Jen Crosby's Racing Blog

Monday April 10, 2006

Race Report - Lydden Hill (...I crashed!)

It all started off perfectly well – arrived at the circuit Wednesday evening and managed to get a good pitch on the hard standing at the bottom of the hill, with power as well! Anyone who knows Lydden knows this isn't an easy thing to achieve! Practice day on Thursday went ok – I found myself putting in pretty steady laps, happy with my choice of gearing and generally feeling comfortable.

Thursday night was a pleasant evening – as we all had the day off on Friday we had a few drinks. Greville and I spent the evening up in Kat and Chris's awning just chatting away. Greg arrived Thursday after 11pm after having a bit of a nightmare journey from Paris where he'd been working all week. Friday we had a lovely lie in, and then set about doing some bits and pieces on the bike – I needed to get some new tyres fitted, and the brakes needed bleeding. The PVM master cylinder hadn't wowed me on the practice day, but I figured it was probably due to needing re-bleeding after it's first use from fitting it. Sure enough there was loads of air in the system, so after the bleed it felt pretty solid. I was looking forward to testing it out on the practice session in the morning, along with scrubbing in my new tyres ready for the races.

Up early on Saturday morning...and it's raining pretty hard.  I'm in the first practice out, so on go the wets. So much for scrubbing in my new tyres! It was a bit of a scary practice session – it took a while to get into any kind of rhythm, and even then it was a slow session. I didn't even get the chance to give the brakes a good test. Yet again I was having problems with my feet slipping off the pegs :-S I was even slipping on the gear lever causing me to miss gears. I pulled of circuit at the end of the session just praying it would dry out....

And dry out it did!! The sun came out, and we ended having a gloriously sunny day. The track dried out nicely in time for my race, so the SuperCorsa tyres were back on. I was really grateful – despite my good performance in the wet at Snetterton, I'd still much prefer it to be dry – I feel much more confident. The only slight niggle I had before going out was that I'd not had a chance to scrub in my brand new tyres – it would have to be done in the warm up lap. Loz convinced me that it shouldn't be a problem, and that I'd forget about it as soon as I got out there. She turned out to be right – it didn't cross my mind again!

We were running in race 3, alongside the YPM rookies again this time, and I was gridded up in 13^th (the 400s had odd grid spots, YPMs evens). I made a reasonable start, and had some great battles with some of the other riders in both championships throughout the race. I crossed the line in 8^th, 6^th in the Clubman 400 championship. I came in buzzing from that race – I felt like I'd ridden a million times better than I had in any practice before. The bike was feeling great, I was scraping my knee everywhere, and I just felt in control and confident. The only problem I was having was that that brakes were now 100% better than they had been previously, so I was having to move all my braking markers on the fly – often getting it really wrong (although thankfully usually too early rather than too late!). To be honest I never really got those markers sorted all weekend – it was a much bigger change than I anticipated, and something that will need looking at on a trackday or practice day in the future.

Race two was ok – I was feeling like a wanted to push harder, but my tiredness stopped me. I lost a couple of places to Toby and Kim – and once they passed me I just couldn't muster the strength to give chase convincingly. Not too bad a result though, finished in 7th and my laptimes were consistent over the 2 races – I'd managed to knock 4 seconds off my previous best time in practice, so definitely can't complain!

Saturday evening was spent in Loz and Nige's awning – always great to have you guys there! We had some food and then decided to get off to the van for an early night as I was absolutely knackered.

Due to noise restrictions at the circuit, there's no racing on Sunday until 12.30, which gave us a lovely lie in. While I appreciated that, we were still up and about by around 9, so had an awful lot of time to kill, just standing around, waiting to get back out on circuit. By the time our practice session was coming up, the weather was looking decidedly dodgy – cold and grey – and the forecasts were for 'wintry showers'. However, with no sign of rain as yet, I went out for the 3 lap practice session. There was only one thing I wanted to try, but I wasn't sure whether I'd manage to get enough speed up in only 3 laps to try it: coming down the hill into paddock bend I'd started to hit the rev limiter in 3^rd shortly before getting to the corner. I'd not had the problem before the races, simply because my laps were that much slower. So in the 3 lap warm up I wanted to try going through it in 4^th instead of bouncing off the limiter. I managed to give it a go for 2 laps, but found that I wasn't high up enough in the rev range to get the drive out of the corner. Tough call though – pretty touch and go really. I think what I actually needed to do was change the rear sprocket instead – that's something I'll have to do for next time – I didn't want to change anything right before a race as I thought it might mess me up too much.

Before I knew it, it was time for my first race of the day. Running round the warm up lap I tried to focus – I knew I could do better than I had been, so now was the time to prove it! I made a good start, passing Toby in the first lap (I need to catch him in the championship points, so I'm always looking out for him on track!) and put in a couple of absolutely flying laps – a whole second quicker than my Saturday times! After overtaking a couple more bikes, I chased down a YPM up ahead. He got the better line through the left, but I got good drive up the hill, and thought I'd pretty much cleared him by the time I'd got to the hairpin. So I tipped in, and suddenly he was there on my outside, and we made contact – on my back wheel!! For a second I thought I'd managed to hold it, but then I was on the grass, and could see the tyre wall approaching a bit too quick for my liking. I touched the front brake, and set the bike down on the grass. Well I say 'set', but actually it went down pretty hard, and I gracefully (not) somersaulted myself away from the bike onto the grass. I landed pretty hard on my side, but I got up with no problems, and plonked myself behind the tyre wall with the superstar marshals who picked both me and my bike up. I was so annoyed with myself - there was nothing I could have done, it was just one of those things, but the race had been going so well before that! Talking to Toby and others afterwards, I'd managed to pull a good gap on Toby and was running in 4^th, gaining on the guys in front. Gutted!!!!

So, thankfully uninjured apart from a sore right ribcage which wasn't that bad, and tender bruise on my forearm, I got dropped off with the bike in the scrutineering bay where I could get a good look at the damage. My first though was “oh no! Rob's PVM master cylinder!”. Luckily it came out unscathed, and the bike actually generally didn't look too bad. Bent screen brace, broken screen, the lugs holding the bottom fairing had ripped off, forks had twisted in the yokes, and the end can had come away from it's rivets (again!!). I got changed out of my leathers, ready to give fixing it up a go – it looked likely we should be able to get it ready in time for the next race. With an absolutely sterling effort from everyone I managed to get it ready for scroot with enough time to get the tyre warmers back on ready for the next race. Big mahoosive thanks go to Greville for his handiwork on the exhaust, Loz for her lesson in fibreglassing, Nick Lewis for lending me the headstock stand, and especially Greg and Nige who fixed up pretty much everything else! You're top folks you lot – I don't know what I'd do without you! Also thanks to all the C400 guys who gave me the thumbs up to check I was ok on their cool down lap, and came to visit to see if they could help out, you're a fab lot of people!

I'd always wondered how I'd feel about getting back on the bike after crashing – and I figured I'd never know until it happened. And there I was facing exactly that. And do you know what? I was dying to get back out on the bike! After such a promising start on that race I knew I had a better result in me, and although I was starting from the back, I was determined to make the best of it. Starting at the back would give me lots of opportunity to get some good overtaking in, and try and put in some flying laps.

I made a great start off the line, and although I missed second gear again, I'd made mid pack by the time I got round the first turn. I weaved my way through what seemed to be a million bikes – round the outside, inside, wherever there was space, putting in some great overtakes in the process. Mid-race, after clearing a few more bikes, I had a bit of clear track ahead of me, and I could see Radka in the distance. She looked such a long way away, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to catch her, but I got my head down and tried to make up some ground. Before I knew it I was on the back of her, and was trying to work out where to make my move. We crossed the start/finish line and the last lap flag was out, so I knew I'd have to think fast. I made loads of time up in Chessons drift, the long right hander and had a chance to try it on the brakes into the left, but couldn't make it stick – probably just being a wimp! I got great drive up the hill though, and really should have got her on the brakes into the hairpin, but something – probably in the back of my mind the crash I'd just had – made me back off just a touch. Knowing I'd given up a perfect opportunity, I got the throttle on early on the way out of the corner, knowing my last chance would be the last corner, paddock. No joy there either though – but again I was hard on the power in a last ditch attempt to get her before the line. No such luck though – I missed out by 0.3 seconds! But it was a fantastic race – all credit to Radka – you're a difficult girl to pass!! A little frustrated, but elated by the race, I pulled in for the last time of the weekend, with a massive grin on my face. I'd managed a 10^th from the back of the grid – in an 8 lap race of such a short circuit I'm not too disappointed with that.

Needless to say the DNF hasn't done wonders for my championship position – I'm down one from 7^th to 8^th. But I'm feeling great on the bike now, really starting to feel confident and fast, so I'm chomping at the bit for the next meeting at Brands. It's over a month away, but at least that gives me time to sort the bike out and replenish my spares.

So, first crash now out of the way, and I'm feeling great about being on the bike. I'm still absolutely loving the racing – it's just the coolest thing in the world.

Usual thanks to peeps – firstly the marshals who picked me and my bike up! Another thanks to everyone who helped sort my bike out after the crash. Also it was great to have Conrad, Kev and his other half, and Rich and his kids stop by to give their support – it's always great to have you there.

( Apr 10 2006, 04:24:28 PM GMT+00:00 )

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