Jen Crosby's Racing Blog

Wednesday July 12, 2006

Race Report - Cadwell Park - points consolidation

The weekend started off with me getting very stressed. After picking the bike up on Wednesday morning I was hoping to fit and bleed the brakes, as well as pack up the whole van ready to leave after work the next day, all before leaving for work at 1.30. Or not. I put the brakes back on, and quickly discovered that I'd put the banjo bolts on the wrong way round, so I had to undo those and turn them around, of course letting more air into the system in the process. I tried bleeding them, but couldn't get them to firm up at all. :o( With only half an hour to go before work I hadn't loaded anything but the bike into the van, so I quickly chucked a load more stuff in – although not all of it – and headed into work. I felt very disorganised and was in a bit of a state!!

I ended up having to pack the rest of the van up when I finished work at 9.30pm, and then it was straight off to bed for an early shift the next day. With the working week behind me, I finally got on the road at around 3.30 and made the long and boring journey up to Cadwell Park. I didn't stop all the way up there, and by the time I arrived I was totally shattered and in a bit of a bad mood. As ever, my fab mates, Loz, Nige and Greville helped to get me all set up in super quick time, so I could get started on bleeding my brakes again. I still didn't manage to get the lever as firm as it ought to be, but I decided to call it a day and get myself some dinner before getting an early night. I'd just have to hope that the brakes felt alright once they'd been ridden a little...

Up for practice, and I discover we're out with the Superteen 125s...that could be interesting down the straights!! More concerning though was whether my brakes would work or not. That and knowing how much time I needed to knock off my rubbish times from the last track day before I felt I would be competitive. So out I go...and the brakes are monumentally bad!!   Really spongy, no power at all, and just downright scary! I pulled in after about 3 laps, having tried to give the brakes a few sharp tugs to wear the pads in, but I'd dared not open the throttle and get up to any kind of speed for fear of not being able to stop!! Once back in the awning I set about trying to bleed them yet again, and managed to get some more air out, although it still didn't seem to feel quite right. Nothing else to do but go out and try again. Thankfully, this time it seemed to have worked – the brakes finally felt like they ought to! A big sigh of relief from me – I had visions of me not getting it fixed all weekend!! On pulling back in from that session I at least felt that now I could really start working on getting faster – but apparently I'd already managed that! Loz had timed me 4 seconds quicker than the track day just in that one session!

The practice day went otherwise without hitch, I knocked another second off my times, but still wasn't hugely excited about my pace, but I guess I'd just have to wait until the race to see how I'd really get on against the rest of the class.

I had a terrible nights sleep on Friday and woke up ridiculously early Saturday morning. I was definitely feeling nervous – I had no idea how quick other people would be, or even how quick I would be in a race situation. It's probably the most unsure I've been about a race since the very first one at Brands in March. Still, with the morning practice over, the race was upon me. We were sharing the grid with the Thunderbikes again, with them being at the front of the initial grid. I was gridded 25^th on the right hand side of the grid, and as we came around to line up I realised just how far back that was! The lights and the flag man at the front were miles away! What made it worse was the narrowness of the track – the density of the bikes ahead seemed impenetrable, and the only visible gap seemed to be to my right, except the pit wall was there, only about 2 feet away. There was no way I was going to head towards that! The flag marshall in the distance signalled us to head off on the warm up lap and my practice start yet again saw me miss second gear. After kicking myself for that and vowing to do better when the real one came along we all made it round to form up the grid proper. I struggled to even see the flag man up ahead due to the number of bikes in front, but managed to catch a fleeting glimpse just as he pointed up to the start lights....and we were off! I made a pretty good start off the line, made it ahead of most of the 400s, but got horribly swamped into a very scary and messy first corner. I'm not sure where down the order I came out in that lap, but I certainly lost a fair few places during it. I was determined to get some of those places back though, as I knew I was faster than them, so I got my head down and made chase. I managed to make quite a few places back, but as usual with it being a mixed grid I had no idea where I actually was in the C400 race. By mid race I was tiring – Cadwell is so long and such a physical track – but I knew I just needed to hang on a little longer and keep my focus. Finally in the last lap I got taken by Jeremy Balls just at the last minute – gutted!! Turns out Jeremy had taken 4^th from me, but I was still pretty pleased with 5^th, and I'd managed 3 seconds a lap quicker.  I was happy with that, especially as I'd come into this round with no real expectations of getting good results.

Second race, and I was definitely in the swing of the race weekend now, and I was looking forward to getting back out for another go. I'd managed to get myself up to 14^th on the grid, so not only was my view of the lights better, but I could also actually see clear track into the distance ahead of me, instead of just bike after bike. It's incredible how important that is psychologically. After messing up the practice start again, I made a good proper start and just settled into the race. A few laps in, a bike showed me a front wheel going round the old hairpin – he made me sit the bike up a bit, but I knew I'd have to hold my line to keep track position (and stay on the tarmac!) so I tipped it back in, and figured I'd better get my head into gear if I was going to stay ahead. I knew it was a 400 – you can always hear if it's a twin behind you – but I didn't know whether it was a 400 from my championship, or one from the Thunderbikes, so of course I had to play it safe and make sure I stayed ahead. For several knackering laps I managed to stay ahead, but I could hear the bike behind me and I was very happy to see the chequered flag when it finally came. On the cool down lap the bike behind me rode up alongside to shake hands – it was Dave Shannon, a thunderbike competitor. Later in the paddock I thanked Dave for making me get my arse into gear! Another second off my lap times – and for once I was actually quicker in the afternoon than in the morning!

We spent Saturday evening with Loz, Nige Pat, Aaron and the Palmer boys scoffing a huge amount of pizza very kindly collected by Mandy, Helen and Greg who drove into Louth. Top grub!

Sunday morning started with the dreaded rain – not proper rain, just the odd brief spat of fairly hard drizzle. I did the three lap warm up with my dry tyres on – it didn't look as though it would be all that wet and I wasn't planning on gunning it anyway. Out on track the only damp patches were in the woodland section, and they weren't actually that bad, mostly on the exit of Barn out onto the straight. The rain kept coming on and off though, and it was a really difficult call as to whether to switch to wets. I watched carefully as the two races before me went out to see what tyres people were running. In the end I decided it was definitely not wet enough for full wets and went down to collecting on my SuperCorsas. Looking around the holding area there were a couple of riders on full wets, and some with just wet fronts like Toby and Greg P. The rain had stopped, and the ground wasn't really wet, so I was happy with my choice, and it was even confirmed again as we rode round for the warm up lap – even the woodland section was pretty much dry.

The usual lights on, lights off and I get away well again from 14^th on the grid, finding myself ahead of Gary (championship leader) and just behind Greg. I really wanted to try and hang on to Greg – he's a fair bit quicker around the circuit and I could do with getting a tow around. I stuck with him for a little while, but then a few of the faster thunderbikes who'd started from the back got in between us, and I started to lose ground. A few more laps of holding my own and Gary came past me at the first corner. I was determined to try and stick with him, and I did ok for quite a while, and then as soon as we caught up with Greg, Gary just took off in pursuit! I kept them both in sight until the last lap, and then I watched their final lap battle ending with Gary overtaking Greg into Mansfield – superb race guys!!

I should mention that there was an extra racer in our class – a guy called Martin Roberts who apparently races with another club usually, but he entered this round just as a one off with Bemsee. I'm not sure if he was a rookie or not (he wasn't wearing a bib) but he was considerably quicker than the rest of us, and took a full complement of wins over the weekend. So I took another 4^th again on Sunday morning (would have been a 3^rd
if it was just the Bemsee guys, but hey, I guess that's just the way it goes...)

So it was a good points weekend – my main rivals Chalky, Kim, Toby and James sadly didn't have terribly good weekend, so I've made some good progress up the table. I'm now in 4^th place, with only 17 points between me and James in 3^rd.  Behind me there's a 30 point difference to Chalky in 5^th. I really want that 3^rd place now...!!

In terms of my riding, I felt I did ok; I knocked lots of time off my laps, although I would have liked to get another second off ideally. I didn't get much opportunity to do much overtaking, and when I did get the chance I generally just bottled it...not good, must get more aggressive!

A special mention for some people: Lisa and Kat, who both got bones broken this weekend, get well soon girls, we'll miss you out on the grid! Toby – it's about time your luck changed mate, I look forward to seeing a full set of race finishes at Brands from you (behind me of course  ). James, you could use some of that luck too to keep your bike running as it should. Loz – who knocked an incredible 3 seconds off last years race times having not even done a race round this year, and some absolutely superb results in both SBK400 and Thunderbikes. Well done!! Big thanks also for letting me share your awning

The gap of six weeks was horrible, and it was absolutely fantastic to be back in the paddock again to be racing and seeing everyone. Hurry up Brands Hatch! Greg, Gary...better watch your backs out there!

A few pics from the weekend here

( Jul 12 2006, 10:12:11 AM GMT+00:00 )

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