9th March 2002 - Brands Hatch

Up early to finish putting the bike back together. After a couple of hours of frantic activity I managed to get the last fairing panel back on in time to get down to scrutineering just before they gave up on the solo machines and moved on to the sidecars. Back to the garage, add a bit of fuel and out for the ten minute practice session - On cold tyres! Nothing eventful to report other than lots of clutch slip but everything else seemed to hold together okay.

Not completely sure about the fairing frame, it now has a nice angle to it as well as being a little off centre. With Duncan's help, Roger Ford's ever helpful mechanic, I set about fixing the clutch problem. Turned out that the pattern clutch lever was a slightly different shape to the original so wasn't releasing the clutch quite the way it should. A quick swap to put the main lever on to the old mounting point and adjuster soon had things sorted.

With all the excitement finally over I could sit down and try to relax for a bit as the first Super Twins race was number seven in the programme. A nice change compared to doing the Clubman 600 races last year which were always the first race of the day.

Race 1 - Super Twins

A couple of races before we were due to go out on the circuit it started to rain. A few people panicked and immediately started to put wets on but we figured it was fairly light and would clear up before we got going. Almost worked although the dry line around Druids felt about six inches wide at one point although I'm sure it was wider than that.

Drawn on grid position nineteen and made an appalling start. I think I lost about two rows going in to the first corner. Stunned to see John Rhodes come by on the outside. He'd been drawn on the back row and was still accelerating hard at the point where I'd already started braking! Very impressive. Continued up to Druids only to see a poor guy on a Ducati change position just at the point the guy in front decided to start braking. He clipped the rear wheel of the bike in front and went down hard with his bike sliding on up the hill right on the racing line. A couple of us braked hard only to have a few more guys come by and then realise why we had suddenly slowed down.

A fairly uneventful race after that. Got overtaken by a couple of guys who had made even worse starts than I did although I did manage to take a couple of other guys who must have gotten by when I was busy avoiding the fallen Ducati earlier in the race. Got lapped by the leaders but wasn't last and would have gained another place had there been another twenty yards before the flag - Those Ducatis really can move when they want to. Serves me right really as I had to brake slightly to avoid running in to the back of him around Clearways which screwed up the drive on to the straight.

Finished in 19th place which is pretty much where I started from. Put in a fasted lap of 58.46s which I was fairly happy with given that the bike was in pieces just a few hours earlier. My ankle was hurting but I was relieved to have finished the race and kept it upright.

Race 2 - Super Twins

A few more riders made it out in the second race. I guess many of them had gone for full wets and then realised that actually racing with them in the dry would be fairly silly and also fairly expensive as they'd be ruined within a few short laps.

Needless to say I made a mess of the start again and got out dragged fairly convincingly going towards the first corner. Many of the faster guys that hadn't made it out that morning came by as they had been made to start from the back of the grid - Tee hee! Had a good run for most of the race with a pack of seven or so bikes but eventually my lack of fitness started to show through and I gradually fell back from the group. Still managed to get by a reasonably number of bike - Well, five Ducatis and another Aprilia to be exact. What is it with those 955 and 996 Ducatis? Regardless of how fast they are in the corners they are absolute missiles in a straight line!

Ended up in an RSV sandwich between Don Plane and Richard Dawson. Hopefully I'd be able to stick with them in the Aprilia Challenge race on Sunday and maybe even make a battle with it. The pack I had been running with ended up seven or eight seconds ahead at the line as I gradually eased off knowing I had a reasonable cushion before the next guy.

Finished 24th out of 30 started and didn't get lapped this time out. A fastest lap of 57.87s was an improvement over the morning race but was still a 1.5s slower than I had been running in practice the day before. Still, I had improved and had managed to make a bit more of a race of it, especially as there were no little incidence where I had to avoid fallen bikes or stricken riders.

A good day all in all, I'd managed to stay upright, hadn't come last and managed to get all my gear changes in the right direction so I was obviously getting more comfortable on the bike. Hadn't managed to get any points but there's always next time!