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……………………………