Wednesday 10 April 2013

2013 Round One: Croft Sunday


In the morning, dad and I walked the track once to explain my lines and gears to him. We were joined for a second lap by Gary Biddle (58) and Rob Sumner (84) and watched Paul Green (49) cycle past us a number of times.

In race three, I was back on the same pace as the previous day but being mighty careful with my front brake now - the brembo replacement will be fitted by Mallory Park. I had a bit of a moment at the start of the race, accidentally starting with the automatics but realised my mistake in time, reversing back one row to my starting position. Unfortunately, there were a few others who made the mistake who got a time penalty instead but over the course of the race, I found my way to sixth in group four again.

In race four, I had a great battle with Bert Conneely (51) and Stewart McKenzie (96). It was a fantastic finish to the weekend as Stewart, Bert and I swapped places on the last two laps and there was a real tustle.

A list of objectives for us both has been drawn up for the next round - Mallory Park. Preparation is certainly an aim for the season and we are already dramatically improved over 2012's efforts.

Tuesday 9 April 2013

2013 Round One: Croft Saturday

As previosuly mentioned, I have been busy with University since October 2012 so as a result, I was unable to aid my dad much in getting the bikes prepared for Croft. He was working to the last minute and all night on Thursday and had help from Replay Scooters on the Friday so understandably I arrived at Croft first and set up camp. Not before too long, he arrived and the camp was complete. We had a little chat but hit the hay very quickly.


As I mentioned in a previous post, I'd rather not bore you with my account of the racing so at this meeting I tried to record some footage. Despite working rather unsuccessfully, it confirmed to me that the video is not only a great way to show the events but also a good tool to remind myself of tracks.

I hadn't visited Croft before so in the practice session I followed Tony Rudd (54) the whole time to attempt to learn competitive times. I was respectably only three seconds of the fastest group four times for the session so had certainly entered the weekend with confidence. Dad (43) had retired the session with a broken gearbox which was a brand new DRT box.



The first race came and I was again following Tony Rudd (54) overtaking him but unable to keep infront on the straights and finished the race behind him in a respectable 5th place in group four.



The second race came and I was with Tony Rudd (54) and had been caught up by Robert Rees (27) and Damon Tunnicliffe (2) but a handful of the front brake going into the hairpin on the penultimate lap saw me hit the track and roll around in the conventional rag-doll style. It was a great shame to have fallen as I was battling for fourth place and felt I could have got it given the next lap. Unfortunately, dad (43) came off in the same race so we both would have to start from the rear of the group fours on Sunday's races.

I had some great racing over the day that ended with a self-diagnosed sprained wrist but I was very excited for the Sundays races. Hopefully over the season, we'll be seeing more of this:



Photos: Lee Hollick Photography 


Race Scooter: All events occurred 6th April 2013