Norridge woods- 14th June 2009

Bloody hell, the suns out again and another sunny day greeted me as I made the drive up to Wiltshire for the next round of the Midwest series.
I was feeling a lot better this week as my right thigh is almost back to normal and I’ve managed to eat properly as well after that horrible bug, so I was looking forward to it.

The first 2 races of the series have not really been shall we say to my liking due to the fact that there’s been a lot of fields involved, so I was eager to see what this round was gonna be like.
Good news on the parking front anyway as there was plenty of room and it always makes a nice change to park up in field that’s dry!! Got signed on and the bike checked and went and put the fuel in the pits which was a cattle shed! Good idea that, especially if it were to rain.

So, with plenty of water drank beforehand (nearly 3 ltrs of the stuff) to get myself well hydrated, it was off to line up for the start. Things were going to be as tight as ‘the new laws on an MP’s expenditure list’ because just about 30 meters away after the start line, we all had to get through a farmers gate and go down a narrow lane, so a good start was important.

As the flag dropped I made a good one and was about 4th or 5th as we went down that lane and turned a right handed corner across a stoney road, then another right hander along another fast straight stoney track before we entered the woods.
I was still in the top 5 for the first couple of minutes when all of a sudden the bike started to cut out and then die on me. I knew what I’d done straight away, I FORGOT TO TURN MY PETROL ON!!!!!! What a plonker!!! Surely I’m not alone on this one am I? some of you must have that done before?
I ground to a halt and promptly turned the tap back on and started to kick furiously at the little gasser, but by this time and with it being so early after the start, the entire field of vets passed me. I continued to kick but she wouldn’t start, sods law that, and as I was kicking away I could hear the next group of riders coming towards me, and sure enough the whole field of the sportsman 2t passed me as well. What the f*ck is going on I thought as I knew it wouldn’t be long before the sportsman 4t were gonna be coming round the corner!
I quickly pushed the bike and leant it up against a tree, got on and kicked and kicked, but my thoughts had became true as the 4t’s went passed me as well before the gasser finally sparked into life.

So there I was, I’d made a good start and bloody well threw it all away and probably any chance of getting a decent result towards the championship. I was absolutely livid with myself, but me being me there was only one thing to do, and with still about 2hr 55mins left on the clock, I was going to push as hard as I can until the finish even though I’d have pass a bloody load of riders in order to get a decent finish.
I soon caught up with the sportsman 4t’s but with the wooded tails being so narrow, chances had to be taken in order to overtake, but I was on a mission and I gave it everything, I fact I gave it too much and came a cropper whilst getting ‘cross rutted’ trying to make up places, and guess what? I picked the bike up and she started 1st time!!!!!

With such a dry track and fast going it wasn’t until my 2nd lap that I passed a few of the sportsman 2t’s so I knew I was making progress but all I was interested in was trying to pass the vets in my class and I just couldn’t see any of them, they were well and truly gone.
Now then the course itself, this is going to be one of the shortest descriptions of any track I’ve raced! No hills, no bogs, no cambers, hardly any roots, no rocks, no water crossings, in fact it was just about 6-7 miles of wooded trails with a few ditches to cross and a couple of stoney straights thrown in along the side of a farmers field so you can have a blast, that’s it!
So nothing technical and extremely fast and dry.

After about an hour I’d managed to pass a few riders in my class, but seeing as there was a big entry in every group and with the course tight in a lot of places, it was hard at times to make any headway, and I still had to take a lot of risks in order to pass riders, but with last weeks race being difficult and slippery, today seemed a lot easier, and I was absolutely flying and felt really good.
With the weather being hot as well I knew riders would be flagging towards the end so I just kept pushing as hard as I could.

With about 2hrs up on the clock I made a lightning pit stop and went back out definitely ’on it’ and going as well as I’ve ever done. I still wasn’t sure how I was doing as I hadn’t overtaken that many that were in my class, but I just kept pushing and pushing hoping that the next person I caught up in front of me was in the number 300’s!! (that’s the vet’s class numbers)

At the end I just missed out on another lap by just over a minute, so effectively what happened earlier on had cost me, but unbelivabley I’d made my way up to 3rd in my class and only 12 secs behind 2nd place. I might have even snatched the win if I’d have turned the petrol on in the first place!

Given what happened today and the amount of riders I had to pass due to the nature of the course in order to get anywhere, I reckon that’s the best race I’ve done so far, and what’s even more pleasing is the fact that I stayed so strong until the end because after looking at the lap times I’ve noticed that my fastest lap was my penultimate lap.
Nice to catch up with Pete Boyles at the end of it all, so I had a decent chat with him and then headed for home on my ‘tod’ in the glorious weather, just as well as it was a 3hr drive home.

Finishing position: 3/27 (vets)