Chevanage- 22nd March 2009

It was up at the crack of dawn to pick up Jack twenty man for the 3 hour plus drive up to Gloucestershire. And another cracking day weather wise it was as we arrived at the track. This was my first Midwest event, I’ve heard good things about the courses and the running of the events, so i was keen to see what the whole thing was like.

A massive entry had assembled so this was going to be a very competitive race in all the classes, excellent stuff!
Done all the necessary and went down to the start ready for the flag to drop, and today I was entered in the vets class instead of the usual clubman 2t.
As the flag dropped I got a ’corker’, and was lying about 4th into the 1st corner, and that’s where I stayed until about half way round the course when I stupidly had an ’off’ and subsequently lost loads of places!

Anyway, onto the course itself. A quick blast across a few moto x type fields after the start it was, before we headed into the woods. I was pleased at holding onto my place on this open bit of track seeing as I had the bigger bikes breathing down my neck trying to get past me. Into the woods then it was, and nothing too spectacular to report about although the going was a bit tight and you virtually had nowhere to overtake at all. It wasn’t long before we caught up the tail enders of the clubman 4t, but with nowhere to pass, the good start I made became as much use as a ‘chocolate fireguard‘, as the bikes followed each other in Indian file at a leisurely pace! ‘Bloody well hurry up someone, I’m trying to race here’! sprung to my mind, and I just thought to myself, how long is this going to last then?

One slippery steep climb in particular was my downfall on the very 1st lap as I came a cropper on the way up it. I had no choice but to go back down and try again, no problems 2nd time, but because of everyone ‘jamming’ up behind each other in the woods, I’d lost quite a few places. No fault but my own, simple as that.

A few more open fields to blast across, a nice little tricky water crossing, more tight woods with yet hardly any room for overtaking again! And the lap was complete. I reckon on it being about 7 miles at most. A good mixture of everything, but in my opinion. Just too many bikes for the length of the course. 250-260 riders?
I would of thought some of the expert riders found things a little frustrating at times even with their skill and riding ability.
Clubs like Camel vale and Xmoor have half the number of riders in their events and are nearly all woods, they don’t have any such problems with overtaking, and even if you do get stuck behind a rider, rest assured, it’s not for long. Enough said,Point made.

The race for me didn’t really start to happen until the course got a bit less ‘choked’ up, probably after about an hour or so into it. That’s when you started to get a bit more space so you could go through the woods at a good clip with getting held up by the usual ’train’ of riders. I must admit to getting a bit frustrated by it all.
That certainly didn’t help my cause as I made some more mistakes on that steep climb and had to go and do it all again a couple of times, Aaaaaargh!

I was really ‘nailing’ it across some of the fields though, flat out in 6th gear, and checking the old speedo when I got home, that’s the fastest I’ve been on the gasser so far, 112kmh, about 67-68mph? (The bigger bikes must have been touching 80mph surely?) Still, not bad for a 125 across a field, and she would have done more, but i had to shut off for the corners! Can’t wait to put a smaller sprocket on the back and take her up the straight at Weston!

I pitted ok just after the 2 hour mark, and with the track being more clearer, I felt a lot better than I did earlier on. I was now starting to enjoy it a lot more and felt confident and started to pass a lot more riders than I did before.
I went to finish, but to be honest, I could have done another 3 hours! I wasn’t tired at all and I can only put this down to the slow early pace due to the way the race panned out coz usually I’m ‘cream crackerd‘ at the end of it all!

Jack had a cracking result, 2nd in his class (vet expert), but I didn’t do so well and was a tad disappointed with 9th in the vets. Never mind, there’s always next week.
Overall a well run event, good track, but too many riders for the layout of the course. I will be doing some more of the Midwest races throughout the year, so I’ll be looking forward to see what those events are like as well.

Finishing position: 9/44 (vets)

Things aren’t looking too clever for this coming weekend at the moment, got a virus from somewhere and I feel absolutely sh*te.