Ardua enduro- 18th October 2009

So it was off up to Newbury for a overnight stay on the Saturday at my sisters place, before setting off Sunday morning for the short drive to Bagshot for the event. At least I was guaranteed to have a bit of a lie in as I didn’t have to get up at some stupid hour and drive 4 hours or more to get there, only took me 45 mins, result!

Now I love timecard events, I think the main reason being is that you don’t get many flat fields involved with these type of events and the majority of the time there‘s a lot of woods, so everyone’s on a level playing as it were, not just the last one to shut off the throttle across that field wins!

The weather today was overcast with a slight chill in the air as I arrived at the track and got parked up near to Dan and Pete Lawry who I hadn’t seen since the Knighton BEC in wales a few months back, so I popped over and had a chat. Pete was giving his new KTM 4 banger it’s debut.

I got there so early today that I even had time to walk the test and after the obligatory signing on etc, it was off to work out my check times. Bloody nora I thought, 40 mins for the first lap, going down to 19 mins for the last lap! In fact the last 3 laps were 21,20, and 19 mins, and with 9 laps in total (including 2 special tests), I knew things were going to get tough right near the end to try and keep on time, and seeing as I was starting at 10.06am and due to finish at 2.26pm , there was a lot of riding to done today, nice one!

With about 30 mins before I was due off, one of my other sisters turned up to give me some moral support, (bloody hell, how many sisters have I got who live up that way) and of course buy me a quick cuppa.
So at 10.06am I kicked the little gasser into life and off I went onto the woods. Within a couple on mins I arrived at my 1st test! Not a particularly ideal situation I must admit, I haven’t even got warmed up yet, and nor had my bike! Me thinks it might have been better to have started your test on your 2nd lap or maybe later on round the course, bit of a shock to have one so early on.

Anyway, just like the Dunmere enduro a few weeks back, the special test was awesome, cracking tight trails, some nice hills to go up and down, a couple of short fire roads, some roots, rocks, and of course loads of the usual trees to watch out for just incase you got complacent. A nice long test too and about 5 to 6mins worth of decent riding.
Things went alright for me on the 1st test, and if wasn’t warmed up enough beforehand, I certainly was now!

So after getting a decent warm up after the special, it was off to explore the rest of the course, and I was impressed! A really enjoyable track, with all the usual traits that you’d expect from the woods, including a lovely pile of logs that you had to go over and a hard route with a massive tree strung across it that you had to clamber over for a time saver, get that wrong and you ended up on your arse looking like a right turkey in front of all the spectators stood there watching, luckily for me I cleared it every time, Phew!
Overall I reckon the course was about 6-7 miles long and a cracker it was too.

So given a lenient 40 mins for the 1st lap I took it easy and arrived back with plenty of time in hand. The lap had took me around 27-28 mins.
Onto my 2nd lap then I went and arrived at my 2nd and final test of the day, this time I was a bit more ‘warmed up’ and went a lot better, that is until I managed to dump the bike on the floor after going off the track and planting the front wheel down a small ditch, aaaargh! My fault entirely, just going too fast. I went on to complete the rest of the lap with no problems.
With the times still on the slack side there was no need to risk much, and the next few laps went well and I made it back to the check with time in hand every lap. So With 5 laps gone it was now going to get interesting as slowly the lap times were being squeezed down in minutes, and now starting my 6th lap, I had 24 mins to get round. No way could I hang about now, and I didn’t, but I only just made it back in time and basically had to go straight back out and try and do a 21 min lap.
I tried as best as I could, but ended up 3 mins over, so it was back out again this time aiming for a 19 min lap. It was at this point that the times were taking there toll on the riders and the field was starting to thin out somewhat as there were less and less riders in the pits taking a break, in fact, there wasn’t hardly anyone, so you knew everyone was struggling to keep to time. It was on this lap and with a little bit of tiredness creeping in and going like a lunatic for a whole lap trying to keep to time, that I caught a stump and set sail on a collision course with a bloody tree. I had choice but to ‘bail out’ and throw the little gasser at it rather than hold on and slam into myself. I ended up on the deck about 10ft away from the bike, got up, picked the bike up and inspected it for damage, and luckily for me it was alright, so off it went to complete another lap in which I lost another 4 mins.

So now it was on to my last lap, I was 7 mins down on time and this one had to be an almighty effort if I as to get round in 19 mins! Thankfully I didn’t have any ‘offs’ and I went well but still lost another 5 mins at the end of it all. My last 4 laps had all took me the same time, 24 mins, consistent or what? To be honest I couldn’t have gone any faster and knowing that riders were dropping their times by the bucketful, I was pleased with that. So at the end of the day I dropped a total of 12 mins, and no one in the whole of the field managed to stay on time in any class, champ, expert, clubman or sportsman, so that’s how tough it was today.

Personally I thought it was a cracking event and definitely one of the best I’ve done this year, great course, good special tests, tough times, and good organization, and I much prefer it when you get tight times on the last few laps as this really tests your endurance and speed over a long distance. Well worth the 470 mile round trip!

Finishing position: 4/12 (vets)

Late entry.........................................

I might have got myself a race this coming weekend up in Bagshot in the Ardua Enduro. Sent off my regs at the last minute so just waiting for confirmation. It's a timecard event so that'll do for me, so hopefully i'll be there.

Just want to say Best wishes to all those riders involved in the crash at the Weston beach race yesterday. From what i understand it was a very serious incident and i hope they all make a full recovery.

Cancelled!!!!

Not one but two events in my diary this month have been cancelled. The Midwest on the 18th, and the SCEC race on the 25th. I won't be doing Weston as i've decided against it, so at the moment i won't be racing for another 4 weeks!
Hopefully i'll find some other events to fill in the gaps, might have to do a bit of travelling though.

Dunmere enduro- 4th October 2009

Was out gigging last night and had a late one, so I didn’t get to bed until 2am and was up again at 6am. Dunmere is only 10 mins up the road, but I left early so I could get a parking space near to the start so I didn’t have to walk miles along the fire road! The plan worked a treat and I was one of the 1st to arrive along with Arthur Johnson (who was riding his new 2010 Gasser 300 today), Andy Smith, and clerk of the course Mike Roose. Soon after the ‘likely lads’ arrived, Adam Blake & Steve Jose.

Now then, these South West Champ rounds are becoming more like a social gathering than a race, and with me being right next to the signing on tent and being 2 ½ hours early, everyone I knew had a chat with us as they walked past the van.
Thor motorcycles had a couple of the new 2010 ‘Gassers’ on show and they look rather nice, and it looks like the mods they’ve done to the new range seem to work well, must admit, I’m tempted! And what’s more I got a free bacon sandwich from Becky who works for Thor while I was taking a look at the bikes, nice one.
Whilst I was ‘milling’ about around the start area, Marie and little Emily turned up, long time since Marie has come to a race, and In a way i miss those days when she used to come with us all the time and wait for me in the pits to help me refuel and then constantly shove jelly babies in my gob to give me more energy! I doubt if she does though, standing in the pissing rain sometimes watching your fella go round and round ain't much fun is it?

So with everything done, it was off to the parc ferme to pick up the bike and get ready for my 10.07 start time, this last round of the series being a time card event. I all had to do today was stay on the bike, keep to time, not do anything silly, and I’d be celebrating winning the clubman E1 championship. Me and James Hull were the first ones away in our class and we basically followed each other round for the 1st lap at a nice steady pace getting to know the course and arrived back at the pits with about 5-6 mins to spare before we had to head out again. Our allotted times started at 40 mins a lap going down to 31 mins for the last lap, 6 laps in all, so a fair days riding was in front of us. The heavy overnight rain that we had didn’t really affect the course and conditions were just about perfect, slightly tacky on the top and greasy in some places, especially on the hills. To be honest, you don’t want everything bone dry do you?

Onto the course itself, and what a cracker it was with not a flat field in sight, thank god for that! The 1st mile or so was a nice wooded trail before we hit the special test which had a hard or easy route option at the start of it. The harder route consisted of a ‘trials’ section of logs one after the other which saved you a bit of time, if you cleaned it that was! Needless to say that a small crowd were standing by to help anyone that got into trouble with it. With all the riding I’ve done this year I’d be a bit of a pussy not to have a go at that wouldn’t I? Thankfully I had no problems. What the bloody hell James Hull was doing I don’t know, he took the easy route! (I’m gonna have a word with him about that)

The rest of the test consisted of fast trails, a stream crossing, a couple of fire roads, 3-4 rooty uphill sections and a very tight and twisty small moto x style bit to finish with.
After the test the woods never failed to deliver a decent ride for everybody with the variation of it all. Tight sections, fire roads, some decent hills, roots, stumps and of the course the ‘bone yard’, which basically was a 200 meter section carpeted with broken branches. Overall I reckon it was about 8 miles or so a lap.

Onto my 2nd lap then and my 1st test. This went a ‘Pete Tong’ and I had a couple of ‘offs’, so wasted a bit of time, none too pleased about that as every second counts. With the rain now starting to fall I did the rest of the lap ok and come back to the pits with a few minutes in hand.
My 2nd special test went even more pear shaped, 2 more ‘offs’, and one was a classic. I was pinning the little ‘Gasser’ up one of the rooty climbs when before I could say ‘oh sh*t’, I hit the deck in a heap after my front wheel washed out on a root. So with 2 tests gone and 4 ‘offs’, I knew that going out in a blaze of glory and trying to get the win had evaporated. Still, at least I cleaned the lap and made it back in time with nothing broken on the bike, so not all bad news.

Onto my 4th lap I went then and my last test, hip hip hooray, I didn’t come off! Even though half way round the test Phil Harris who wasn’t riding today done his best to have me off by standing on the side of the fire road and ’mooning’ at me as I went past! I think Phil should lose some weight because at one point I thought there was an eclipse up ahead as half the woods went dark on me! I managed to get stuck on a climb later on round the course as the back wheel got a bit out of shape on me while giving her too much ‘welly‘, but I immediately got dragged up to the top by about 5 people who quickly ascended on me, so no time lost there. It was on this lap that I saw James Hull stranded in the woods after his bike had stalled and wouldn’t start, and Andy Smith who also was in a spot of bother due to a snapped chain. I made it back to the pits again with a couple of mins to spare again and saw Dean canfield who’s race was also over due to rear puncture. Paul Fordy also retired due having a crash and damaging his gear shaft, so the woods had now started to claim a few riders with retirements.

With the rain now long gone and just 2 laps to go, all I had to do was try to stay on time and finish and the E1 championship would be mine, although I knew that with James in trouble, I’d won it as he was well down on time and couldn’t get enough points to peg me back now. My 5th lap went well, and with the course absolutely perfect, I was going well, had no mishaps, and made it back in time ready for my final lap.
So off I went then, the time we had now was 31 mins to do the last lap, it was going to be tight, but I was determined to stay clean and not get any penalties. I felt really good and was going well, and was more than confident that I’d make it back so I could start celebrating. The lap went brilliantly and I got back with a minute to spare, job done.

Everyone I spoke to afterwards said how much they’d enjoyed it and what a cracking event it was, so hats off to Camel Vale for providing an excellent well run event. A round of applause to Rich Tucker as well, 18 yrs old and wrapped up the experts championship today, that lad just gets faster and faster.
So with South West series over for another year, it was off to the pub with the ‘likely lads’ for a celebratory drink. Adam didn’t do too well today as his bike played him up all the race, but Steve (I’ve got a thousand stories to tell you) Jose, had a good result in E2.

I’m chuffed to bits, I’ve put a lot of time and effort (not to mention money!) into my racing this year, and if there was one thing I wanted to win, it was the SW championships. At the ripe old age of 45 (acting more like 25), being upgraded to an expert in next seasons SW champs after just over 3 yrs in the sport ain’t too bad at all. No doubt my old man is looking down at me and smiling, although he might have something to say about me riding a Spanish 2 stroke!

Finishing position: 4/16 (clubman E1)