Back to Brands

Hmm, an eventful weekend was had by all. The forecast was pretty rubbish but as it turned out it was fine, just a few drops of rain on Saturday morning and after that it was sunshine all the way.

The weekend started, though, in a rather bizarre manner. I had spent Wednesday through Friday in a meeting at UKC in Canterbury. So, on Friday afternoon I drove back to Cambridge, practically passing Brands on the way, packed up the bus and drove straight back to Kent. On the way we were parked in a curious long car park that is apparently called the M25. This car park stretched all the way from the M11 to the Dartford crossing and seemed to be caused by the toll booths. In a rational world, of course, the tolls would be reduced or eliminated at peak times.

Still, we parked up, chatted, prepped the car and eventually retired to bed.

I then had a horrible thought, rummaged and, sure enough, I’d forgotten my helmet and gloves. What a prat. It was midnight. I was an idiot.

I could have waited until the morning and tried to borrow something. But, I’d never have slept anyway. And, after an hour trying to sleep we set off again for Cambridge at 0130. Luckily the car park had gone away and been replaced with a motorway and we were back at Brands by 0350 in time for about 4 hours sleep…

Scrutineering was pretty uneventful and I lined up for practice right at the very head of the queue. I scored a miserable 98db on the noise test and eventually led the pack out. After a slow lap I set about things. I still didn’t feel as though I’d had enough testing and I’d done even more damper tweaking the previous evening to try and make things a bit more stable in the rushed descent down Paddock hill. In the past my best lap was a 53.75 which was made during the last class C race at Brands. I’d been a bit quicker in testing last week so surely I could beat that time now; perhaps even get into the 52s?

As usual at Brands it was a pretty busy session but I did manage a single lap in the 52s, just, at 52.96, and that got me 9th place on the grid (3rd in class) in the first race. The second fastest time was 52.98 (!) which was good enough for 6th (3rd) on the grid for the second race. Cripes, row 3!!

Later in the day it was a bit sunnier but I left the car’s setup alone. The big problem with the new engine is that I’d done absolutely no racing starts in it and there really isn’t a decent way of practising this. So, armed with a bit of advice from fellow CBR1000 racers I set off for the start line. Mind you, the race before had been red-flagged twice and there was a lot of oil down on the grid caused by a large Formula Vee crash precipitated by someone slowing down too quickly on seeing a red flag. What’s more, there was a large patch of cement dust on grid slot 9. Ah…

Sure enough, when the lights went out I got mega wheel spin and the car went alarmingly sideways. Still, I didn’t lose too many places. In fact, the lap chart says I was 8th at the end of the first lap which seems odd until you realise that I’d passed a couple (including Colin 🙂 ) on the first lap and that there had been a huge coming together at the front. I’d seen Derek’s car hit the barriers hard and apparently a coming together with Steve had precipitated this. Paddock opinion, he said carefully, was divided as to culpability.

Rather surprisingly, at first, the race was not red-flagged and ran under waved yellows on the top straight for the first three or four laps and then they let us go. After that I had quite a fun time. I was in a queue with Doug and a collection of ostensibly slower cars including Tim and Al. After a while we got past most of those and I was stuck up behind Doug. He’s got a lot more power than me in his Genesis and I tried what I thought was every way to get past him. To give Doug his due you never worry about racing with him as you know that he knows you’re there. Which is more than can be said of every RGB racer. Well, it doesn’t apply to one in particular whose name is usually spouted in discussions of “turning in on me” in the paddock. At least you know he’s going to do it… 🙂

That’s essentially how it ended up. I finished 5th on the track and 3rd in class. It was interesting that Al, Tim and I all thought we might have just kissed each other a few times and there was indeed the odd love bite on the cars and tyres. 🙂  Also notable was the first person to congratulate me was Derek who’d watched the race from behind the barriers just after the start line. Given that his race had lasted all of 10 metres that was very kind of him. Top bloke…

The next day dawned even sunnier again confounding the nay-sayers at the Met Office. After a nice morning fettling we set off for the assembly area and eventually onto the track. As it was the second day we got a green flag lap which was nice to be able to warm things up. Again, though, I got too much wheel spin although John Cutmore got a lousy start and was left well behind. I really wanted to get past Doug and managed to get past on the inside into Graham Hill which left me in 4th place for a few laps.

However, John came back up and, inevitably, I screwed up at McLaren and allowed him through. However, he then spun in front of me on the way down Paddock Hill. I slowed a lot so as to try and avoid his car when it did shoot sideways. Luckily he ended up in the gravel but I still lost two places in the run up to Druids because Doug and Tim had avoided having to slow as much as me. At that the race was red-flagged as John’s car was pretty much in the firing line and the grid was re-formed for a 7 min + 1 lap race. What’s more, I was indeed now 4th on the grid as the countback had eliminated being passed by Doug and Tim.

I thought that I’d use slightly fewer revs for the second start so as to try and kill the start line wheel spin a little. I did indeed managed to avoid wheel spin; totally as it happens, because when the lights went out I stalled it! The entire field passed me before I got the damn thing going again and so I set off dead last! Sigh… That was a certain 2nd in class wiped out. Still, I could have a little fun and I set about the rest of the field.

And, indeed, fun was had. I just kept passing cars as much as I could as I knew I’d still finish a long way back on a race that was only going to be 8 or 9 laps long. All the same having left the grid in 20th place I was 16th, 15th, 15th, 14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 11th on subsequent laps and 10th on the last lap. Along the way I’d lowered my PB to 52.8 but I’d still screwed it up.

Oddly, though, Tom and Alex were clapping when I emerged from the tunnel and I just shrugged. However, it turned out that I’d passed all the other class B runners other than Duncan who ended up in 2nd overall meaning that although I was 10th on the track I was 2nd in class. Odd how things work out…

So, a top weekend and two podiums. Or, is it podia? I’ve got a collection of small things I want to do to the car but nothing major. I do, though, want to check the cat again as today’s news is that Rob’s cat has failed again. If I find the bloke who thinks putting cats on bike engines is a simple process I’ll do something unmentionable…