Snetterton, June 2009, Round 3

Well that was a weekend and a half!



Friday was mostly running the bike in carefully after new pistons and a rebore. For those of you not familiar with my tale of TZR woes, I was running Dexter's spare engine for the first two meets while mine was sorted out, so it was good to be out on my own motor at last. Missed a bit of tracktime not quite being ready in time after the usual A11 traffic jam near Snett, and ran low on fuel in one of the sessions so ran out of time to really spank it. That's what Saturday morning practice was for... and it held together :D



Saturday race 1 grabbed a decent enough start from row 7 and was with a lot of the familiar faces from the first two rounds - Tom Dyke alongside me bogged right down so was behind. Soon worked out a way past a couple of people then Tom, having recovered from the startline 'mare, got past and a race-long battle ensued, with Messrs Donkersley and Buchan in close attendance after doing the pair of them on the brakes going into the Esses. Shame old Headling wasn't there to join that party eh? ;) Was a little puzzled to see a chequered flag having not seen a last lap jobber I was sure I hadn’t seen the Smith and Herron duo blast by. Then the results sheet showed me and Tom as lapped, so we surmised the LCs must have been close behind so had to put the chequered one out. Very little in it between Tom and I come the finish line. In March's dry/cold but windy conditions I got a 1:32.9 in the morning and a 1:31.9 in the afternoon. This time by comparison a 1:28.3 which is one heck of a jump, and a personal best finish position of 19th.



So, a row 5 start for Saturday race 2 and got a stormer off the startline. I was soon re-passed by the harder chargers and then joined by Yats and Tom, who managed to edge past, and I subsequently made a few little errors while I watched them creep away little by little. Behind me were a couple of stalkers in the form of Craig Jennings and Higgsy, who managed to edge me out once again, but not get away, so there was plenty of wheel showing going on for the last few laps and great fun was had by all in our little trio. 20th in the end and a best of 1:27.5 which was pretty good progress.



Sunday after the Sqwelchies' party was not getting me out of my pit for a 3 lap Mickey-Mouse warmup so didn't bother even trying. It was only afterwards I found out the format had changed by combining classes and there were actually about 10mins on offer (which I would have got up for). The unfortunate Terry visited the grass in turn 1 on his brand new tyre and bashed himself about a bit though!



The MRO thou's were out at 12:45 and a few of us up on the grassy knoll were kind of poised thinking we'd never get a call before lunch cos they never call lunch late do they? They did, the buggers, and it was then a bit of a mad dash to get kitted up for the start. As it turned out they got us on the grid in the light rain then sent us away again for lunch while they cleared up an oil spill. Of course that gave it time to give us a proper wet race come 2pm. Warmup lap was foul, couldn’t see a darn thing down Revett straight and the rest wasn’t much better. Probably better off not seeing much as it was all standing or running water! Got another fairly decent start and followed the hard-charging Tom D once again round turn 1. Couldn’t do much with turn 2 and was worried by the temp gauge reading down the straight – 2 strips of gaffa on the rad still weren’t enough! 1st time into the Esses and came out without too much drama. 2nd time round the Esses and coming out of the right-hander had a MONSTER moment that had me out of the seat. Eye witnesses assure me it was just as spectacular from the ringside seat. That kind of threw me off kilter for a while as something didn’t feel quite right and then, coming round Corams towards Russels, shut the throttle a bit after a small slide and was a bit perturbed to find it still driving forward. A couple of blips with the clutch in got it idling again but I was kinda hoping it wouldn’t jam wide open into turn one… Adrian on the 350 got past and; the group Tom was battling with ended up in a bit of a tangle at turn 2 at some point - can’t really remember much for the next few laps other than relaxing my grip on the bars, riding a bit smoother/faster, trying not to tense up over the stream flowing across the Bombhole, and watching Higgsy reverse towards me slowly. As did Pat Herron I was somewhat amazed to find on the last lap. I’d followed Higgsy round Corams on the 2nd to last lap and knew I had a bit of a drop on him round there but tried it on at the end of Revetts. He was having none of it and got me back, so I lined him up round the outside at Corams, braked as late as I dared into Russels, made a complete horlicks of getting out of Russells with 6krpm on the tacho so clutched it and pinned it towards the line. Place X was mine, not a very good one so I thought. I was utterly amazed to find it was 10th! Of 22 finishers so would have been a national signature too! That long wait for points and then 6 of the 'em come along at once – WOOHOO!



So, race 2 after an eternal wait and I’m in the heady echelons of row 3 after the rain soaked race 1 turned the grid on its head. Gotta make the most of this one, so into turn one with another clean start and went for it as best I could. For the first 2 laps round Coram the bike was making ‘S’ shapes all the way round for some reason. Had a little surprise on about lap 2 I think when Sqwelchie tried a move into Russells, thought better of trying the left flick at that speed and was last seen making a beeline for the marshal post :-D. Had a race-long dice with Yats who had the entry into the Esses sussed right out after losing out every time down Revetts. Barry Negus joined the party for the last two laps, and him shutting the door on me at the fastest bit of Corams made for an interesting few seconds of “who’s gonna blink first” action. A 12th place finish wasn’t a bad result at all, so first dry points too! Oh and a 1:26.8, a whole 5 seconds faster than the first Snett.



No more novice jacket either. Had a great weekend socially and on the track, sliced aeons off my laptimes and finished well above expectations, 10 points in the bag, newly built engine was going well… I’m pretty happy with that for round 3