Jen Crosby's Racing Blog

Tuesday January 23, 2007

It's racing, but not as we know it...

So this weekend brought my re-acquaintance with the race track – although initially not as expected...

After the van disaster I had to come up with a new plan for getting my bike to the circuit, and also Red's as we'd intended to go along together. Thankfully Red stepped up, and I went to pick up her van at her place having loaded up her bike and kit ready for the track day on Sunday at Brands. The original plan had been that Red, Greg and I would amble on down to Lydden to watch the Moped Madness, meeting Ben, Steve and Andy Palmer who were racing down there around lunchtime, when the racing was due to start. Red stayed over on Friday night, and we were going to set off around 9, but at around 6.30am Red came and knocked on the bedroom door to say there'd been a change of plan...

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Steve and Andy had had to pull out leaving the team two riders short, so Red suggested to Ben that her and I race in their place! Ben was by then on his way up to ours, but we hadn't even loaded up my bike and kit into the van! So we hurriedly got everything sorted, and headed off, hoping we'd make it in time to get scrutineered and out for practice. Despite Red and Ben getting stuck on the M2 which was closed due to an accident, we all made it just about in time to unload the bike and run it down to the scroot bay.

Now I'd seen the fabled AR80 in a clip of video that Steve took when they were prepping it, but to be honest, it didn't prepare me for the beast it really wasn't! It was so funny, looking at our bike, and looking at some of the really very tidy (and race prepped!) 125s that were out pulling wheelies around the paddock!! On the plus side, at least I could touch the floor on both sides while sat on the bike. That's about the best feature I can think of   Ben took the bike out for practice first, followed by Red, then me. Looking at the extraordinarily skinny tyre on the back made me very nervous, I just pictured myself leaning into a turn and landing on my arse. As it turned out that was the least of my worries! The bike was smoking away as I pulled out onto the track, and I really struggled to get it to move gears, although it was kinda fun riding around on it. It was so slow compared to most of the other bikes though! I couldn't believe the speed some of the Gilera runners were doing!! Riding up the little slope into Chessons Drift really tested the little engine, and it sputtered loads under the strain! I did maybe 5 or 6 laps, which seemed to take forever, before the chequered flag was out for the end of the session.

The race start was absolutely hilarious – Ben was out first, and was second on the line up for the Le Mans style start while Red held the bike. They lined everyone up around paddock bend – bikes on one side, and riders on the other, and then the starter dropped the Union Jack to signify the start of the race. The riders all legged it to their bikes, and started them up – I think Ben went from second to last pretty quickly, as the bike wouldn't start up!! Finally he was off, and put in a good first stint, but then had to pull in when the bike stopped selecting gears. He brought the bike back up to the van and laid it on it's side to take a look at try to fix it, with Pat helping out too. Once he thought he'd fixed it, it was back down to the track to test it out again, but after a few more laps it got itself in top gear and wouldn't select anything else again! Back to the van again, and more fixing ensued. Admittedly, Red and I were getting less and less keen to go out with the bike misbehaving as it was, but Ben was determined to get us out there to have a go.

And, after another half hour or so of fettling, and with about 45 minutes left of the three hour race, the bike seemed to be working ok, with gears and everything, so finally Red and I got to go out. Despite our initial indifference, we both actually had a really good time!! I even had myself a little race with one of the other particularly slow bikes, which was hilarious – we were practically having a conversation while riding around it was so slow! Ben did the final stint to the flag, even though by then the bike had yet again stuck in top gear and wouldn't select. Somehow, incredibly, we didn't come last – I think it was 6^th from last. Not bad considering we weren't even out on the track for most of the race!! Our best lap (done by Ben) was a 1:13, our top speed a frightening 36mph, and our average speed a staggering 15mph!!

It was a brilliant laugh in the end – and I was glad we actually all got to ride. The weather stayed sunny pretty much all day too, although it was bloomin' cold! After a hard day's racing we all piled over to Pat's and Steph's house in Canterbury where we went out for a lovely dinner and stayed overnight, ready to set off for Brands in the morning for the track day. Huge thanks to Pat and Steph (and Max!) for the hospitality, we had a great time!

It was a pretty early start again to get over to Brands in time to get set up, but we got there with just about enough time to spare before the briefing. It's a bit more of a rush when you're instructing, as you really have to be in your leathers and ready to go straight after the briefing to do the sighting laps. As usual I didn't have time to warm up the bike (and it was freezing!!) but at least the sighting laps were super slow, allowing me to gently warm it up on track. With all the sighting laps done, all of the instructors had people to take out. I started off with a guy on a 'Busa who was on his first track day – but sadly he wasn't due to stay beyond the first couple of sessions (he had double booked with something else...) which was a shame as I think we could have done some really good work. I did a few more sighting laps for people, and also took out another guy which Red had done some instructing with earlier, who was also on his first track day. That guy was amazingly good for a first-timer, really a very good track rider and he responded extremely well to instruction, really paying attention and putting into practice the advice he was given. Red and I were very impressed! The only problem he said he had was how he was going to tell all his mates that he was overtaken by two girls on a track day

By lunchtime I'd only been out with the novices. It was a really mixed group, the speed differential between the fastest and slowest riders was pretty big, so it made it hard to get any good example laps in when instructing, and made it hard to observe properly as there just seemed to be so many bikes in big groups all the way round. I was also beginning to feel very slow, having not really had any chance to get the bike on full throttle! I decided to get the oil changed in the bike in the session before the lunch break (thanks for your help Ben ) and then go out in the Inters group after lunch for a bit of a play.

The inters group was a bit weird too in terms of differing abilities, but I gradually wound it up (I'd even managed to get my tyre warmers on over lunch) until I found a relatively comfy pace, and found I was overtaking a lot. My aim was to go out and get my knee down a few times, to make myself feel a bit better! I did that pretty quickly, so started on moving my braking points, working on body position, and trying to put in some decent laps. It was pretty hard as again there seemed to be large groups of bikes everywhere which stopped me from putting in a consistent good lap. Still, it felt really good to be out on the bike and stretching it's legs properly.

The afternoon went pretty quickly, and I decided not to bother going out in the fast group, as I just didn't feel confident enough (there were loads of fast Bemsee racers there, I was just being a wimp really). I went out in the inters group a couple more times before I decided to call it a day and get packed up. All in all, it was a good day, and I did enjoy myself, although I feel terribly out of practice on the bike. I think if it had been any other circuit than Brands I wouldn't have felt so bad, but I always feel like I should be comfortable and consistent there, just because I've ridden it so much. I guess it's just the usual pre-season rustiness, and I'll feel better once I've been out on track a bit more. I hope.

It was great to catch up with lots of people from the paddock this weekend, Pat, Greg P and James in particular. Also huge thanks to Red and Ben for making it such a fun weekend – really enjoyed your company as ever!

( Jan 23 2007, 10:25:13 AM GMT+00:00 )

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