Well I head back to the scene of the crime for my first race meeting since a highside at Sunny Out back in Aug 2017. It's been a long time coming. This is really just to dip my toe back in and see how I feel before getting to it proper with TSGB at Brands the following weekend. Only the CB500 initially. The 675 will emerge sometime in the summer. In true TDB style the bike isn't quite ready. A new* exhaust has gone on, oil and filter change, new front pads have been done. Now just fit the new bodywork and I'm done. I've three and a half trackdays under my belt and they went ok. We'll see how I go. Writing this just now, I'm remarkably calm. I'm sure that will change *Not 'new' exactly, more 'modified' courtesy of @Sideshow Pob
Sounds interesting, as I thought you were already running the Arrow oval titanium that many of us favour.?
It's the CB500 exhaust that's been modified (cut and shut) in an attempt to give me a little more ground clearance
bob we didn.t have much luck at manx dave mac qualified third fastest wed but we had a damper come slack. in the senor headgasket went think due to overheating when stone thru rad at ulster, anyhoo be doon heping gary whitfield about 9 ish, any earlier i.ll end up mashalling. e.f cancelled last sundy snow. 675 has thee spare trigger engine in last one he built sad. picked up week before manx, pre injready but meneed more time t day croft april 24 th be intersting being resurfacd early april, thats why nemc rc early date meetng. catch you steady away
I can’t wait for this weekend, it will be a nice break away from reality. Hopefully it will be good to be around the motorbike scene too as I have been so disconnected from it for a while, rumours have it that I’ve turned into abit of an eco-warrior enjoying cycling as a new found hobby (I don’t know how those rumours started!) Catch you Friday evening
done very canny bob was down from 8.ish till 4 helping couple of lads and seeing people had not seen for 5 month you qailfed third for the 500.s and time very canny at1.45.6 called by but no sign of you
Sorry to miss you @peter doson Maybe catch you up at East Fortune. Well that wasn't a bad weekend to dip my toe back in so to speak. Come the call for practice I was pretty nervous. "Just go ride round" I told myself. So I did. Due to the number of entries the CB's found themselves out with Mini+Supertwins. As usual, all sorts of abilities out there. I rode round doing the best I could with nobody really to latch on to. I qualified 22nd from 32 overall, 5th in class. Come the first race I'd actually settled down a bit. It wasn't the best of starts but I got away. No aggression at all saw me dropped like a stone through the first couple of corners but I got going and managed a few passes. The last few laps were spent dicing with another lad on a CB with a minitwin in the mix. Well, I say in the mix, getting in the way is a more accurate way of putting it. It's club racing, NEMCRC are a small club so mixed grids are the order of the day. You just got to deal with it. I had speed over the pair of them from Tower all the way to Sunny out but I couldn't make anything stick. A little frustrating at the time but good fun looking back. Even duffing up proper the lad on the minitwin at the final corner wasn't enough to stop him passing me on the way to the line just as we were getting lapped by the leading supertwin who took the flag so I lost any opportunity for a last lap do or die maneuver. Maybe that was a good thing. 7th. No second race on the Saturday. Lots of reds. Lots of time lost so that was that. BBQ was lit and Peroni sunk. A good few too as due to the local noise restrictions, no track action until 12 on the Sunday. My first race was called soon enough. I was determined to get away better and carry more aggression on the first lap. It worked. Kind of. I got through some traffic and up ahead I could see the young lad I'd been dicing with the day before. Slowly I reeled him in. Showed him a wheel a couple of times but that was as close as I could get. However on the way to the Complex we were lapped by the leader. I was determined to try something. As it happened we came across a back marker and the young lad hesitated. That was all I needed. I was under the pair of them. Then the dash to the line (if a CB can indeed dash) hoping he wouldn't get back at me. He didn't. 6th. I was delighted to have just pipped him. I'd also found about another half second a lap. Still in the 45's, the front runners doing 41's. To put that in perspective whilst pi R1 mounted, my best at Croft is a 1:30. The open class leaders are in the 25's. Anyway @Damnthistinleg turned up. He brought posh biscuits. You're welcome any time Andy. So we're waiting for race two and just as I'm called the heavens open. "Not enough to bother me" I thought. Then it was. I hesitated. Final call. I hesitated again. I'd like to think with a couple of meetings under my belt I'd have just went like I would have in the past. It is what it is though. "Do the sighting laps" says Andy. In hindsight, he was right but I'd already kind of made my decision and my thoughts were already pointing at Brands this coming weekend. So I sat it out. We decided to go watch. After the two sighting laps, it was practically dry. Oh well. So van packed and on my way. Under three hours back to base. I was knackered. More mentally than anything I think. Was it worth it? For me, yes. It got me back in the paddock prior to dipping back in proper with Thundersport this weekend. Couple of things to do with the bike. An evening in the workshop will see to that. @outkast We were down the bottom of paddock two, pretty much the last ones. Thanks to @Sideshow Pob for helping out last minute with a couple of things And thanks to everyone else for their help and support getting me this far. You know who you are Next: Brands Hatch 29-31 March.
bob the lad that won on the ian bell coloured supertwin is splinty cambell a mate he is also scots supertwin champ last yr
p.s catch you east fortune, either mellville or north east bob great watching a feid of cb 500 out different bike in front each corner,their all on a level playing field , and ts down to tyre and riding [there all potty m8]
