(Pic by Debbie Tucker) First of all a big thanks to Thor motorcycles who managed to sort out my bike on Saturday afternoon at 3.30pm the day before the race so I could ride on Sunday. I’d just finished putting the numbers on the bike at home and giving everything one last check when my clutch (which is a hydraulic one) decided to blow it’s seals on the master cylinder after I pulled the lever in. A quick phone call to Thor and within half an hour they had the thing out and repaired it for me.
So to Sunday then and I was really looking forward to this one but also hoping that I wouldn’t have a repeat of last years event when I did some marshaling and went and did my elbow in after I had my cortisone injection. Fingers crossed then and off I set at about 6am for a couple of hours drive up to Devon. A chilly start to the day but with bright sunshine overhead, it looked set to be a corker of a day.
With this being the 2nd round of the South West champs all the usual riders were present who’d made the trip up from Cornwall and a whole lot more from the surrounding counties as the event was sold out. To me that wasn’t surprising as there’s not many events that offer a 24 mile lap with a variety of terrain, and also with it being a timecard event, it was a proper enduro!
With me milling about before the start, I wasn’t short of a chat or two bumping in and stopping for a chin wag to just about everybody who got in my way. Mark and Debbie Tucker were in the signing on tent getting the riders organized, so at least all the competitors were assured of some smiling faces when signing on instead of the usual miserable ones that you seem to face most of the time! Now I’ve got to say that numbers is a strong point of mine, and that’s why I seem to have about half the amount of riders coming up to me at a timecard event to work out or check their times for them. Imagine then to my horror, when Ali Gilbert came up to me and asked if his times were right and were in fact 10 mins out! (by that I mean 10 mins more than what they should be). A big drum roll ladies and gentlemen please for Mr Steve Jose, who not only worked out Ali’s times wrong, he also did it to Matt Tilley’s as well!!! Whilst back at the van getting changed Paul Ford and Richard Batstone dropped by and asked about ’mad’ Jack, so I didn’t disappoint and told them a few story’s about the ‘legend’ that I’ve acquired along the way!
So it was down to the start then and today I was in the vets experts and we had 3 laps to do with 3 special tests, so lots of riding and a good challenge. Just after 9.30am I kicked the strimmer into life and off I went with John Hinkley (who was on the same time as me) out into the road for about a mile before turning down a lane and into the woods where the special test area was. With this being the 1st lap we had basically a sighting lap of the test as we wouldn’t be timed on that section until laps 2,3, and 4.
This was a test and half I’m telling you because of the nature of it. We started off in very slippery tight hilly woods that had the usual stumps and roots in, and for good measure a couple of log hops were thrown in before going out into some extremely slippery fields moto x style, then across some undulating meadows, before heading back into the woods which included a muddy rutted water filled ditch (that was causing a few problems to a few riders) another log hop and more off camber slippery trails. An extremely long test and hard work especially with it being so slick as you were either going up or down in the woods constantly over all the stumps and roots. I reckon it must have been at least around 4 miles in length and unlike the test at the Muntjac a few weeks back, this was a lot harder believe me.
I can’t begin to describe a 24 mile lap, but lets just say it had almost everything thrown in there, a bit of road work that linked each set of woods together, water crossings, marshy bits, off cambers, stoney climbs, muddy ruts, ‘flat out’ field sections, mud infested ditches, and a whole lot more, superb course and I can see why clerk of the course Simon Thomas spoke to the ACU about this becoming a BEC round at some point. At about 2 thirds distance we had a time check, this was a slack one so no need to rush and I got there with plenty of time in hand as did everybody else. Mike Roose was in attendence nattering to all and sundry and generally ‘geeing’ all the riders up as well supplying a few with a much needed ‘ciggy’!
The 2nd check point was back to the start/finish area and this was tight in terms of time, I think I took this one too easy to be honest and ended up 2 mins over, should have pushed a little harder, but with 48 miles still to go I didn’t want to go and do something stupid so I wasn’t too disappointed. Onto the 2nd lap then and with our 1st test coming up and me knowing things were a bit ‘tricky’ because of it being so slippery out there, I let a few psi out of the back tyre and this worked wonders for me. I had a good first special test, no mishaps and went well, and the best bit was when I came to that big muddy water filled ditch half way round, there were 3 riders stuck in it and I thought ‘f*ck this’ I ain’t waiting, so I launched the 125 through the middle of them and went through it and up the other side without a problem leaving them there wallowing about like Hippo’s in a mud bath, Well pleased with that as I knew that all those 3 had started in front of me on the test so I’d make a lot of time on them.
From here it was onto the slack check and with no problems I made it with plenty of time in hand. So after a bit of a rest things got now even tighter as we had to make it back to the start area with even less time than we did on the 1st lap, and I ended up losing 4 mins. So 2 laps gone and 6 mins down, it was a quick splash and dash and out again to do one more lap but still with 2 tests to go (as we had to do an extra one after we’d finished as well) My second test went even better and I was flying, a good time and was well pleased and it was the 2nd fastest in the vets experts on that particular lap, I felt good!
Me and Steve Jay then rode round together for a while, but I lost sight of him after I got stuck in a horrendous rutted mud filled ditch somewhere in the woods and got pulled out by a marshal, but I didn’t waste much time and I made it to the slack check with plenty of seconds left on the clock. So from here on in it was back to the finish, and with this being the ‘tight on time’ one, I knew I had to push as hard as I could to try and not loose much more time. Just before getting back to the Start/finish area there were a couple of fields that you could open the bike up, I was absolutely nailing it and flat out in 6th gear, in fact I was even sat back on the saddle ‘Weston beach race’ style trying to get more speed out of the strimmer and trying to gain a few seconds on the clock hoping I wouldn’t loose anymore time. I did loose another 2 mins, so 8 mins altogether, but now the fun started as just as I handed my time card in to Mark (Tucker) get checked, my engine died! I kicked and kicked her but no good, she wasn’t going anywhere so I pushed her back to the pits. I still had another test to go and I was desperate to finish after riding for so long so I got a bump start from a few lads and she fired up down the road and off I went towards the special test.
The Gasser was struggling, it didn’t want to go anywhere and all it wanted to do was stall, I knew straight away that the piston rings had ‘gone’, no compression whatsoever, so if she stalled again it would be game over. I got to the test and all I could do was to keep the revs up in 1st gear hoping she would keep going and get me to the end. Every yard felt like an eternity as I had to work the throttle and clutch twice as much to keep her going so I could at least get some sort of finish. This test really was taking forever but I couldn’t even change into 2nd gear otherwise it would stall, I crawled round and those slippery hills in the woods were a nightmare as I daren’t let her conk out. With the finish in sight and about 100 yards to go she’d finally had enough and died on me. I was gutted, just another 20 seconds and I would have been home and dry!
So with the bike full of mud and weighing what seemed like a ton, I began to push it uphill towards the end of the test. Luckily for me the entire Scott family were nearby, both Ashley and Ben had suffered DNF’s so went down to the special test to watch with their mum and dad and came to my rescue! We all pushed and heaved and after about 5 mins I finally made it to the end of the test. But………… I still had to go about a mile up the road and hand my timecard back in back at the start/finish area and with the bike out of action I certainly wasn’t gonna push it back, I was cream crackered! So I dumped the strimmer against the hedge (couldn’t find a skip) and started walking. Just as I started going back I saw 2 women and a little boy getting into a BMW who’d been watching, maybe I could cadge a lift back? So I went over (plastered in mud on my race kit and boots) and asked!! Surprisingly they sad yes and I jumped in the back (after apologizing about the mud I was transferring from my kit onto the upholstery of the car) and off we went. I was sat in the back with the little’un and his mum turned round and said to him ’we didn’t see daddy did we’, so I asked who ’daddy’ was and what number was he? Jesus it’s a small world sometimes ain’t it? ’Daddy’ was none than Paul Ford who I’ve known for ages! Would you credit it?
So after finally getting back and handing my timecard in and finishing god knows how many minutes overtime, it was off for a good old natter with everybody and to hear all the hard luck stories (mine included) before I made my way home picking up the stricken bike en route.
Although it went a bit 'Pete Tong' at the end today, i really enjoyed it, i had good test times and i'm slowly starting to get my bike fitness back which makes all the difference over a long race or event.
A big thanks to Paul Ford’s Mrs for giving us a lift back and to the Scott’s who came to my rescue and pushed my bike up that bloody hill and back to the end of the test.
Finishing position:17/22 (vets experts)
