So after spending a year out with injury it was back to racing. After winning the Clubman E1 champs down here in the south west in 2009, it was time to up the game a bit and enter most of the races in the vets expert class. Not an easy thing to do as I’d spent a year out of it and I expected to get my arse kicked, but in the end the races that I did finish I didn’t do too bad finishing about half way in most of them. What I did find a bit strange was that the South West championships this year incorporated an experts over 35 class. Don’t know why that is, as just about every other club or governing body (ACU, AMCA, SCEC, TnT, SEEC, to name a few) start their classes with vets at over 40. Seems even more weird because the South West champs have an clubman over 40 class then it goes back 5 years to expert over 35!
This year it’s certainly been one to forget though (apart from the odd decent result) as I’d had far too many DNF’s and a couple of trips to the ambulance thrown in for good measure. Yet again I sacrificed everything in one race (Dawn to Dusk) in order to get a finish with unfortunately serious consequences as the injury I sustained from it kept me out for the rest of the year. But saying that, if I wouldn’t have carried on riding with it for the rest of that race, I wouldn’t have got on the podium with a 3rd place which I was chuffed to bits with!
Here’s some memories not to forget (or maybe forget!) that’s happened during the year:
*‘Mad’ Jack and his boy Paddy have a right old ding dong with each other over a big mac meal at Macdonalds on the way to the Muntjac.
*Adam Blake posting a time only 2secs slower on my 125 than what he did on his 250f round the moto x track one Sunday whilst out practicing.
*Me witnessing an ACU steward smoking in the pits! (naughty naughty)
*Lifting my mud laden bike over a tree at the Treborough enduro, than having to drag it under another one in order for me to get to the fire road and get towed back to the pits.
*‘Mad’ Jack (again) who got injured at the GBXC round in Devon, making the ambulance driver turn around on the way to hospital and take him back to his van!
*The little strimmer seizing on the track while I was out practicing. It’s just such a horrible thing to experience when you try to push the kick start down and it’s just solid.
*The horrendous cramps I suffered in my legs after the Muntjac, never had that in my life, god knows what happened there!
*My arm being stuck to my inner layer, body armour and race shirt after gashing the thing open at the Dawn to Dusk. I did the injury after about 5 hours and rode round with it still bleeding for another 7 hours or so. Trouble was, when I finished it had all dried and congealed in a big lump and I literally had to ’tear’ away the clothing from my arm! F*ck me did that hurt!
*The girlfriend having to take my clothes off and shower me (nice one) because I couldn’t move my arm when I arrived back from the Dawn to Dusk a bit ‘battered’ from the race.
*Going round the ‘special test’ at the Brass monkeys in 1st gear because the all the bike wanted to do was stall after I’d done a good job of burning the piston rings out earlier in the race.
*Adam Blake going past me similar to ‘a Norwegian Olympian on a luge going down the St Moritz bobsled run whilst in a hurry’ at the Dawn to Dusk. We’d both already been on our bikes for 11 hours or more and he just came past me like I was a 3 yr old trying out a pushbike with stabilizers for the 1st time!
* The horrible rancid smell of my clutch plates that had been totally fried at Treborough. First time I’ve changed a clutch that’s been that bad, the stench of them made my workshop smell for weeks.
January
I started of with a trip up to Dorset for the local police Hare and Hounds, cracking course and well pleased to finish in the end. Next it was to Hellvana which was a round of the SW champs. As you drove into the place the sign read ‘Welcome to hell’, they weren’t far wrong! Really hard going with loads of roots and peaty bogs. Unfortunately for me my chain got wrapped round the front sprocket and suffered a DNF.
February
With only the one race under my belt it was off to the British champs in Norfolk for the Muntjac enduro. As always it was tough! Not the going but the time schedule in which you had to keep to. Not too bad a finish with a halfway position and a better time than what I did it in the last time. Later that month I did a TnT event and finished about half way down the field in the Vets experts. So things so far weren’t going too badly in my ‘comeback’ year.
March
Drama in the brass monkeys enduro ensued when I basically wrecked my piston and barrel in order to get a finish. I’m now left without a bike!
April
More bike trouble after getting it repaired only for it to seize! Oh b*llocks, I’m without a bike again now!
May
Thankfully the bike is sorted, but it didn’t do me any good and while taking an early lead in the race at Nancemellion, I had an off, bent my flamin thumb back and ended up in the ambulance. Next I did an ASW event, an endurocross, 2 races of an hour each, not a bad result with a 2nd and a 3rd. It then off to a SCEC race at Shillingstone forest, cracking course, loved it, done ok with a finish that saw me in the top half of the vets experts. An Exmoor event was next on the cards at Treborough, big lap but I only a few miles of it as I burnt my bloody clutch out, aaaarrrrgggghhh! DNF!
June
We’re now in the middle of British summer aren’t we? Try telling that to the ASW club that organized the Huntsham endurocross event! I only did the 1st race because the ’monsoon’ type conditions forced the rest of the meeting to get abandoned. You know what? It was just one of them days where it rained all day and didn’t stop, personally I would have done the 2nd race if was still going ahead, but with safety in mind (paramedics found it impossible to reach any injured riders in the woods) it was a no brainer to call a halt to proceedings really. A local event at Cardinham was next and I was lucky to make it to the finish as my bearings in my back wheel obliterated completely. Now the next race was a summers day! 90 degree heat and absolutely roasting as I traveled over the Severn bridge (rip off toll charge included) and into Wales for a CTR event. No luck again and another DNF as my clutch master cylinder went AWOL.
July
Just the one race, a TnT event at St Martin where another DNF was the order of the day as my kill switch decided to play up with just a few laps to go which cut out the bike. I couldn’t get the thing started again so had a lonely walk beck to the van.
August
For me this is what I’d been looking forward to all year, the Dawn to Dusk and 12 hours riding a little 125! Must admit I was a bit nervous as I’d been having crap luck all year with the amount of DNFs’ and I was desperate to finish this after having to pull out of it halfway through in 2009 through injury. I needn’t have worried, I did 12hrs and 37mins on the strimmer and finished 3rd well chuffed.
September
Not good with 2 back to back DNF’s at Idless and Woolborough Barton due to my arm which got injured at the Dawn to Dusk.
October
Injured!
November
Still injured
December
Yes, still injured!
Last but not least………….Big thanks to Thor motorcycles whose helped me again this year by repairing and getting the parts in double quick time for me when I needed it so I could get back on the track again quickly.
My expenses
Entry fees.................................723
Diesel........................................539
Petrol.........................................212
Insurance + tax (Bike).......................170
Insurance + tax (van)........................458
Servicing + mot (Van).....................188
Memberships/licences.........................48
Tyres (Plus tubes and Mousses)...............312
Nutrition (Drinks and gels)....................98
Lubricants (WD40,Chain lube,Grease, etc)...64
Jet washing.......................................8
Cleaning solutions.............................98
Maintenance of bike(Engine,clutch,footpegs,grips,levers,cables,bearings,pads,sprockets,chains,radiators,seals)............................1128
Plastics...............................................176
Backgrounds/numbers.............................28
Race kit.............................................227
Practicing..............................................70
Tools (Various).......................................43
Oils for bike.......................................157
Total.........................................................4,747
