As some of you already know, it was round 2 of the No Budget Cup Endurance Racing Sunday gone.
The van got packed up Friday afternoon, and I set off on the 277 mile trip to Louth, and the picturesque Cadwell Park. What a horror of a journey that is.
Anyway.....The bike flew through scrutineering on Saturday, and we were all up and about at 6am Sunday getting the spares, tools and the refuelling rig down to pit lane for the start of practice and qualifying.
I had only done one trackday at Cadwell before, and spent the previous week watching videos and reading hints and tips of the best way to string a fast lap together (Cheers Bendy). So I kind of knew where the track was going, and where I had to try and make time up. Rob (team member) had ridden there many times as its his local track, and we were kinda pinning our hopes on him to bang in a fast qualifying lap.
Qualifying went without any incident, and although I was 4 seconds off Robs pace, I knew there would be more to come when the flag dropped. We finished the qualifying session with a 1m49s lap in 12th position overall, out of 43 teams. We did get up to 6th overall at one point, but we changed the tyres early so we could have one session scrubbing them in before the race. Other teams opted to do the change in the break, but we decided to get the tyres dialled in, so Rob could go out in the first session and try and get us further up the board.
The race started at 2pm, and the plan was to do 40 minute session each, before pitting and fuelling up the bike. Rob was going great guns and started banging in 1m48s laps........... Until 35 minutes in, as he was mid corner at Charlies2 the back end came around on him. He was down.
We were all waiting for him to come around to finish his stint, but were left fearing the worst. We found a marshal who confirmed that No.27 had binned it. I resigned myself to the fact that that was it, and it was race over. I just sat in the gazebo, gathering thoughts, when someone shouted 'GET THE TOOLS'!!!!
Rob had managed to pick the bike up, get it running, and had the 'all clear' off the marshal to return to pits.....................
It was all hands on deck, well, mine and my pit man to look over the bike and see if it was rideable. The forks had twisted a bit in the yolks, so they were kicked back in to shape. The screen had snapped, so we replaced that and gaffa taped it all up...... The rear brake lever had bent 'fook that, we don't need it'.....and the crash bung had been nearly ripped out. Apart from that, we were good to go, and on I jumped.
To be greeted with a massive misfire that would clear, then come back to the point it stalled going down the Gooseneck..... FAAAAAAAAARRRRRRKKK!!!!!
Back to the pits, and I found that one of the spark plug leads had been pulled out during the spill. One burnt hand later, and I was back on it!!!
We were dead last.....In 43rd position. It was time to ride it like I stole it........ And to be honest, the bike was fooking flying. We had managed to get the gearing spot on. It was nearly maxing out in 6th on the two straights, and was pulling out of the corners like a train. There was not much (including the thous) that were staying with it down the straights. I got my head down, and started getting some consistant laps in........ But fook me, 40 minutes flat out on that circuit is hard work. I couldn't wait for the pit board to come out, as I couldn't feel my throttle arm anymore due to the hard braking before Chris Curves, and the Hairpin.
The bike continued to progress at a great rate through the race. Grip was brilliant from the Bridgestone BT003's, with only a slight protest now and again getting out of the chicane, and one or two spin ups going over the top of the mountain. All controlable, and no dramas to speak of.
The other lads were suitable impressed and myself and Rob got some good laps in which started progressing us up the table.
After the 4 hours, we had made it................ from dead last and 43rd postion up to (to be confirmed) 21st. Yeah I agree, 21st sounds shite. But we were pleased that we had made progress got some places back, and had had a few battles on track (and winning them) against other teams that out qualified us. We looked at the timing sheets, and noticed we lost 13 laps due to the incident, and at the end we were only 14 laps behind the overall winners..... Bit gutting really, as were on for at least a top 6 finish over all, and probably a podium in our class.... That would have been over 25 600cc bikes that we had disposed of.
So that's it for this year, and my first taste of racing. I got to say, it ain't like a trackday. I was seriously pushing that 600 like none of my own bikes I have done trackdays on. The occasion makes you try that little bit harder. The fact that you are catching bikes you need to pass spurs you on that little bit more. Then looking at the timing sheets in the end has now given me the 'what ifs'............ What if I enter the R1 next year with a two man team............... Can we win it overall???? I fookin think so!!!
