Cadwell Park - Round 3 - March 25th

Nic and I slept soundly in the back of the van, to be awoken by...

"Race 1 to the holding bay"

Oh shit! We had forgotten that the clocks went forward and had slept in. I was in Race 2!

What followed was like a sketch from Benny Hill and we managed to get everything out of the van, petrol in, tyre warmers on and leathers on in about 5 minutes. Instead of waking up and having coffee and cereal, I was taking to the line for the 600cc Clubmans race that was postponed from yesterday, luckily I still had my wets on from yesterday as it was a horrible damp morning.

Mike Hemsworth shot off and there was no way I could catch him, but I ended up in a great battle with Mr I.O.M. Right up to the point where he completely cut me up and it was only by the luck of God (me in this case) that he didn't take my front wheel out. Bastard! I shot after him and worked out that I was better than him coming onto Park straight, so I got a great run on him, passed him on the power and held it on the brakes. Another solid lap of hitting braking points and gears and 2nd place was in the bag. I was really chuffed as I had only been able to see out of one eye due to a really bad misting visor. I was also chuffed because it was my Birthday!

35years old today!!

Still no time for breakfast as I was out pretty soon after for the postponed Senior cup race. Considering how I had been asleep an hour earlier, I rode a really mature race. It was obvious after the first 3 corners that the leader, Liam Marchant(on his ZX10) was way faster than me, so I just put in consistent laps until the final lap. He's the sort of bloke who needs to be doing well though. He has two bikes (dry setup and wet) and was in a massive hundred thousand pound (and then some) motorhome and had a posse around him all the time - seems a desent bloke though

I had a couple of good long looks round to see that there was nobody there and started to ease the pace. There was no point in frying my wets on a rapidly drying track. I brought the bike home in 2nd place, just over 3 seconds ahead of a still charging Steve Degnan. Well chuffed. My visor was still misting up badly though (even after I had used a compuer screen wipe on it which clearly has no effect).

The races came thick and fast but I had enough time to change onto my dry tyres. Well only just!

Front wheel done. Back wheel done, just put the caliper back on.... like this........ Why isn't the caliper going on? Try again... no luck. Try again.... no luck..... no luck, no luck, no luck - ARGGGGGHHHH!!!!

As it turns out, the brake hose had somehow moved round and was getting trapped against the rear bobbin lug, so it was a quick twist with a socket and hope that too much brake fluid doesn't come out. Result.

What followed was one of the best races I've been in. We were touching elbows, leaning on each other and racing really close, but every single move that we did was clean and safe. Mr I.O.M was holding me up and eventually I went down the inside of him on Park Straight (again), just as James Stokoe went round the outside of him. We both came up to Park corner at the same time and braked at the same time. We both tipped it in for the corner and went round with just a crash bobbin between us - brilliant. I put my head down and thought I had broken the tow of James, but I should have had a look back! As I crossed the line, he shot passed me, bashing his petrol tank in frustration. As it turns out, I beat him by 0.047 seconds! My fastest lap was 0.007seconds faster than his. Places 3rd - 8th were split by 3 seconds. What a great race and a well deserved 3rd. For this race I had opted for my spare helmet and a lot of saliva to try and cure my misting problems - it didn't work - so we bought some de-mister from the parts van (why didnt I do that this morning?)

Next up was the Senior cup. This time the field cleared off a bit and I was playing catchup straight away. As we approached Mansfield I had caught up to them a bit and then as I came to the chicane I saw one of them go down. It was Steve Degnan (poor guy really wanted a 2nd in this race). So now I was behind Liam, Mick Gooding (he's good - the clue is in his name!) and Gary Graves who I was trying to keep on to. As it turns out Gary's 1000cc was just too much for me and I had to settle for 4th. At least the visor demister was working!

Finally we had a break in the day but instead of feeling refreshed after it, I felt absolutely shattered. A full race weekend is bloody hard work.

So back to the grid for another Clubmans 600 race. Adam child was in this race (he's a journalist for Motorcycle News) so I really wanted to beat him. I got a good start but was a bit early on the brakes going into turn one and Adam screemed passed me - bugger. Head down and I could see he was very late on the brakes so I started to think that I'd have to try and get him on the power. I chased him for a lap and got right up to him coming on to Park straight (my new favourite overtaking place) and I got the drive to push me passed him, then left my braking as late as I dared. I then tried to relax and keep things smooth and luckily I stayed ahead of the rest of the pack - until...

Suddenly the bike was labouring at full revs. I couldn't understand what it might be but it kept going. I had about a lap and a half left. Each time I went over about 10000 revs it would stutter. With half a lap left, the inevitable happened. It wasn't Adam though, it was Mr I.O.M (the git). I chased hime all the way to the line but I just didnt have the power to beat him. I finished 3rd by 1 second - damn.

As I looked at the bike in the pits, I wondered what the problem might be. The battery seemed okay, as previous battery failures had happened abruptly and the bike had stopped within half a mile of the first occurance. Then I spotted that the fuel cap was loose. Could it be that the fuel hadn't been pressurised which was leading to poor fueling at high revs (don't ask me, I'm no mechanic). Let's just hope so.

Unfortunately on the warm up lap for the final "points" race of the day, the problem was still there. I lined up for the start, still hoping it might be a glitch that would clear itself, but as I stuttered away from the line, it was obvious that I wasn't going to finish this race. Nil point.

Not the way I wanted to finish the race weekend but on the whole it had been a sucessful two days. I'm trying not to get stressed about the racing this year so I'll just look at the weekend as good fun and some excellent results. I'll have the bike washed and the battery charged for the next meeting (and a spare battery) and we'll see if we can keep on the podium.

See you in two weeks.