Tuesday 19 June 2012

2012 Round Four: Snetterton Sunday

We woke on Sunday to a somewhat less windy paddock. After a quick discussion, we decided that if I was going to be capable of performing better than yesterday, going out for the practice session would be a good idea. Following my dads successful performances the previous day, I decided to follow him. It was really the first time I had took parts of the track at speed - and it was surprising how much faster the bike felt. I also strangely felt safer at speed.


Coming back in from the session I had a much better look on my face than the previous day. Such a contrast! Dad and I checked the bikes over again and got ready for race 4 - which came around very quickly.


Hearing a call, we casually got on our helmets and gloves and bumped ourselves in the direction of the holding bay. However, there was no-one there.We were waved onto the track where the sighting lap grid had already been formed and by the time I was on the track the starting grid had left. I did my best to catch the rest of the grid up throughout the lap but immediately noticed the lack of numbers - it seemed dad and I were not the only two caught out by the call.


Aside from the stressful beginning to the race, I did much better than the previous day taking nearly 10 seconds off my fastest lap! In addition to this, I came home with a class 5th which was great considering the calamity of the previous three races. The practice session certainly seemed to have helped.

Coming in from the track to find many of the other racers disappointed to have not made the grid was a real shame as for once we had 5 races over the weekend. Quite a few front runners had not only missed out on the race but on valuable points too. However, it wasn't long before the camaraderie of the paddock made everyone cheerful again.

With one race left, we prepared ourselves for the last event. Dad was going well so nothing was changed and mine seemed to be going well but in all honesty, I think I was limiting its potential. Hopefully, I would get back into the swing of things by the next weekend.

Race 5 came and was problem free again until the last lap. I had no other group four riders close to me despite chasing Buddy Davis and Chris Redman down. Unfortunately, down the straight, the bike started misfiring so I went safe and slowed down. It was a real shame as I had felt it was going to be a fast lap. The warm down lap was terrifying as I knew something was wrong but didn't want the engine to blow.

I made it back in one piece and found that the funny noise I had was the carburetor hanging off - held on by the fuel connecting rod. And the culprit of this was not the Aprilia "trumpet" getting caught on the panel as I had suspected. It was in fact the exhaust bracket and mounting point failing. This had vibrated and hit the carb knocking it off. With engine mounts and exhaust fix on the list for the next race I certainly was going to have it all to do again. I'd be mad to try anything else.

In conclusion to the weekend, it was a really great event, there were highs and lows (that's scooter racing apparently) and I felt I had got some confidence back after that painful crash at Cadwell Park. As usual thankyous go to people who helped me over the weekend and preceding days. Chalkie and Ciro at Replay were their usual helpful selves. Notably Phil Bevis deserves thanks for helping me over the weekend and seeing me have a much more positive Sunday. A big thankyou and congratulations to my dad who got 5 amazing finishes and proved to himself he still has something (and proving to me that you can race with a really bad front end).



Photos: Lee Hollick Photography 

Race Scooter: All events occurred 17th June 2012

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