Sunday 12 August 2007

Non starter @ Cadwell

It was with great sadness that I had to cancel my entry for the Cadwell meeting, especially as it is my favourite circuit. The week leading up to the meeting has been torture and now it has passed I find myself wondering what may have been.
A couple of weeks ago,I had contacted the editors of Classic Racer and Classic Mechanics magazines and invited them to Cadwell to have a look at our series. Myself and Ben Shaughnessy of The Alto Performance team and also the head of our series, are both keen to promote the awareness of the series and in an effort to do so , I decided to try the magazines to help with exposure. I hear they did turn up at Cadwell but have yet to hear what they thought or what they had to say. I was really sad to have not been able to go along and meet them. I will be calling Ben in the morning!

So without me, Phil took the van, loaded with his Laverda and also with the FZ as a backup in case the Lav played up. He took the FZ for just one outing on the Friday practice day.
I was keen to hear how he got on with the beast and made a phone call on Friday evening.
With the exhaust can re-packed in an attempt to get the sound down to pass the noise test, I was eager to find out how the bike revved in the top range, if it was better without the added baffle that I had run at Snetterton. The outcome was a bit vague so I will have to wait and find out for myself I guess.
It was interesting to hear how the bike behaved in the handling. Phil reported the same issues in the mountain as I had last time I rode at Cadwell with everything decking out and the front end wanting to take you for a trip through the gravel....interesting. The rest of the lap was just as I had felt too. Phil was generally impressed with the bike and stated that it has loads of potential.
It needs Steve Spencer to breathe his magic on the engine and a new front end!

The circumstances leading to me not going to the meeting have receded but not gone away completely yet, but I am hopeful of getting out for at least one meeting before the end of the season. Next up is another trip to Snetterton and two weeks after that is Brands Hatch.
I think it will be Brands for me, giving me more time to recover myself and be ready. The bike is ready to go having just been run once this weekend, so I just have myself to get ready.

Once I have spoke to Ben, I will post my findings here.

Steve went to watch this weekend and has promised to take loads of photos, so I hope to have some eye candy to post in the next few days.... watch this space!