22nd October 2003 - Brands Hatch

Considering I broke my leg on the 16th August it took a very long time for them to finally take the plaster off. Even once it had been removed and the unsightly pin taken out I still needed crutches to get around. I decided that I would aim to get down to one crutch in time for the final race of the season and then get rid of the crutches completely by the time the Bemsee Dinner Dance & Awards Ceremony came around at the start of December.

We had been trying to persuade some journalists to get out and ride in the MiniTwins series during the year and I had even bought a second bike so we had one available for them. Needless to say it took until the last round to persuade them and we had a sudden rush to get my race bike back in to shape for so Simon 'Jim' Bowen from T.W.O. magazine could ride it in the last round. As I was still having problems getting around I opted not to drive but relied on Gary Morris to get the necessary rear set parts from Harris and a new fairing from Performance Techniques and deliver them to Tim Jones. Simon Hughes from R & G kindly donated a new set of crash bobbins and I took a lot of pain killers and drove myself over to Tim's place.

We spent a couple of evenings putting the bike back together and I turned up at a wet Brands Hatch for Jim to have a quick practice on the Wednesday before the final race. Most journalists talk a good story but Jim was also pretty quick and soon got down to similar times as me in the wet. I think he secretly wanted it to rain in the race so at least he'd have a bit of an advantage but it was sunny for the final race of the year just like it had been for just about every other meetings in 2003.

I won't spoil the surprise but you can read the full magazine article on the MiniTwins web site by following this link here.