With the Midwest series race being cancelled, I managed to get a late entry into the Dorset police mcc enduro.
Adam Blake was also riding there in the expert class, so I picked him up about 7ish, and traveled up to Dorset.
The day was overcast, dry and quite mild, perfect conditions for a race. Got signed on, done all the usual and made our way to the start and waited for the off.
A nice big wide open field was the start area, so plenty of room for everyone to sort themselves out before entering the woods.
The flag dropped and off we went, I was about mid pack as we went into the woods. What was about to happen was my 1st ‘schoolboy error’ and I was left cursing myself with a vast amount of expletives under my breath! After only a couple of minutes riding through the tight, single track wooded trails, my front brake began to ‘die’ on me. I kept pumping the lever hoping the pressure would come back but it didn’t, so I had to stop and check what the hell was going on. I’d just fitted some new handgaurds and silly me, I forgot to tighten the bracket back up on the brake lever/master cylinder, so the thing was hanging off and flapping about! So, I made my merry way albeit with just a back brake back to the pits, got a spanner and tightened it up again. Safe to say, most of my class had passed me now as it was only the 1st lap.
What happened next was a Victor Meldrew ‘I don’t believe it’ moment. Fired up after that little escapade and eager to make up lost ground, I darted out of the pits and went to swipe my transponder on the electronic lap scoring box only to find out that I wasn’t even wearing it. At first I thought that it had come off my wrist, but after doing a quick think, I realized that I’d left it back in the van! If I swore a lot at myself after the brake lever incident, then times that by ten, I was fuming! (can’t write on here what I called myself).
I asked the lap scorers to just take my number as I came through every lap, but obviously they couldn’t as everyone’s data lap by lap had to be done electronically, fair enough I didn’t argue, so I parked the bike up and went back to van to get it. I finally managed to start my 2nd lap already 13-14 mins down on the clubman class, plum bloody last.
The course itself was very tight in places with virtually no overtaking room at all. A lot of single track forest trails, a small sandy section, a couple of small climbs, a nice little bog, a few fire roads to have a blast, and several logs to clamber over in different places, which made for a bit of variety. Quite a fast course I thought, with nothing too technical to slow you down, apart from getting stuck behind someone!
One of the log sections that was on the course resembled a sort of small equestrian obstacle, I think it was 2 or 3 logs stacked on top of each other, which for me provided great fun trying to get over it! With a small crowd awaiting for riders like me to have a go and fail dismally, I didn’t disappoint and finally managed to clamber over it at the 3rd attempt (oh I wish I was an expert rider), needless to say I took the easy option after that and went round it every lap!
With what had happened earlier on, I really didn’t have a clue where I was but I kept on plugging away, but I knew with it being easy going and fast, I’d have my job cut out to make up for the lost time.
Things were going well though and I felt that I went at a good pace and with no ‘offs’ to report I felt I was doing ok.
I pitted just after the 2 hour mark and picked up the pace (my fastest laps were the 2 out of the last 3) and finished the race strong, but a pit ‘peed’ off with myself after the earlier shenanigans.
Me and Adam (he finished 7th in the experts) went back to at the end to see the results and met up with Mark and Richard Tucker and had a quick chat before heading home.
Well, that was the plan, but Jack Twentyman who rode in the champ class today and was from our neck of the woods, rung me and we decided to meet up for a pint on the way back at some pub off the A30. It was nice to hear some stories from Jack about past events that he’d done. He’s been riding at the top level for quite a while and even now being the other side of 40, he’s still out there giving it some! Great stuff.
Today they had me down as finishing 5th on 9 laps, but I’d actually only done 8. I think the confusion happened because they scanned my transponder twice to make sure it was working when I got back from picking it up from the van after I told the lap scorers what had happened!
Finishing position: 14/26 (clubman 2st)
Next week, the 1st round of the BEC in Norfolk!
