6th April 2003 - Lydden

Fortunately you can't race at Lydden on a Sunday morning due to the circuit noise restrictions so we didn't have to get up early. To make up for it we went to the pub to celebrate Red getting two second places in the Rookie 400s. Well impressive!

Gary Morris had repaired his bike and got it through scrutineering without any problems. I had a quick look and noticed that the brake lever was loose. Gary had a look and went to tighten it up but it looked like it was broken. He took a bit of convincing but when he tried to brake hard as a way of testing it the master cylinder mounting broke off in his hand. Oops! Fortunately I had a spare one and he added that to the borrowed foot rest bracket to get out for the race.

Today was the day I ran out of excuses. The bike seemed to be working fine, the new suspension was great and I hoped to be able to get over the disappointment of the second race on Saturday. It's all about confidence in to the first couple of corners and there was absolutely no way I was going to get stuck behind Roger this time!

Race 1 - Mini Twins

We lined up on the grid and I managed to get a blinding start to get up with the row in front on the way in to the first corner. I seem to be strongest on the way out of Chessons down the Dover Straight - which isn't in Dover nor is it very straight! I took a couple of guys form the row in front around the outside and set off after the Ducati 748S I had seen the day before. One of the more experienced SVs came past at the left hander on the next lap only for me to go round the outside at the hairpin. Unfortunately someone binned it at the Devil's Elbow and the race was stopped. Doh!

Back to the original grid positions for the restart and I was a bit slow on the take up. I dropped the revs and whilst I was looking at the tacho to get them back up I heard everyone move off. Damn! I was about 15 yards behind on the way in to the first corner but went around the outside of David Daws and a couple of other guys on the way out on to the Dover Straight again. There was no way I wasn't up for a fight this time as I was just so annoyed at myself.

I gradually caught up to the SV that I had been scrapping with then the previous race was stopped. He overtook a guy having a great race on the CB500 and I tried a couple of manouevres to get round him but just didn't have the drive to get past him. I started to find that my brakes were getting a bit unpredictable, particularly on the way in to the hairpin but also going down in to Paddock Hill and Chessons. This was just what I didn't need and although I managed to stick with the CB500 for a couple of laps I soon started to drop back.

I wasn't sure who was behind me but I had a proper look on the way out of the hairpin and saw that Gary was at least 10 seconds behind so I could ride a bit easier and hope my brakes didn't give up altogether. I managed to cross the line in 10th place - Yay! Although by that time the brake lever was coming back to the bar and crushing my fingers so I was happy to get over the line in one piece.

A new best of 0:49.56s lap and lots more confidence that I could have improved more had my brakes not caused me problems.

Race 2 - Mini Twins

During the races I had time to get the brakes bled and put some decent race brake fluid in just to be on the safe side. Gary Nicholas had fallen off in the first race so he would be lining up with Gary Morris just behind me. I was determined to get away from them and chase down the same SV and CB500 combination that had been causing me problems earlier.

A pretty average start but I managed to keep the usual suspects behind me. I caught up with the CB500 fairly quickly but couldn't find my way past. Despite a couple of scary moments we reeled in the next SV and although the guy in front managed to pass him I just couldn't brake well enough to make a pass. The front end was chattering really badly on the brakes in to Chessons, it sounded and felt like something was about to fall off.

I also couldn't work out how to get it to stop predictably at the hairpin so finished the race with another 10th but less than 3 seconds behind the SV650 of Charles Clark. He had been my target for a couple of races now and had a 10th, 7th, 8th and now a 9th place finish where as I had two 12th places from yesterday and now a couple of 10th positions as well. I was pretty pleased with this as it showed that I was improving and sure enough I had put in a best of 0:49.32 which was almost a second better than the previous day.

A strange day really. I managed to finish two places higher than I had the day before and could have made up another two places had I not had brake problems. This has been a good start to the season at a track that I actively dislike. Hopefully I will continue to improve when we get to the circuits that I know better and certainly get on with a bit more.

It was also the one year anniversary of braking my wrist in the SuperTwins series at Silverstone last year. Despite a whole year of pain and physio, not to mention lots of metal work getting put in, and taken out later, I am very pleased with how it has held up. I have a lot of the movement back and although it ached a lot after the races it will continue to get stronger. Good progress!

This could turn out to be a fun series - What have we created :-)