the further I got towards Smeartharpe the more the temperature dropped. When I arrived the minus figure was showing on the temp gauge, -1, oh b*llocks, memories of the SCEC event at Somerley park a month ago came flooding back to me!!
Mind you, it was nice to have the luxury to park on concrete instead of being marooned in the middle of a muddy field!
Done all the necessary and went to line up for the sighting lap shortly afterwards. A big field it was too, all the clubman mixed in together, 2 & 4 stroke, big and small, and everybody keen to brave the cold snap and start the new year with decent run out.
It clear that when on the sighting lap that things were going to be very tricky indeed, with the rutted fields frozen and the roots in the woods being frozen as well. Parts of the course were ok and the MX track was fine, but the pieces of the course that were affected by the cold conditions were lethal (as I found out).
So onto the start itself then, I made quite a good one as we sped off round the MX track before going into a field that had the frozen ruts in it. I took it easy on these as both my wheels were sliding all over the place before we headed into the woods.
Now I don’t mind roots, that’s part of enduro’s, but when their frozen, that’s a different ball game, especially when your fully charged with adrenaline on your 1st lap! The wooded section was typical enduro stuff with some tight twists and turns, a couple of tricky steep hills, a long 3ft deep rut about 50 mtrs long running through the middle of it (that got deeper and deeper as the race went on) and a few rocks/ boulders that we had to go over thrown in for good measure. After this little lot, it was back out along a frozen concrete road, across some yet more frozen rutted fields and then finally returning to the MX track where you could open her up a bit and practice your jump skills!
A lot of variety and quite a good little course probably about 5-6 miles in length.
Trying not to go too mad and get used to the icy conditions I had a little ‘off’ as my front wheel just slid away from me on a frozen rut. I picked up the bike only to start swearing and cursing as I found out to my expense that I’d bloody well broke my clutch lever! 1st lap as well!
Luckily I wasn’t too far from the pits, so I crawled back in 1st gear and surveyed the damage. Sure enough I couldn’t continue so it was back to the van to fit a spare one.
After the re-fit it was back to the pits to drop my stuff back off, it was then that I noticed that some riders were already just coming in to finish their 2nd lap and I hadn’t even completed my first one yet, I went back out onto the MX track to complete my 1st lap stone bloody last out of the entire field!!!
Things picked up somewhat after that episode and even though the conditions weren’t getting much better I was going quite well and passing riders who were beginning to ‘flag’ due to tricky state of course which was harder work in the circumstances more than normal.
I did have another couple of little ‘offs’ but all at a very slow speed due to just slipping on the icy bits. I did manage to bend my clutch lever, good job it didn’t break again as I’d of been out of the race this time. Perhaps I should carry 2 lots of spares of everything!
After I pitted for fuel I nearly t-boned a guy across one of the fields who’d spun round like a doughnut and came straight across me. Luckily for both of us i just managed to skid past him and avoid a collision, could have been a nasty that one.
The last couple of laps I did see a lot of riders taking a breather in the woods as the course had taken it’s toll on a few of them. I didn’t feel too bad and kept on going to the finish at probably the same pace that I was at 2 hours earlier.
The last 3 out of 4 races have seen me wasting quite a bit of time due to various escapades that have gone on, and although I’ve been going well with the new bike, I am a bit ‘peed’ off as I could have some higher placings than what I’ve had.
Still, At least I’ve manage to get a finish in all of them so I’ll look on the bright side!
Finishing position: 22/50 (clubman)
Bike status: new clutch lever
