Cracking sunny weather greeted me as I made the 2 ½ hr drive up to the SCEC event simply called ‘Maze in the maize’. I was looking forward to seeing what was in store as it was described as a ‘unique’ event.
A few of us had made the trip up from Cornwall and I met up with Andy Smith and Phil Harris. Phil wasn’t riding due to having a bit of a bug (lightweight!) but came along any how to give us moral
A few of us had made the trip up from Cornwall and I met up with Andy Smith and Phil Harris. Phil wasn’t riding due to having a bit of a bug (lightweight!) but came along any how to give us moral
support.
Whilst signing on I had a decent chat with Michael Brooks and Gary Mcoy, good old Gary kept me and Brookster entertained with his usual chat chit and admitted to us both that his blue background on his front number plate was in fact a ’south hams district council’ bin liner that had been cut up and gaffa taped on! I think that’s a great invention and maybe he should think about going on ‘Dragons den’ with that one!
So with the sun shining, it was off to get changed and go and line up ready for the off. Had a quick chat to ‘Boycey’ and also Kevin Pippard. First time I’ve met Kevin and I certainly didn’t know that he’d been reading the blog, amazing who you meet on the start line sometimes!
Yippee! It was another holeshot as I got away 1st again and led the field along the straight and up into the ’maize maze’. I didn’t really know what to expect as I’ve never rode through a field of 7ft high corn before, but it was fast going and to be honest, if you rode motocross, then you’d be at home. The weird thing was, you couldn’t see round the corners so you had no idea what was coming up next, apart from more maze of course! There wasn’t many racing lines either and if you got stuck behind someone, you had to risk going off line onto the small rocky surface and losing it. The course twisted and turned through the maze fields before going through a small woodland (which lasted about a minute) before going into more maze fields and then across a couple of normal grassy type fields to complete the lap. A very short lap it was too and it only took around 11-12 mins to complete it. With nothing technical and nothing really to slow things down, I knew I’d be pinning the 125 for most of the way round.
So after that good start I lost a few places on the 1st lap, lost a few more on the 2nd lap, made up a couple on my 3rd lap and I think I was lying in about 5th on my next lap when I overshot a corner in the maze ‘rat run’ and put the bike on the deck. I couldn’t believe it when I picked the bike back up only to find that my front brake lever had snapped to the point that I had nothing left to pull at. Flaming hell, that’s 2 races running now, you go months without anything happening and then 2 levers brake in succession! So, with no front brake and on a fast course, I had no alternative but to take it easy and head off back to finish the lap and go back to the van to change the bloody thing. Phil was there and being the good lad that he is, changed the lever for me while I had a quick drink before heading back out again. With the laps being so short and me having wasted a good 10-12 mins on repairs, I was basically now a lap down and I went through the transponders and saw on the lap scoring screen that I was now in 13th place!
Try as I might I pushed and pushed but ended up a lowly 11th at the end of it all, so yet again and for the 3rd event running, things haven’t gone my way. I’m pretty sure I must be due a change of luck, well not luck, but just for things to go ok and get back to normality, so lets hope next week has a change of fortunes.
Oh well, at least I had a nice ride round in the sunshine today and then a lovely ’chinese’ when I got home!
Finishing position: 11/15 (clubman E1)
Whilst signing on I had a decent chat with Michael Brooks and Gary Mcoy, good old Gary kept me and Brookster entertained with his usual chat chit and admitted to us both that his blue background on his front number plate was in fact a ’south hams district council’ bin liner that had been cut up and gaffa taped on! I think that’s a great invention and maybe he should think about going on ‘Dragons den’ with that one!
So with the sun shining, it was off to get changed and go and line up ready for the off. Had a quick chat to ‘Boycey’ and also Kevin Pippard. First time I’ve met Kevin and I certainly didn’t know that he’d been reading the blog, amazing who you meet on the start line sometimes!
Yippee! It was another holeshot as I got away 1st again and led the field along the straight and up into the ’maize maze’. I didn’t really know what to expect as I’ve never rode through a field of 7ft high corn before, but it was fast going and to be honest, if you rode motocross, then you’d be at home. The weird thing was, you couldn’t see round the corners so you had no idea what was coming up next, apart from more maze of course! There wasn’t many racing lines either and if you got stuck behind someone, you had to risk going off line onto the small rocky surface and losing it. The course twisted and turned through the maze fields before going through a small woodland (which lasted about a minute) before going into more maze fields and then across a couple of normal grassy type fields to complete the lap. A very short lap it was too and it only took around 11-12 mins to complete it. With nothing technical and nothing really to slow things down, I knew I’d be pinning the 125 for most of the way round.
So after that good start I lost a few places on the 1st lap, lost a few more on the 2nd lap, made up a couple on my 3rd lap and I think I was lying in about 5th on my next lap when I overshot a corner in the maze ‘rat run’ and put the bike on the deck. I couldn’t believe it when I picked the bike back up only to find that my front brake lever had snapped to the point that I had nothing left to pull at. Flaming hell, that’s 2 races running now, you go months without anything happening and then 2 levers brake in succession! So, with no front brake and on a fast course, I had no alternative but to take it easy and head off back to finish the lap and go back to the van to change the bloody thing. Phil was there and being the good lad that he is, changed the lever for me while I had a quick drink before heading back out again. With the laps being so short and me having wasted a good 10-12 mins on repairs, I was basically now a lap down and I went through the transponders and saw on the lap scoring screen that I was now in 13th place!
Try as I might I pushed and pushed but ended up a lowly 11th at the end of it all, so yet again and for the 3rd event running, things haven’t gone my way. I’m pretty sure I must be due a change of luck, well not luck, but just for things to go ok and get back to normality, so lets hope next week has a change of fortunes.
Oh well, at least I had a nice ride round in the sunshine today and then a lovely ’chinese’ when I got home!
Finishing position: 11/15 (clubman E1)
