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Racer series 1/5th scale bike national round 8 Mendip Mark's meeting The last one of the season and my first one traveling to a meeting on the bike. Ian was right, it does get a bit chilly at 6.30 in the morning hammering down the M4, still a couple of hours later and we arrive at the track and are being greeted by the smiling faces of Steve and Barry. This was my first time at Mendip and I have to say what a lovely circuit. Every bend is different with not one constant radius bend which seems to be the criteria for designing a modern circuit. After nipping up to the local garage to get some new tranny batteries, I quickly set about learning the track, and to my surprise although quite a long lap I very quickly settled down into a nice rhythm. It pays to be smooth here which suits my riding style perfectly and at the end of qualifying I was in third place just 1 second behind Steve. My bike has the same set up from the last meeting and the meeting before that and is now pretty much dialed. Apart from decreasing the rake angle slightly and adjusting the side guards at various times throughout the day, the bike remains the same. The least said about the final the better. I made the mistake of trying to chase a quicker rider (Steve) and paid the price. A big crash at the end of lap 1 saw my transponder come flying out and it went down hill from there. I don't know where I ended up but it was all pretty academic really. Ian won the Race and the meeting and the Championship. Steve Newey was a close a second as you could get and Colin McCabe, who unfortunately was not at the meeting, finished third. And so the first seasons racer series for 1/5th Motorbikes is over. It doesn't seem like 5 months ago we stood down at Brookland watching Steve riding round thinking, 'Why can't we go that fast'. And now Team Benwell have the first Racer series champion. So, am I disappointed with my performance over the year? well yes and no. I have had some good qualifying times which I am pleased about. On the other hand I've had some bad finals, but at the end of the day riding radio control bikes like other sports is all about practice. - You only get out what you put in, and I just haven't been putting in the practice during the season at the same level as Ian. But generally speaking I have had a good time and met some great people, who have made the series what it was - a great success Ian's meeting This is it then. All to play for and the pressure's on to decide this years champion at the last and deciding round in the 2002 Racer series. You would think I’d be just a little nervous or apprehensive but I’m not for several reasons. a) I guess I’ve been getting used to it because ever since June, after Steve had won his third meeting in a row, I’ve had to win every time out just to keep the championship alive. b) I’ve now won the last 3 meetings so I now feel that the momentum is with me and as though the pressure is on Steve to try and beat me more than on me to win. c) My bike is just awesome and is so easy to ride. As it turned out it all became a little anti climatic but for the wrong reasons….. Mark and I rode over on Sunday morning as planned to find Steve, Charlie, Barry and Co already there having had a bit of sneaky practice on Saturday. This extra practice for the competition could have been worrying for me if it were not for the fact that they had a miserable time with a combination of interference and aggressive 1/5 cars, systematically destroying their bikes. After the first round of qualifying two things became apparent. Steve’s interference problems from Saturday were no better, and my bike, although having its own problems with glitches, was so easy to ride I could live with them, and with the lessons learnt from the last round here I was over 1 ½ seconds per lap quicker than the best times during the last meeting!! Awesome. Nothing much changed then until the fourth and final round. I went out in heat one and had a nightmare. On the sighting lap before the start which I ws using to help warm up the tyres, the bike suffered a massive glitch and carried on flat out at the end of the first straight, careering head long into the sidings. This then popped the pinion off the motor at the start and after a hasty pit stop I rejoined the race with only a minute to go but the bike pulled badly to one side and would not turn right. Problems!! Then just to apply even more pressure Steve got things sorted and moved up from 5th or 6th straight into second on the grid behind me. He was still struggling with an I’ll handling bike, even though his interference was becoming les of an issue. Ordinarily this wouldn’t have troubled me to much but with the problems I had just made myself things we’re getting tense. However with the help of a bench vice, a second pair of hands (thanks Mark) and a big hammer we managed to straighten the bent steel (Big shunt!) fork leg and with the break before the finals for a quick shake down run normal service was resumed. In the end the final was a relatively straightforward affair. I made a good start and had Steve breathing down my neck for the first few laps, clearly determined to not give up with out a fight. But the fast early pace that we were both pushing at was too much for Steve’s bike, and after a bit of an incident on the big banked turn he dropped back and I could start to ease off. I started to cruise to the finish leaving it up to Steve to try and catch me….. Fortunately for me his bike wouldn’t let him push any harder and I was able to take a relatively easy victory. And that as they say was that. The end of a good day and a great first years racing for 1/5 scale bike racing. Roll on next year |