Myself & Simon went out for a last fling at the final New Era meeting at Mallory on Sunday, (me on my well worn srx620 & Simon on his recently aquired Rotax 600?). We decided to leave the Rotax clutch alone for this last meeting as it was still rideable & didn't want to risk making the problem worse with no time to fix it! (it can now be sorted over the winter, thanks to all who provided info.)
With me doing best times of 1.12/13's & Simon already into the 1.07's after practice a couple of weeks ago, the gloves were off (in a friendly sort of way) but we did have to put them back on for scruteneering!
Race day was wet!, which I thought would be to my advantage (experience?), but out in the first practice session, found that my road tyres were not quite up to it & lost all the confidence that I had built up during the last few weeks, due to a few nasty slides (the track appeared very greasy?). Because of this, I decided not to go out for my first two races. Simon had similar problems on his inters. but had a set of Michelin rain tyres on wheels that came with his Rotax purchaseand fitted them for his first race, & although coming in last (against all the 1000cc twins etc.) did very well & posted a best lap time of 1.15 (in the wet), & came in enthusing about the difference the tyres made. In his second outing he pulled in on the first lap complaining of grinding noises & a severe rear end weave. On inspection, this was found to be a collapsed rear wheel bearing. We swopped the wet tyre over to the other rear wheel, refitted & tested up & down the paddock, all seemed well so it was time to relax for a while till the last races of the day.
I located a front wet tyre & fitted it to my bike (still with a road tyre on the rear)& decided to go out in the 175/1300 allcomers race at the end of the day, along with Simon (our first race against each other). After checking with race control to see if I was alright to compete (having not qualified), I was informed that grid position for this race was already allocated, Simon being on grid position 32 & myself grid 4 ON THE FRONT ROW!!!!****** SCARY! as you can imagine what other bikes were out with us!.
Anyway, off on the warm up lap & about a dozen bikes came flying past on their back wheels looking like the album cover (bat out of hell!), got back to the grid, took position, waited for the lights, GO!, first away of the line (best start ever?), but within about 100 metres that dozen or so had flown past (my bike only having about 1/3 of their power & B***s only half the size?), still, I was determined to do the best I could & held my own lines despite having a few close passes by most of the rest of the field over the next couple of laps. But Simon hadn't come past yet!, I was determined not to start looking back & to just concentrate on keeping it smooth (& as quick as I could). The laps counted down & still no Simon?, then the quick front runners started to fly past (& boy, did they fly!), 2nd to last lap (I think?) I was braking early for the hairpin, just about to tip in & this bright yellow object came whistling through on the inside (Simon), gambling on him overshooting, I braked even harder & cut inside as his rear wheel passed, taking a tighter line around & blocking his exit from the hairpin, got a good drive out & sweated my way around the last lap to finish in front of him (HOORAAAHH?), although getting caught up in all the excitement I didn't notice the chequered flag & was still flat out coming out of the esses when I was confronted by three marshalls standing in the track waving red flags (I'm glad they laughed about it!). So we both agreed, a good time was had by all (eventually!) & thanks to our helpers on the day (young John & Kyle)
So now, Simon has to put up with wisecracks about that race until the start of next season when he gets his first chance of revenge?
Look out Andy Duncan! we're gunning for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
