Jen Crosby's Racing Blog

Wednesday April 18, 2007

Snetterton Report - spectating, not racing :o(

It was with slightly mixed feelings that I set off for Snetterton on Friday afternoon with Ben – I was really looking forward to a weekend's racing, but I knew once I got there and saw it all I'd be wanting to get out and race. Whatever though, I was determined to have a good weekend – the weather forecast looked great, and the racing was bound to be good, and for once I'd actually get to see the boys at the front of the Superbike400 do their thing instead of missing it all while racing myself.

We picked up Toby en route and arrived at Snetterton pretty late on Friday night, so after a quick run up to the bar to say hello to everyone, I got my bed setup in Greg P's van (thanks Greg!) pretty quick so I could head off to sleep.

Saturday morning saw the circuit covered in mist, but it soon cleared and turned into a gorgeous sunny day! All of the usual guys were set up near each other – Nick, Greg, Oli and Pat in the garage, and Andy and Steve in an awning just outside, and everyone seemed to get out in practice and feel reasonably good out there. The 400s were out in race 2 – and it was all of the 400s, SBK, Clubman and Rookie, so there were a lot of riders I wanted to see! Andy had asked me to do his pit board – I've not done one before so was a bit apprehensive. I asked Vikki to help me out, which turned out to be very amusing throughout the weekend as she had a bet on that Pat would finish ahead of Andy in all of the races, so it all got a bit competitive between us!! Doing the pit board turned out to be quite tricky, especially as so many of the changes in track position happen in the last corner, not giving a lot of time to get the board changed! So I apologise to Andy for the number of times I got it wrong! It was kinda fun doing it though, although the downside was I seemed to miss everything else that was going on, as I was concentrating on where Andy was each time! Race one saw some good results for our guys, 3^rd for Pat, 4^th for Steve and 6^th for Andy.

By lunchtime it was pretty hot outside, and everyone was out chilling in the sunshine. I love meetings like that – the sun just adds to the atmosphere, and the mood in the paddock is just brilliant. We were all sat in pit lane just reading magazines and chatting, it was great! Having said that, I was desperate to be out on track – if I'd had my bike there I would have paid my money there and then to enter!

Race two had everyone worried, as a sidecar had dumped oil round from turn one, all the way down the back straight, on the racing line for both turn one and two. It showed in the lap times that it was causing problems – everyone was a bit slower. It was a good race though, with Pat grabbing another 3rd, and Andy and Steve battling it out for 4^th and 5th. All of the riders seemed very unimpressed with the oil spill though, it always kinda ruins things.

Saturday night we all piled into Pat's van and drove into town to get some food in a local pub. It was a good night, everyone seemed to have a laugh and enjoy themselves.

Sunday morning again brought the mist, but by 9am it had cleared and was already getting warm. I'd caught the sun a fair bit on Saturday, and it was obvious it was going to be a scorcher Sunday, so I made sure there was some sun cream to hand! Steve decided to take his spare bike out for a run in practice after making some changes to it having put it on the dyno on Saturday, but came back in having had it cut out on him for some unknown reason – we were hoping he wouldn't have to end up riding it! Everyone else seemed happy enough, and ready for the days racing, although the oil line was still there from the day before, and was still causing grief.

Race one saw Andy finally get the better of Pat (unlucky Vikki! ;o) with Andy getting 4th, Pat 5th. Steve DNF'd due to a problem with the bike – it was only firing on 3 cylinders, so the boys all set about working on the bike to try and find the problem. After hours of work, they still couldn't work out why it wasn't running right, so they dropped out the engine and gave it to Bob Farnham to look at during the week. Having had problems with the spare, it was a little worrying that Steve would need to now ride it, but with little choice he lined up on the back of the grid on it. I was pretty occupied with Andy's pit board again, and a proper good race was developing between him and Pat again, causing me a Vikki to get silly and competitive again! Steve made a blinding start, but it wasn't until much later in the race that I realised how much ground he'd made up! He'd got his way up to 6^th, and had he had another lap would have almost certainly got Phil Polden for 5^th – absolutely blinding ride Steve! He also managed to smash his best lap time, putting in an impressive 1:16.7. Not at all bad for the spare bike which seemed not to be running properly in the morning! Meanwhile, Andy and Pat were properly battling it, and swapped places on the final couple of laps. Approaching the final chicane on the last lap, Pat was leading Andy, much to Vikki's delight, only to be outbraked by Andy on the entry to the sound of my very loud cheering(and Vikki's groan of disappointment!) - he definitely had it into the chicane, and was looking spot on for getting fired out, but then just gave it too much gas on the exit, and lost the rear!! I couldn't believe it!! Thankfully he got up and was ok, but what a race! It was a real shame, he'd done all the hard work to get the place, only to lose it at the last minute – gutted for you mate! It was a fantastic race though, I really enjoyed it! Greg P didn't have much luck either – his engine went bang (again!) in lap 2, can't believe it's happened again, that sucks. :o(

Other congrats go to Radka, for getting 3^rd in the Clubman 400 on Sunday afternoon; Max for taking a full set of Rookie wins again, and also getting high up enough to have scored SBK points – good effort, especially for your first time at the circuit! Also good results from Simon too! Well done to Greg for putting in some great lap times before the bike blew up. Oli took a whole heap of trophies home from the Clubman 600 too, and Nick was flying, despite not being allowed to complete the races, he looked like he had a blast! Also massive well done to Shaun Jones for his debut races in the Minitwins – Shaun is the guy who I donated my rookie bib too, and he did himself absolutely proud picking up his first championship points having started the weekend in 36^th on the grid. I'm very proud of you, and the grin said it all!!

So all in all, a great weekend – I really enjoyed myself. I've come away with a half decent bit of a tan, and a new need to get back out on track. Next outing on the bike is Cadwell where I'm instructing on Friday. While I'm not currently entered for the following weekend's racing there, I'll see how I get on on the trackday and make a decision from there. I am definitely feeling the need to race again now...I don't like missing rounds much!

( Apr 18 2007, 07:08:41 AM GMT+00:00 )

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