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)