Three in the Bag

Yesterday I was up at 04h30 to be at the Darley Moor circuit by 08h00. I was entered, paid, scrootered and signed on by 08h45. Of course it's only then I get the race schedule... with practice starting at 10h00. Yep... road-racing... hurry up and wait.

Out for practice. I qualify last.

Out for race 1 that was scheduled for 11h00 or something... started at about 12:15. Guess it's not a ThundersportGB event then. As we line up after the warm-up lap it starts to rain. "Yeeeeha!" I yell in my helmet. I see the body-language of all the racers in front of me stiffen up. Game on!

I make a good start on the wet track and slice between riders... barreling into the space in front of me in the first corners. I leap from 22nd on the grid to about mid-pack in the space of 100 yards. I pick off a few more places till we get to the hairpin. Two bikes go down and a rider is unconscious in the middle of the track. I carefully pick my way through the debris and hoon off down the straight where I see the red flags. Only 5 bikes were in front of me! I curse the riders that caused the red flag and laugh to myself at the same time. Man, I loooove racing in the wet!

We wait 20 minutes for the restart by which time the rain shower has passed over and the track is almost dry. I make a good start and get a few places up in the shortened 6 lap race. But as the riders' confidence return on the dry track I get picked off. The wee monster is no match for 75 plus horsepower MiniTwins and Supersport 400s.

I finish 15th of 18. Three in the bag!

I don't want to risk personal or machanical injury in the second race so collect the results sheet, pack up and leave for a bit of spectating at the ShorttrackUK meeting held at Buxton - it's just 35 minutes away.