18th April 2004 - Cadwell Park

I knew exactly how the day was going to turn out when I woke up in the morning to hear the pounding rain on the window. I had decided that as I was so tired and really didn't want to risk getting injured again that I would consider missing out on any races that were too wet. I didn't realise just how wet and miserable it was going to be until I got to the circuit though. I had tied down my new awning to stop it blowing away in the night. The front had a large wheelie bin on one corner and my generator on the other. The back had one of my spare wheels on each of the corners. It wasn't going anywhere.

Well, I guess nobody told the weather. By the time I turned up the wind had got under the back of the awning and flipped it over (spare wheels and all). The bike along with all my tools and storage boxes had effectively been sitting out in the rain all night. Nice! I couldn't see too much water in the bottom so put them back in the van. There was no way I was going to be standing out in the rain so after clearing up what was left of my awning I had a look round to see who had a dry awning I could sit in. Fortunately Paul Wilson had the same idea so we spent most of the day sitting in his van chatting about track days, racing and houses in the South of France :-)

We did get to watch a few races, including both of the MiniTwins outings. We drove up to watch from Park corner. I don't know whether there was something on the track but almost every lap another rider slid off. Pretty soon there was a row of bikes leant against the tyre wall. I counted seven in just one MiniTwins race. The conditions were terrible and several people fell off on the way to the grid to start the race! The second MiniTwins race was eventually stopped after William Snook got thrown off his bike as it aquaplaned down the start/finish straight. He was bolt upright on the bike and it just threw him off. Big respect to anyone who was brave enough to ride in those conditions but even more respect to those that had the courage to say no and decided to stay some where dry!

Not a particularly pleasant day and I was glad to be able to pack up and go home. My supposedly waterproof coat gave up the battle half way through they day so I ended up wet as well. My tools and boxes ended up soaking wet, my awning was wrecked but at least I didn't crash the bike or injure myself again. My leg had worked a bit better but I wasn't getting clean gear changes due to problems with getting my foot in the right position on the peg. Maybe another visit to Harris and an even longer gear linkage might help. Oh well, Snetterton was only a couple of weeks away so we would find out soon enough.