Cadwell Park 5th & 6th August
Hi all
Well last weekend it
was off to Cadwell for another weekends racing with the Auto 66 club.
The last time I
raced with Auto 66 was Scarborough back in 2013. That weekend didn’t
work out how I planned, so I hoped this weekend would be better.
John and I arrived
on Friday evening and set up camp in what seemed to be a very empty
paddock.
After making home,
we had a walk around the paddock.
At this point I was
somewhat concerned as I only saw half a dozen bikes, most of the
paddock was taken up by go karts.
John actually asked
if I had the correct weekend.
Still when we got up
Saturday my concerns were laid to rest as there were more bikes than
we’d seen the previous evening, which was a bit of luck.
John took the bike
for technical inspection, only to arrive back shortly as the rear
brake wasn’t working.
After an adjustment
on the rear master cylinder all was working, so was given the all
clear to race.
Not only did John twirl spanners, he was also the team barrista for the weekend, bringing his posh coffee pot with him
I headed down to
practice and was amongst a wide variety of machines, which was just
as well as there were only 5 Minitwin/Supertwins listed in the
programme.
Practice went well
and had a good dice with a guy on a supertwin, eventually getting the
better of him.
So it was time for
my first race, which I didn’t get a great start in and found myself
amongst a load of CB900’s and GSXR750’s.
The CB’s had
handlebars roughly half the width of the track, so overtaking was
interesting. Still I got passed a couple and had a good race with a
guy on a GSXR750.
Times were a couple
of seconds off what I had done before, which I put down to a
different gear ratio I was trying.
When we got the
times I decided to go back to the previous gear set up to improve my
times.
In The second race I
was quicker, but still not as fast as had been, but I did have a good
race with the guy on the Supertwin who I’d practiced with earlier.
I was actually quicker than him on lap times and had a faster race
time, but just couldn’t get passed him. He crossed the line 3
tenths of a second before me, it was that close.
Sunday started with
another practice and I was 6th quickest overall, and
second fastest SV650, which was good, so I hoped grid positions would
be done on this, but sadly it was taken from finish positions from
the Saturday race, so started in 13th, unlucky for some.
I managed to get a
good start and saw the supertwin not get a great start, so was happy
to be in front of him.
Things were going
well until I tipped into a fast right hander, called ‘Charlies 2’.
As I tipped in I hit
something so had to stand the bike up, which caused me to run onto
the grass.
I’ve run onto the
grass before and thought I was safe, until the front went down a
rabbit hole and I went over the handle bars. So decided it was
probably best just to lay her down, which I did.
When I got up I saw
the bike that hit me. Yes you’ve guessed it, it was the supertwin
I’d been racing with.
We were both put in
the ambulance and taken for a check up by the track Doctor. Whilst in
the ambulance the rider told me he went for a gap which wasn’t
there so had no choice but to run into me.
As you can see from
the picture below how close he was, the black mark up the arm of my
leathers, is off his tyre.
Luckily we were both
given the all clear by the doctor, so set about repairing the bike.
Luckily it was
mostly levers that took the brunt of the impact, those that couldn’t
be replaced, were hammered back into shape.
With the bike fixed
I set off for the second race.
I wasn’t at my
best as I banged my knee when I came off, and as time went on it
started to stiffen up and got harder to push down on.
Got a good start and
it was more a case of making sure that there wasn’t any other
damaged that we hadn’t seen, my biggest fear was the forks could
have been bent, but luckily they hadn’t.
Had
a good battle with a few different guys, but still didn’t improve
my previous visits time, but I wasn’t that surprised by that, all
things considered.
It was a strange
meeting and just didn’t really feel like it was a proper meeting
for some reason. It was well run and relaxed, but just seemed to be
missing something for me.
So I now have a few
things that need some attention and I’m currently waiting for my
knee of many colours to arrive, which is coming on nicely.
All being well I’m
out at Cadwell next in September, so hopefully I’ll get the bike
all sorted by then.
Cheers
Stuart
