First Race Meeting - Quick Report

First race meeting at Cadwell on the mountain circuit
today - here's a quick summary as I'm knackered and
need a bath.

Fell off near the end of free practise first thing this
morning - guy in front missed a gear and I gave it a bit
too much brake and the track was a bit too slippery so
the front washed out. Only 40-50mph coming out of the
hairpin into the left before the mountain. Bent bolt
holding the footpeg, broken gear lever, bent bar.
Replaced bar, replaced bolt, drilled lever and fitted
a bolt. Off for timed practise.

Timed practise went ok, but the 620i bikes have a lot
more power (like 10bhp) and **** off into the distance.
Qualify 14th, which is 2nd in on the fourth row.

1st race. Carnage on the line as "Crasher Chris" wheelies
his bike off the line just like he did on the sighting
lap, but takes out the guy in front. Bedlam on the grid
and it holds up the whole left side of the pack, so I
get stuck in. Passed a few people. Somebody shows their
front wheel up the inside at the hairpin and I shut the
door. Next lap he does it again and I try to out brake,
skipping the front (!!) and he just nips in, but then
grabs a bit too much front and goes over the bars, taking
out the guy in front then going through the hairpin.
I wobble through. Finally get past a 620 holding me
up in the corners and finish 11th (from 30) a fair gap
in front of 12th place and 4th out of the 600 engines.
Fucking chuffed.

2nd race. Crasher Chris wheelies off the line, but everyone
is giving him a wide berth. Carnage at the hairpin as 30
bikes try to fit into a 4 foot wide gap. Scrape through
and settle down to some quick laps. Crasher Chris puts
himself out. Every time I get to the hairpin, the yellow
flags are out. Guy called Andy on a 600 nips up the inside
at the hairpin... on a yellow flag! Keep behind him and get
on the throttle earlier out of Barn, and take him on the
straight, towards the hairpin. Another yellow flag. What's
this? The fuckers comes past me again! Stick to him again
and follow him through the mountain but he's got a distance
on me. Pull some distance back on the straight, and even
more on the hairpin and I'm right with him round the back.
He gets Barn wrong and I'm off like a rat up a drain pipe
and easy slip past him - and there's the chequered flag!
He shakes his head as we head off the track, but that
servers you right for being a cheating ****. Finished 11th,
and 3rd out of the 600 engines.

Full version later. Thanks for all the texts and calls and
stuff - sorry I haven't answered them all but I've had to
sit in a car for the last 3 1/2 hours to get home and I'm
still buzzing. Special thanks to Nigel for his top quality
rearsets. Sorry I bent one (yes, the plate!) and ground half
a footpeg off, but can I have some spares please?

If you think you ride fast on a trackday, you're wrong.
Racing is fucking mental. I love it.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, antonye

Fucking *APPLAUSE*.

Bloody well done mate.

Heh. You just need spare pegs, yes? I'll molish a few and bung them in
the post. I should have done some before, you clumsy ****.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

<snip racing heroics>

Well done Ant mate!

 

Seriously, well done. How did dickie do? All the gear, no idea?

 

Top stuff. Well done, you.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..75073../..18420.../..3184./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^' RBR Landmarks: 12 Pts: 220 Miles: 914

 

18th & 19th on a 620. So yes.

 

Bad form and all that, but the full coverage of the lap
times and results are here -
http://www.theresults.co.uk/new_era_cadwell_park_30th_April_2005_results.pdf
(700kb - we're pages 160 onwards)

Fastest lap for me was 52.28s in Race 1 and 52.21 in Race 2,
compared to a 53.55s in qualifying. My lap times were definitely
heading in the right direction, but the track was wet in
places in the morning and drying out in the afternoon.

If I'd have got more practise in, I think I would have
been a lot better, but I'm still chuffed with those.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

Hah. Nice one.

Quite so. The fuckwit.

Lovely. Good result.

 

"Welcome to the dark side"

--
Alex
BMW R1150GS
DIAABTCOD#3 MSWF#4 UKRMFBC#6 Ibw#35 BOB#8
http://www.team-ukrm.co.uk
Windy's "little soldier"

 

antonye wrote

Well done dude, although it sounds much more like banger racing than
bikes.

Hmm..

 

<snip>

Seems to me like Ducati riders can't keep the fucking things upright.

 

Apart from "Crasher Chris" who seems to have trouble keeping it down IYSWIM.

 

Excellent stuff.

Not that I know the first thing about racing bikes but it sounds like you
got stuck in and had a really good time in the process. Good effort. Well
done.