So it was off up to near Dorchester for a Track n Trail event at Two valleys.
(pic by image consortium)
Now then, unfortunately for me I developed ‘caravanitis’ along the way on the A35 as I got stuck behind a load of the things!! As soon as I overtook one, I’d catch another one up 5 mins later, where did they all come from then? Perhaps they were just out this morning knowing that I was on the road and they wanted to see me fume as steam was blowing out of my ears and my temperature had risen to that of a furnace after constantly getting held up, not to mention some very rude words that were being used especially when following them along a straight dry road with good visibility at what seemed like a snails pace unable to overtake because more caravans were coming the other way!
Personally I think anyone over the age of 90 who wears black slip on shoes from Makro, wears a small knotted tie, a knitted jumper from Marks & Spencer, listens to Max Bygraves, tows a big white box on wheels, and is not a fan of ’Little Britain’ or ’Mock the week’ should be banned from driving, That’ll get rid of a few won’t it? Probably 99% of them!
Rant over, lets move on.
Nice weather again as I arrived rather late (you know why), in fact I only had about 15 mins before the sighting lap started, so there was no chance at all of doing that.
I expected to bump into a few people whilst I was there, but with time limited I was in a bit of a rush so didn’t really see anyone apart from a quick chat with Mark and Rich Tucker whilst I went to sign on.
Onto the start then and today was going to be a nice little test for me as I’d entered the Clubman 2st, which has no limitations on bike capacity, so I was against the bigger machines.
When the flag dropped I made an absolute flyer and got the holeshot!!!!! Bloody nora I thought to myself as I lead the clubman through the first couple of moto x style corners and out into the hillside.
I was crying out for the woods so I might be able to get away a bit as everyone might have got held up behind me, but there was no such luck as the course just kept on being a motocross track which meandered up and down the hillsides. After a couple of mins the bigger bikes began to blast past me and I lost several places, in fact more than several as I was nailing the little ‘gasser’ for all it’s worth and hanging onto the bars for dear life trying to keep up!
The track was bone hard, bumpy, and extremely fast with only a small wooded section that only took about 2 mins to ride through right at the end of the lap. There was a couple of hard routes dotted about, but these were very easy to ride through because it was so dry. If you could imagine a motocross track going up and down a couple of hillsides for 6-7 miles with a couple of fast straights on it, and a little bit of woods at the end, then that was it. Bit disappointing really as TnT usually have more woods in there events.
So with nothing technical and fast going, the battle for places would be extremely tight as I found out on my 3rd lap. Just before the end of the lap on that wooded section I give it too much ’welly’ and the back spun out on me, I did a doughnut and ended up on my ass facing the wrong way and even before I could get going again (maybe 30 secs) 4 riders in my class flew past me, that’s how tight it was going to be today, especially with the laps being only 13-14 mins long.
Mind you, you didn’t get held up too much as it was fairly open going and even when things got a bit tight, it wasn’t long before you were out into the open again, but trying to overtake a 250 or 450 on fast open going when you’re on a 125 ain’t easy, especially if they’re pinning it, even the back markers. It’s all down to braking and my front disc must have been glowing red like a F1 car with the amount of pressure I was putting on it!
Had a nasty moment about half way through when the front end twisted on me on a bumpy section and the bars turned round and dug right into my chest, but I managed to hold on and not ‘high side’ off the bike, thank god for the chest plate on my body armour.
I pitted at about 2hrs and was hoping for a quick stop, but sods law reared it’s head as some rider had abandoned his bike and parked it right in front of my re-fueling can. I couldn’t lean over to get it so I quickly asked someone to hand it to me so I didn’t need to get off the bike. Thanks for your help mate whoever you was, saved me a bit of time that.
I kept on pushing until the finish and the last couple of laps were really hard work as the bumpy track had taken it’s toll and I had a job to hold on to the bars, but I didn’t have anymore ‘offs’ and didn’t really waste much time anywhere so I was pleased with that.
Overall not too bad a result against the bigger bikes on a fast motocross style course and most of the riders being a lot younger than me!
Finishing position: 10/29 (clubman 2st)
Now then, unfortunately for me I developed ‘caravanitis’ along the way on the A35 as I got stuck behind a load of the things!! As soon as I overtook one, I’d catch another one up 5 mins later, where did they all come from then? Perhaps they were just out this morning knowing that I was on the road and they wanted to see me fume as steam was blowing out of my ears and my temperature had risen to that of a furnace after constantly getting held up, not to mention some very rude words that were being used especially when following them along a straight dry road with good visibility at what seemed like a snails pace unable to overtake because more caravans were coming the other way!
Personally I think anyone over the age of 90 who wears black slip on shoes from Makro, wears a small knotted tie, a knitted jumper from Marks & Spencer, listens to Max Bygraves, tows a big white box on wheels, and is not a fan of ’Little Britain’ or ’Mock the week’ should be banned from driving, That’ll get rid of a few won’t it? Probably 99% of them!
Rant over, lets move on.
Nice weather again as I arrived rather late (you know why), in fact I only had about 15 mins before the sighting lap started, so there was no chance at all of doing that.
I expected to bump into a few people whilst I was there, but with time limited I was in a bit of a rush so didn’t really see anyone apart from a quick chat with Mark and Rich Tucker whilst I went to sign on.
Onto the start then and today was going to be a nice little test for me as I’d entered the Clubman 2st, which has no limitations on bike capacity, so I was against the bigger machines.
When the flag dropped I made an absolute flyer and got the holeshot!!!!! Bloody nora I thought to myself as I lead the clubman through the first couple of moto x style corners and out into the hillside.
I was crying out for the woods so I might be able to get away a bit as everyone might have got held up behind me, but there was no such luck as the course just kept on being a motocross track which meandered up and down the hillsides. After a couple of mins the bigger bikes began to blast past me and I lost several places, in fact more than several as I was nailing the little ‘gasser’ for all it’s worth and hanging onto the bars for dear life trying to keep up!
The track was bone hard, bumpy, and extremely fast with only a small wooded section that only took about 2 mins to ride through right at the end of the lap. There was a couple of hard routes dotted about, but these were very easy to ride through because it was so dry. If you could imagine a motocross track going up and down a couple of hillsides for 6-7 miles with a couple of fast straights on it, and a little bit of woods at the end, then that was it. Bit disappointing really as TnT usually have more woods in there events.
So with nothing technical and fast going, the battle for places would be extremely tight as I found out on my 3rd lap. Just before the end of the lap on that wooded section I give it too much ’welly’ and the back spun out on me, I did a doughnut and ended up on my ass facing the wrong way and even before I could get going again (maybe 30 secs) 4 riders in my class flew past me, that’s how tight it was going to be today, especially with the laps being only 13-14 mins long.
Mind you, you didn’t get held up too much as it was fairly open going and even when things got a bit tight, it wasn’t long before you were out into the open again, but trying to overtake a 250 or 450 on fast open going when you’re on a 125 ain’t easy, especially if they’re pinning it, even the back markers. It’s all down to braking and my front disc must have been glowing red like a F1 car with the amount of pressure I was putting on it!
Had a nasty moment about half way through when the front end twisted on me on a bumpy section and the bars turned round and dug right into my chest, but I managed to hold on and not ‘high side’ off the bike, thank god for the chest plate on my body armour.
I pitted at about 2hrs and was hoping for a quick stop, but sods law reared it’s head as some rider had abandoned his bike and parked it right in front of my re-fueling can. I couldn’t lean over to get it so I quickly asked someone to hand it to me so I didn’t need to get off the bike. Thanks for your help mate whoever you was, saved me a bit of time that.
I kept on pushing until the finish and the last couple of laps were really hard work as the bumpy track had taken it’s toll and I had a job to hold on to the bars, but I didn’t have anymore ‘offs’ and didn’t really waste much time anywhere so I was pleased with that.
Overall not too bad a result against the bigger bikes on a fast motocross style course and most of the riders being a lot younger than me!
Finishing position: 10/29 (clubman 2st)
