Kings hill- 26th April 2009

Yellow top and helmet? Thought I was due for a bit of change!

It was an early start as I set off to pick up Phil (Harris) along the way for our 3 ½ hour journey up to Salisbury to do the TnT event.
The weather wasn’t looking too kind down this way as I drove through torrential rain on the A38 and then some of the way on the A303, but thankfully it cleared and the sun came out.

(pics by Brewbs & Debbie Tucker)

Phil decided to have a kip in the van along the way, and when he woke up, I thought I’d do the same and try and grab a bit of shut eye so I wasn’t too ‘cream crackerd’ before racing, so he took over driving. I ‘d only been a kip for about 10 mins when bloody nora the mobile rang and woke me up! Typical that, just when you don’t want your girlfriend to ring ya, she bloody well does. I wish I wouldn’t have left that soppy ‘see you later’ note for her now on the side as she was returning the compliment, (good job she knew I didn’t mean it)!!!
Anyway, couldn’t get back to sleep after that, so me and Phil started chatting like pair of old women totally oblivious to where we were actually going. It was when we went past Stonehenge that I suddenly thought, where the f**k are we, what we doing here? Like a pair of headless chickens we’d gone miles out of our way, so we had to turn back and take another route, in the end we finally arrived at Kings hill, it had taken us over 4 hours. All we could do was laugh about it, good job we had plenty of time in hand otherwise I think the air would have turned blue with some colorful language!

After a bacon roll which Phil had kindly donated to me, it was off to sign on and get the bike checked. I bumped into Richard Batstone who I’d haven’t seen for a while, good to see him back racing after a lay off. Also had a chat with Paul Ford, Rob Ellick, Mark, Rich, Debbie Tucker and Jason Duggan. Got back to the van and met up with Jack (twentyman) who’d also traveled up from our neck of the woods with his boy Paddy.

After missing out on the sighting lap it was down to the start to wait for the flag to drop. A full entry, so every class had some decent racing to fight amongst themselves to get a result.
Off we went when, not a bad start and in the top 10 as we meandered our way round a flat field laid out in moto x fashion to sort everybody out before entering the woods. There were 3 hard routes to have a go at if you fancied saving a bit of time, so instead of usually avoiding them, I’d thought I’d have a go at all 3. The 1st was an extremely short sharp hill, in fact it was so steep there was no way that you could even walk up the bloody thing! I give it go, but as I got near to the top, the bike flipped out on me and I was sent tumbling back down again with the bike stuck half way down in some bushes. Oh dear (well, words to that effect) I thought, 1st lap and I’m gonna lose time already! It took me a good few minutes to drag the bike back down out of the bushes and get going again, and I could see that most of the clubman were going past.
After another short stint of easy woods and a couple of tracks that went round the outside of a few fields, then it was onto another hard route option which was a muddy water crossing. Speaking to Mark Tucker earlier who’d done the sighting lap, he told me to go to the right or left of it as there was a big hole in the middle, so what do I do? Like a prat I didn’t think and promptly got stuck in a big muddy hole because I ended up going in the middle of it! I pinned it and hoped for the best, but the back wheel just dug in deeper and deeper. I was just at the stage when you think to yourself that you’ve got to get off and try and heave the bike out when I gave it one last go, bingo! The little gasser shunted it’s way out and up the slimy muddy bank I went and onto safety, relief or what!
Of course it was more time wasted and this was only the 1st lap, not good.

The 3rd hard route wasn’t a problem, just a steep hill and not as bad as the first one, so I had no trouble on that one at all.
Part of the course involved traveling along a small river, I reckon a couple hundred yards long, not once, but twice on the same lap, good job there wasn’t much rain before hand as me thinks that it could have caused some problems. As it was, it wasn’t too deep and you only got your feet wet.
Some of the tracks that we went around the outside of the fields were very stony and following another rider sometimes became a nightmare as small rocks were just being thrown up in your face all the time as you were trying to find a line to overtake. Due to this and with poor vision, I once overcooked it on a long fast straight and promptly shot through the track tape ending up in the middle of a field, whoops!
A cracking part of the course I thought was 3 log jumps one after the other, get those wrong and you were over the bars no problem. A small flat moto x style section finished off the lap. The wooded sections weren’t a problem at all, just nice flowing trails really and I reckon the whole thing being 5-6 miles in length and quite a fast lap I thought.

So after an eventful 1st lap (and now looking through the lap data) and with my ’off’ and getting stuck as well, I was down to 20th. I knew things to could only get better and they did as I got into a rhythm and started to ride well again. I did the hard routes (apart from that 1st extreme hill) on every lap and sailed through them no with problems.
I pitted after about 2 hours, good job I did as the tank was nearly bone dry (thank god I didn’t run out of fuel again), changed my goggles, then back out I went.
No real drama to report although I just missed out on a coming together with another rider as we both played ‘chicken’ trying to out brake each other at the end of a fast straight going into a corner.
Got held up a few times behind riders in the woods, but that’s understandable as sometimes there was just nowhere to pull in and let you pass, and with it being a full entry, you’re simply not going to get a clear track for 3 hours or more are you? Still, nowhere near as bad at the Midwest mcc races!
I went onto finish but annoyingly missed out on another lap by 2 mins, just goes to show, a few mins of wasted time early on in the race has a knock on effect.

At the end of the race when I got back to the van I found Phil’s bike already in the back with all his gear packed away and he was nowhere in sight. I just thought he might have gone for another burger or was watching the racing somwhere, but with 10 mins or more gone by and with no sign of him, I though it’ll best to give him a ring. I had an answerphone message from him to say that he’d retired from mechanical failure and also that Jack Twentyman had been involved in a big ‘off’ on one of those log jumps and he was driving him to hospital!
In the end Jack being as ‘tough as old boots’ just wanted to get home so it was best that Phil drove him back just in case, so I was left with a 3 ½ hour drive all on my Todd.
Turns out that Jack’s ok and is just a bit bruised and sore.

Overall I’m pleased to have got a decent enough finish seeing as I was so far down after the 1st lap.

Finishing position: 8/30 (clubman 2st)

Plans for May:

10th Midwest mcc

17th Croydon mcc

23rd South reading mcc

25th Exmoor enduro club

Best wishes

Best wishes to Paul Fordy who had a high speed accident last Sunday during the Hustyns event.
Paul got knocked unconcious and also broke his collarbone and is about to go into hospital to have it pinned.
We wish him all the best and hope he gets back racing again soon.

Hustyns- 19th April 2009

(pic by Debbie Tucker)

I was really looking forward to this, it’s just 10 mins up the road, we had cracking weather, it was a timecard event and I seem to be riding quite well at the moment.

Funnily enough all of us that had been traveling to the SCEC and TnT events lately managed to arrive at the same time and park up next to each other. Adam Blake, Steve Jose, Jack twenty man, Andy (daddy) Smith, and Phil Harris, so a good bit of banter was had by all of us. I think Steve took the brunt of it as he can’t seem to find a way to plant the front end of his bike properly into the corners, funny that, I’d thought he’d be good at planting things seeing as he’s a landscape gardener! (poor joke that I know).
Being over 2 early hours early before the race started, I had plenty of time to chat to everyone I laid my eyes on. Debbie tucker (armed with her new camera), Arthur Jonhson, Jed Treleaven, Ben Tyrell, Francis Banfield, Ritchie Tucker, Trevor Pengelley, Paddy, Tim Williams, plus numerous others at different times for which there was so many I just can’t remember everybodys name!

Done all the necessary and just about as the sun was about to shine it’s way through the trees, we set off as per usual for a timecard event in groups of 4.
The course this year was a different layout to that of previous years and I thought a little shorter, maybe 8 miles in length?
As usual being a Camel Vale event, an excellent enduro course was on offering. Wooded trails, plenty of roots, off cambers, hills, water crossings, etc, etc.The special test was a long one, excellent as well with a flat out fire road, a slippery climb, some real tight stuff, loads of roots, wooded trails, in fact compared to last weeks test is was really hard work to keep ‘on it’ for the duration as this one took me just over 8 mins to complete compared with that one at Bagshot which was 1min 45 seconds!!!

With the times being a bit slacker this year most riders stayed on time so we all knew that the results were going to be all about the special test times. I kept reminding myself to stay on the bike when on the test and try to ride smoothly and not get carried away. The 1st one went well, the second one was faster even though I caught up one of the riders in front of me and came off trying to overtake him. My 3rd and final test was faster still, I felt I’d rode well in all 3 tests, so was happy with that.

With quite a bit of time to spare on each lap there was no need to take any risks, so I concentrated on just getting round and trying not to brake anything! There was an extremely long fire road on a part of the course of about a mile or so long where you could have literally nailed it in top gear (as a few riders did), but I didn’t bother as there was no need too.
I stayed on time for all 6 laps and felt really fresh at the end of it all. I suppose in a way that I would have liked it to pee down with rain for a whole week before so the going would have been a bit tougher! But hey, lets not moan about the sunshine eh?

Phil had to retire (the softie) because he’d come off and hurt his leg, or that’s what he told us anyway, and Christmas came early for me and Steve because ‘Blakey’ bought us a cheeseburger at the end as well.
So a good day was had by all and I had my best result since coming up into the ranks of the clubman.

Finishing position: 2/16 (clubman E1)

Bagshot- 12th April 2009

( pic by Rabie)


So it was a few days away to visit my family and friends up in Reading, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday whilst I was up there, other than do an enduro that was just down the road in Bagshot!

My mate Ade who lives up that way and who I’ve known for years came along for a day out with us and to give us a hand and generally reminisce about the old days when we used to hang about together and get up to all sorts!

An overcast day, but not too chilly and conditions just about right for this timecard event held by Surrey constabulary. For some strange reason and with the event being held on private land, the organizers were checking the lights on the bikes and to make sure that they were in working order. I failed the bike check, my back light wasn’t working so I had a choice, get a 60 second penalty or get it sorted! Luckily for me it was just a loose connection so no problem there.

The event itself would be in stages, reason being that you had to do mutli laps in order to complete 1 stage and so on. All together there would be 6 stages ranging from 2 laps, 3 laps, and an incredible final lap of just 1 lap that given the time we had to do it in, you’d have thought that someone like ‘Knighter’ had set the time for it!
We also had 2 special tests mixed in for good measure as well.

On to the start then and as usual with a timecard, we set in groups of 4. First off a lovely fire road to get your bike warmed up a bit with huge puddles to negotiate to before we entered the woods themselves. The trials were excellent and in great condition, absolutely perfect riding terrain and even the couple of steep hills we went up didn’t cause any problems as there was plenty of grip to be found. Some of the woods were tight in places (as you’d expect) and about half way there was the inevitable ‘bit of a bog’, and even on the 1st lap I came across riders that had got stuck in it with the back wheel firmly planted in the stuff and going nowhere (they later cut this bit of the course out). A few more fire roads linked yet more woods with some tight hilly nadgery bits before we went back through a flat wooded section to complete the lap. I’d say about 7ish miles in length.

An excellent course and right up my street, not a flat field in sight, so not just a case of pinning back the throttle to see how fast you can go across a bit of grass. My only concern was that parts of the track in the woods weren’t marked up very well (later on to be my downfall) as sometimes when you got to the end of a trail and there would be other tracks branching off left or right with no arrows anywhere.
Things were going ok until stage 2 when I did a loop in the woods for about 10 mins and ended up back behind some riders that I’d already overtaken some 10 mins earlier! Because of the lack of arrows I’d mistakenly done the same bit twice and I was bloody well livid to say the least. When I finally got back to the pits, I ended up being 15 mins down on time. I was gutted as I was going really well and had high hopes of a decent finish. I spoke to a few other riders whilst I was waiting to go back out and I wasn’t the only one who’d lost time time because of the lack of marking and in fact, someone else had lost 9 mins because of it too. I did mention it to the marshals at the time check and things seem to improve on that section of the course and indeed others as the race went on, maybe it wasn’t just me that complained.

The next lap I did my 1st special test and promptly came off on the ever so tight little test section due to me being well pissed off about what had happened earlier and trying much too hard to make up for lost time.
With me being 15 mins behind now on time I got my head together and stayed on time on every stage until the last one which was virtually impossible to keep to. I think everyone lost a bit on that stage as well. I had a better 2nd test as I’d calmed down at bit by the time that came round again and I was going so well that at one point I had 20 mins to spare on one of the stages until I went back out again!

A but gutted really as the results show that I would have finished 4th if it were not for the lack of course markings. I mean lets be honest about it, I did the Muntjac a few months back with a 22 mile lap and I didn’t get lost on that did I? Enough said. (or am I going blind in my old age)

Big thanks to Ade for helping us out, he was there waiting to give us a hand in the pits after every lap and also had to listen to me shouting expletives when things went all ‘Pete Tong’.

Finishing position: 14/42 (clubman)

Working party- 5th April 2009

Yes it was back out again this morning after yesterdays practice, but this time no bikes involved!
With the SW champs coming up soon, clerk of the course Mike Roose had assembeld his army, and we were ready to do battle!
So fully equipped with our armoury, we set about clearing the track in readiness for the event in a couple of weeks time.
A good turn out today, and nice to have a chat to a few riders who i haven't seen for a while.

Practice- 4th April 2009

Want your rear tyre ripped to shreds? No problem, just contact Steve Jose, he’ll do it for ya! (see pic)

So with the Wadebridge moto x track open for practice and just 2 minutes up the road, it was a day out for a blast around the place with Adam Blake and Steve Jose.
With me still having the old TM, I took that as well as the gasser, just to see how she went and to give her a quick blow out.

With 3 of us all there together and 4 bikes, TM 125, Gasser 125, KTM 125, Gasser 250, we all had a bloody good swap around to see how the others rode. Steve managed to kill Adam’s back tyre completely when he got on his bike and then decided it would be a good idea to rip it to pieces and ride around with the mouse hanging out!
Not to fear as luckily I’d bought a spare tyre with me, so10 mins later it was all hunky dory and a certain ‘Blakey’ was happy again.

I was nicely surprised after having a go on Adam’s ‘Katosh’ 125 xc. Quite smooth power for crosser and set up really nice as well. Not really that far away from my gasser, both very similar after trying out one after the other, and with it being a 125, I knew exactly where I was with it.

I’m trying to find words to explain Steve’s Gas Gas EC 250! Lets just say it’s got more ‘grunt’ than a german porn star. The thing pulls out of any corner in what seemed like any gear! I was stupidly going round some slow parts of the track in 4th, opening it up, and she just pulled right from the bottom all the way up and didn’t miss a beat before it took off. Bloody nora, surely that thing could climb a mountain couldn’t it? And this is a 2 stroke I’m talking about here!
I should be riding one of these at my age, but funnily enough, I still love the 125’s, you have to work much harder, keep on the revs and be commited most of time to get the best out of um, so for the time being and just like my old man used to say, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

When Steve got on my little ‘gasser’ I had a job getting it back off him, He wanted one!
It got to stage where I thought he was going to run out of fuel he did so many laps on it.
A good day was had by all, and it made welcome change to try other bikes without the added pressure of racing.