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)
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)
