Chevenage- 10th May 2009

A cracking beautiful sunny day greeted me as I made the drive up to Chevanage for a round of the Midwest series.

Now then, I did a previous race at this place not so long ago and wasn’t really impressed with it due to the sheer numbers of riders involved on the course, and today was much the same judging by the look of the size of the entry. But you pays your money and you takes your chance and having a ride out is better than not having one.
I didn’t start off too well when I realized I’d left my ORPA license at home, and even though I got Marie to text me my license number to me, Midwest were having none of it, so I had to pay for a day license, £5!! Even though they’ve already seen it when I entered the 1st race with them.
Another club Track n Trail take one look at your license only once to make sure you’ve got one and then you don’t have to show it again for the rest of the year. And even if you did need a day license with them, it ain’t a fiver. Ok, all clubs work differently and it was stated on the final instructions that you had to show your license, so it’s my fault I forgot the thing in the first place!
I’m starting to think about this whole Midwest series already and it’s only the 2nd race into it, they are the dearest club I’ve joined, one of the dearest races to enter, and probably the dearest if you need a ORPA day license, um……………………….

Onto the start itself and I managed to have a very quick chat with Pete Boyles who was riding a TM 250 this time out before we got going. When the flag dropped I hurtled it into the first corner, and with 40 or more bikes in my class I reckon I was in the top 10 as we meandered out way round a hilly field set out in moto x style before we entered the woods. The course this time was being run in reverse with some changes made to it, a good idea that I thought.

As with the 1st round and with so many bikes entered we soon caught up the back of the clubman 4st and with the woods being so tight, the inevitable queue of bikes began to appear in front of you which held you up a bit as there was no where to pass and with it being the 1st lap every ones pumped full of adrenaline so you ain’t going to get anyone to let you through are ya?
All the same, the woods were are a treat to ride through, nothing too technical, a few roots here and there, some nice off cambers and a couple of short steep hills thrown in for good measure, one of which was the hard route option, but I cleared it each time (apart from the last lap, more later) so no problems there.

In between each wooded section came of course fields, and more fields! Basically I was pinning the little ‘gasser’ for all it’s worth across these as there was no way I’d be able to compete with the bigger bikes on pure speed alone if I wanted to get by anyone. I knew though that as the race wore on and with people slowing up, it would be much easier to get by and out brake them on the fast open sections. I’m not a great lover of fields, it just seems to be ’who can hold the throttle open the longest’, I don’t mind a couple thrown so you can have a blast, but Chevenage seems to have more than it’s fair share of them!
About ¾ of the way round was that little water crossing which as every lap went by, got more difficult to get through as big ruts were forming on the other side of it as some machines had ‘dug’ themselves in when getting stuck. I really didn’t have any problems with it, but I passed a few riders who were finding things a little bit difficult and digging themselves in a big hole.
With the conditions today being so dry, the 6-7 mile lap was fast and it just depended on how quick you could pass riders in the woods as there wasn’t anything technical to hold anyone up, so it was sods law if you got caught up behind a gaggle of bikes or not, some laps you were lucky, some laps you weren’t!!

For the first hour I exchanged a few places with some riders in my class, but I figured I was about where I started in the beginning and wasn’t really making any ground up on anyone, so at that stage a top 10 finish was all I could hope for.
Things began to ‘thin’ out a bit on the course later on and it was joy to ride properly through the woods without the traffic problems. I pitted just after 2 hours and yet again was cutting it fine as I had to stick her on reserve in order to make it back to the pits, PHEW! Relief or what, as I made it back just before she run bone dry. Seems to me I’m cutting this re-fueling lark at bit close every time. Time for me I think to get told off and write some lines like you did at school (do kids still do that I wonder)? I must re-fuel earlier, 100 times!

Back out I went then and rode round without a hiccup until the last lap board was shown as we passed through lap scoring. It was on this lap that I got caught up in a pile up on the hard route going up a hill. I’d done it all the race without any problems and bloody well ‘sod’s’ law 2 bikes came down in front of me as we were going up it. My bike got pinned against a tree and I couldn’t move it, even after all the heaving and the pinning of the throttle, she just wouldn’t budge. Luckily for me a young lad who was a spectator came to my rescue, and we managed to get the bike out and turn it around so I could go back down and carry on again, albeit via the easy route as the hard one was now clogged up. While I had been stuck I noticed 1 or if not 2 of the riders in my class went past me, that pissed me off no end and I tried to close the gap on them for the remainder of the lap, but the checkered flag came to soon, and now I can see I lost a couple of places losing the 2-3 minutes due to that bloody pile up. Just goes to show how the racing can be so tight some times even in a 3 hour race, especially with a big entry.

Not a bad days racing, and it makes a change to drive home in some decent weather as the shine was still shining.

Finishing position: 5/42 (vets)