Jen Crosby's Racing Blog

Monday March 13, 2006

I did it! Race Report - Brands Hatch 11/12th March 2006

I had no idea. No idea how incredible it would be! What a weekend – 4 races, and I'm still buzzing this morning, and I can't see it dissipating for some time...

So I'll start from the beginning...

After a half a day of clock watching and not getting a lot of work done I left the office at 2.15 to set off for Brands. Thankfully Rob had got there earlier and had bagged a garage, so I unloaded and set about getting some work done on the bike. I had a big to-do list- the biggest bit of which was to get the wheels off and down to the main paddock to get the tyres changed by Alan Russell for some new ones. Unfortunately Alan wasn't there...I found out later that he didn't arrive until very late due to a blow out on the motorway! So I was going to have to wait until the morning to get the tyres fitted...an early start for me then!

Up at 7 on Friday morning, and the sun is shining, although it's bitterly cold. I get the wheels down to Alan at around 7.30 but he's already got as massive queue for tyre fitting, and he tells me to come back in an hour. That's fine, I sign on at the race office for practice, and go back for a cuppa and some breakfast. I'm not due out on circuit until 9.30, so I should have plenty of time to get the wheels back in. The weather at this stage was very iffy – it was raining on and off, and actually, although the track was far from drenched, lots of people were going out on wet tyres for their sessions. I was actually considering putting my wets on, but decided that it wasn't really wet enough, and the rain had stopped again, so going out on my wets may very well ruin them, and I only had one set which I might well need for an actual race! Unfortunately, Alan's backlog proved worse than he'd thought, so I didn't get the wheels back for another hour, which meant that by the time I'd got the wheels back on, I'd missed my first two sessions. Never mind – on the plus side the weather had started to get better, so I don't think I missed a great deal of useful track time anyway.

Practice in general ended up being quite frustrating. My lack of track time over the winter was painfully obvious and I was putting in pretty poor lap times of around 1:04. I was tense, finding it hard to be relaxed on the bike, generally having a hard time and starting to worry about how on earth I would get through a race riding the way I was. I did 5 sessions through the day, and was beginning to feel a little better on the bike, but still nowhere near the pace that I'd put in late last year. Well, nothing for it, I'd just have to get my head around it and get out there in the morning.

Late afternoon, and the grids for tomorrow are up in the race office. I've been put 3^rd on the grid – front row!!! I'd been dreading that – but the more I thought about it (and the more others advised me on it) the better I thought it would be. Getting to the first corner with a minimum number of bikes around would be a better plan than being in a huge pack of people trying to get round all at once. On the other hand, it felt like a lot of pressure – it's a great opportunity to get a good finish, I might not get a front row start again soon, so I should make the most of it. That's a pretty tough thought when you have no idea what to even expect out on track, let alone how fast you'll be compared to anyone else.

Next on the agenda was getting the bike through scrutineering. Thankfully they start scroot on Friday afternoon, which means you can ride the bike there. If you do it in the morning, there's no racing engines allowed to be started before first practice at 9, so you have to push the bikes to the scroot bay. If you're in the garages at Brands that's a long way – and up some pretty severe hills, so it's well worth doing on Friday if possible! The queue was already massive by the time I got there, but I found another of the Clubman 400 girls, Lisa, in the queue and we had a natter. Many thanks to her hubby Paul for holding my bike while I went to the office to sort out my transponder! I managed to fail scroot, as the pinch bolts on the forks (the ones by the spindle, not the yokes) weren't tight. Oops – that was pretty bad – I'm glad they spotted it!! So I ran back to the garage to get some tools, tightened them up and got rechecked, this time all ok and ready to go for the morning.

Practice in the morning was just 15 minutes, and we were out with the fast Superbike 400 riders. I was still feeling slow, bad on the brakes and with decidedly dodgy lines into corners which I'd always felt strong on in the past. Too late now, the race was almost upon me – race 1 of the day was only about an hour away, so now there was nothing further to be done about it.

Before I know it, I'm in collecting and riding out to the grid, forming up for the warm up lap. So this is it! Next minute we're round, and the start line official is pointing at the lights. And we're off!! I seemed to get off the line ok, but got taken by a couple of riders by the time we got to Druids (turn 2). I managed to make a place back pretty quickly, and held it there, right until the final lap when I got overtaken by one of the Yamaha Past Masters riders (YPMs). From a championship point of view, that was no problem – there are basically two championships going on on the same grid. I crossed the line in 7^th place, but there were 2 YPMs in front, so in the 400s I finished 5^th. I had no idea what position I was in as I pulled in though – as I crossed the finish line with the chequered flags waving, all I could think about was how amazing that was. How intense, how exciting how exhilarating! As I rode round the circuit for the cool down lap I couldn't believe that I'd actually done it. A real race!! There were tears in my eyes as I pulled back into the pits...what a buzz!!

Race 2 was after lunch and I was certainly feeling somewhat drained from the race before. But, still with a decent spot on the grid (7^th) I was hoping to make the most of it. I made a reasonable start again, and held position for the first few laps, but then made a stupid mistake under braking at Druids, and managed to let 2 riders get up on the inside. I tried to make chase, annoyed with myself at the silly mistake, but just felt myself getting more and more tired, waiting for the last lap flag to come out. I managed to keep those behind me at bay to the flag, and crossed the line in 12^th, making me 8^th out of the 400s.

Well, I was pretty pleased with my results – I have to say I did better than I thought I would. However, my lap times were still way higher than they ought to have been, with my best lap so far being a 1:02.856. Now that was disappointing, as I know I can do sub-minute laps. Lots of people were reassuring me that it was down to the cold weather, and most of the experienced racers were even a second or two down on the their 'usual' times on the circuit. Despite that, I still felt like I could have done better, so I promised myself I'd do better the next day. I think a lot of it was down to being too tense on the bike. My body position, my cornering, and throttle control really suffered because of it. Needed to work on that....

We had a nice easy evening, spending some of it in the bar watching the prize giving, and some back in the garage having dinner and chatting. We got a reasonably early night – I needed to be awake and fresh for the morning!

I decided before going to bed that I would get up and get a practice pass for Sunday morning. It's not a compulsory practice, but I felt it would be good to dial-in before my race, and just get a an idea of how the grip levels were and how relaxed I was. I also had a couple of spots on track where I wanted to try something different. Quite a lot to get through in only 3 laps though! I came in from it feeling really positive though – I'm glad I went out. The sun was out, the track felt grippy, I felt more relaxed and ready to go have a great race.

Race 1: I got off the line well, this time determined to have a good first few corners, which are crucial to the rest of the race, and I did it! I managed to make 4 places up by Druids, and even managed to undertake someone on the entry to Druids – something I'd felt too scared to do previously! I then got my head down, trying to keep those behind me where they were (of course I've got no idea how close anyone is behind me). A good few laps later and I'd still not been overtaken, but on the approach to Paddock Hill I saw a yellow flag being waved, so very slightly throttled off (mistake!!) only to find another 400 come flying past. I gave chase, but figured in my head that it wouldn't matter, as they'd passed me on a yellow flag. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to have been picked up by the race officials :-S For the last 3 or 4 laps I was being chased down by a YPM rider; he kept overtaking me at Surtees or Clearways, only for me to get past him on the power down the straight. I must have been fast enough to stay ahead for the rest of the lap, but just that one spot he could get around me every time. On the last lap I was determined to make sure I crossed the line before him so was trying my hardest to keep ahead. At Graham Hill bend we came up to a YPM we were about to lap – I decided to try and take the tighter inside line, but ended up having to brake massively hard to stop myself from running into him, and the guy chasing me must have done the same, but he went around the outside of the pair of us and ended up running over the curb. He still managed to get ahead of me though, so I had to get the power on quick and try and stop him from getting too far ahead though Surtees and Clearways (where he had already proved he was faster) so that I had a chance of getting him before the finish line. Coming out of Clearways and he's ahead, but I'm on the power early and trying to catch him up, tucked under my screen and slamming up the gear box...the line's in sight, and the ZXR just pulls past him with only 0.2 seconds between us!! Great race though – we both grinned at each other as we sailed round the cool down lap.  Final result was 9^th over the line, 7^th in the 400s.

That race was just great – real racing, where I managed some good overtakes and had to think a little more about what I was doing in the race, rather than simply trying to ride fast. I even managed to get my knee down – something which I wasn't overly concerned about, except that usually I would be doing so at practically every corner at Brands, so I felt like I must have been going slower. When I got the results sheet back, I was even more pleased – my best lap was 59.931!! Finally down below a minute, right back where I was last summer

The second race was again pretty difficult; just like the previous afternoon I was already pretty drained from the effort of the first race. I held my own on the start, and had a brief battle with one of the other rookie girls, but in the end my tiredness got the better of me and I couldn't manage to get her back. In the final lap I got overtaken by another YPM, and my tiredness briefly left me  After a corner or two I put in a slightly scary overtake up the inside at Surtees (a move which Conrad approved of !)and powered round Clearways to stay ahead of him convincingly by the line. I'd felt slower, and a lot less focused in that race, but still came away with reasonable lap time of around 1:00. Final result was 11^th over the line, 8^th in the 400s.

So there we go – first ever race weekend done! I've finally earned my RacerJen title for real  I really can't put into words just how cool it really was to be out there. I've spent the last year or so preparing for this – and there were some times where it was really looking like it wouldn't happen, so to actually be there doing it for real, was incredibly special.

I can't wait to be out again in two weeks time for Snetterton! I met loads of wicked people, and look forward to meeting more in the coming months. I'm looking forward to getting faster and better, and getting ever improving results. What a year this is going to be!!

Well if you're still awake and reading this, I have a ridiculous amount of people to thank – and I imagine I'll forget loads of them, but I'll try! First, Loz, Nige, and Conrad for all your support over the last year getting me ready for this; Rob for all his encouragement and support both previously and all weekend (and a big well done to him for getting out there too and smashing his own PB lap record); Red, Moose, Kat, Radka and Greville for all the kind words and everyone else who stopped by the garage to say hi. The biggest thanks go to Greg, the bestest hubby and pit monkey there ever could be  Oh, and a huge thanks to my orange ZXR. What a star

There's a selection of pictures here.

( Mar 13 2006, 09:56:45 PM GMT+00:00 )

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