This week it was to an SCEC event up in Dorset at Shillingstone forest and really looking forward to this one as I’d rode at the place a couple of years ago and it was a super course with 90% of it being woods. I traveled up there with Adam (Blake) and managed to get a day entry as a few riders had dropped out leaving us a space. We got parked up near to Gary (nothing gets in my way) Mcoy and Nick (super smooth) Life, so had a good bit of a chat and the usual banter whilst getting ready. Gary told us a great story about him peeing someone off on the course and then getting clobbered by the bloke whilst being stuck in a rut! Gary Mcoy annoying someone? Hard to believe that ain’t it? A few other lads had made the trip up to Dorset which included Paul Ford, Rob Ellick, Rich Batstone, Jed Treleaven, Andy Smith and Phil ‘smiler’ Harris, so I wasn’t short of conversation or two with anyone then!
So onto the race then and what a tight start it was too! 19 riders in the vets experts and we must have had all of about 10 yards before we hit the first corner! A rather somewhat tight start then and I got crowded out and ended up about mid pack as we set straight off into the woods. Tight wooded trails were the norm for a couple of miles so to overtake anything I front of you, you had go off line a risk what was lying there in the undergrowth, but that didn’t matter to me as within 5 mins of starting I promptly got stuck on a fallen tree and most of the riders in my classed passed me as I had to get off as push the bike over it!
What a superb course and venue this was, there were some absolute peach of some climbs, some really long runs where you had to pin the strimmer all the way to the top, loads of roots, beautiful tree lined trails, some steep downhills , and a few really long fire roads where you could twist the throttle back as much as you liked (scary in places!). The whole lap I reckon being around 7-8 miles in length. After that 1st lap mishap I came round to the lap scoring and looked at the TV that SCEC have which shows your position in your class as you swipe your transponder, fantastic idea that, but I wasn’t too impressed as I was lying in 15th. Some fast lads in these Vets experts and wasted time means losing places especially in those first few laps when every ones going hell for leather with the old adrenaline pumping.
So after the first few laps I settled down and began albeit slowly to work my way back up the field again. Must say that there were 19 riders that started in the o40’s and I was the only one on a 125, that says something, maybe I should be on a 250 or a 300 to make life easier? But the thing is, when you ride a strimmer and it all goes well, it’s so rewarding to beat the bigger bikes knowing that your under powered and it’s all down to the rider.
With an hour passed on the clock and with no further mishaps I’d moved up to 11th and was really enjoying myself, my kind of course!
The usual pit stop for fuel came at about 1hr 40mins where Paul Ford was there to give us a hand after he’d got a puncture and had to retire from the race. Just after the 2 hr mark I’d got up into 10th but didn’t seem to be making much progress however hard I was trying! I kept on pushing and pushing until with 10 mins of the race left I came round to the lap scoring so I knew it would be my last lap, and guess what? Right in front of me were 2 riders stuck together racing each other that were both in the same class as me. I was now on a mission to pass them both so that I could move up a couple of places on the old scoreboard. I got on their back wheel and within 10 minutes I’d passed them both and now it was the time the push even harder to make sure they didn’t get me back. I took some big risks on the fire roads ‘pinning it’ on that last lap and nearly ‘lost it’ a couple of times when I nearly lost the front end a couple of times , but I managed to hold on to the thing and there was no way I was going to lose any places now after pushing for so long.
I just missed out on gaining another place as well because right at the finish line I was just a couple of bike lengths down on the rider just in front of me who was also in the Vets experts. So overall not too bad a day and was quite pleased how it all ended up and enjoyed racing on a superb course.
Finishing position: 8/19 (vets experts)
Monday 11 July 2011
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