What a weekend it turned out to be! Talk about ups and downs!
So it was off up to West Sussex to enter a timecard event held by Croydon mcc, a round of the SEEC championship. Phil Harris entered it as well, so I picked him up along the way and we made our way to my sisters place near Newbury for an overnight stay so we didn’t have too far to travel in the morning for the race.
We arrived early Saturday evening and promptly went down the local pub called the Fox inn, where we set about having a decent bit of ‘nosh’ after the journey up. We got talking to a couple of locals (like you do), Rachael & Rick who had a sense of humor that was right up out street as it were, and we basically had a great time with them and laughed our nuts off until it was time to leave the place and head back to our lodgings for the night.
When we got back there I thought my sister and her husband were in bed, so we crept about quietly and decided to hit the sack. Bloody nora, sods law, I’d just got off to sleep when the front door went, it was my sister and hubby that had just arrived home and I‘d locked them out, I thought they were a kip! I finally managed to get to bed at 1am.
Morning came, and we were greeted by glorious bright sunshine, nice one! Apparently Phil didn’t hear the commotion last night and was dead to the world, so he got a good nights kip. We set off in good spirits and were looking forward to the day ahead, but as we got closer to Sussex, the sky darkened and we when we actually got to the venue, we were greeted by torrential rain. Now then, to be honest, it’s a bit shit getting your stuff ready and pushing the bike to scrutineering and signing on, but I love racing in the stuff because it makes even the simplest of tracks became tricky and slippery, so what I lack in bike skills, I make up for in fitness (that’s the plan anyway).
After getting stuck in the mud getting into the place, it took us about 15 mins to finally get the van up to the start area so we could park up. I reckon we tried at least 20 times to get up a small incline in the van before I had the bright idea to let the tyre pressures down on the front. That worked a treat and we finally made it.
On to the start then, and with the rain subsiding, me and Phil who were both on the same allotted time, set off into the woods. We were both entered in the clubman class, 2st & 4st and all sized machines, so I was looking forward to seeing how my little 125 would get on against the bigger bikes in the conditions.
I followed him for the first couple of miles which were all woodland type trails, then overtook him just before the special test where I waited for him. Not wanting to do the test 1st time around (you had choice when you wanted to do your 2 tests) I just said to him, ‘follow me and we’ll do the 1st one next lap’. From this point onwards, I didn’t see him again! More of that later.
The course was excellent, in fact, I’ll say it again, excellent. All woods and a few fire roads to have a blast on so you could open her up a bit. Not one flat field in sight, hooray!, thank god for that.
Due to the rain that had fallen the night before and in the morning, the hills were a bit slippery as was parts of the wooded trails and fitness was going to come into play as the race wore on, without a doubt. One ‘rooty’ hill in particular had about 7 or 8 marshals stood on it to help the riders up to the top, as it was extremely tricky indeed and hard going, but the little ‘gasser’ made it up there every time with lots of throttle and some slipping of the clutch. Boy oh boy, do I love 125’s!
The course had a bit of everything apart from a stinky black bog. There was rooty climbs and downhills, logs to go over, fast trails, fire road tracks, muddy sections and a decent fast special test. Overall i reckon the course was about 9-10 miles in length.
At the end of the 1st lap (they gave us 50 mins to do it) I made 10 mins, so i had a bit of a wait until I was due out on the next one, but Phil was nowhere insight, so I guess something had happened to him, but I couldn’t wait any longer as my time had elapsed and I was back out.
No problems on my 2nd lap and with 45 mins to do it in, I made time again and when I got back i put some fuel in. I did my 1st ‘special test’ this time and it went well.
Lap 3 and with 40 mins to do it in, I did my 2nd special test which went well and still made it back with a bit of time to spare albeit only a couple of mins. Still no sign of Phil!
Onto lap 4 then and this was the one that was going to sort everybody out as we only had 27 mins to complete it in. With the course getting rutted and cut up and the rain starting to fall again we were told that the event would be cut short by a lap because of the conditions. I made it back to the time check 8 mins over.
So on I went then to start my 5th and final lap, and with a relaxed 40 mins to complete it, I didn’t need to push to hard. It was at this point that I actually saw Phil as I went through the time check who explained to me that his throttle cable had snapped soon after I waited for him on the 1st lap, so in fact he’d only been riding for about 10 mins or so.
It was on this lap that I managed to have a few little ‘offs’, I wasn’t tired at all, but simply trying to maintain my pace, but with the course getting more difficult, it caught me out a few times. One little ‘off’ (like a 10 mph job) into a tree is all it takes to break something on your bike and that’s exactly what happened, oh well, looks like another new headlight surround and mudgaurd again for me!!!
Apart from that, I was pleased to finish with quite a bit of energy left, so I would have gone on for another lap no problem, shame the clerk of the course cut the event short! Apparently a lot of riders had pulled out because they found it too hard?
So it was back to the van to meet up with Phil so he could tell me about his hard luck story and we left for the 4 hour drive home.
Whilst getting out of the place the rutted muddy tracks that people had driven over in the rain needed a ’run up’ in order to get through them and make it up the small hill out of the place, we made it no problem but coming down the other side my van ’grounded’ itself at the front, and with a big ‘clunk’ sound where she’d scraped along the deck, we thought it would be best to stop and check things. It was at this point that the oil light came on the dashboard and as I looked down outside the window, all I could see was a puddle of oil!!! Oh b*llocks, my sumps been trashed (see pic). With that we got out and inspected the damage and sure enough, a whole full of engine oil had deposited itself onto the floor and there was no way we were going to make it back home.
Luckily Phil had the full monty RAC cover, so after getting a lift up the road in order to get a phone signal on the mobile, he asked them to send a low loader to put the van on so we could get home. As riders passed by us on their way home, some stopped to ask if they could help and a few of them gave us some food and drink to keep us going until help arrived. It’s pleasing to know that one someone gets in the sh*t, a lot of people that have been at the event are willing to lend a hand even though they just want get home after a hard days riding. A big thanks to everybody who stopped and a lot can be said for the camaraderie of enduro riders.
About 1 ½ hours later the RAC turned up but with a plain transit van! How the hell is that going to tow us home then? Apparently not said the technician, he’d just come to look at it and report the problem. Great, so we’ve told you we want a low loader and told you what’s up and you just send someone out to look at it we told the RAC. Not impressed!
The guy was only there 5 minutes and off he went. So now we had to wait again for a tow truck and now that everyone had left the event and gone home, we were definitely on our own in the middle of nowhere in West Sussex.
Another 1 ½ hours had past before another breakdown truck arrived and still it wasn’t a low loader!!! What’s going on now then? All we were doing was getting towed back to Chichester where we were to pick up a hired car to get us home and the van would be brought back the next day. Fair enough, but we had to pay our own way home and fill the car up with petrol and we couldn’t claim it back. Phil wasn’t happy and he’d every right not to be, he’d payed for the premium service which means the RAC will get you home for nothing and you’re expected to end up paying.
Thankfully and after about another 4 -5 phone calls it all got sorted and the RAC at last saw some sense and would send out a low loader to put the van on so we could get home. I hadn’t eating for 11 hours and so we got the recovery truck to tow us to the local burger king so we could have a right old feast! Another 1 ½ hours past by before we finally got going on a low loader to be taken down to Wincanton for yet another 30 minute wait and then to be transferred to yet another low loader who was going to take us home.
Phil (the lightweight) kipped for most of the way, I dunno, these youngsters, can’t seem to keep the pace up can they? And he had a decent nights sleep the night before! Luckily for me both the drivers were good lads, one being a football fan, and the other one a bit of a biker, so a good bit of conversation went on to pass the time away.
We got dropped off at Phil’s place and then he gave me a lift home and I walked through the door at 4am.
I’m not going to forget that weekend in a hurry then am I?
Finishing position: 9/45 (clubman)
