The new tank arrived from T A Bakers on the Tuesday, so I had time to fit it, and to get a few miles on the new big end. Everything appeared to be working well, bar a slight weep of oil from the cam bearing holder and rather a lot of blue smoke from the exhaust. No time to do anything about that before the meeting as there's too much to do round the house as well as getting everything loaded into car and caravan. Finally set off about 8 for the hour and three quarter trip up to Mallory.
For reasons unknown (to me) Mallory is always a one-day meeting for the Classic Club, but I took the caravan and stayed Sat night anyway, just to be sure I was there early without having to get up at 5am.
A closed road, a long detour and a Hinkley doner with salad and hot sauce later I'm in the paddock looking for spaces. I seem to have arrived after everyone else and there's few spaces to be had, but I finally find one on the tarmac, but there's a hit of a slope.
Manoeuvre the caravan into place and fumble with the hitch in the dark. Worry about it rolling, but nervous about using the caravan brake as the catch to unlock it is missing. Pull the car away slowly and the caravan comes too. Heave the brake lever on and damn the consequences. Pull away and the caravan comes along again. This time I undo the safety strap and all is well, apart from the bent fixing point on the car.....
Unload the bike, sort out the bed and crash
There's a few showers in the night but the morning is dry. All formalities surmounted with ease, including the missing eligibility certificate for the bike: "try to remember to bring it next time".
Find Mike Harrison, to discover he has acquired a new Spondon frame and done
other weight saving work over the winter. He proceeds to wind me up by saying
his bike is 3 stone lighter than last year (that's 42 pounds, nearly 20Kg for
the imperially challenged). I promise to have half a grapefruit for lunch to
maintain my competitive edge. Dave Wildey shows up, with a completely
shredded trailer spare tyre. He agrees that his drive down was
"interesting" and is relieved that the trailer stayed twixt bike
and tarmac.
Practice was uneventful and I was still remembering to be careful with the new big end, but it's burning oil - down the inlet guide I hope - as you can see on the right
Racing is delayed and delayed due to multiple red flags - others appear to be as rusty as I feel.
21st on the grid, last row, although there are several empty positions. Fair start and make up a four or five places, but bottle out going into Gerrards and loose a several of them, getting one back half way round and another braking for Edwina's. Feel really rusty, don't trust bike, self, other riders or track.
Dave Wildey is way off in front but I'm closing on Roy Gillard and Mike Harrison. Pass Roy under braking for Edwina's on lap two and get Mike going into the hairpin. Mike shows a wheel a couple of times in lap 3, but it's head down and hold it together till the finish. Gearing is a tad low for keeping the revs down to 9k, as I'm backing off at the end of the straight, but I'm not going to change it on the assumption that I'll rev it a little harder in race 2.
13th place out of 19 finishers, fastest lap 1min 12.7. Detailed Results
Hanging about thinking about a nice cuppa when a familiar face wanders past: an old friend, Ian, from when we used to live in London, now lives nearby and had heard I might be doing something silly at Mallory today. Made tea and talked about families and friends.
With the delays, races have been shortened from 6 laps to 4. 13th (aka14th) on the grid. Hold the place for the start and try really hard to keep Chris Maggs in sight. Looks good for a lap, but I'm just not going onto Gerrard's quick enough, which of course affects everything through to Edwina's. Mike shows a wheel but i keep him behind, finishing with Maggs almost in site 12 seconds ahead.
11th place out of 17 finishers, fastest lap 1.12.8 Hmm. Must do better. Detailed Results
Resolve to increase the compression ratio a bit more and get the squish a little more parallel before Lydden. Oh, and fix the oil burning problem!!
