Round 5 - Towcester

I wasn’t to sure about taking part in the CHEC at Towcester. I’d been a bit busy on the bike lately, a Club DB trip in Somerset two weeks ago (report pending - whenever the post gets back to normal) and the Hafren Rally the week after that. Once the postal strike kicked off I saw on the website that we could enter on the day, so I’d leave the decision whether to race or not to the last minute. TWD (who I normally race with) had to pull out to go to his daughters birthday party (lucky him) so that was another reason perhaps not to attend. The bike also needed a bit of TLC and I wasn’t sure if I could get it all done in time. But as the week ended a new chain and sprocket kit was fitted along with new chain sliders all round. Finally new front wheel bearings, seals and spacers were fitted. The bike was ready, the weather forecast was ok and even my girlfriend agreed to come along to take photos, so that was that – I was going to take part!

Unloading(butterflies under control -just).................no:53..................me (56) on the start line

A 6am start to drive up to Towcester was a bit hard but we found the place easy enough and once I got signed in etc I squeezed myself into my riding gear, my fitness regime having completely gone out the window after I hurt my ribs at the last CHEC at Lane End. Oh well this round was described as a nice easy course fit for a beginner so I wasn’t overly worried about it. Parked next to me was number 53 (sorry I didn’t get your name) a second time novice.

Due to the postal strike and the fact that it had been listed as a TBC event up until the last moment, the field was fairly small (less than a hundred I think). I started near the back as number 56.

This was a nice dip to jump out of - it was even better the other way in the afternoon (see end of report)

Taking it nice and easy on the first lap I managed to not fall off for a change! I was however fairly surprised with the going – it was a lot more physical than I thought it would be. I’m not complaining as it was very well laid out baring a few naughty off camber turns at the bottom of hills before going straight back up again (more of that later). I almost road over one poor chap who fell off right in front of me at the top of a hill, the front wheel just missed him but I had to go back down and around the queue of riders that I worked at passing just before.

No:26 with some wheelie action.........No:28............and me coming out of the woods

I got stuck in to the laps and the old bugbear of numb hands soon reared its head again, but I also knew that it would disappear once I settled down into a rhythm. I was making good progress passing a few guys every now and then but a few blisteringly fast guys came past who surely must have been mx riders in their day cos they were going like the clappers. I made way for a guy on a yellow stroker but then he made some mistakes so we ended up having a bit of a race but it was only a matter of time before he pulled away though the tight woods.

Tip no1: when you spot a photographer always try to show off!

I settled into a nice comfortable rhythm and before I knew it, it was lunchtime. I thought the rule about not clocking in on your last lap before lunch was a bit strange. What was stopping from someone clocking in and then pitting straight away? It would look like he did another lap, would it not? Anyway as the laps were so short (3.5 miles) I managed to enjoy a full lunch brake for a change, but at a cost as I found out later.

56......................29 (21 in background)..........me (56) at the end of the main straight

Paul no:28..............................me again ............followed by another "oh there's the camera" moments

Below are some more random shots of the morning session

The second session

The afternoon session started with the course reversed from the morning. Something I’d not done before but it worked out well as I found the track flowed well in both directions. I got into a great scrap with a few guys, (64 was one I think) and the pace was fairly hot for a few laps. Checking the photo’s and data now I see it was no:64 and you should see how much faster that lap was! Pulling into the clocking in zone I was forced to go wide and clock in on the rhs one and being desperate to get going I was already letting the clutch out as I offered my wrist up to the machine – nothing! I frantically dabbed it three times but wasn’t sure if it bleeped or not.

Having a bit of a race with no:64 the pace was very fast and we both set our fastest time for the meeting

Just as I was wondering how long I could keep up the fast pace I made a small error. On the turn at the bottom of a drop which turns very tightly back up the bank I went slightly too wide and the rear wheel dropped into soft soil – the bike stopping half way up. I screamed obscenities as I started slipping back down and fruitlessly twisted the throttle hoping to find grip. At the bottom the angle of the ground made it difficult to turn and the bike went down with me astride it. It was plainly going nowhere so I jumped off to try a get it moved and then promptly dropped it again! Aagggg the motivation and fire drained away as I made it up the bank and entered the wooded section. No chance off catching them back up and the early fast pace had taken its toll, I was really feeling it, and I still had another hour and a half to go!

I took it nice and easy for a few laps to try and recuperate. I got thing going a bit faster after a while, but I never really got back into a groove again. I did try and speed up some more after my girlfriend started making throttle twisting signs at me! Apparently I wasn’t jumping out the dip enough for a good photo!

You know when you take a curtain jump just right every lap? I mean so well that you look forward to it every lap so that you can push a little harder or maybe just enjoy that moment of flying though the air? Well there was one of those for me and which time did it get caught on camera? The time i got it all wrong and nearly went over the front end! see below for the 'oh shit' this is going to hurt moment before it all sorted its self out.

Finishing the race I was feeling a little sick from the effort but it was a great days racing!

Well I got the results late on Tuesday night and there’s good and bad news. The good news is that in the preliminary results I finished 6th! The bad news is that I did miss the clocking in on the lap while I was racing no.64!! Bollocks, one of my laps shows up as double the amount in time which means I could have finished in fifth maybe. Analysing the lap time data I also noticed I seem to have one less lap than everyone else in the morning, which is strange as I had the ktm stopwatch running and I raced for the full 2hrs? Not only that but my lap times were consistently faster each lap for the whole morning session than another rider much higher up the results page, so how does that work? So a good result but I can’t help but feel let down by the clocking in mistake and the apparent mistake of coming in too early at lunch (later proved to be a error by the other riders and they got awarded an extra lap by mistake).

So four weeks to the next one – if only it would stop raining so I could get out on the MTB to get fitter ,........now where did I put those biscuits?

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