Faster, faster,faster!....intoxicating!

I convinced myself that Snetterton was going to be a disaster. The weather was going to be shit, the bike was going to run like shit and probably break and I had even been wincing at the possibility that I may even fall off.
Well I couldn't have been more wrong.
I guess an attitude like that comes from usually getting dealt a bum hand in life and also helps to really enjoy things when they do finally go right. A big bonus when you expect to step in a pile of crap.
Snetterton was a resounding success!

Myself and Phil decided to go for the Friday practice. Seven sessions out on track with about 40 minutes between each providing enough time to get my head under the tank and try to get the bikes' fuelling right and learn the track after 4 years away from the place.
Phil wanted to finish getting his bike built after many nights in his workshop till way past 2 in the morning. He spent the morning getting the bike finished and managed to get out in the afternoon to finish bedding in his newly built motor.

I had taken along a selection of main jets and was prepared to spend the whole day devoted to getting it right. The time between sessions proved just enough to get re-fuelled and throw in an ever decreasing jet size until early afternoon I had it as good as I could get it. The bike revved cleanly now, once running on the main jets at the top of the rev range. The mid range was still sluggish and a couple of changes to needle height soon had the thing blasting out of corners while revving in the mid-range, very nicely indeed. Job done!
I had also got my head around the circuit and was feeling really confident of a good two days of racing.

It was such a relief to get the bike sorted. Now I was able to concentrate on my riding and put into practice all the stuff I had learnt from Jeremy at Brands a couple of weeks ago. I was looking forward to seeing him again over the weekend and getting some more feedback from him. I was also able to get some diet and nutrition advice from his good lady, Tina. She is setup at most meetings to help people in this area and promote her Herbalife products business.
I have been using these products for a few months now and have found a huge benefit from them, not just on the race track but in every day life also.
So with some good advice on getting my body to perform from Tina and mental and practical advice from Jeremy, I was feeling really up for the racing and looking forward to progressing my skills.

I'm not too fat according to Mrs.Hill!..... well maybe just a little!

The Thunderbikes grid was the biggest so far this year, with 30 bikes taking the start. It was good to see some new machines on the grid, adding to the varied mix that has become Thunderbikes and attracting an ever increasing number of people becoming interested in the series.
I have been getting quite a few e-mails from people interested in what's going on and finding out about our series.
My self and a few fellow Thunderbikes riders were featured in the August issue of Performance Bikes Magazine. I am getting used to people saying " aren't you that guy that's in PB mag?"
It's great to see the series becoming more and more popular.
It's inspiring people to get the old piles of rust out of the back of their sheds and dust 'em off and race 'em!

It has become the norm, for Myself, Phil, Gyles and Chris to camp out together at the circuits this year with the Alto Laverda team joining us too. We all get on great and have a real laugh together.I really enjoy our time in the paddock. So it's a magnified shame when things within our little circle of bikes go wrong, and it always seems like its one or the other of us!
It was a shame to see the Alto Laverda team suffer a suspected blown engine in 1st practice, Saturday morning. Brothers, Ben and Aaron, of Alto, decided to pack up the bike and make the 4 hour or more, round trip home to sort the motor and get back to the circuit as quick as they could to continue to compete. You have to admire their commitment and determination to race. It seems nothing will stop Ben from getting that bike over the finish line 1st before the end of the season.

Ben at the back, (not where he likes to be) Aaron and Phill astride the Alto Laverda.

Phill Read jnr. the Alto team rider,stayed at the track while the boys ran home, leaving him time to chill and take in some racing. I know from experience that it's kind of nice to not race as it enables you to see things in a different light. No pressure, time to chill. It was great having Phill around in our camp, having a laugh, and chatting with us all and happy to give advice too! great guy!

Gyles' Guzzi seems to be cursed at Snetterton. Although for the practice day the bike runs fine, come race day the bike starts to play up.The thing game him a load of trouble at our last visit here and decided to repeat it's trick at this visit keeping him busy under the tank between races. Last time here, he suffered 3 non finishes. This weekend, he finished all the races and finished really strong with a 10th place, a 12th place and two 11th places...good points for him. He was flying!


For race 1, I was placed 16th for the start grid and hoping to keep my record of good starts. I was not disappointed and got the usual flyer and moving well up the order and passing the start line at the end of lap 1 in 9th place. I rode as hard as possible and was going really well with only Steve Joy getting past on his Ducati 748 when on lap 5, I ran into the sears corner with the bike jumping out of gear forcing me to run very wide. By the time I had sorted the gears out and pointed it down the straight, 5 guys had got by me. Damn!.

entering Russles chicane after the super fast Corums

I couldn't get the gap back to the guys who had passed me and on the final lap I was passed at the end of the Revvets straight by Phil Polden on his Cagiva 650 raptor.
There was just 6 seconds between myself and all those guys at the end of the race which forced me to wonder what might have been if I hadn't have run wide on lap 5. Certainly better points than the single one I got for my final position of 15th. My fastest lap was 1m20.609. My target was to drop below 1m20 by the end of the weekend.


It was a similar story for race 2. The same great start and I was again 9th by the end of lap 1 from 15th at the start.By the end of lap 2, I had dropped back to 14th with a terrible lap full of missed gears. The gear box just kept slipping into neutral, worrying!
A couple of the new riders to Thunderbikes, and fast riders at that!, had spent the first race improving their start positions for the next grid and were quite out of place starting from the back. This added to my troubles . I had been passed earlier in the race by Will Jobbins, aboard his Suzuki GSXR837 which had been smoking heavily, evidently the engine was leaking oil all over the exhausts, causing the smoke. It was also spraying the back of the bike and his rear tyre. As I reeled him back in, it was spraying me too! As we came out of the left hand flick of the final corner, I was right on his back wheel as he lost the rear and slid out of the race. It was quite a close miss for me as I had to get out of the throttle momentarily, to avoid him. I heard in the paddock after the race that he was ok but he was not to race again this weekend. Bad luck Will. Glad he was ok!







Just a sore hand for Will after this spill!

Throughout the race I had a close fight with Dan Willmott on his 400 and Adam Palfreman on his Sv. Myself and Adam had passed each other a couple of time with Adam finally finishing ahead of me and a final corner attack from Tim "chunky" Churchill saw him take another place from me. Nice move from Tim! Although I had gone faster in race 2, with a fastest lap of 1m20.435,I couldn't match my first race finish position and came in 18th.
I was very happy though, with the outcome of the day and was hopeful that the next day would be as good.The bike had run and performed really well, and I had experienced some enthralling racing. I could feel my race craft improving all the time.

On it! Through Corums

Over night, I changed the engine oil and decided to up, the grade of fork oil to a heavier 15 weight in an attempt to settle the front and help get through the very long and fast, Corums curve. The front of the bike felt like it was trying to run wide and I figured trying to cure this would add some speed and a better feeling through this part of the circuit. It's also not a a good place to be loosing the front as it is so fast and has a bit of a reputation for spitting bikes into the air as they take to the run off.
Once all the work to the bike was done, and Ben and Aaron returned with a rebuilt motor (amazing!), we all walked up to the top of the paddock where a bar-b-q was being hosted by a load of Thunderbikes riders. time for a good chin wag and a bottle of beer...just the one though!

The weather had been really kind to us so far this weekend and Sunday turned out to be no exception. The temperature was hot!
Gyles' Guzzi continued to misbehave, and with moments to go before the first race, phil spent a few short minutes fiddling with it and miraculously managed to fix the bike and get it running ok. We all stood back amazed for a moment. Not even Phil could explain what he had done to sort the thing!

I took to the grid with the usual crazy feeling in my stomach, something that always seems to get me until the lights go out. I got my usual good start but going into the 1st turn I found myself having to get out of the throttle with a huge traffic jamb and nowhere to go and getting stuck on the apex while what seemed like the whole grid ran past around the outside. I'm sure I had my nose chopped by someone, ah well, that's racing I guess!
Crossing the start at the end of lap 1, I was placed 14th and with Just Steve Joy, Adam and Dan getting by throughout the rest of the race, it was reasonably quiet out there. With a bit of a look behind down the long straight, I could see that it was to be a case of get my head down and ride as hard as I could to keep a distant pack behind. With 8 seconds covering the 7 guys in front (including me) by the end, I was reasonably happy.I just missed the points with a 16th place.
Again I had gone faster, just missing the 1m19's mark. The bike was noticeably better through Corums but the compromise was that the bike was having a harder time exiting the double apex right handed first turn, with the front chattering over the bumps out of the corner, making hard acceleration, hard work to hold on. I coped with it though.
fastest lap for me; 1m20.073.

With the heat of the day, shit sleep ( as always before racing!), a late arrival on Thursday night (thanks to an hour road block detour.. bugger!) and some hard racing, I was really feeling tired by the last race.
Another good start but another hold up in turn one for me and I was back to 19th by the end of lap 1.By this stage of the weekend, the grids tend to become relative to every ones speed, and we are all less mixed up. I managed to get past Paul Martin #76 and Daniel King #9 in this race.



Other than that it was again just a head down ride hard, but not too hard, race. I wanted to go home in one piece. It's too easy to go mad at the end of a weekend. Just like a lot of track day off's happen at the end of the day when people are tired and just want to go that little bit faster. I decided to take it smooth. I remember the front feeling vague. I had picked up a wrong front tyre when I left home and ended up having to run a really worn front all weekend. It was probably ok, but a lot of stuff in racing is all in the head. Just because I was wary of the fact I knew the tyre had done a lot of track time and was getting old, probably affected the way i rode and interpreted the feeling of the front. If some one had told me it was new, I probably would have ridden faster!
I managed a 17th place for this race and went fractionally faster and got my target sub 1m19...just! ... 1m19.937


So with another excellent weekend in the bag, this racing lark just gets more and more under my skin. It's highly addictive, especially when all goes so well..... and actually, even when it doesn't it's still intoxicating. I just wish I could win the lottery so I can do it every weekend..... dream on eh!

Back to Cadwell park next. My favourite and that of a majority of the riders I should imagine.
This may be my last race this year, due to financial restraints. I hope not, but it's a distinct possibility.