Having been working 80 odd hour weeks it was a relief to finish work on Thursday morning, then straight home for a quick kip, then up, van packed and off to sunny!!! Snett.
We arrived at 6ish and pitched up next to a work mate Matt who has just started racing mini twins (he managed to get a 2nd in the rookies over the weekend, must have been all my fantastic advice!!!!!!). Unpacking the van I soon find that I forgotten loads of stuff, but I have a bike, petrol and licence so that will have to do.
Jodi and I have a good night walking around the paddock and bump into lots of the old YPM class, as well as a few others. It felt mega just being in a race paddock again and I could not wait for Friday to get on the CBR fresh from its engine rebuild and give it some teddy. Off to bed after a few beers and I’m straight to sleep!!!
I get up early Friday as I’m strangely nervous about riding the CBR, so at 6 in the morning I decide to strip the brake callipers as they seem to be binding. This quickly turned into a job I should never have started, but to cut a massive story short I eventually get the brakes bled at 8.30 then race off to get signed on. As I’ve run out of time I have to use the old slicks which are at least 2 years old!!!!
I ended up having a very enjoyable morning of 3 completely dry sessions, I start off riding like an old woman and by the end of the morning I’ve probably progressed to riding like a CBT candidate. Then it rains and I have a session on wets, these things are mega and I actually get my knee down it pouring rain!!!!!!! I have to cut this session short as the bike temp drops to 40deg C (I must fit a thermostat). That is it then I’ve done enough and I feel a lot happier with my bike. Oh must say massive thanks to my Dad who had to endure a lot of colourful language from myself when I lost my end can bracket and tried to build another before the next session. Thanks Dad.
So Friday night Mum, Dad (gone home and come back again) and Molly arrive as do some more familiar race faces. Few more beers, lots more chatting and all off to bed!!!!!
Sat morn and I have very little to do as I’m already scruted, so new slicks fitted and off for the first practice. The thunderbikes are first out on track and it is still wet in loads of places and I’m on brand new slicks so I take it real easy. The session ends after about 3 laps when a ZXR750 dumps it at Russels. Sqwelch and Rachel have arrived and sqwelch makes us practice the emergency wheel change procedure, even though I tell him “We’ll never need the wets this weekend!!!!”.
Race 1.
I am well nervous and I’m very happy to be starting from the back of the grid (this is because I did not do the first round so do not have championship points). So we get waved off for the warm up lap and I fluff the practice start big time. I have a stern talking to myself not to do it in the race………….forming back on the grid the lights go on then come off and an hour latter I bog the bike and make the worst start ever. I afraid to admit the red mist then descended so I go up the start finish straight on the grass as this seems the only place there are no bikes!!!!
I make a few into the first corner and a few up the inside into Sears, I get a good line and real good drive down the back straight and got a few more, the rest of the race is a blur but I do remember laughing out load in my helmet as I really was having mega fun (that’s what its all about apparently). I finished 8th.
Second race.
Got a mega start and then the bike jumped out of second so the good start soon became a bad one!!! I had a goodish race getting up to 5th at one point but I started getting clutch slip after the first four laps, it seemed to be real bad through 4th and 5th gears so I slipped back to 7th. Not too bad but I was disappointed as I knew I could go faster and I didn’t feel I rode as well as I should have done.
Sat night had me stripping the clutch to see if anything was wrong, all the plates and steels looked good and the basket was in fine nick so after having a chat with Mr Seton I decided to pack out the clutch springs, after a lot of routing around in my bolt box I found the perfect washers. It just so happens that the backing clips of the back of an EBC race disc fit perfectly!!!
After playing with the bike Jodi, Molly, some of her friends and me go for a walk around the track, then a few more beers a bit of a chat with some of the YPM’ers and off to bed.
Sunday got off to a bad start when our practice was called at 8.50 and not 9 as per the programme, the long and short of it is that I had a major panic on as the bike had not been started. I had to get Jodi to warm the bike as I struggled with my leathers. By the time I got out it was a blast up the pit lane and the once across the line with the chequered flag out!!!! Not all that happy!!!!!!
Race 1.
Finished 7th again but had a mega race and dropped a second of my lap time, I had the opportunity to follow Garry the series leader for a couple of laps and this gave me a incite in where to go faster. It became apparent that I was losing out on drive from the slower corners . I really enjoyed the race and was really lucky to finish as I did not put enough fuel in for a 8 lap race (7 laps on Sat) and on the last lap the bike would cut out when lent over!!!!!!!!!
Back in the pits after a discussion with sqwelch and Gav (Steptoe to Rammits) soon revealed we needed to change the gearing. Which they then did while I swanked around pretending that I was a moto GP rider, with a team of mechanics. I also got to stand back and listen to the abuse (you need to be there!) being swapped between all Ram it members now that Fat boy and his much much better half had arrived.
Race 2
So we all arrive in the collecting area with massive black clouds circulating over height as I’m looking up, the collecting area marshal calls out that the race has been declared as wet and we have 10mins to change our tyres if we want!!!!!!!!! Now I panic……I’m on slicks….it looks like its going to tip it down…….i freeze….then I watch a load of bikes shoot off….oh no what do I do…before I know it I’m in first and heading back to the pits, l’m well pleased to find all the Ram it’s legging it back and YPM Marcus to give me a hand. What a mega team effort, we managed to change both wheels and get back out within about 7 mins. Top work lads.
I fly up to my position on the very dry track all of a sudden I notice the clouds don’t look black anymore…….whoops.
I did 5 very slow laps praying for rain until someone on wets just like me dumped it!!!! Well that was enough for me and I pulled in with some very tired looking wets.
All in all a great weekend and I believe now that I’ll soon be running up at the sharp end of the races.A massive thanks to all my helpers this weekend it is greatly appreciated.