Hey hey, racing two weeks in a row, just like the old days! It was a bloody early start, got up at 4.30am, drove up to meet Steve Jose at 6am, then a near 3 hour drive up Dorset. We were about an hour away from the event when the phone rung, it was ’mad’ Jack Twentyman who’d only just left because of a drama the night before. To cut a long story short, he decided to play about with his shock settings on his bike at 10 o’clock the previous night! The rear shock froze solid so he had to quickly get his other bike ready and finished that at half past one in the morning. Lucky you Jack for having the luxury of 2 bikes me old son!
Quite a few lads had traveled up to do this one, along with me and Steve was Andy Smith, Rich Tucker, Gary ‘nothing gets in my way Mcoy, ‘mad’ Jack (when he finally arrived), and Michael Brooks. Nice paddock area it was too, hard standing concrete all around and not a bit of mud in sight! Quite a chilly morning though and my immediate thoughts were ‘please hands, don’t bloody well freeze up again like last week’. After the usual general chitter chatter and p*ss taking amongst each other, it was off to get ready and then head off the riders briefing and then to the start.
The flag dropped and this week (unlike last) the Gasser fired up 1st kick and away I went, not a bad start, but I was a bit slow getting to the first corner and got crowded out a bit, so I was about halfway just as we made our way just a short distance into the woods. The course was very tight in places and in quite a lot areas it was only the one line which made it difficult for overtaking, some times there seemed to be like procession of 4 -5 riders all following each other for long periods and all going at the same speed, and unless you risked going off line and maybe hitting something in the undergrowth (which sometimes you had too) then you had to rely on riders making mistakes so you could pass them. When things started to settle down after a few laps the course then really come into it’s own and really started to flow with some lovely tree lined trails, a nice little deep sand section, a few fire roads that were long and very fast (bloody nora I hit 6th gear on those, not often I do that!), and a couple of log crossings to add a bit of spice. Nothing really major at all to slow you down and unlike last weeks event, today’s track was bone dry and there was grip to be found everywhere, around 7 miles in length I reckon and about 16-17 mins a lap (unless you’re a red plate, they were doing it in 14 mins!)
For the first hour or so I was basically trying to catch a group of 3 riders who were all in the class as me that were just up ahead maybe a couple of hundred yards away, but frustrating it was as the gap just stayed the same lap after lap because the course was getting faster and faster and sometimes even scary as you were going at quite a speed through the trees, and of course, everybody else was going that much faster now as well. The couple of laps just before I pitted (one of which was my fastest) I pushed really hard and managed to overtake all 3, but I knew I had to quick in the pits to stay out in front of them again and not get caught up in a ‘procession’ again. As I came into the pit area I forgot where I’d put my refueling can, what a t*sspot I am! I found it in the end, but I’d wasted a good minute trying to find the bloody thing.
Not happy with the pit stop, and my blood now boiling, I pushed on as hard as I could only for a stick to go straight into my back sprocket and get jammed in the back wheel which stopped me and the bike dead in our tracks. It was another minute before I could get the thing out and carry on, more time wasted. The last hour was gonna be a real test for me as I haven’t finished racing a hare and hounds event for over a year now so my stamina was going to come into question here, but I still was going well and on my very last lap I passed another rider in the same class as me, in fact I’d been bloody chasing that guy for the entire race so I well chuffed I managed to get in front of him.
Back at the van at the end Kevin Pippard popped his head round and told us that he’d managed to finish the race with punctures in both front and back tyres, ‘sods law’ that as I was speaking to Kev before hand about tyre pressures, I bet he wished he hadn’t spoke to me now. Andy Smith was on his way to hospital after injuring his shoulder, whilst Phil ‘smiler’ Harris who came to watch was seeking advice about some nasty goings on to do with his rear end!
A very pleasing day for me and my comeback has started, lets hope that elbow holds out then!
Finishing position 4/16 (Clubman ‘A’)
