The engine was given a freshen up and it was found that the cam-chains had stretched throwing the cam timing out my some 12 degrees meaning I must have been down on horsepower towards the end of last season. The troubles with the Aprilia take-over however meant that new ones were temporarily unavailable and I had to ‘borrow’ a pair out of my spare engine; these were not much better and the cam sprockets had to be slotted to allow the timing to be set right!
Other improvements included a set of Ohlins forks, revalved by K-Tech, some rearsets with a gear linkage to finally cure my quick-shifter problems, a 57mm throttle body race kit (up from 54mm) which came with a lovely carbon fibre ram-air airbox (possibly the last one in the country!) and I lowered the gearing radically to improve acceleration. A fresh set of bodywork was given a new paint job and I made the front number-boards look like Spidey’s eyes!
The biggest and best purchase over the winter was a race transporter; a 7 ½ tonne Mercedes with a tail-lift into a rear workshop and a fully fitted living area with seating, tv, shower, toilet, fridge, oven, hob, gas heating, 240v electrics, huge awning and room to sleep 4 in comfort; no more freezing in the back of a transit for me!
The practice day went well; the advantage of having the off-season fly by meant I hardly felt rusty at all when I got on the bike for the first time. A bit of winter off-roading on my YZ helped get me used to the sensations of riding a bike at it’s limits (all wheelies and wheelspin) and I think it may be better practice than putting miles on my roadbike (faster, but all quite safely within it’s limits). Also, the time spent in the gym was now showing it’s worth.
Confidence was high driving down for the opening round. Crazy Pete and I loaded up Friday morning and headed down to try to claim a decent spot in the paddock (the truck takes up a lot of room!). Chris and Tracy met us there but the paddock was heaving! We ended up parked on the grass a fair way from the holding area, with a gravel strip to ride over to get to the tarmac; not ideal but we made do. My new attitude to the new season was not going to be one of looking for bad omens or the like and to try to take some thing positive from everything (yes, there had been a session on Chris’s psychiatrist couch!). The positive here was that we were away from the noise of the assembly area and all the generators in the main paddock and we were also able to peg the awning down in case the wind got up.
Ah yes, the awning. Supplied with the truck, the roof of the awning wound out from one side and was secured with various poles etc and finished off with sides which didn’t look like they’d even been taken out of their bags. Except to throw the instructions away, that is! We’d already tried to put it up at the practice day, but gave up when it got too dark and cold but we were determined to sort it out this time! There was lots of head-scratching, borrowing of ladders and looking at other people’s awnings in the paddock but we got it up and as Chris put it, we got it about 95% right!
Pete took the bike to scrutineering to save a job in the morning but came back with bad news: It failed. Not on any safety issue, not on an eligibility issue, but on the size of the numbers on the Spidey eyes, sorry, number boards! I have to admit this wound me up. I marched over to the scrutineer in question and asked what the problem was. They reckoned the 5 looked like an ‘S’ . What, like I’d get confused with bike number S3???!!! They said that the timekeepers wouldn’t be able to tell who I was as I crossed the line. Ok, I admit that the numbers were, well, a ‘bit’ smaller than the regulations state, but the regulations were written years ago and this year NG had decided that everyone had to buy and fit a transponder (for the best part of £200) so effectively the timekeepers had no need for numbers as timing would be done electronically. They also said that the spectators, who each paid around a tenner each to watch, had a right to be able to tell who I was from my numbers. The commentators didn’t need to know my number as they both think my bike is the most recognisable bike in the paddock and has even been referred to as the ‘commentators favourite’ as it is one of the only bikes they can pick out all the way round the track! The amount of times I get mentioned on the tannoy could leave no doubt as to who I am! Finally, the chief scrutineer saw the common sense and signed my card.
It was great catching up with everyone again, listening to their hopes and aspirations for the new season and just taking in the atmosphere of the scene. We met up with Ricky but learned that his bike wasn’t quite ready. Shame, as his Benelli was one of the job’s I’d painted over the off season and I was keen to see it all together. He was there promoting his new business, Front Row Motorcycles, and offering his mechanical and setup services around the paddock. Damien and his crew were there in force and his new R1 looked stunning (another of my paint jobs!). Early in the evening the team decided we needed to walk the track, I, however, in a burst of fitness decided to jog the track! I managed the whole of the 1.2 mile lap, cut back through the paddock and joined the boys on the back of the circuit and walked the rest of their lap with them; now that’s something I couldn’t have done last year! Later on I tried out our new kitchen facilities and made Tacos for tea and we relaxed in our new-found luxury!
Saturday morning greeted us with glorious sunshine. Here we were in Wales in March and it was T-shirt and shorts weather. Just as well as I had supplied ‘Club Aprilia’ T-shirts and caps and Chris had provided matching shorts for us all; very professional! Because of where we were parked, we decided that as soon as the tyre warmers came off we’d put some neoprene tyre skins on to wheel the bike to the concrete area to avoid the hot tyres picking up nasty stones on the gravel area which worked fine. A gentle practice (the track temperature was still pretty low) went without incident and I soon lined up on the front row of the grid for the ‘Open’ qualifier. Damien, my nemesis from last year happened to be alongside me on his new bike and as the lights went out, it was like a repeat of 2004; Damien stormed off the line and I followed. I quickly picked off the two other guys who beat me to the hairpin and went in pursuit of Damien in the lead. I started to reel him in but went a little too deep into the hairpin and must have been on a slippery part of the track because as I got back on the gas the rear let go big style, gripped and shot me out of the seat! As my feet landed back on the footrests (luckily) I knocked the bike out of gear, so I prodded the gearlever and wheelied away, having to short shift to take control of the proceedings! I quickly gathered myself but by then Damien had stretched too big a gap for me to close so I finished 2nd. My new lap timer told me my fastest lap was a 1.02.6, pretty much equalling my fastest ever lap of the track; not bad for a first attempt!
Next up was the Sound Of Thunder qualifier. Not wanting to show my cards too early, I was happy to finish in the top four just to get a front row start. Deano, on the Ducati he campaigned last year, took the lead and I slotted in behind him. We were slowly making a gap on the 3rd placed man (according to Chris’s pitboard signals) but our times were in the mid 1.03s so I knew I could go quicker. A couple of big rear end slides convinced me to stick to the original plan and I brought it home in 2nd. Concerned about my lack of grip, and with only one spare tyre in the truck (I was keeping that for Sunday) I decided I’d have to buy a new rear to have a chance of going quick in the final. Trouble was, nobody had one, at least not in the large 195 section that I use. I settled for one of the smaller 180 section Dunlop slicks that I used this time last year and fitted it on. I thought I’d better try it out in the Open final but it felt odd on the warm up lap so instead of starting from the 4th position spot I’d earned earlier, I went off from the back of the grid. Just as well; I couldn’t believe how different it made the bike feel. It felt so strange that I pulled in after a couple of laps as it really felt like I was riding someone else’s bike! Plan B then, bear with me as I explain; I fitted the new rear tyre I’d saved for the Sunday for the SoT final. I decided to forget the Open race the next day to conserve rubber, use the old slick (fitted back to front as the left side of the tyre was ok and the circuit demands right hand grip) for the SoT qualifier as, judging by my lap time potential, the grid position wasn’t too important, then re-fit the slick I was about to use for the following day’s final. Got that? Good because I’ll be asking questions later.
The new race order in the programme meant that our races came earlier than in previous years, and it was soon time to take my 2nd position on the grid. Spidey felt like my bike again and I slotted in behind Deano as he took the lead. Again the pace wasn’t exceptionally fast, low 1.03s mostly and I shadowed the big blue Ducati for most of the race, all pretty comfortably. As we neared the start of the last lap I started my run up. The Duke was definitely quicker in a straight line but I felt I was cornering quicker and getting on the gas earlier so I got right in his slipstream as we crossed the line for the penultimate time. As I pulled out to draft past before hitting the brakes hard for the hairpin, there was a back-marker just ahead and on my line. Deano was in the right position to get around him but as the booming Ducati overtook him he sat up and veered across in front of me. I cut back to the inside and dispatched him but as I caught Deano once again the same thing happened with another back marker! I didn’t have the power to do much else and the straight before the finish line just wasn’t long enough for me to draft him again so I finished 2nd, less than ½ a second behind. A good close race and 20 points in the bag to start my season’s tally off so I wasn’t too disappointed and at least I knew I was on the pace.
On Saturday evening Ricky came over to our truck with a request for help; one of the other SoT guys, Tony, had crashed out of the final and his bike was a bit of a mess. We didn’t need asking twice; we wandered up to where the sorry looking Ducati was parked, hijacked it and wheeled it back to our awning. I made a start on patching up the front fairing, handlebar controls and brakes, Ricky, with the help of Crazy Pete tackled the battery and electrics on the right of the bike and Chris put his fibreglass skills to brilliant effect on the fairing panels. An hour (and lots of gaffer tape and cable ties) later and the bike was wheeled back and re-passed scrutineering ready for action the next day. Tony was so chuffed that the next day he got the commentators to give us a big ‘thankyou’ over the tannoy! The rest of the evening was again very relaxing. Tracy’s turn in the kitchen produced a delicious pasta bolognaise which went down well and we retired early.
Sunday morning and still sunny, though the wind had picked up and was gusting quite hard. No practice and no Open race so we enjoyed a cooked breakfast and I had a lovely warm shower, I love this truck! First job of the morning was to do some tyre changing; I fitted the new front and (can you remember?) fitted the original rear on, back to front. I had just completed it and was giving Chris and Crazy Pete a lesson in wheel balancing when Ricky came over with a surprise, a brand new rear tyre he’d blagged from one of the race paddock support trucks; it had been reserved and not collected or paid for so Ricky convinced them that they didn’t want to take it home with them and that they should sell it to me. So, forget the tyre plan, it’s changed! I now put the rear from Saturday’s final on for the SoT qualifier as I now had a new one for the day’s final, cool! I even planned on doing a few laps in the Open B final to scrub it in ready for the big event.
Sat on the grid for the SoT qualifier I looked across, as I usually do, to where Chris holds out the pitboard for a final thumbs up before the start. This time however, all I could see was a banner saying ‘Go Spidey Go’! I was understandably shocked to see it there and then totally gobsmacked to see Pete and Zoe holding either end of it! A brilliant surprise they didn’t even tell me they were going to make the trip down! As the lights went out, Deano got a better start but I was right behind him. This time I was pushing him all the way, getting alongside him and showing my front wheel at various parts of the track. He made a small mistake exiting the old hairpin and I took my chance and drove past him and beat him to the fast kink. Unfortunately I ran a little wide on the exit and had to back off slightly letting him back through and then the back-markers came into play again. We battled real closely for the rest of the race but he still crossed the line ahead of me as the chequered flag came out; 2nd again.
Back in the pits, I changed the rear tyre for the new one and headed out for the Open B final. Because I’d missed the qualifier, I had to start on the back of the grid, 39th spot, but I wasn’t worried as all I was planning on doing was to scrub the new tyre in for a few laps then come in. Well, that was the plan until we did the warm up lap and re-formed on the grid; I realised that this, the B final had none of the real quick boys in and that I was capable of beating everyone ahead of me. I had to try it; off the line I took the concrete path that I’d used once last year and had overtaken at least half the field by the time I’d got to the hairpin. Head down, I kept making my way through the pack. I giggled to myself as I imagined what Chris would thinking as he waited for me to pull in as planned! No way, I could win this! I stayed out, picking people off all the way. Yellow flags were being waved at two points around the track meaning riders were down and strictly no overtaking until we were safely past. I was starting to struggle though. From about half race distance, whenever I picked the bike up and got the throttle pinned, it shook the handlebars so violently that I almost fell off. I tried to brace myself to hold the bars in position but nothing seemed to help it. I didn’t think for a minute about pulling in though and I finished 5th behind three bikes that were battling for 2nd that a knew I should have beaten. I was annoyed that there was a bike problem and that if it behaved like that in the SoT race I’d be lucky to grab a few points and there would be no way I could challenge for the lead. Luckily, the star of the day, Crazy Pete, spotted the problem straight away; the steering damper had come adrift! Phew. An easy problem to solve and I was ready to my final battle of the weekend with Deano.
Sadly, the final didn’t happen as a bad crash late in the afternoon caused the rest of the meeting to be abandoned. Instead, it was all hands on deck to help put the awning away, load up and head home in decent time.
So, a good start to the season as far as I’m concerned. 2nd in the championship but, more importantly, it was my attitude and my riding confidence that I’m most pleased with. I proved I’m capable of being a contender and that I’m up for the challenge. Roll on Darley…..