Tuesday 5 October 2010

CADWELL PARK SEPTEMBER 25/26

Sorry for the delay in writing up this report, things have been a bit hectic for the last couple of weeks. This Cadwell park meeting was the last meeting of the season, and as usual was full of surprises! The first surprise was the cold! It was freezing at Cadwell when we arrived on Friday evening, and this carried on for the weekend.
Saturday started damp but dried out throughout the day. Me and Chris were first out on the Rudges. As usual Chris went well but I was having fuel problems due the my flooding carb and was lucky to finish the race. We all had a bit of a shock when Trevor collapsed in the assembly area moments before his race was due to start and was rushed to hospital. We were all fearing the worst and were very relieved when his brother Tony came back from hospital with the news that Trevor had suffered a burst eardrum while diving the day before, and this had lead to an inner ear infection which was the root cause of the problem. Trevor was back track side the next day looking tired but better than we had feared.
as Trevor was Chris's passenger on the outfit he missed the first outfit race. I was out with Werner and we had a good session, although the best we could finish was somewhere near the back. For the second outfit race Chris teamed up with Matt and we had a good race with Chris beating us by a good bit in the end, and we were still near the back of what was a large grid.
This was my first day out after my accident and I was coping quite well considering.
Phil was back out on the bantam for the first time after his accident. He had been working on the lc for several weeks beforehand and was running in a new piston but it nipped up half way through the race. At least he didn't fall off! Me and Chris were out again on the Rudges. I was lucky enough to have been lent a float bowl for my TT carb by our friend Alex Ruemmel. My fortune was his misfortune, as the only reason he had the float bowl was because he blew his bike up at the start of the day! I think Alex wins the prize for coming the furthest to a meeting as he came from Switzerland, which is even further than Cornwall. Anyway, my Rudge was going well again so I got ahead of Chris who was trying to retake me when it all went a bit pear shaped and he came off exiting the gooseneck. Luckily he was unhurt but the bike had to be retired from the rest of the meeting. Phil had the good sense to bring both bantams with him to Cadwell so he went out on Josie for the second race and had a good ride.
That was the end of the first days racing, so after Chris's partner Gina cooked us all a splendid meal, we retired to the bar for a couple of well earned beers and watched the band that had come down to play for the evening.
Sunday was not just cold but very wet as well. I was out in the first race of the day and it was a bit slippy but I managed to put in a good finish which meant I had secured a third place in the championship. by the end of the third race the track had got so bad that the racing was stopped while an attempt was made to clear the oil off the track. The rain carried on regardless, and it was a few hours before we could start racing again. The outfits were the first to go back out and for me this was the best race of the weekend. We both seemed to be doing much better in the pouring rain and after a good start we managed to overtake Chris and Matt. I could hear them behind me for a couple of laps and on the penultimate lap they took us again. it was all down to the last lap and we were following them closely through the gooseneck and down the hill into mansfield. Throwing caution to the winds I revved the nuts off the outfit coming up to the chicane and just managed to sneak ahead again on the way in. We went up the mountain and all through the woodlands section right on the edge and just managed to stay ahead of Chris and Matt over the line. I think we finished 5th and 6th, a lot lot better than the day before.
Phil had decided not to race on the Sunday as his hand was hurting and the weather was so bad that it would have been just too easy to fall off and hurt his hand again. He made the right call as we only got one race each that day anyway. At least he had proved to himself that his hand was healed enough to race again.
So that was about it really. We are getting together next week to make our team plans for next year and engine strips are on the go. I will add a few words here over the winter when I have got something interesting to say. Miki.