Round 1 CHEC at Great Billington

Click on small pics for a larger image. All pictures taken without the using a flash! See the Gallery for 250 more pics from the day.

So the first race of 2008 is done and dusted, well maybe not so much dust but mud! Yep the first round of the Chiltern Hills Enduro Club H&H series was a wet one! As some of you may already know from a thread on the TBM forum, I’d fitted a set of mousses in my race wheels. When new, these tend to be a bit on the hard side, so when it started to drizzle on Saturday (all day) and then rain heavily on Saturday night I knew I was in trouble. I thought about swapping them back to tubes but I had Lazybones’s exhaust to fix for the next day – and then I got called out to work! Bollocks, so neither of them got done.
I met Phil (from the CHEC forum) at the local roundabout and we headed off to Amersham to pick up Tony on the way. His race prep consisted of going to see a pub band and getting pissed so he was asleep in the lay-by when we came passed! A quick toot of the car’s horn and we were off to Aylesbury to pick up Scott_rider. We missed Rotaxrob by a few minutes but we all arrived more or less together at the venue, More Farm at Great Billington. Club Dirty Bastards had arrived!

Rotaxrob followed by Scott_rider and then Twowheelsdad all still nice & clean!

In the riders briefing we were told it was going to be a two times two hour event and not one and a half, which was what I was expecting. Looking at some of the marshals bikes coming back into the pits gave me cause for concern, they were absolutely covered in crap!
Phil stated in the first wave and I was two rows behind him with Tony five rows behind me, and the other two back in the pack as well. I started nice an easy and the going was slippery but not too bad at first, however things got worse quite quickly. I remember sitting on the line just before being called up and a guy next to me was advised by a helper to ‘not to forget to turn on his fuel’, well mine was on already but hearing that I remember I reached down and turned it, OFF! Of course within a few corners the bike was cutting out and then stopped. Looking down I realized my mistake. Pissed off now, and slightly rattled, I tried too hard but that just caused more problems. Trying to get round another bike stuck in a big muddy puddle, I flopped over myself, straight into the muddy water. So half a lap of the mx track and I was soaked on the left hand side! Some sections of the mx track were made difficult due to the slippery conditions, slopes needed to be taken with a fair bit of momentum to get up them but due to lack of grip I got caught out several times when the rear just spun up on the slope and dumped me back down again when forward momentum stopped. Other times, when I did get to the top ok, it was via some real wild lines. Time and again the tyres would lose traction or slide into bits of the track that I didn’t really want to be on! All around me guys were pulling over to let more air out of their tyres and all I could do was mutter under my breath about my ‘investment’.

I really thought i was going to make this one but it wasn't to be!

In the full size pic of this one you can zoom right in and see the angry look in my eyes! also check out how clogged the front tyre is with mud!

After the water splash it was into the woods and time for the real slippery bit. Although this time it wasn’t too bad at all and I found I could ride this section well enough considering the lack of grip.
Coming back into the mx track again after the main woods, the sapling woods and open field, you climbed up a steep slope before tuning right and going over a few jumps. I thought I remembered this bit from the first round last year and I enjoyed jumping them then, so I went at it with gusto. Mmm the first one turned out to have a bit of a peak so I flew off the top and slammed down on the flat. Not being prepared for it my legs came off the pegs and I hit the tank when the suspension flattened, I think they heard the bang in the car park!
Turning left into the center of the track again there was a small steep slope to get over. Only no one in front of me was getting over. I waited for a while as a marshal helped a rider when backed up a bit and took a run at it. I thought I’d made it as well but at the last minute the grip gave out and even though I was over the crest I ended up crashing back down again. Picking the bike up (eventually) we got directed around the slope and that was cut out for the next lap.

Rob getting a bit a 'air' .... and Phil finding out that it's a bit slippery out there!

The laps went by without too many instances after that so I had a quick look at the mud covered stopwatch, I’d only done one hour – shit, it felt like two already! Oh well just keep plugging away. I was finding the few drop off’s in the mx section hard work as they were killing my shoulders and in hindsight I suppose I should have tried jumping off them, but it was so slippery I think it could have ended badly.

Tony going down after being told to go a certain direction by a marshal - only to find it wasn't the easy option!

I passed Phil in the woods when he moved over for me and eventually lapped Tony at the water splash. There was a queue waiting for a dropped bike in the water and Tony was at the front of the queue, so I worked my way up next to him and shouted “Hey, you’re holding up everyone”. Just then a small gap appeared and we both gunned it, elbows out and luckily I came out on top. I managed to set a good pace thorough the slippery bit after the splash and entering the sapling woods I glanced over my shoulder but Tony was nowhere to be seen. I clipped a few trees which upset my rhythm slightly and hearing a two stroke coming up behind me I pulled over to let him by and Tony sneaked past as well! I chased him across the field but couldn’t get close enough as I was struggling so much with lack of grip on the grass. I managed to do an out braking ‘block pass’ at the last lefthander before the short blast up the field and swinging back into the mx track where I must have broken away as I didn’t see him again.

Phil in the muck followed by Rob and Scott getting some air time

Me soaking somebody that's stuck........Rob (you see, i told you it was steam driven!)..... followed by Scott

Not sure if it was the morning session or afternoon but I was just behind Phil as he went over the bridge and lost it, crashing fairly hard onto the sleepers.
Stopping for lunch I fueled up then went back to the cars for some well earned food and to chat about the day’s events so far.
Phil realized that he defiantly needed some brush guards as he’d clipped a tree with his brake lever and that stopped the bike dead with him over the bars into the tree and was now nursing what felt like cracked ribs.
Rob was having a few problems with his bike, a guy had knocked it over in the pits and somehow it had damaged the wiring, so it wouldn’t start. I think it was just all the water putting out the coal fire! After lots of frantic poking and prodding he got it going but when he tried to start the race it kept on dying, so he had no choice but to retire.

Me having a 'whoa' moment (one of many) ....... Rob still clean??!!......alternative shot of Scott

Half way through our lunch it started to rain, but eased off in time for us to start the second leg of the race. The rain turned the track into a slick oil pan, the bike rarely going in the right direction. Even the woods had been affected and it became a bit dodgy for me as I was getting two wheel slides that were drifting me very close to some rather solid looking trees with some nasty poky out bits! Several times I had to do some emergency ducking and leaning to one side to avoid getting hit.
I slithered around the track and eventually got to the slope that takes you back into the mx part of the track. There was a rider just in front of me and we tackled the slope one behind the other. He lost traction but managed to crash onto the top of the slope whereas I failed to make the top and got dumped three quarters of the way up. Petrol was pouring out so I closed the tap and tried to pick it up, but being on such a steep slope and being on an angle I couldn’t, all I could do was drag it down to the bottom while a queue formed. Sorry guys and thanks for being good natured about it as no one shouted at me!

Scott making a pass at Phil!

Somewhere along the line the bolt holding the front of my LHS hand guard had come out, which was a bit annoying as I normally check things like that before a race. Now the guard was flapping about and distracting me. My other half was nowhere to be seen so I had to ride like that for several more laps before I spotted her and shouted that I needed some cable ties. In the meantime I’d noticed Scott-rider and Rotaxrob on the other side of the water splash. At the time I assumed it was Rob’s bike that had conked out due to the dodgy electrics. What I didn’t know at this time was that he’d not been able to start the second leg. Anyway it turns out that Scott had been a victim of the water and been drowned! He’d followed another rider too closely and when he got stuck coming out Scott had nowhere to go. Being a bit of a short arse he was unable to keep the KTM400exc upright and went fully under the water with the KTM on top of him! Thankfully there was a marshal on hand to save him from an actual drowning but the bike was well and truly soaked, requiring a plug out job.

Scott shortly before his exit ........ Rob and friend ........ Tony - round the bend

One lap later I managed to grab a cable tie to secure the brush guard in place and without that bothering me I manage to pick up the pace a bit. One area I wasn’t doing too well by now was the first section just after the water splash. The bike was so out of control there I could barely keep it moving forward. Just as I was fighting it to stay upright a voice from behind shouted out “you’re in the way”, yea no shit Sherlock but getting out the way was easier said than done at that stage. After a few hundred meters I noticed I was actually starting to catch the rider up so I was looking forward to returning the compliment but somehow managed to lose a lot of time in a section so he got away again.

L to R: I caught no:53 but he slowed more than i expected for a corner so we 'touched'. Air time & finally another 'whoa' moment as i was catching Phil.

A few more air time shots

In the last hour things settled down a bit and I managed to lap Tony again in the woods as he kindly moved right and pointed for me to go left as the track forked into two sections briefly. Then it was just a case of sticking it out till the end. I noticed I had eight minutes left on my stopwatch as I locked in and knew I’d not be able to make another so that was that for the day.
The first day’s proper racing had come to an end and all the guys in the group had enjoyed themselves. I had found it a bit hard at times due to lack of grip, but in some ways I may have psyched myself out by not being able to drop the pressure in the tyres. Still, you live and learn in this game, so next time its back to tubes and the mousses will be reserved for trips to Wales and other rocky trips. No idea about my results but I think the chance of me scoring a top ten result (in O40 class) as I did twice last year at this track are slim to say the least, so I’m hoping for a place in the teen’s.

Results now in: I got 6th in 0/40 class and 14th overall whoohoo!

See more photos from the day here

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