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Racer series 1/5th scale bike national round 3 Halifax Mark's meeting Both Ian and me have decided that Bikes are the way we want to go, and so all the stops would be well and truly pulled out for this meeting. We both missed round two in Carlisle because of commitments with touring cars, so we needed a good meeting here in Halifax to make up our points defecit. We drove the 280 miles on Saturday morning ariving early afternoon to a deserted track. Brilliant, a chance to do some serious practice without those 5th scale cars and truckshampering our progress. To be honest there were a few there but they were really good and kept out of our way as much as posible. Saturday went very well, Ian had fitted my new front disc brake on the journey up in the car and I quickly set about lapping in fairly quick consistent times. The problem was that with no other bikes there to gauge from, we had no idea if we were quick or not. In my eyes the new Halifax track had a lot to live up to, and i'm pleased to say it didn't disapoint, and I can honestly say it is one of the nicest tracks in the county. And so we left Saturday evening feeling pretty confident that we could show the local lads a thing or two on Sunday. Both myself and Ian are unfortunate enough to suffer from very bad hay fever, I get mine during the day and Ian gets his during the night. So while Ian had a miserable sleepless Saturday night I had miserable nose streaming Sunday. Anyway the show must go on, as they say, so after a hearty breakfast we arrived at the track early enough to get a pitting spot and set about meeting up with our newly found friends, Steve, Barry, Richie, Ken etc. etc. Several new faces apeared at this meeting and I think we got to know just about everyone by the end of the day (If we didn't talk to them in the pits we probably collided with them on the track) Both Paul and Andy Tidd were there and it was good to talk to a couple of old hands. And so to the racing. In some ways I had a much better meeting than Brooklands, in as much as I managed to complete 4 of the 5 runs, but a steering problem that I couldn't resolve hampered my progress in round 4 and the final, which meant I only managed to finish in 7th place. I should be disapointed with this result but for some reason I'm not. I think the pleasure of racing these bikes far outways the results obtained and I know that once my steering problem is sorted and my hay fever is gone I will be back on the podium. The unfortunate thing is that Steve won again which means he has won all three rounds so far and is looking odds on favourite to win the title. We will continue with development on the bike and hopefully find that little bit extra we need. Ian's meeting Halifax, bloody long way away, but of all the rounds we were going to it was the only track that I kind of know (been once before) and was looking forward to. We drove up Saturday not so much for the practice, although that never hurts, but more just so that Sunday wouldn’t be such a ridiculously long day. As ever practice was a double edge sword. On one hand it gave us a chance to learn the track and try and sort out the bikes. On the other we had know idea what a good time was around here and with so little experience of the bikes, we had no real idea what a good bike looks like. Paul and Andy Tidd were there when we arrived but soon went, so apart from half a dozen cars there was no one else at the track to gauge ourselves against. However, by the end of the day I was happy that I was able to do 30-32 second laps reasonably consistently,- (big mistake). I had a fraught night at the travel-Inn with my hay fever as bad as ever although we had a pleasant evening meal and a couple of beers to set us up for the race on Sunday. Sunday... Well what can I say. Steve Newey riding as well as ever and with his newly rebuilt, lightweight, Benwell mod’ed bike was lapping a good 1 ½ seconds quicker than I could manage on Saturday. I found most of that 1 1/2 seconds during the day but could never string together a complete race on the limit. I just need more practice really carrying speed through a corner. I’m quicker into and out of them I just don’t carry it through. End result: although the track had cooled slightly by the time the final started, which may have worked to my advantage, Steve made a good start and I screwed up. I knew that if I gave him space he would just drive away so I pushed harder at the start than I can really get away with at the moment. The bike is always good I just cant get into the groove that quickly. I closed up within about 10-15 feet of him and then went wide coming onto the straight. The resulting crash cost me about 5 seconds and from then on the race was all over. I actually lost time then as I couldn’t settle down and the harder you push the slower you go! Still we had a great weekend. All things considered 2nd was a good result and after the long drive home we have loads of things to work on for the next round. Its just a shame that there aren’t more rounds there coz next time..... |