End of the year thoughts 2010

This is where I normally look back on what’s gone on in the year regarding my racing, but as you know it’s been almost a complete washout due to the injury. With the 2 races I did do towards the end of year, I was of course pleased to get back on the bike after being out for so long.

Without the racing I still kept myself busy going along to a lot of events and helping out a lot, not only in the pits with the refueling and taking the gear backwards and forwards, but also on the course helping stranded riders and of course putting out the ‘pit board’ to let the boys know what position their in etc etc. Must say I have had a good laugh doing that as when it gets towards the end of the race some of the messages I’ve written on the board has had everybody laughing! Even the riders who’ve read it! I do remember writing on the pit board at Nancemellon ‘’Twist the throttle more’’ and showing it to Francis Banfield as he went by only for him to shout ‘’F*ck off’’ and stick his 2 fingers up at me!! (all taken in good jest of course) I did the same thing at Woolborough Barton to Andy Smith, he laughed so much as he rode by that he nearly ended up planting himself head first into a tree!

There has been plenty of memories that stick in my mind this year, here’s a few:

Jack Twentyman getting out of the van and walking along a dual carriageway while we were stuck in a jam on the way to the Muntjac enduro in Suffolk. Jack thought he could get to the end of the queue of traffic and cadge a lift to the Muntjac and get there quicker by walking. 1 hour later when I finally got going driving Jack’s van, I got to the end of it all and saw Jack, he’d been trying to ‘thumb’ a lift with someone for the last hour and got nowhere! He wasn’t happy I can tell ya.

Adam Blake (who was driving) on the way to the Twin Oaks event, following an ambulance through all the traffic that pulled over to the side of the road to let it pass. This left some very irate drivers fuming as we passed them whilst tucking in right behind it with it’s blue lights flashing. One car driver in particular was ‘obsessed’ with getting us back and getting in front of us again which he did. Not to be outdone Adam then overtook him back! This just fuelled the fire that was raging inside this blokes car and he tried to get us back again for about the next 10 miles! ‘Blakey’ wasn’t having none of it and managed to hold him off until we both went our separate ways at a roundabout.

Christian Soanes at Hustyns eating a home cooked pre race pasta dish that resembled a bowl of ‘mashed up cold corrugated cardboard’, it looked and smelt so bad I took a picture of it and stuck it on the blog!

Jack Twentyman again, this time not content with walking the special test once at the Muntjac just before dusk, he went out and did it again in the dark and the pissing rain, he didn’t even have a torch with him!

After having a cortisone injection I decided to do a bit of marshaling at the ‘Brass monkeys’ enduro. After helping a beginner get back to the pits by following him to make sure he was alright because he was struggling a lot, about a mile from the end of the lap he came off right in front of me which in turn caused me to tear my tendon in my elbow again to stop myself hitting the deck. Nightmare!

A few Camel Vale members looking like death whilst doing the 24 hr race at the ’Dawn to Dusk’ in Wales. Arthur Johnson could hardly put his leg over the bike towards the end but still went on to complete it. I did here him mutter the words in true Steve Redgrave fashion ’’I never want to go near this place again’’, yeah is that right? We’ll see what happens next year Arthur!

The look on Steve Jose’s face when Steve Jay (who was in the same 2 man team) was miles behind and late getting back to the pits in order to make the ‘change over’. Not surprising really as Mr Jay had suffered a puncture in the front and the back tyre on the same 12 mile lap and literally had to crawl back to the pits. Inside Steve Jose’s helmet was a raging inferno as minute by minute went by with no sign of the other Steve, it got to the stage where I nearly called the fire brigade in readiness to help put out the volcano that was about to explode inside his helmet. He wasn’t happy!!

Dawn to Dusk again, Steve Jay, Richard Jay and Scott Johnson suffering an incredible 12 punctures between them, or was it 13? Amazing that was, just watching the guys coming back lap after lap with yet another flat.

The burger van at I think it was at the Idless woods race packing up and leaving just as the race had finished. Excuse me, hello, are you from this planet? There’s about a 100 hungry riders here that may just want something to eat.

‘Mad’ Jack again. Went up to an ORE event with Adam Blake and Jack. ‘Mad’ Jack was walking around like a 90 yr old with a bad case of piles (well that’s what I imagine they look like) after over exerting himself into a near state of total exhaustion after he finished the race. Not only being able to hardly put one foot in front of the other, we had to stop on the hard shoulder of the motorway on the way home in order for him to test his gagging reflex and throw up!

The huge ’thud’ on the ground measuring 6.2 on the richtor scale when Steve Jose had a huge ’off’ right in front of me at the ‘Grogley Christmas cracker‘ event.
The earth moved and this made my bike go into an uncontrollable wobble until I managed to correct it and come to a stop. Not only that, the tremor from Steve’s weight hitting the ground was felt by the HMS Nautical submarine that was conducting it’s sea trials way out in the Atlantic ocean.

And so to next year……………………….

The situation as it stands is that the elbow is not completely cured and to be honest I don’t know either if it will be without the operation that it needs. I have explained earlier this year about the pitfalls of going under the knife, and if I want to continue racing then that simply isn’t an option. It is a lot better than it was, but I never know what’s going to happen when I wake up in the morning, sometimes I still get pain in it and it hurts to move it, sometimes I don’t. The couple of races I have done have been ok and it’s only afterwards that the bloody thing kills me! The problem I have is it if I were to overstretch the tendon again I think it could be curtains, unless I can find a miracle cure, and believe me, I’ve tried almost everything to try and heal the bloody thing.

It’s been really hard just watching all the racing this year, and although I’ve seen some great action and had a good laugh as well as making many new friends, it’s simply not the same as riding a motorbike. In 2009 I done a hell of a lot of riding and reached a reasonable standard, so I know it’s going to be a hard road back to move on and do better than that, but I’m no quitter and I’ve had some injuries in other sports along the way which have kept me out for long periods and I’ve always managed to get back to where I was and be better. So on that note, I’ll see you all in 2011 where I’ll be hoping to do a full season.

Happy new year to you all………………………………............

TMX news Xmas edition

The christmas edition of the TMX news came as a bit of a suprise to me as in the Enduro section (page 53) there's a pic of yours truly from the recent 'Grogley' race.

Grogley christmas cracker- 12th December 2010

(pic Sue Pitman)

Photo's of this event can be found here:

www.photoboxgallery.com/suesbikesnaps

A nice local event and just 10 mins up the road from me which is always handy, especially in the winter months! Today’s race was an entirely different kettle of fish for me as I was riding in fancy dress and hoping to raise a bit of money for the Cornwall Air ambulance. Even in my short space of time racing motorbikes I’ve seen the air ambulance being called into action a few times to help injured riders, so I thought that would be a worthy cause to ride for.

Well what a cracking sight it was as I drove up the hill in the van to arrive at the parking area in the darkened sky at around 7am. The Camel Vale club had Christmas lights hanging from the trees, a stereo sounding out festive corals and a decorated Christmas tree thrown in for good measure! Just as the sun came up, then one by one everyone started to arrive and with me holding my bucket, I went off and visited every riders van or trailer and asked for a donation for the charity. Everybody I visited was only too pleased to throw in some loose change and with me having a chat with every bugger as well, it took me bloody ages and I didn’t have much time in the end in order to get changed and get to the start. Even the bloke from the burger van who was serving stopped me as I walked past and threw in some money! Tony Dinham almost pulled my arm off and couldn’t wait to throw some money in the bucket as he told me he’d used the air ambulance 3 times when he was riding at the top level of racing after crashing and getting injured a few years back!

It really was a great atmosphere with just about every local rider in attendance and far too many to mention. Hannes Tanzer came by the van with box of Stella’s and gave us a couple of bottles (didn’t drink um before racing I might add!), and those riders who didn’t have any change for the bucket when I saw them came back after a visit to the burger van and lopped some money in. So, with a quick change into the outfit, it was off to the start where Mike Roose was waiting there to give a riders briefing. As always with this event something a little different was in store as we all had to line up (without our bikes) wait for the hooter to sound, run and jump over a couple of fallen trees, then go under some trees and run round a corner before we could fire up our bikes and go!

By the time I started I was probably about mid pack (not easy running to the bike with a father xmas outfit on I must say) and even though I was supposed to be riding for a bit of fun, I got into the mode of racing which didn’t do me favours as I soon found out. After about 10 mins I came off on a tree root and dumped the bike on the floor, I thought to myself ‘what the bloody hell you doing? You’re supposed to be doing this for charity and having a bit of fun and not trying to prove anything’, so I got back on and took my own advice and slowed down a bit without risking anything. Shame Steve Jose didn’t listen to my advice because shortly after he came flying by me (literally) only to catapult into the air after hitting a tree stump and landing about 30 ft away from where he took off with an almighty THUD. This happened right in front of and to be honest I thought something serious had happened, it didn’t look too good. I quickly got off and for once Steve was speechless! (that makes a pleasant change) The only thing that could be heard was a slight groan with the words ‘f*ucking hell that hurt! I directed all the riders past so no bugger ran into him while Steve crawled to one side of the track and propped himself up against a tree. Luckily after about 10 mins or so he was able to make his way back to the pits albeit a little sore and take a breather. He later re joined the race and managed to finish.

The course itself was a cracker, quite rooty and soft in places with some lovely flowing woodland tracks and lovely hills, one of which tested you a bit as it was as slimy as hell and very steep which we had to ride down. On the first couple of laps there was a bit of traffic jam on this one as nearly all the riders were tip toeing their way down there very cautiously. A few long fire roads to open the bikes up a bit were included as well as the famous ‘whoop’ section which was like riding a rocking horse over a road of ten pin bowling balls, extremely bumpy and an ideal part of the course to give yourself a 'tank slapper' if you were unfortunate enough to cop one!

Every lap I did I was cheered on by a few spectators as I was making my way round the course in the Father Christmas outfit, I even stopped a few times and had a chat with some of them and had a good laugh. Unfortunately at about half way through the race my fancy dress began to show signs of doing an enduro, especially the trousers, and soon after the material on one of the legs got caught in the chain and within a flash my trousers were ripped off of me and proceeded to tangle round the back wheel. Oh well, never mind the whole costume was only a tenner from eBay! As for the beard I was wearing, what a nightmare to wear that is, bloody hell that thing seriously makes you hot No wonder you don’t see many enduro riders with massive amounts of ‘moss’ growing on their faces!!

For the last couple of laps I rode round with Phil ‘smiler’ Harris until the flag came out for the finish. Today I set out to do a race and raise some money for a worthy cause and in fancy dress. Glad to say that everything turned out exactly the way I planned it, a cracking day!

Many thanks to all who donated on Sunday, a total of £100.77 was raised. Further details of the monies collected today and also with sponsorship forms that have been completed, will be on the blog within the next couple of weeks when I shall be visiting the Cornwall Air ambulance in person and presenting them with the funds that have been raised.

All set for Grogley!

This coming weekend (12th Dec) i've entered the 'Grogley xmas cracker, always a top pre christmas event with a great festive atmosphere to it coupled with a decent course. Just for a change i've decided to ride for charity in aid of the Cornwall Air Ambulance, a very worthwhile cause indeed and over my years of racing i've seen a few riders that have needed the services of it so it'll be great to try and help them out in some way.

With the race being a non championship event and only one class in the ironman (champ,expert,clubman, o 40's, etc, mixed in together) there's not much pressure to do well so i'm just gonna take my 'strimmer' out for a blast and have a good time and a bit of fun as i'm doing the thing in fancy dress!

Bovington- 28th November 2010

The current freezing weather conditions all across the UK didn’t deter the most hardened of riders traveling up the SCEC event in Dorset. Although I wanted to do an event this month, it hasn’t turned out to be, but with a very good champ class lined up for this race, I decided to go up and give Adam (Blake) a helping hand and watch a top class hare & hounds at the same time.

Remnance to that of a Siberian winter (that’s what it felt like) greeted us as we arrived and got parked up. I thought I recognized the race hardened big green wagon we pulled up next to and sure enough it was Michaels Brooks. Hadn’t seen him for a while so had a good old natter before checking out a bit of the course with Adam to see which bits were frozen! To be honest the track looked excellent and half the course was basically in a huge sand bowl with undulating terrain, not too dissimilar to an old school scrambling track and with a water crossing for good measure. The rest of the course that went through the woods I couldn’t get too as it was riders only due to security reasons and it being off limits to anyone on foot. With this being MOD land I didn’t want to get ‘court marshaled’ so I stayed round the sand bowl area, good enough anyway because it had some great vantage points.

Gary ‘nothing gets in my way’ Mcoy came over for a chat and told us all about his Erzberg entry for next year and how he got in ‘through the back door‘, Phil Studley also made the trip up and I also bumped into Rob Thorn , Pete Lawry and the Scott’s. So with me wearing a thick jacket, 3 jumpers, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 pairs of socks, gloves, scarf and a hat, feeling like the ‘Michelin man’ I went off to watch all the action.

One rider left on the line because his 4 banger wouldn’t fire up decided to push it and try and bump it down the 1st hill just after the start, he still didn’t have any luck and after kicking the thing until exhaustion I decided to help him push it back up the hill and back on the flat so he could go back to the pits and get it sorted. Tell you what……. humping a KX450f up a sandy hill certainly warms you up!

So with the racing thick and fast due to a full entry and about 12/13 mins a lap for the top riders, it was a good race to watch. Just over the half way mark I went and help Adam to pit and even at this stage I had to do his fuel cap up because he just couldn’t feel his hands due to the cold! I had the same bloody problem with my feet! While I was I there I had a good chat with the guy from ‘In Chains’ who are a TM main dealer, um………………still tempted by the sky blue bikes I am!

For the last hour the field noticeably began to thin out with a few retirements being the order of the day because of the cold. Adam began to struggle and lost a bit of time on every lap and with about 10 mins of the race left, and after having a crash due to not being able to grip properly with frozen hands, decided enough was enough and called it a day.
A good day out with some top racing and well worth the frost bite on my toes!

Camel Vale mcc presentation evening.

No pictures, aaaaaargh! i forgot my camera!

A good night was had by all and i even managed to pick up something on the night in the only race i did this year!

Adam Blake arrived wearing shorts!

Steve Jose (after only just fitting his head through the door) revealed after a few drinks that he buys 10 pairs of underpants for 2 quid! Don't really know how that conversation came about but it's a good job we didn't ask to see him wearing them!

Mike Roose was the compare for the evening and did a credible job whilst 'breaking his new teeth in' over the microphone.

Mark and Rich Tucker couldn't get out of the village where they live because of being snowed in so never made it.

Francis Banfield wore a t-shirt that fitted!

And i did a gig at the end and done something useful for a change and showed everyone just how easy it is to play the guitar!

Not much doing- 18th November 2010

Haven't been up to much at all lately, so nothing to report. I was hoping to get out on the bike at some point over the last few weeks but my elbow wouldn't let me have any of it and started to play up again. Some days are good, some are not, but at least i do have 'good days' now with it which is better than what it has been. It's still all a bit hit and miss at the moment but i am still hoping to do a race this month, see what happens eh?

Check out the link on the right hand side titled 'How to ride a 125', awesome piece of riding for all you 'strimmer' fans out there. Demonstrates exactley how to keep the thing 'on the pipe' all the time and being commited round the track!

Dunmere enduro- 17th October 2010

A nice local event just 10 minutes up the road and an ideal situation to test the elbow out on a decent course in a timecard enduro. I knew quite a lot of the woods as I regularly run and walk my dog round the place, and on the Friday before the race I ran around about 7 to 8 miles of the track just get a feel of it! I also went back on the Saturday morning to help the working party get the course ready.

It was a funny old feeling as I packed my stuff in the van on Sunday morning to head off up the road as it’s been 11 months since I last rode competitively, so I had to check everything 4 times to make sure I hadn’t forgot anything! The bike was ready to go with lots of new parts replaced on it and I couldn’t wait to fire her up and let her see a bit of the forest!

A clear sky but slightly chilly start to the morning was had as I got parked up in front of Andy Smith (who happened to be full of germs and was under the weather) just about 50 yds or so from the pit/signing on area. I saved a space behind the van for Batman and Robin (A Blake and S Jose) to pull into and waited for them to arrive, and waited, and waited, and waited, only to find out that the clowns had already arrived and had parked the other side of the pit area to where I was! err………could have flamin well told me, still it wasn’t wasted as Mark and Rich Tucker pulled up into it.

With this being the last round of the South West champs it was good entry of local riders and nice to have many of them wishing me all the best as I milling about round the pit area waiting for the start. At 10am the first group of riders were away, I was off at 10.21 and about 10 mins beforehand when I went to get my bike I couldn’t bloody find it, it was gone, much to the amusement of Rod Mclean who’d bloody well hidden it the git! Had a good laugh over that with a few others who were also ‘in’ on the prank. I knew a couple of the riders who were on the same minute as me, Colin George and Nick Moore, so that was handy because if we got to the time check early we could have a bit of a natter!

My aim today was to get round in one piece, try to stay on time and nurse that elbow until the end in order to get a finish, I’d be happy with that.
So when the clocked ticked over to 10.21 I fired the little strimmer into life and off I went, well, all about 10 yds before she died on me! My fault as I didn’t let her warm up properly, too eager to get going, no worries though as she started again and I let the bike warm up this time before I moved on. The lap had 2 time checks on it, one just over ½ way round and the other at the end, with the special test being right at the end of the lap incorporated within the 11-12 mile course. I was scheduled to do 5 laps with 3 special tests.

What a superb course this was, and in my opinion the best Dunmere yet! The woods had something for everyone with some decent climbs and downhills, roots galore, tight nadgery trails, a small bog section, and some fire roads where you could open the bike up a bit and not a single flat field in sight. The special test was awesome and well thought out with a bit of tight stuff (including a log crossing) coupled with some very fast trials through the trees before ending with a few twists and turns at the end. The test itself was about 3 miles long.

My first lap went ok and made both checks in time, so far so good and it didn’t take me that long to get back into the swing of things albeit a little bit rusty.
Lap 2 and gaining confidence the more I got into it and with the elbow feeling ok, I had a stupid little off after overshooting a turn, when I got back up I realized that I’d just broke my new plastics and bent my new radiator, oh b*llocks! I made it back on both checks in time at the end of the lap so I was still going ok. Whilst in the pits I saw Adam (Blake) who’d DNF’d early on due to a broken rear brake caliper.
Laps 3 & 4 went well and I made it through all the checks on time and with the elbow feeling ok, I was confident that I’d be finishing my first race in 11 months.

With the last and final lap ahead, I knew I had to push a little bit in order to keep to time as we were given 8 minutes less to get to the 1st check. I did get a bit ‘raggerty’ due to not having been on the bike too much, but I made it with a couple mins to spare and then went on to complete the lap with no time penaltys.
A big relief and pleased as punched I’d finished without dropping any time.

As for the 3 special tests? Well I had complete nightmare on the 1st one! I dropped it after over shooting a corner when the front wheel washed out. Then a bit further on I got stuck behind a rider who’d got stuck on the log crossing so I had to wait for him to clear it. The 2nd test went ok, then on the 3rd one I got stuck behind a rider who wouldn’t move over to side and let me through! Bit of a shame that because I felt this was the fastest one at the time. He moved out of the way in the end after I’d shouted for the 5th time, maybe it was just a macho thing and he wanted to race me, there was plenty of chances for him to pull over but he didn’t bother, why I don’t know? Maybe he didn’t like the thought of a little screaming 125 overtaking him? Perhaps this guy wasn’t at the riders meeting when clerk of the course Mike Roose said ‘ if a rider catches you up on the test it obviously means they’re faster than you, so please don’t hold them up, move over and let them pass’. Never mind, perhaps he didn’t have his hearing aid in.

Overall an excellent day for me and it was great to ride at an event again. I enjoyed the course and although my pace isn’t what I want it to be (although that’s to be expected) I was over the moon to get round and finish, and I’m bloody well delighted.
Where does it leave me now? Well my arm does hurt from it afterwards, and I’ll give it some more rest before I decide to enter another event. If things go ok I’ll probably be looking at a race next month, don’t want to do too much to soon. In the meantime I’ll still be out and about watching some races.

Finishing position: 4/15 (o 40’s)

Practice- 10th October 2010

So it was off to the local mx track to put in a decent bit of 'bike' time to see if the elbow would stand up to any abuse! A lovely sunny day it was too although parts of the track were as gloopy as hell due to it being on the moorland where it has a job to dry out if there's any rain.

Funny thing really as i was a bit apprehensive seeing as it's been quite a while being off the bike and i knew that i had to give it some because i didn't really want to go round at a snails pace with next week looming. Within about 10 mins back on the little 'strimmer' i was going really well and did a full hour at a decent old pace before coming in to rest up. The elbow was fine going round but felt a bit stiff when i stopped riding, so far so good.

I then went out and did another 30 mins, i was going so well i thought to myself 'this is easy' but then the obvious happen and just before going through the water crossing where the approach is a little bit stoney, the back skipped out to the left then the right and i went down on my arse in a flash. Luckily no damage done to me or bike so i just carried on to finish the session.

So as i write this on Monday i'd be a liar to say that it's all hunky dory because it ain't and it's still giving me some pain albeit not as bad as it was! I suppose on a scale on 1 to 10 being pain free (1 being the lowest) it's probably on 6, before it was on 1 or 2!

I've decided to give the Dunmere enduro a go next week and see what happens.

Making a comeback?

Well after about 11 months since my last race i could finally be racing again! Ok, the arm isn't 100%, but it sure feels a lot better than what it has been and i'm going to go out in the next week and get some practice in. If that goes ok then i'll be back for the Dunmere enduro on the 17th October.
Fingers crossed then!

Woolborough Barton- 19th September 2010

(pic Sue Pitman)

www.photoboxgallery.com/suesbikesnaps

Happy memories for me last year at this event when I recorded a win in a round of the SW champs, not this year though eh? I was however really looking forward to watching all the action and I wasn’t to be disappointed.

I took a ride up there with Adam Blake (who was still out through injury) and Steve Jose who basically only had to finish to secure the E2 title in the clubman category. An overcast but nevertheless warm conditions greeted us as we arrived after about 1 ½ hours drive. We actually got there really early, but there was already quite a lot of riders about so with plenty of time to kill a lot of chatting and general piss taking was the order of the day before everyone had to get ready. Francis Banfield came up and showed us that his T shirt that he was wearing today wasn’t made for a sumo wrestler and it was the correct size (that was after he called me an explicit word for mentioning it on the blog a while back), John Pitman was riding a decent bike at last and had ditched his big 4 banger to have a blast round on a 125! Barry Weeks was hoping his ’Trago Mills’ chain wouldn’t snap this week, Mike Roose was still looking like a ’Gurning’ champion due to a recent visit to the dentist, he also couldn’t ride due to getting injured the day before, and Dan Hull was also out due to knee ligament damage after coming off a kids bike at about 10 mph! The usual suspects were all present and what you’d expect at a SW round, and one by one all stopped by for a bit of a natter. The E1 category which obviously I pay close attention too was still up for grabs, but John Hinkley only needed a good result today and the title would be his. I really wanted John to win it, we’re about the same age and it’s not been easy for him after riding a bigger bike for a while and then coming down in size and riding a ‘strimmer’, but he’s done well on it this year so good luck to him.

I didn’t see the start as I went on walkabout with Blakey down into the woods and waited at the top of a long fast uphill section to see the riders come by. A few close calls were had because half way up this fast section there was an ugly looking tree stump that nearly caught a few riders out and this threw them off line missing the on coming trees by inches, luckily after a couple of laps everyone knew where the bloody thing was so most avoided it after that. It certainly was good racing to watch with some good vantage points to have a look from and especially watching Chris Dustow giving everybody in the entire field a master class on how to ride a motorbike, absolutely superb.

After about an hour I was on pit board duties for Steve and was constantly was going backwards and forwards between two parts of the course to update him on his position, but by the time he’d pitted he had a bit of a lead which increased as the race went on, so no panic and I just told him ‘don’t let anyone overtake you’! During the last hour I decided to have a bit of a laugh with a few of the lads as they were riding round with my usual trick of writing something on the pit board and showing it to them as they went by. ‘Go faster’ and ‘twist the throttle more’ were wrote on the board, Andy Smith laughed so much as he went by that he nearly had an ‘off’ and just missed a bunch of trees by a few inches, Steve Jay also laughed his nuts off as he went by but Francis Banfield simply muttered the words ‘F*ck off’! not the 1st time he’s said that to me when I’ve wrote something down for him, but it was all taken light heartedly (I think).

And so to the end of it all where controversy reared it’s ugly head! No names mentioned here but I went back to where the results were posted up to try and help a rider sort out his position. Something somewhere didn’t add up and I can tell you after watching the race for the full 3 hours or more and knowing where the first 5 were in each group, I couldn’t make it out either! As I looked further down the list a few more were in the wrong order as well, um………..not good, in fact one of the riders in question had won his class and had him down as a DNF! It’s happened to me once or twice before so I know how it feels, not good.

So after the obligatory Cheese burger at the catering van and listening to the woeful tale of John Pitman not finishing on his ‘strimmer’ because it had packed up on him, it was off back home and to hear more stories in the van from Mr ‘jackanory’ Jose!

'Blinkin hell' !

That's exactly what i thought when i just took a quick look at some stats from my blog. Since i started this thing a few years back I've had just over 9,000 hits on it!

Out and about - 5th September 2010

(pic by sue pitman)

It was off to watch the British round of the motocross sidecar clubman series at a local track just 20 mins away. Bit of an overcast day but at least the rain kept away apart from the odd drizzle. Don't often get the old chairs down here so i jumped at the chance to go and have a 'butchers' at them. I love the sidecars and basically got brought up with them when i was a kid back home in my old town of Reading. There was so much racing going on around that area in them days, and unquestionably the south east was a hive for sidecar crews which produced many british champions, whoops! i've 'gone into one' feeling all nostalgic, lets move on..........

The support racing had some go solo action going on as well with some twinshocks dotted about and a few local enduro riders trying their hand at a bit of motocross. Hannes Tanzer, John Robinson, Rose Disney, John Pitman, Barry Weeks to name a few all had a bash. In fact the last time i saw Barry Weeks race his chain snapped, and low and behold exactley the same thing happened when he tried to pull away on the start line in race one! Come on Barry buy a decent chain will ya, them Trago Mills specials ain't doing you much good are they?

Some quite good little battles going on out there on the track i could see and enjoyed watching it all. I stayed until the end and had a good day out and went home still thinking to myself (like i have for many years) that i really should get a sidecar and give that a go!

Dawn to dusk 2010

So it was off to the middle of a Welsh quarry somewhere in err………….Wales! To watch a few of the boys attempt to snatch some kind of glory in the 24 and 12hr races in the Dawn to Dusk. I traveled up there with Steve Jose in his caravan (similar to the one pictured) that he obtained from his neighbour for the pricely sum of £50! Yes that’s not a misprint, I said FIFTY quid! Even though it had no windows, a cardboard floor, a gas leak and one flat tyre that was thread bare, not to mention no tow hitch so we had to tie the thing to his van, it wasn’t half bad and it gave us somewhere to kip for a few nights. No, seriously it was an absolute gem, everything worked and a right old bargain for the money.

Things didn’t start off too well coz I late getting to the Jose household, but I soon made it up by getting out the cocktail sausage rolls which we both devoured within 5 minutes of the journey starting! A quick stop a couple of hours later for some ‘Harry Ramsden’s’ fish & chips, then it was off over the severn bridge and into Wales. A few more hours later of us bickering like a pair of old women and we managed to miss the junction to turn off to get to the place. Whoops! We finally made it and parked up next to Mike Roose and Arthur Johnson who were both doing the ‘carry on caravaning’ thing as well. A few beers later and some more friendly faces turned up, Jed Treleaven, Richard Williams and Matt Hamley, who were also riding the event. After some more beers and general chat it was time to turn in for the night.

Saturday morning came around and mike got out his BBQ, I did the ‘Gordon Ramsey’ bit (including all the F words) and was the chef as I cooked up some culinary delights (sausages and burgers) which went down rather well and were scoffed up in a flash. Steve Jose had a front brake problem after trying out his bike in readiness for the race, it was found his front disk has a few ridges worn into it, so Mike got out his angle grinder and fixed it. Next it was to the signing on tent where I managed to get Adam (Blake) his T shirt because he was injured and couldn’t come but had already paid for the event, and I must admit he did say that I could ride his bike and take his slot, I was tempted, but soon changed my mind on that one. Around lunch time Rich and Steve Jay arrived along with Scott Johnson, so a few more Camel Vale mcc members joined the party! Arthur tried to get some kip before his marathon 24hr race began but couldn’t calling everyone ‘noisey bastards’! A group of youngsters camped up next to us had about 10 bikes on a big trailer and one by one they all rode about on them for a bit in the camping area apart from one poor soul with a old CR 125. His mates must have p*ssing themselves, he tried everything under the sun to try and get the thing going including kicking it until exhaustion, after about 3 hours it fired into life, yippee! So with a few hours left until the start of the 24 hr race most people were relaxing and waiting around and taking a few bits down to the pit area in readiness for the start of it all.

The 24hr race had Arthur (Johnson) doing the solo iron man and Jed (Treleaven) partnering Richard (Williams) in the 2 man team. Also on show was a couple of more Camel Vale members Martin Cheeseman and Brad Williams who were also doing the 24hr 2 man event. After watching the start on the windy hillside where I met Pete Boyles who was riding in the 12hr event the next day with his son, it was back off to the pits where we had 2 gazebo’s constructed one in front of the other, this was our ‘camp’ for the next 24 hours with a numerous assortment of food, fuel, tools, chairs, lights, amongst other things in order to help the riders get through the event and also to protect us from the Welsh elements!

Some riders were on a 1 lap strategy and some a 2 lap one before coming in for re-fuelling. A few hours in and everybody was doing ok, the lads who were racing the 12hr tomorrow went off to get some kip, I stayed along with Mike to help out the riders doing the marathon event, cleaning the bikes, re-fuelling and general maintenance stuff, anything really so they could just came in to the pits and sit down and take a break without having to do much. Amazing who you meet at these events, next to us was Tony Hobbs who I’ve had a few battles with last year in the Midwest series that I rode in, first time I’ve actually met the bloke, I knew his name and he new mine, bitter rivals last year! We had a jolly good old chat and I wished all the best as he was riding in the 24hr race as well with is mate. Around 2.30am and with 7 ½ hours gone, I went off to grab a few hours kip, and it was just about now that the race had started to take it’s toll on a few.

After some 3 hours I was up, made a cup of tea and headed off to the pits to see how everybody was doing. The youngsters Jed and Richard were decidedly looking worse for wear as was Arthur, it had been a long night, but nevertheless were going ok, not long to go lads just another 12 hrs! 7am came around and the start of the 12hr race were rivalry was abound with the jay brothers up against each other, Steve teaming up with Steve Jose, and Rich teaming up with Scott Johnson in the 2 man event. After the 1st lap the 2 teams were neck and neck as they both came into the pits together, next lap Scott suffered a puncture so lost time, next lap Steve Jay got a puncture, a couple of laps later Rich Jay got a puncture, (there’s more) Scott another puncture, Steve jay had 2 punctures in one lap, both his front and back tyre punctured in the same lap must to the annoyance of Steve Jose who was sat there waiting for him to arrive in the pits in order to change the transponders over. This wait meant that Rich and Scott had took the lead again, Jose’s face was a picture and steam was seen coming out from under his helmet! Scott got another puncture! Steve Jay got another puncture, incredible, I counted 9 punctures in all as the Welsh slate quarry had taken it’s toll on the tyres. Jose had no problems though as he was on mousses although Arthur Johnson was on tubes and never had a problem in the whole 24 hrs? weird eh? Mike was kept busy as he changed the whole bloody lot and put new tubes in every time and his work certainly put ‘Quik fit’ and ‘ATS’ to shame. I was still in the thick of things cleaning and re-fuelling the bikes of the 2 man teams and Matt Hamley who was also doing the 12hr race on his own.

Drama and mayhem ensued in the afternoon! With the wind whipping up some force and there being no place to hide in the middle of a quarry, a few gazebo’s went flying including a huge one that some Germans had all there BMW enduro bikes under. Not only that, the computer tent that had all the lap top screens giving you up to date lap scoring on each of the 6,12 and 24 hrs races, went walkabout as well!!! This included all the screens and all the wires that accompanied the system along with the tent, laying in a heap on the floor about 20ft away from where they should have been. Luckily nothing was broken and the organizes set up the whole thing again in the big marquee which was to hold the presentations a bit later on.

With just 3-4 hours left before the whole race ended Jed and Richard had had enough and went off for a nap, Arthur was out on his feet and was basically only just summoning up enough energy to do one lap at a time, sometimes we even had to help him get on his bike! The 2 man teams of Steve/Steve and Rich/Scott were doing well and one stage 2nd and 3rd out of about 30 teams, but for some reason slipped back a bit at the finish. So with not long to go Jed and Richard came back to do another couple of laps and then stick the bike in the holding pen just before the finish along with Arthur, these boys were simply now dead on their feet and had no energy left, and to be honest it would simply had been too dangerous to race a bike when you can’t even see straight let alone hold on to the bars and twist the throttle. The other Camel Vale 2 man team of Cheeseman/Williams were way in front of the 24hr expert race and didn’t look like being caught which in the end proofed right.

With about 15 mins to go I went down to the finish area to jeer up Steve Jose and Rich Jay who I knew would come round and get another lap in before time was called in which both of them managed to do. So with a sizeable crowd waiting for the 1st placed 24hr iron man to finish (that’s how they end the event) along he came, a certain James Giddings on a 125!!!!! I’d been speaking to part of his pit crew, a guy named Rob (who helped me out last year at a BEC event in Wales) a few times during the race so I knew how well he was going, and boy was he going! 24 hrs on his own and he beat everyone including the 2 and 3 man teams without hardly any rest at all. Now that’s how to ride a 125!

So with the flag waved for the finish, the rest of the riders who were ’cream crackerd’ came out of the holding pen in which Jed Treleaven managed to get the holeshot! And poor Arthur had to push his bike up the hill to get a finish when it suddenly cried enough and refused to start again. I then went back up to the pits to wait for the other riders to come in who were still out there on their last lap.
After everybody had a rest and a brush up it was off to the presentations to see who’d won and who didn’t. Fair play to the ‘evergreen’ Arthur Johnson who got 3rd in the 24hr iron man, I asked him if he was going to do it all again next year and apart from the 2nd word being ‘off’ he muttered ‘don’t ever let me go near this place again’, yeah alright, we’ll see you next year then mate, we know you love it.

A good nights kip was had and then after a quick stop for brekky at the local Macdonalds it was off home. The 50 quid caravan of Steve’s did us proud, the windows didn’t fall out and the roof stayed on and the 3 dead rats that had been in the cupboard that he’d found when he bought it didn’t really smell that much at all…………………………..

Doctors today- 19th August 2010

So today was a big day for me with yet another chat with the doctor whom I saw 2 weeks ago when he told me to come back and think about the options he gave me. Basically I could have a ‘lateral release’ which free’s the offending tendon with surgery by cutting the damaged piece away, or have another cortisone injection and wait. Now I was tempted with the surgery, this relieves the pain, but my grip would never be the same on that arm and he made no bones about it when he said that I wouldn’t be able to ride competitively again. So it’s a no brainer really and I had no choice but to have another injection. Now then good stuff you might think? But………….trouble is with cortisone is that it is a very high dose of steroid which reduces inflammation, the bad part is it also masks pain and gives you a ‘false sense of security’ in a way. Last time I had one I thought I was superman and started picking and lifting things up to test my arm because I didn’t feel any pain which in turn means you’re still damaging the tendons underneath, so this time I think I might take it a bit easier and see what happens. I done a hell of a lot of research about the injury and spoke to people who’ve had the injections with results being about 50/50 on weather it works or not. Of course the operation has a huge percentage of success, but that’s no bloody good to me is it?

It all means that I still want be riding for another while yet and that’s a huge disappointment to me as I really wanted to do the ‘Dawn to dusk’ event again this year as I feel it owes me something as I was going so well last year until I had to pull out through getting injured. The last couple of months I’ve really put the training in hoping I could do the race, running 4-5 days a week up to 10 miles in 25 degree heat as well as exercising 5 nights a week doing some ‘core’ work. Never mind, always next year eh?

Next week is the ‘Dawn to dusk’ and I’ll be traveling with the lads from down here in Cornwall up to Wales to the event. There’s quite a few doing it so I’ll be there helping them all out and giving um a bit of support. Looking forward to that, a good weekend away and a good laugh

'On yer bike'- 15th August 2010

Yes I certainly did as well. With it being a glorious day I quickly got the bike together and threw on some old plastics, stuck the reg plate on, put a bit of petrol in her, chucked it in the back of the van and drove up to the moors for a bit of green laning. A case of ‘Gently as she goes’ was the order of the day but I did succumb to opening the little ‘strimmer’ up a few times just to feel what I’ve been missing all these months! Even though I only did about 30 mins, It felt great just to be back on the bike albeit against the old doctors orders. Racing the bike is an entirely different matter and this week I’m off to the doc’s again for a serious chat about an operation or another injection to see which is the best way to go.

Lurley- 8th August 2010

I had high hopes of actually doing this one, an ASW organised Enduro cross, 2 races of 1 hour each with a break between the 2 races. I was going to test out the arm for the 1st race in order to see if it would cope with the riggers of racing and maybe do the 2nd race as well if everything went ok, but it wasn’t to be, oh b*llocks! So I was left yet again on the sidelines watching, never mind though, it was excellent stuff!

I traveled up to this one with Adam (Blake), got there nice and early, and with loads of time on our hands we decided to go and take a look around the track. A nice warm overcast day and the track was bone dry, very open and much similar to an old school motocross course, rolling fields, a few hills and a couple of jumps. After looking at the start of the kids race it was back to van to see if we could actually see anybody we new! Um………..what’s going on here? Hardly knew anyone! Apart from Barry weeks, John Pitman and his wife Sue who was taking some photo’s for her webpage (see links on the right hand side of the page) and Ben Scotts dad (sorry mate, seen you around at all the races but don‘t know your first name), we didn’t bloody well see anybody else that we knew.

On to the racing then and it was all extremely fast stuff with the motocross boys having their day and filling up the first 4 to 5 places in the expert class (no champ class), but that was to expected as the course had nothing really in the way of any tight nadgery stuff or obstacles to slow them down and the laps being a mere 5-6 minutes to complete. I was stood on the hillside with just about everybody else to watch the action so basically you could see half the track and follow the action all the way. Adam did well and was 1st of the ‘enduro’ riders home in the 1st race.

So there we are sat down having a natter before race 2 commenced and the phone rings……………’where abouts are you then? I’m on my way’, it was Steve (Jose) who’d been away for the weekend with his other half and her mum and dad and were traveling back when he had the cunning idea to make a detour and get them to drop him off so he watch the 2nd race and then get a lift home with us! And sure enough half hour later he pulled up, got out of the motor, said ’see ya then’ to the family, and off they went on their merry way.

So to race 2 then and me and Steve managed to find a nice hill out on the course that had some nice deep powdery dirt laying on to of it, probably about a foot deep in some places so nothing really seeing as everything was as ‘dry as a bone‘, but we knew it would catch some riders out and sure enough it did. We had a real laugh with a few other people watching some riders going up it, but wasn’t all fun and games as we did help a few out that got stuck in the deep stuff. I was stood gesturing most of the time to the 125 riders telling them to ‘pin it’ so they could make it up the hill ok without getting bogged down in the dirt, needless to say most of them ignored me! Aaaarrgh, wish I was bloody well out there riding! Would loved that bit of the course, I do love ‘pinning’ the old strimmers (if my memory serves me right).

After the 2nd race had finished and with Adam having an even better result with a 4th place, it was off to the burger van to get fed but not before I got on Blakey’s 250 and had a quick spin on it! We then had quite a wait until the results got posted up before heading home. Another good day out today and nice to watch a bit of Enduro cross.

Idless woods- 25th July 2010

It was off to the next series of the south West championships not far home nr Truro, only about 30 mins away. I managed to cadge a lift from Morcambe and Wise (a certain Mr Blake and Mr Jose), and in return I was of course on pit board duties again for them. We got there quite early as we new that parking was at a premium due to narrow fire road that led up to the start/pit area, and you could only park to one side of the road. Absolutely cracker of a day weather wise it was too, nice warm sunshine, hooray, summers here!

As this was a local event and us parked up near the start, it wasn’t long before what it seemed like every bloody rider stopped and had a chat with us all as they walked past on their way up. Mark and Rich Tucker were the 1st to arrive, followed by a whole host of local talent (or not!) in the shape of Phil ’smiler’ Harris, Andy (converted to a 4 banger) Smith, Francis (my T shirts too big) Banfield, Steve Jay, Jon Hinkley, James (I wear pop socks) Hull along with brother Dan, Paul Ford, Rob (love song man) Ellick, Rich (Dragons den inventor) Batstone, Ollie Hicks, Arthur (evergreen) Johnson, Jed Treleaven, Paul Fordy, Rod Mclean, Phew! the list is endless! But hold on, where’s ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman? Suddenly my phone rung, and sure enough it was ‘mad’ Jack running a bit late as usual, so he asked us if we could move up the vans so we could make a space for him where we were so he didn’t have to walk too far to the start! So we did, and sure enough with just about half an hour or so to go before race time, up turns Jack and parks behind us (this was to cause a ‘you’ve been framed’ moment a bit later on).

So with me yet again being a general ’dogs body’ carrying this and that for a few riders to the pits, it was off to watch it all happen down at the bottom of the start straight to see who got the holeshot. Phil (harris) wasn’t riding today so I was stood there with him along with John Pitman (who also wasn’t riding) and Mark Tucker. So after watching all the classes start, it was off to explore the woods to see if I can find some decent sections of ’where it all happens’ in order to catch exhilarating action! With the conditions being warm and dry, and it being a fast course, I couldn’t really find anywhere without going miles away (coz I was needed back at the pits to help with re-fueling) that produced some tasty pieces of action.

The racing at the front of the pack was top notch, some good champ riders there today, and the top 3 were all within a few bike lengths of each other for at least the first hour, good stuff to watch it was. After helping out a few riders on their pit stop, it was time for me to stay round the start area and resume my pit board duties for messrs Blake and Jose until the race finished. In the meantime a few riders had some problems, Steve Jay stopped in the pits for a while not feeling too good, Andy Smith stopped for running repairs a bit later on, James Hull DNF’d with yet another puncture, and I poured Mark Tucker another cup of coffee from my flask!!!

Now what the fooking hell is going on here then? The catering van is leaving! What’s that all about? Probably the busiest period they’re likely to get when all the riders are ‘Hank Marvin’ and need food at the end of proceedings, and they pee off and leave! Now come on play the game, I know we’ve been a bit peed off in the past when the vans ran out of chips at the end and all that’s left is bread rolls, but to actually leave the bloody place the minute the race finished is errrrrrr……..well, lets say politely, not good! Still never mind, it was all decided to stop at Macdonalds on the way home in order that Steve Jose could satisfy his hunger and keep his weight up.

But wait, drama ensued just as we were leaving as ‘mad’ Jacks van got stuck down a drainage hole whilst trying to leave the place. After showing everybody how to get stuck ‘good and proper’ by digging yourself an even bigger hole by revving the nuts out of your vans engine in front of us all, Jack rather embarrassingly had to admit DEFEAT, (not something in his vocabulary), and go and get help in order to get towed out which he did.

A good day out today, enjoyed it………………….

Bratton court- 4th July 2010

Got, a lift up to the Exmoor event with ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman. Now I have mentioned it before, the A396 is an horrendous road, more twists and turns than a factory full of corkscrews, loads of pot holes, blind corners, add this to the fact that ’mad’ Jack wasn’t hanging about and overtook anything that got in his way, it was somewhat of a ’white knuckle’ ride for me in some parts with me hanging on for grim death!!

Having breathed a sigh of relief after arriving in one piece, we got parked up within earshot of some of the usual motley crew of Phil (smiler) Harris, Andy Smith, Steve Jose, Adam Blake, James and Dan Hull, Paul Ford, Rich (the inventor) Batstone, and Rob Ellick. Incidentally, when I went over to Rob’s van to have a bit of a chin wag with him, I was told that he was sitting in the front seat listening to Steve’s Wrights ‘love song’ hour on radio 2!!! And sure enough he was! Apparently he was pissed off at an event a few weeks earlier because the race started in the middle of the ‘love song’ hour and he had to miss half of it! Rich Batstone still had a washing machine hose attached to his fuel can (still waiting for that to be shown on Dragons den), James Hull was wearing ’pop socks’ that looked some sort of ’girlie’ thing from the 80’s, and Phil Harris had my front wheel from my gasser on his bike because he’d smashed his up.

So it was off to get a riders list from the signing on tent where Debbie Tucker was sitting on sun bed in the warm weather nursing her broken wrist due to being thrown off the back of a horse, no taken pictures today then Deb! Then it was off to the start line to watch the everybody go. Today’s racing was a little bit different from the normal Exmoor events as is was to be 2 x 1.½ hour races, with only a fuel stop for a rest in between and the 2nd race being a reverse of the course. After the start I got a lift on the back of Mark Tuckers quad up the hillside and onto a decent viewing point at the top of one of the hills. After a few laps of standing there Steve Jose pulled up with a bad case of Pin and needles and couldn’t ride properly so had to take it easy for the rest of the race, Michael Brooks had an off and bust his brake lever and also had his mousse hanging of his back wheel so went back to get it sorted, and a few laps later ’Brookster’ pulled up beside me again only for his 2nd mousse to hanging off his back wheel again!! 2 mousses changes in one 1 ½ hour race, not much chance of a decent finish there then Mike! Rich Tucker yet again was riding like a young man possessed and was trouncing the field, mind you ’mad’ Jack wasn’t doing bad either in 2nd place and yet again belying his age. Paul ford had fork seal problems so not a good day for him.

It was off back to the pits at the end off the race to catch up with the riders and here their thoughts (or excuses) on how things went. Quite a few had said that they’d got lost on some parts of the course on the 1st lap? Maybe not enough arrows on some parts, or maybe just following someone that had gone the wrong way! After about 15 mins of the riders having a break, it was off to get a lift with Mark (Tucker) again on the back of his quad up the hill again and to watch from a different part of the course this time. From there on I took a hike around part of the course which to me seemed very fast and dry before I headed back down to the lap scoring / pit area for the last half hour of the race.

Drama ensued when word got back to me that Phil Harris had gone missing on the last lap! Turned out that he’d had a big off and had made his way back to his van minus his bike which he’d left somewhere on the course because he’d injured himself a bit too much to ride the thing back. I then went on a walkabout the find the bloody thing and bring it back for him. I must say twisting the throttle on a 300 seems to me like riding a bloody tractor, it’s got more grunt than a German porn star! Phil wasn’t too bad after a bit of a rest so everything turned out alright on that score.

After the post race banter with usual crew, it was off to get terrified again with a lift home with ’mad’ Jack!

Two valleys- 20th June 2010

This week it was off to a Track n trail event with Adam Blake (pic), beautiful weather it was too, and the sun was shining as we made our way up for the 2 hour or so drive. About half way through the journey a white Transit that was tailgating us began to flash it’s lights, when I stuck me head out of the window I realized it was Andy Smith, he’d also come up from down our way so we rode in convoy up to Two valleys. Well to be honest, me and Adam went straight past the bloody turning because we were laughing too bloody much like a pair of kids joking about, (it was actually over another rider whom I won’t name) so good old Andy phoned us up and told us what a pair of twats we were!!!!

Anyway, got there in the end, so I went to take a look at one of the hard routes and report back. Phil Studley came over and had a chat and apparently had changed his engine overnight due to riding the day before and it braking!! Well that moved worked a treat, and if you look at the results then you’ll know why. I rode this event last year and by the look at it nothing much had changed, I remember getting the holeshot and crying out for some woods, but with the track basically being a motocross and open field circuit, I stood no chance, so I didn’t have a particularly good day, still, can’t complain this year coz I ain’t riding it!!! Nice to catch up with Jason Duggan, hadn’t seen him for ages, so wished him luck, apart from that, I didn’t know anyone else!!!! Bloomin heck, one week you know everybody, the next week, hardly anyone!!

As always at these TnT events you do get a big entry with lots of different classes, nothing wrong with that of course, but, and this is the big BUT, when you have a fairly short, fast and open type course coupled with lots of riders, sometimes you only have to do one lap and you’re already in amongst the back markers. I watched the start from the top of one of the hills and witnessed a pile up of the clubman 4 st entrants just as they were slowing down to get round the 1st corner. I thought myself there and then I bet Andy Smith was involved in that, and sure enough he was!!! Poor old Andy, 20 secs into the race and crashed, and by the time he got himself started again, he was plum last along with a broken front brake and a bent clutch lever that needed the hands the size of Kenny Everett to operate!

Now with so many classes to let go at one minute intervals, I was stood there thinking to myself that the champ guys are gonna come round soon before some of the other classes has started, and sure enough they did. I couldn’t believe it then, when some of the champ riders were coming through lap scoring at the end of their 1st lap and they let one of the other classes go right in front of them. Adam got caught up with the bloody lot of them and must have lost loads of time getting through that lot, not very good organization me thinks.

My time to help in the pits soon came round so I did my bit to help Adam and Andy, then it was off to get the grub from the van. Soon after Andy Smith came back looking well p*ssed off, he’d had an almighty off and busted his foot peg along with a tasty looking graze on his hip after hitting a tree stump. Game over for him, we couldn’t mend the peg so he had to retire. The hot humid weather was certainly taking it’s toll on a few riders with longer than normal pit stops to in order get some more liquid down their gullets, but that was the last thing on Blakey’s mind as his last few laps were dogged by a sticking throttle problem which caused him to ease back a bit.

At the end of the race and as to be expected, a lot of riders were ‘cream crackered’ and were sat there waiting for the flag to come out, not because of the course, but because the weather had taken it’s toll on a few on them.
So after getting a lift back from the pits on one of them orange KTM things and everything had been packed up, it was time for the burger van before the journey home.

Nancemellion- 13th June 2010

It was off to watch a local race about 30 mins from home which happened to be another round of the SW championship. It has to said that Nancemellion isn’t top priority on a riders list when looking at the diary of events, me included, so it’s just as well I ain’t riding at the moment!

I got picked en route by the dynamic duo of Batman and Robin, sorry, I meant Steve Jose and Adam Blake (Steve Jose is Robin by the way, coz he like dressing up in green lycra tights and wearing a mask, or so his misses told me), and made the short drive down the A30 to where it all was happening. A nice dry warm day, and a nice little crew of us had gathered as all our vans were just about parked up next to each other due to the massive field to park in. Phil ’smiler’ Harris was on top form as usual making everybody laugh, Andy Smith was proudly showing us his new fancy foot pegs, Francis Banfield was still going on about his bike being too fiery and his clutch being too heavy, Steve Jay was in the wars after ’cricking’ his neck that very morning whilst loading his bike in the back of the van, Arthur Johnson was still fuming at ‘that bloke on a bridge’ that held him up for 6 hours on the M5 whilst traveling to last years Dawn to Dusk and Tim Williams was almost at the stage of passing out whilst waiting for the catering van to turn up because he hadn’t had any breakfast.

With me the past few months being a general ‘dogs body’ at the races helping a few people out, today I’d thought I’d graduate to a new level and use a pit board to help a few riders out as the race unfolded. So it off down to the start to watch everybody pile through and then off to watch the field go by down on the bottom bit of the track where the rough old motocross course lies. Had a good old chat to Dean canfield for a while who was also stood there watching, before moving on to a section of the woods where there was a bit of mayhem ensuing on a rooty steep climb.

What was happening next the words ’farce’ ’ridiculous’ and ’nonsense’ (amongst others) spring to mind. You see the hill that everybody was getting stuck on (including some champ riders) was about at most 2 to 3 bike widths wide, so as soon as one got stuck, another bike came along to try and get round them, but of course there wasn’t really another line to take, only an extremely difficult one, so that rider got stuck as well causing absolute chaos, not only on the hill but with bikes queuing at the bottom waiting for the track to clear so they could have a clear run at getting up. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in plenty of these situations myself, but the thing is the marshals have used there common sense and opened up a different route temporarily in order to clear the backlog or have cut that bit of the course out altogether. Every couple of minutes it was complete chaos and believe it or not, the marshals were at the top of the hill whilst 4 or 5 of us spectators were doing the bloody donkey work (ok I admit with one arm only) and hauling the stricken bikes and fallen riders back on two wheels and up to the top. At the foot of the hill just to the right hand side there was another track which was dry and passible so as to cut out the carnage in front of the riders as they came round the corner. I started to direct some riders through this bit in order to clear the back log, and all of us who were stood there helping thought it was a sensible idea including the well respected Tony Dinham, who I must say had been helping out all the riders for some time on that hill and was absolutely soaked in sweat by doing so. But wait a minute, hold on, down came a marshal from the top of the hill and started ranting and raving that everyone had to go up the chaotic bike stricken climb regardless and promptly closed the easier alternative route. Apparently he mutterd the words to Tony ‘well Dustow can get up there’ um…………………hold on a minute, are we on about Chris Dustow who basically is a top class championship rider and has just come back from one of the toughest races in the world, that being ERZBERG??????? Well my friend, it’s not surprising he can make it up there then is it? Tony couldn’t believe it that he wouldn’t let the back log clear and open up the other route, nor could every other bugger who been stood there sweating there nuts off helping out, so I had a word and asked the marshal to ’use some common sense’, he said he was!!!! With that, all of us went and let him get on with himself, absolutely ridiculous and complete bloody farce in my opinion. Do you know what? Later on in the race that part of the course got CUT OUT!!! I rest my case. This blog that I write are my own personal opinions and how I see things, if you see things in a different light to me, then that’s fine, you can always start you’re own internet page up and do it yourself. I’m personally not into slagging off marshals, organisers, or any other bodies that help run events, I’m just saying as I see it, rant over, let’s move on!

So after getting my breath back and finally stopping the sweat dripping from my brow, I went back up to the pits to help a few guys out and to finally use my writing skills on the pitboard to tell a few riders how they were getting on as the race started to unfold, and also to have a bit of a laugh with a few of them and write something comical on the thing as they went past! I think the best one was when Francis Banfield went past me, he wasn’t going too well and I simply wrote on the board, ‘Try twisting the throttle more’! He saw it alright because he stuck his 2 fingers up at me as he rode by.

Saw a few people in the pits to have a chat too including Andrew Cundy who wasn’t racing due to a nasty looking injury to his fingers which he sustained while out practicing. From what he told me that had happened, he was lucky not to lose the bloody things as they were caught up in the bike and then dragged along the ground!

As the race came to an end the weather just started to cloud over and rain began to fall, but that didn’t dampen Steve’s (Jose) spirits as he’d knew he’d won his class and was full of it (see pic). One sad thing to report about the race that was said to me by 2 different riders and on 2 separate occasions, was a certain rider that was course cutting. I won’t name and shame the guy, but I think someone should have a quiet word with him, he’s a decent enough rider and doesn’t need to do it……………………………

Storridge woods- 31st May 2010

Traveled up to watch this one with ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman and his boy Paddy. Nice weather and a lovely warm day greeted us as we arrived at the Devon track, and got parked up right next to Phil Harris’s super duper motor home. Not only that, but also the other lads that had traveled up as well were parked the other side of it, so we had a good little crowd of us, Andy Smith, Steve Jose, Adam Blake, Phil, ’mad’ Jack, yours truly, and also Rob Ellick, Paul Ford, and Rich Batstone. DRAGONS DEN, now that’s what Rich Batstone is gonna be on this year! Why? I’ll tell you why, after breaking his nozzle of his fast fill fuel can, he invented a system which works just as well and looks a million dollars ( I don’t think) from a washing machine hose! Rich reckons it’s going to catch on, so if you see someone in the car park selling washing machine hoses at your next local enduro event, it’ll be him and not a sales rep from Zanussi or Hotpoint.

Next it was off to have a little peak down at the start line and to get a riders list from Debbie Tucker who was signing everybody on. Hubby Mark was also there and looking like a farmer on his big 4x4 quad whilst having a bit of a break from his duties of clerk of the course. Also bumped into the Hull’s who were out in force, dad Kev doing the pit duties with his 2 sons James and Dan who were both riding today. Gary ‘nothing gets in my way’ Mcoy was also in attendence and probably reminiscing about last years event when the b*stard run over my bike and put a bloody hole through my fuel tank! Well he wasn’t going to do it this year was he? Cause I ain’t riding today, no wonder he looked disappointed when I spoke to him!

So after everybody had got changed it was off down to the start, and once all the riders had got away I took a hike with Paddy and walked to one of the expert routes and waited for the leaders to come through, nice one it was too, a steep loose rutted stoney climb, bound to get a few in trouble I thought, and it bloody well did!

Phil Harris came a cropper on it and slid back down to the bottom and had to make a 2nd attempt to get up it, and Richard Batstone slid off line and got pinned against a tree, I had to come to the rescue and help him get back upright and get back down to the bottom so he could have another go, no probs 2nd time for him. I helped a few riders who’d got stuck on the hill for a couple of laps and then made my way back up to the pit area.

You could tell who was leading the race by this time, simply because you could hear his exhaust 3 miles away! It was none other than Rich Tucker who’d managed to put a hole in it, down on power I expect, but he was still pulling away from the field. Whilst looking at the riders who I knew come by, I suddenly thought, where’s Jack? 30 mins later and still no Jack. Whoops! me thinks something’s happened to him, and sure enough it had as finally he turned up back at the pits with brake problems and decided to pull out. The things was is that he said he was going home there and then, so I had no bloody lift back home! Come in my saviour, Phil Harris, I quickly asked him weather he could give us a lift back when he done his pit stop, good lad he said no probs, that meant I could stay and help a few lads in the pits for their pit stop.

From here on in I pretty much stayed around the lap scoring / pit area having a chat to Kev Hull, good it was too, as yards from the end of the lap the riders came up a hill and up a nice little jump. Full marks must go to Gavin Hunt for one legged showboating when getting some nice air and for Rich Tucker who simply got some of the biggest air time of all the riders on every lap. Must say that old stalwart Arthur Johnson on his Gasser 300 must have been one of the fastest up that straight which led back into the woods immediately after going through the transponders, he was flying on it, no doubt due to the fact that I was ‘egging’ him on and gesturing to him to ‘give it loads’!

At the end of it all I actually got on a bike and rode!!!!!!! Andy Smith gave us his 250 4 banger to take back, Ok, it was only a trip up the lane and back to the vans but it was nice to get on a bike again, even though it still hurt my flamin elbow!
So back at the vans the usual banter and hard luck stories flew around before going back down to check the days results (nice one Exmoor for getting them out so quick) before it was off back home with Phil and Andy. Big thanks to them to go out of their way and for dropping me off at Jacks place at such short notice.
A good day out today, good organization and a cracking course to go with it.

Injury update- 23rd may 2010

Injury update
Is that a picture of some apparatus from the medieval times for the purpose of being used in the sadistic and ugly cruel world of torture? Course not, it’s what I have to use daily on my bloody arm to try and strengthen it and to eliminate ’Lateral Epicondylitis’ (that’s tennis elbow by the way). A 5lb club hammer attached to a nylon cord threaded through a broom handle, another hammer on it’s own, and an ironing board (not in the pic!) As well as a towel and some ice. It all seems a bit crazy doesn’t it? But they all serve their purpose and hopefully they’ll work for me. The arm is of course still giving me trouble, So I’m afraid it’s more long term than first thought, and after scouring the net for hours and hours and reading up on different forums about it, it’s one of those things that is difficult to treat if you’re doing a really physical sport. Needless to say that holding on to a motorbike and twisting a throttle on rough ground for over 3 hours with just a 30 second break in between on most Sundays is not quite the same as playing table tennis is it? Overall though it’s a lot better than it was but still quite a way off being ready to race.

It never rains but pours?
Yes believe it or not the last few months have been a total bleeding nightmare as regarding trying to get my fitness back on track. I tore my calf muscle whilst out running, so that put me back for about 4-6 weeks and then when that got better I decided it would be a good idea to go and tear the tendons just below the patella! (knee cap) Now that one really hurt, it was like being stabbed in the bloody knee with a hot piece of glass. I’m now back doing some light running so hopefully I can get some fitness built up ready for my return to racing!!!!!! (whenever that may be)

Plans?
If there’s one race I’d love to do again this year, it’s the dawn to dusk in August, but I know it would be pure insanity to go out and race 12 hours without even getting on a bike and doing some sort of practicing before hand. So, if I’m not racing by the end of July then it’s going to be a no no on that one. Weston beach race is another possibility later on in the year, just have to see how it goes.

Thanks to everyone who’s logged on to view my antics lately, see you all at the races!

Colwith two way- 8th May 2010

So it was off to watch another local event just a few miles up the road. Got picked up by Steve Jose and arrived at Colwith a few minutes later to see basically everybody that was at husytns a few weeks earlier! Adam Blake couldn’t ride to due his bike being totally wrote off at the front end after a tasty ‘off’ straight into a tree at speed the week before, so naturally what do you do when something like that happens? Of course you bring along your very own personalized trophy of a bit of the bike that people react to in the way of ‘f*ck me, how did you do that’? And sure enough everyone did when they saw the state of the exhaust that had come off the bike, TOTALLY FLATTENED! Luckily ‘Blakey’ was none the worse for wear, how he escaped that one god only knows.

A nice little crowd had gathered for a bit of banter beforehand, me, Steve, Adam, Rich and Steve Jay, Francis Banfield, Trevor vercoe, and a few others guys who names I never caught. Whilst ‘milling’ about I caught up with Colin George, Jed Treleaven (who was giving his new Gas Gas 250 it’s first outing), Arthur ‘evergreen’ Johnson, Hannes Tanzer, Jon hinkley, Andy Cundy and Mike Roose who was taking his old RM out for a spin today, which I think he should do more often!!!

A bit of dull greyish looking day with the threat of rain in the air, but not too chilly, so ideal conditions really. The Colwith two way is a bit different from the norm as you have two 1 hour races with observation sections thrown in (similar to a trials type course), and each competitor is given a certain number of laps to do within their allotted time without penalty marks being had in the trials sections. Then after race one, with a bit of a break in between, you do the course in reverse, simple!

So just before the start it was off for a trundle around the fields and the track to find a decent spot watch the riders come through. Me and Adam found a cracking steep little ditch filled with mud and ruts which had a few getting stuck. When we first arrived we had to pull out a bloody Honda XR 600 to be precise, how heavy was that? I’m telling you it seemed to weigh like a tank!
A few more bikes later and I happened to get splattered full frontal in mud (much to the amusent of everybody watching) as I stood directly in the firing line of a bike’s back wheel as it spun round like a out of control washing machine on full spin trying to free itself out of the mud, typical!!!

After the first race was over it was back off to where everyone was parked up to have a chat about how they got on and to wait for next race to start, but rumor had it that the course marshals had cut that ditch out, bloody spoilsports if you ask me! So it was off to find another tricky little part of the course that we could he a good look at and see some action. Sure enough we did, and with Francis Banfield in tow this time, it wasn’t long before we were helping riders to get up a steep little rooty climb. Nice to see Mike Roose enjoying himself going round and he didn’t have any problem with that bit of the track where we were stood at all, younger riders take note! Some guys chain came off and wrapped itself around the front sprocket 3 or 4 times, and try as we all did for about 15 mins to free it, it was hopeless and the poor guy had a long push back to the pits.

After the 2nd race had finished a little twist ensued when riders had the chance to compete in mini extreme slalom race which included a skip, tyres, and some logs, while going head to head with each other until it a winner was found. Good fun was had by both riders and spectators in this, and it was a nice little fun way to close the proceedings.

A good day out and it was made even better when I found out that my team Leeds United had finally got promoted back into the championship!

Hustyns- 18th April 2010

Well I suppose it was safe to say that with Hustyns being just 10 mins away from me, I was gutted not being able to ride. I know the woods well as I’ve run, cycled and walked the ‘mut’ round them plenty of times, and with the track being so dry due to the recent warm spell of weather, it looked set to be a corking day. On top of that, it’s a brilliant course and right up my street, never mind, always next year!

I arrived early and unbelievably for a Hustyns event, the sun was shining! It was lovely weather and just like a summers day, so it was definitely going to be on the fast side today. As everyone started to arrive it seemed to be like a ‘who’s who’ of the south west enduro world! Every bugger I practically knew was there so needless to say I wouldn’t be short of a conversation for next few hours before racing started!

A few of us gathered round for the usual bit of good humored chat and piss taking, me, Steve ‘at last I’ve won a race’ Jose, Adam Blake, Phil ‘loved up’ Harris, and Andy Smith. That was the main core but as other riders passed by, one by one they joined in the camaraderie, Richard and Steve Jay, Francis Banfield, ‘mad’ Jack, John Hinkley, clerk of the course Mike Roose, Jed Treleaven, Mark and Rich Tucker, Arthur Johnson, in fact so many I just can’t remember them all. One certain chap did stick in my mind though that didn’t escape the clutches of our crew, Christian Soanes, as everyone was having a good old munch on all of their different forms of homemade pre race pasta, Christian came along and decided to join in and scoff his as well. My god, what the bloody hell was that he was eating? It looked like mashed up cold corrugated cardboard (see pic), and smelt like road kill, yuk! Mind you his girlfriend wasn’t best pleased when she came over and asked what all the fuss was about, coz she’s the one who made it for him the night before!!!

After a bit more of the old tongue wagging chit chat to a few more riders that I knew in the pit area, I waited around the start area with Mark (Tucker) to watch everyone go off. After the 1st lap I took a 15 min walk to the special test to take a few snaps and to watch all the action and to give a bit of encouragement to a few riders (well actually to tell them to get their arse in gear and go a bit faster!) Must say that I was most impressed with a certain Mr Dustow showing how a 125 should be rode on a test, simply awesome.

After a few laps of everyone doing the test, it was back off to the pits to see what going on with everybody for the last few laps of the event. With the course being so fast today most riders ‘cleaned it’ on time so it gave them a bit of time to re-fuel, take on some water and get caught by me for a quick chat, so basically I had about 40 different views on how things were going! Everyone I spoke too was enjoying it which of course nearly had me running away from it all and sobbing amongst the forestry commission undergrowth due to not riding because of my bloody elbow!

As the riders finished one by one in the glorious sunshine I managed to grab Ollie Hicks who’s got a Husqvarna 125 so I could take a closer look at it. Spent a bit of time going over it and asking a few questions, looks a nice piece of kit, food for thought that one? I also managed to catch up with Colin Treleaven the boss of Thor motorcycles who was stood right next to the burger van (surprise surprise) to talk about, erm……….Gassers, and also to ask him if his business is going under because I ain’t been down there for 6 months spending all my money in his shop!

So with everyone back safe and sound and with no rush to get home, yet more banter and general good natured ‘moronic’ chat was had by all the lads back at the van. Even though I wasn’t riding, today was a top day, fantastic weather, good course, good organization, and the whole thing just had a really good ‘buzz’ about it, Top notch!

Grebestone manor- 28th March 2010

Traveled up with Adam Blake and ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman for an ORE race just off the M5 past Exeter, so not too far to go. With the rain we’ve been having this week the usual fun and games were had getting into the field to park the motor. I got out of the van and looked for a decent line through the mud (like you do) so ‘Blakey’ could use his champ skills and plough through the gloop in his van in order to get parked up, this worked a treat and while every other bugger struggled he made look easy!!

Parked up just in front of us was Gary ‘nothing gets in my way’ Mcoy and Nick life. Gary was feeling a bit worse for wear after having a night on the beer, mind you it didn’t seem to make a difference to his appearance, in fact I thought he looked better for it!

Whilst I milling around the signing on trailer (which in fact only 3 people could stand on it at one time in case it tipped over!) I bumped into the 3 musketeers, Rich Batstone, Paul Ford and Rob Ellick. Nice to see Rich riding again and it bought back a few memories when we both used to be rivals a few years back at the same ORE events (bloody hell I’m sounding like a old man now), had a good laugh about that we did. A few other riders from down our way made the trip so I knew quite a few that were there.

After a quick walk of the very open track (like most of the ORE events because of the quad racing that goes beforehand), it was back to the van and to wait for everyone to get changed before the start. As flag time got nearer I toddled off for a good vantage point so I could see all the action, and were I was stood I could see most of the bloody course, eh……………..one field there, another field there, another field there, in fact quite a few fields! Fast racing then was assured and short laps as well, not my ideal kind of course but who cares, I’m not even racing! The track in places was a little bit ‘tacky’ due to the recent downpours but nothing too much to worry about.

So after watching all the riders flood through past me for a few laps I went off walkabout and headed back up to the pits were I bumped into Gary (Mcoy) who’d had bike trouble and had to pull out after about the hour mark. I helped ‘Blakey’ do his pit stop, helped out Gavin Hunt a bit who had to pit for while because he had brake trouble, and then went and took another look at a different part of the course. It was at this point that I saw Paul Ford cruising around the track like an old fart, so I shouted to him to get his arse in gear and hurry things up and not take it so easy!

God knows how many laps the top guys did at the end of it all, but they were short laps and keeping tabs on everybody’s position was nigh on impossible although I did know that Nick Life trounced everybody (he made it look like a stroll in the park) and ‘mad’ Jack was 2nd, and Adam 4th. Back at the van Jack was in a bad way, he wasn’t injured but had just exerted himself so much that he resembled a figure of someone that had just downed 20 Jack Daniels and then been hit by a bus, he couldn’t stand up let alone walk!!!! Jack didn’t want any help so all we could do was leave him be. Just before we left a few of us were stood round having a chat, including Christian Soanes and Gavin Hunt, where for some reason or another we all ended up showing off our battle scars from our injuries over the years! Adam of course felt left out because the soft lad hasn’t got any! Or it maybe the fact that he’s to a skillful rider to get any!

On the way home the atmosphere in the van was non existent, in fact I would probably say that there was more atmosphere on the moon as Jack was still in a bad way, puffing and panting, holding his head in his hands, opening the window for fresh air, feeling sick, me and Blakey didn’t quite know what to say and it wasn’t long before we had to stop on the hard shoulder of the M5 for Jack to throw up!!! Another 30 mins later and we had to stop again, this time on the A30 for the same thing, not good. It wasn’t until we got back to near home that Jack had pulled round a bit which was just as well because he was giving me a lift home!

Next race I’ll be out and about at is the Hustyn enduro, see you there.