CHEC Tring Oct 2010
800 photos of the event
So the last race of the season was upon us. The CHEC race at ‘Tring’ is (like all the venues) a cracking little track and everyone enjoys the fast sections as well as the twisty woodland tracks. This year the CHEC team arrived at the venue to a little surprise – the farmer had planted all the fields with a new batch of crops! Mmm how to lay out a course renowned for it’s flat out blasts cross ploughed up fields – when there was no fields available? Well for me personally I thought they did a wonderful job considering the constraints they had and we’ll forgive them the little cock up with pit location!
yes it was i little chilly on sunday morning!
where we were parked.....the pits are in the far distance, you can just about see the vans
Oh yes and being the last round of the series it was crunch time for the unofficial championship recorded here at www.redbikejohn.com. David was sitting pretty in first place with 289 with Alex 29 point adrift, so that was going to be a big ask to make up as David has been super consistent this year. However Mark and Gary were only 7 and 8 point behind him so for them a good showing was vital if they were going to spoil Alex’s end of year party for second place. Slightly further back in fifth was Vincent with 245 points and John (yours truly) was only 6 point behind him in sixth but I had problems with Ben breathing down my neck with only one point in arrears. Terry, Barry and Richard rounded out the top ten with 235, 219 and 215 point respectively.
1 David Garland - 289
2 Alex Orazietti - 260
3 Mark Denyer - 253
4 Gary Hanson - 252
5 Vincent Austin -245
6 John Muizelaar -239
7 Ben Blackman - 238
8 Terry Gale - 235
9 Barry Magee - 219
10 Richard Martin – 215
With Tony driving, Nicky and I squeezed into
the little silver golf for the short journey up to the venue just outside
Bellingham and were greeted with the strange setup of having to park about
half a mile away from the pits. Not only that but we were told that there
would be no access to the cars during the lunch break so we’d have
to carry all our gear down to the pits. Bugger, and I’d left my
little trolley at home.
Having parked up we unloaded and went to sign on. I suggested to Tony
that we drop the bikes off and scrutineer at the same time, but Tony’s
had other ideas “sod that” he said, “we’ll use
the bikes to ferry all the gear down to the pits” – good thinking
batman. At the signing on tent I bumped into the guy that I took out at
Lane End earlier in the year, oops - luckily he was fine with it.
the last leg of operation
'kit move'....
pity no one got got a pic of the two up with cool box, carrier bag and
TWO 10 ltr petrol canisters!
tony still feeling the chill in the poo pit otherwise know as the parc ferme
So now it was “operation kit move”
and with the cool bag around my neck and a carrier bag of sandwiches in
the crook of my left arm plus a ten litre petrol can in each hand we cruised
(limped) down to the pits with Tony riding and me on the back of his bike
- the little exc-f dragging it’s arse on the floor. On the way back
I was holding onto the rear mudguard when we hit a bump and the rear knobbly
tried to eat my fingers in revenge!
One more trip (tools and spares box) once we were fully geared up and
we were good to go, only to be told in the riders briefing that they were
going to start the race from the car park area as there had been so many
complaints. Apparently there had been a fair number of late comers cos
they could not find the place? There’s a goggle map on the website
of the location so how can you get lost?
a very determined looking Steve gets away on the front row
i get the drop on 69 away from the transponders but it was short lived
RACE TIME: AM
Steve was on the first row
of the pack and Tony was in the thirties while I was further back with
the number 70 on the front of the bike so there would have been plenty
of bikes to mark out the tracks before I got going. Number 69 and I got
going at a fair old pace but I could see he wasn’t mucking about
from the beginning and he pulled away very soon and disappeared. I was
half tempted to try and stick with him but I knew it would either end
in me being totally shagged after a few laps or in a heap somewhere so
I set my own slightly slower pace and work on picking off the riders ahead
one by one.
me coming round on
the first lap passing the other rider on the inside
(nice big file sizes so i can crop easy)
yeehaa - up the other
side of the hump
(ok i admit it - i saw Nicky there and tried to make it look good)
oooh nearly! get your weight forward!
Tony shows how it should be done - while drinking water
The track started by flying up the main access road and turning off the road where it turned left, then it headed over the one ploughed field and entering the woods. A few turns later we dropped down into the first of the ‘bomb holes’ where plenty of bike were milling around and several on their sides in the hole and surrounding undergrowth. I picked a good line though the mess and as soon as we were out the other side, we had to turn left up a slippery track to the next dip in the woods. This was also causing a few problems for some as the bottom was soft and after a few laps this was cut out. Personally I think things like this should be left in as a bit of a struggle is all part of enduro.
most people avoided the large chalk hump - i reckon he will from now on!
Anyway after the hole the track did the usual
trick of winding its way through the trees but in this case it wasn’t
too tight but the going was soft and I’m always a little wary of
going off line in leaf covered woods as I’ve learnt from experience
that logs and branches can be waiting for your front wheel to whip it
away and send you flying! After a short run we got to a tiny tarmac track
that had all the grip of black ice. Turning off the slippery track back
into the trees for a brief moment, brought you to the mini quarry. This
is always fun to ride as you can jump the bike out normally. However this
time the climb out was very close to the drop down so speeds were a lot
lower ie jumps were less easy to come by. A short detour though the ploughed
field brought us back to the quarry for another quick in/out before entering
a long stand of trees that was a lot tighter in some sections but they
did flow if you got your timing right.
Once back out into the open we did a big fast loop through the field to
end back up in the woods once more, but further to one side. This wood
was made up of holly bushes and was pretty tight with zero overtaking
places. As soon as we got out into the open once more a short fifty yard
dash led to a gap in the hedge and on the other side we had a chance to
open the bikes up to full speed.
Keeping the bike on full throttle had the wheels leave the ground at a
little kink/hump in the track before some manic breaking at the 90’
left turn at the end, which was near the far end of the car park. From
here was skirted the field with the crops in, gingerly riding around the
edge with the warning of getting black flagged for straying into the crops
still loud in our ears.
Having ridden down two sides of the field, we ended up in the old quarry
area. Unfortunately this part has been smoothed out considerably since
2008 and while it is still great fun to ride the large humps (good photo
oops), the old rough and ready au natural sort of terrain was much better.
me again - this shot came out real nice
After jumping the humps we entered more woods
at the bottom of the venue and these ranged from very tight in places
to fairly flowing depending on what part you were in. Although the ground
was still soft, grip wasn’t too much of an issue and unlike some
wood's tracks the roots only became a problem on one corner.
At the end of the wood we had a little ‘walking pace only’
section as there was no other way of linking the two sections of woods
together without it. It didn't cause any problems and was a handy spot
to grab a drink from the camelpack or wipe your goggles. on the other
side was another short bit of wood but it brought you back to the same
spot again on the homeward leg of the lap. After that it was a short run
up to the transponders via two or three bends, one of which caused a few
tumbles as the guys were caught out by the hard surface.
the hands clasping the helmet say it all "OH NO!"
there's no way back from this normally.......
and there wasn't this time either!
the full sequence
The first session was turning out to be hard work on the 450 as a lot of the track was fairly tight so I was feeling the strain a little but catching up to other riders tends to spur me on to push harder (the old red rag syndrome) and the most of the real slow riders were pretty good in making some room for you when needed. Those that didn’t were treated to the 450’s extra oomph once the track opened up and with no lights up front I could brave the flint barrage from the bikes in front to either blast past on the straights or at least get close enough to outbreak them into the next turn.
me passing the chalk hump - Tony no:34 in the background
by the following lap he'd got ahead
Having passed Steve earlier I eventually caught up to Tony and followed him through the second last part of the woods looking for a way past. I think his tactic to keep me behind him was to use the entire track all at the same time. Sitting behind him at the two way section I started shouting insults at him but I’m not sure he could hear me as we both wear earplugs. Still behind him in the last section of woods he overshot the 90’ bend and I nipped past shouting “woohoo” or something like that. I clocked in at the transponders and nailed the bike up the long run towards the woods and kept the gas on full. Just as you leave the road there is a slight rise and when the suspension unloaded on this the rear end lit up spinning out to the left – at about 60 this was a little worrying but the bike righted itself quick enough so no harm done.
the following lap i'd got ahead - unbeknownst to me
Tony hot on my heals
I carried on as normal but got held up a few times by slower riders in
the woods and again got held up once we got through the mini quarry. Just
before the next set of woods Tony came barrelling up the inside block
passing the slower rider and made his getaway while I had to sit patiently
until the next open section. I made some ground up on him only for him
to nip in front of another slower rider just as he got to the woods again
and once more I had to sit chomping at the bit blipping the throttle to
get past. Once out into the open Tony was gone so I set about trying to
catch him but always seemed to be catching people up at the most inopportune
moments and i never saw him again.
I caught one group of riders in an open section just after the first mini quarry in/out and out braked several of them into the next bend in the field. I could hear one make a comment about something (rider in white’ish gear) but not too sure what about as I reckon it was a legitimate out braking pass into the bend but the next bend he came slamming into the side of me really hard nearly knocking me off! This really pissed me off and I opened the 450 up to get to the second drop into the quarry first, shouting a few choice words in the process – but nearly ended up in a heap at the bottom cos I’d gone a little too fast into the drop. I managed to keep it upright and hit the gas to get out the other side and this time luck was on my side and I nipped in front of a slower rider just before we entered the next set of woods.
Dave getting a move on
Tony still hard at it and still drinking!
me again!
With thirty minutes to go I clocked the transponders so I knew it would
be easy to working out my lap time and whether I’d be able to make
another one. The lap went fine up until just before the hedge that led
onto the fast track. I caught a rider just as he had a ‘moment’
and he wobbled through the corner of the hedge only just making it. this
of course slowed him down more than I’d calculated for and I ended
up getting my front wheel caught in his rear wheel and overbalanced into
a heap on the floor. I pulled the bike upright and nailed it down the
straight and thankfully that was the end of the drama for the lap so I
ended back at the transponders having done about a 15 minute lap so I
knew I could squeeze another one in as long as everything went ok –
and it didn’t.
I caught another rider just before the mini quarry and tried to overtake
going down the slope but got off line somehow and had to abort the climb
out. Luckily I never crashed and just had to do a small arc at the bottom
to line up the exit. I put some extra effort in for the rest of the lap
but also calculated that the tumble the previous lap was more or less
the same time loss as the botched overtake so I should be ok time wise.
Thankfully I was and clocked in with some time to spare. A few minutes
later Tony came through the transponders and at first I thought he’d
managed to pull a whole lap on me but when I asked him about it he explained
that he’d run off the track ages ago and I’d gotten past him
then and he’d been chasing me ever since! Having started a few rows
in front of me I think he was late getting in but we’ll have to
wait for the results to be sure.
oi - look where you are going! Gary checks out Nicky
LUNCH: After some sandwiches and a coke it was time to re-fill the bike and re-tighten the gear lever once more. I need to tap out the old thread lock and use some electrical cleaner on the whole thing so the nut lock takes proper hold. After a quick visit to the portaloo it was time once more to get stuck in for another two hours.
As I’ve been having some trouble with the sound on my helmet cam I decided not to use it at this event but having had several people come up to me saying they really enjoy the videos and were disappointed that I didn’t film the afternoon session I feel I little guilty now and I wished I had. But never fear Steve managed to film a lap before his cam was knocked skywards.
fed and watered - ready to ROCK!
Filmed by Steve
RACE TIME: PM
The afternoon race went a lot
better as for some reason the number of riders seamed have thinned out
considerably. Either that or they were going faster having got used to
the track in the morning. I did have a load of trouble with a couple of
quads for a while and one of them blatantly cut the one bit of wood out
as I’d overtaken him just before the wood near the mini quarry but
I saw him zoom up the outside and get ahead of me again while I was threading
my way through the trees – you are only cheating yourselves.
IT'S QUARRY TIME!
a fallen rider does the chicken dance in frustration after dropping his bike
me flying - i don't look slow for a change!
After coming back round and dipping through again - exit stage right
whoops a daisy
I caught Tony at the last set of woods on the very far end of the venue, just before the fast straight. I sat behind him then as we got onto the back ‘straight’ wound the 450 up, coming past at warp factor ten. Looking down briefly I could see 77 mph on the clock and there was still a short bit before the braking area so I reckon 80 mph was do’able there.
Dave looking good in the back field
me trying
one of the banks that we had to cross 'up and over'. this shot gives it a feeling of height
I did have two little bits of bad luck in the afternoon. One was a tumble
just as we re-entered the woods after the tarmac track. I’d just
overtaken some riders when I got a little off line with the front wheel
(probably getting tired) and that sent me more off line into a ‘moment’.
I recovered from the first one but this had put me off the track and I
caught a large lump of sticky out root at the base of a tree and it sent
me flying. I bounced back up like an energiser bunny and grabbed the clutch
before it stalled, yanking the bike back up to re-join the race. That
little bit of excitement over, I then got poked on the end of my nose
with a stick. It hurt a bit at first but nothing too bad. Once the race
was over I found out it had been bleeding a bit, something that everyone
kept on pointing out to me.
another great shot
So that was that for the year (excluding the
forthcoming xmas cobweb blaster) and as usual we were the last to leave.
I always end up chatting to loads of people and plus I did a little bit
of shopping at Abingdon Off Road. One other thing, a couple of guys next
to use had picked up what looked like a KTM engine skin plate. We handed
it in to the chec directors so if you lost one contact them for it.
The Next Day: My nose looks like a cat has been chewing it in the night - It's full of scabs! Funny enough not one person asked me at work what happened to my nose? This morning i discovered my right foot was black and blue the whole left side. Why? No idea, i don't even remember hitting my foot on anything, unlike all the black marks on my arms from the flint missiles.
Thanks to CHEC for once again laying ona great event.
some more film by steve - this one shows you how busy it can get sometimes
if you want a full res copy just email me the url of the pic
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