Luckily, our depression was unfounded as Saturday morning greeted us with sunshine and a clear blue sky. First practice was on a damp track so I went out on the intermediate tyres but it was drying out quickly and I used second practice to scrub in the slicks ready for the race. The morning dragged by due to the number of crashes in the preceding races but eventually the qualifier for the ‘open’ race was upon us; time to execute ‘THE PLAN’ (with hindsight this should have been referred to as ‘plan A’, but we were confident!). The open race gets split into two races due to the number of entries, as, by definition, anyone from any class can enter. The first 20 finishers from each of the two qualifying heats go into the open ‘A’ final, the rest of the field go into the ‘B’ final with grid positions decided by where you finish in the heat. Now, I knew by my previous lap times that I was capable of finishing midfield in the A final, but a check of the times of the runners in the B final from the previous meeting suggested that I was capable of being at the front given a decent start. B final/ consolation race / fastest losers, call it what you will, but a result is a result in my book! All I needed to do was finish 21st or below (sounds so easy!) in the qualifier to put me in the B final, preferably 21st or 22nd to put me on the front row. I had drawn 39th on the grid so I needed to do some work to get through 18 other riders in the 7 laps. Chris had taken the pit board and a pile of numbers to pit wall and was adamant he’d be able to count my position as I came out of the last corner and be able to show me how many more places I needed to gain on any remaining laps. I started steadily, being right at the back of the grid as 38 other bikes head down to a tight hairpin together for the first time is scary! There were a lot of strange lines going on ahead of me and on the first lap I saw two people collide and run off the track, someone highsided in front of me on lap 2 and another slid off into the hairpin on lap 3. I managed to take avoiding action each time and they were making my life easier as it gave me fewer people to overtake! Lap 4 saw Chris gesturing for me to keep overtaking people and as I passed him on lap 5 he held out the pit board showing I was in 23rd, one more to overtake, then bring it home! The only thing our cunning plan had not allowed for was the 3 people that crashed ahead of me on that lap, causing the race to be stopped prematurely leaving me in 20th as I crossed the line and yes, you guessed it, that qualified me as last man for the A final, Doh!!! One thing I had noticed when at race pace was that the bike was quite unstable under hard acceleration, the bars shaking quite un-nervingly at times. Obviously a geometry/ tyre problem and so we lowered the front ride height by 10 mm by moving the forks up through the yokes in order to put some more weight over the front wheel.
The ‘Sound of Thunder’ qualifier was next (well, after more crash induced stoppages, that is). I was 2nd on the grid and it felt great being able to see clear track ahead of me from the start line! I got a fairly decent start but got blocked into the hairpin by Damien on his fast starting SP1 and lost a bit of time, but got back up to 4th which meant I’d have the inside line of the start in the final, so I was happy enough. The bike was still shaking though, which was most strange considering it was set up the same as it had been for Brands and there was no hint of a weave there! In a bid to give me the confidence that the weave wouldn’t develop into a full blown tank slapper, we fitted the original equipment steering damper, the first time I’d ever felt a need for it. Still, the bike is feeling more like a race bike now (as opposed to a big, old, converted roadbike) and I guess the trade off for quick steering and the extreme side grip of the tyres is a degree of instability. I used my brilliant (not!) ‘open’ race grid position to let the lunatics go and put a couple of quick laps together to test out the damper which, though not ideal, was definitely better. More crashes throughout the rest of the day and the organisers decided to pull the plug early to give us all a talking to in the scrutineering bay, leaving any remaining races to carry on to Sunday morning.
Tracy (surprisingly awake in the daytime!) joined us in the afternoon along with Chris’s dad, Graham (Singapore correspondent and volunteer for the role of wine taster for the evening!) and the evening was spent enjoying the hospitality at Damien’s team’s barbeque. Chris and I secretly hatched Plan B whilst Pete spent the evening on either the front or the back wheel (but rarely both at the same time!) of the mountain bike we’d brought along.
Sunday morning was drying after an overnight shower and promised to be a hectic day. The programme started with Saturday’s left over races (albeit cut down to 5 laps each) to be followed by Sunday’s complete event. My first ride was the previous day’s final (points scoring) SoT race. 4th on the grid (on the inside of the front row) and I had a perfect start; driving away from the line hard with the front wheel just a few inches off the tarmac, up a gear and again the wheel just hovering until I hit the brakes for the right handed hairpin. Unfortunately Damien (to my left) also got a good start but kind of outbraked himself and went deeper than me into the first corner, then, in order to avoid people on the outside of him turned right across my path meaning I had to virtually stop while I could see bikes streaming around the outside of us. I rounded the bend supermoto style (with my inside leg out!) and set about the task of catching back up. Head down and on a bit of a mission to get some points in the bag I worked my way back up to fourth and as we started last lap of the shortened race, I was right up with 3rd placed Deano on his quick Ducati. I tried a move on him at the hairpin to no avail and couldn’t outgun him out the back of the circuit so finished in 4th ahead of Lance (who I’d been tied on points with) so I was pleased with the result. Not as pleased as I was when Chris told me my fastest lap had been a 1.02.91, I couldn’t believe it!
Next up was Sunday’s ‘open’ qualifier. Enter plan B; All I needed to do was finish 21st or below in the qualifier to put me in the B final, preferably 21st or 22nd to put me on the front row (yes, I know that sounds suspiciously like the ill-fated Plan A, but in the absence of any other plans, Plan B was most fiendishly cunning plan we had). We’d decided I’d only need to know my position in the last four laps of the race giving (Chris an easier time with the pit board), so, after a steady start to keep out of first lap carnage, I set about gaining places. Four laps to go and I rounded the last corner to look for my pit board for the necessary information. No pit board but I did see Chris holding out both hands to signifying the number ‘10’; “Eh” I thought, “that wasn’t planned, what does that mean? Am I 10th? Have I got a 10 second penalty? Have I got to overtake 10 more people?” I decided it was the latter and carried on with the task. The next time past the pit wall and I looked across to see Chris desperately trying to slot numbers into the pit board! I chuckled to myself at the thought of his face as he realised he’d been too late! Next lap he’d got it sorted and ‘23’ was being proudly displayed! Not wanting to succumb to the same fate as the day before, I decided I’d hold that position. A faller from the previous lap was being cleared away by the marshalls on the last corner and the waved yellow flags caused the rider just ahead of me to slow considerably for some reason. Already committed to the corner, I rode around the outside of him and crossed the line in 22nd, perfect. Well, so it seemed. As soon as I got back to the pits I was called to the Clerk of the Course’s office for a telling off for overtaking under a yellow flag, fined £50 and disqualified from the ‘open’ final. So much for plan B then! Still, it gave Graham a reason to send some text message bulletins off!
On to the SoT qualifier and I was determined not to let that pesky SP1 mess me up in the hairpin again! A superb start and only Mark Baldock (series leader and rider of that ‘cheatingly’ quick Ducati 998RS) beat me to the first turn. I slotted in behind him safe in the knowledge that he wasn’t going to hold me up anywhere or do anything stupid and I just focussed on the road ahead and kept my head down. Signs from my trusty pitboard helped me stretch a gap on the third placed man and although Baldock was pulling away I managed to keep concentrating on my own lines and rode a pretty perfect race and crossed the line in 2nd! Shame it was only a qualifying race and no points!
With no ‘open’ race to have to compete in (ahem!) the wait was on to the SoT final that always seems to be pretty much the last race of the day. Coming from such a superb result, my confidence was high as we assembled on the grid. I’d dismissed a comment from Pete that he thought Baldock hadn’t got his bike started but as I sat on my 2nd position on the grid, there was a gap on the pole position spot. I flew off the line for the warm up lap to practice what I was about to have to do and was the first to arrive back on the grid. Still expecting the sinister black Ducati to pull up alongside me, it wasn’t until the flag man moved out of the way and pointed to the start lights in readiness that it dawned on me; “ Baldock isn’t here, I could WIN!!!!!”. Heart pounding, the lights came on, a second later lights off, GO! I timed it perfectly; I drove away and wound open the throttle. The front wheel lifted under the acceleration and then lifted some more. When I found myself looking at the top of the fuel tank I knew I’d overdone it. Shutting the throttle to get it back down and all I could see was a sea of bikes ahead of me, “*&^%$*, I’ve blown it”. I spent the first two laps cursing under my helmet but gathered myself and realised I had to salvage some points. Damien was in the lead, Lance second and Deano third. I made my way up to fourth but was having rear grip problems and couldn’t push hard enough to close the gap and decided to bring it home safely where I was. Approaching the last corner on the last lap, yellow flags were waving and I was shocked to see Damien stood up next to his bike, which was now lying on the grass about 100yards short of the finish line. The incident had promoted me to 3rd but I felt a bit gutted for Damien for what could have been his maiden win. It also handed Lance the win meaning he’d gained 4 points more than me over the weekend leaving him 2nd and me 3rd in the championship.
I tried to focus on the positive stuff from the weekend, the lap times, the bike’s performance, the results, the fact I’d had a ‘safe’ event and the healthy bag of points but there was a little voice nagging in my head all the way home saying “ I should have won!”. That’s racing I suppose but there’s still a lot of the season left to go!