posted on April 30, 2010 12:20
5 wins over the last two weekends racing at Cadwell Park Lincolnshire
Our first success came on the 18th of April where we won the Allcomers event with New Era Motorcycle Road Racing Club by about 30 seconds clear of the rest of the field.
Next on that day were the 125cc races where I saw and looked forward to great competition from a respected rival and friend John Lea who had entered the Saturday meeting and had won both races. Also on the Sunday morning he had posted the fastest time in qualifying to give him pole position. In the first of the two 125cc races we got away together, I touch the lead on the first lap and was holding this position until at half race distance the bike let all its water out forcing me to pull off the track, retire and painfully watch John win.
The problem was the cylinder head had cracked, just a bit of bad luck, we replaced the broken parts and I was fired up for a second chance to take on the competition, but I'm afraid to say the second race resulted similarly, right from the warm up lap the bike showed signs of problems and again it wasn't to be on that day. I was absolutely gutted that the fight was taken away. We discovered that the fuel line walls had collapsed starving the engine of fuel at high revs when the system was under the most pressure, any bad luck.
The following weekend also saw our team back at Cadwell Park, our local circuit, this time with the NG Motorcycle Road Racing Club, a club who's 125GP championship we came away leading.
In the 125cc class we were unbeaten all weekend, and this was recognised by the race officials who awarded us with rider of the day. The whole weekend proved to be a great experience.
With this club the first race of the day is a heat and the second a final were competitors start from their finishing positions of the heat.
Additionally to the 125cc class we also entered the up 400cc two stroke class, where we race against far superior 250cc machines. So for Saturday's first race I found myself on the back of a grid full of bigger engine capacity bikes. I thoroughly enjoyed the racing pulling through the field, with an exciting last lap I past three other rides to take the flag 3rd in class and 4th overall on the track. This would prove to be a trend that remained over the weekend, taking two 3rd and a 4th in this class.
Sundays final for the above described class was when the mechanical problems returned, we were circulated in 2nd place in class when on the final lap the engine died and nipped up, we later believe that the engine had been running too hot and seized up on the piston.
This not only meant that I have lost our best finish of the weekend against the bigger bikes but that my team had a massive amount of work to do in a very short space of time to get us back on the grid for the 125cc race, which we always consider our main event.
The team can only be descrided as awesome and worked really hard to put another barrel and piston on the bike and change two tyres, so there wasn't much pressure on at all to win after all that. Sat on the grid I knew I had no heat in my tyres due to the rush. I got a decent start but knew I couldn't push on the first lap on cold tyres. I let my closest opposition go and he pulled a gap, I kept my head and by lap three I had reduced the gap and managed to take the lead. The final lap brought more drama with back markers on the closing stages but I was first to the flag to take the final and most emotional win of the weekend.
We now prepare for the highly competitive third round of the Thundersport GB Championship at Snetterton over the bank holiday weekend 1st/2nd/3rd , which we enter with confidence.
A massive thanks goes to all involved.
samburman.co.uk