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Saturday, 9th September 2000 - Pembrey Left the Island on Friday morning on the 0700hrs SeaCat to Liverpool - me, Ann, our Merc van (thanks to Ann's mum and dad, Helen and Richard who paid for the fare) with Graham Burden, Dave Kinrade and their mate Mark in their tranny van following behind. We were all in different races this weekend, I'm in the 1300 Open, as is Juan (who's meeting us there with Dawny Dawn). He's also doing the 600 Class, Graham is in the 400 Class and Dave is riding his super dooper TZ350 in the Forgotten Era Class, so we've all got someone to cheer on, and Mark is there to drink the most beer! Arrived at Nowheresville, Arizona - I mean Pembrey at around tea-time with 277 miles recorded on the old trip meter, there was a track day in progress and the paddock was quite full, so we had to settle for a place on the grass, not ideal but first come, best dressed I suppose. Watched the track day (or what was left of it), had a shower, walked the course and then retired to the clubhouse for a few shandies, and told tales of how fast we were going to be. Got back to the van at around 10.30pm. the paddock was absolutely chocca (good job we had saved Juan a space with some barrier tape), fell asleep before Juan and Dawn arrived. Saturday Went through scrutineering at around 8.30am, loads of bikes had to queue for half an hour, some nice pieces of kit and no mistake. Weather was cloudy, but dry and so went out to practise, only one practise session, so tootled round trying to get the hang of the place. It's really flat all the way around. The fastest bit is the Start/Finish straight, which leads on to Hatchet's Hairpin (good passing place for the Demon Late Brakers), around Dibeni Bends which is three left-handers, taken in one if you're good enough, round the Esses which is a fast right-hander, down a small straight to Brooklands Hairpin which is a right-hander, hard on the brakes onto the back straight (Speedway), halfway along the straight there's a right-hand kink, a little bumpy, but flat out, then into Honda Curve which is a fast, tight right-hander then back along the Start/Finish line. The two areas I was struggling most were Brooklands and Honda Curve, also I can't get used to getting my knee down, every time it touches down I lift it up again... nobber! Juan was out in Race 2, Graham in Race 3, me and Juan in Race 4 and Dave in Race 5. Went to watch Juan in Race 2, he was on the second row, he was up to 4th when the race was red-flagged (stopped). This was something that happened at least once every race. On the restart he worked his way up to third, with 2 laps to go, when he high-sided exiting Hatchet's Hairpin and came down heavily. When he got back to the pits, he had hurt his shoulder and chest, nothing broken though. His bike fared quite well, broke a footrest and hanger, and a bar end weight. His bodywork was only slightly scuffed... lucky boyo (well, we are in Wales). So, I was out on my own in Race 4, was on row 3 and tried to learn the course in this one as my main race, the ACU Star Championship, was Race 13 and the one I wanted to do well in, and score some points. I'm lying second in the championship behind Juan, then it's Atkins, Cooper, and Tranter who were all here, so as long as I finished ahead of them I'd extend my lead on them and consolidate second place. Anyway, had a steady enough ride and finished 12th, a few more crashes in this race. I wanted to have a safe ride, no heroics, there were no points up for grabs in this one, so I used it as a practise. Although I was going as fast as I could, my lines and braking points were all wrong. Tranter finished ahead of me in this one, Atkins and Cooper were behind me, so it seemed Tranter was my main threat. By Race 8 it had started to rain...... just for a change.... the paddock was busy with everyone changing on to wet tyres..... except me of course, because I haven't got any spare wheels, or sprockets or ..... etc etc etc. Juan was out in Race 11 and finished somewhere around the 11th place mark and didn't have time to change to his wet tyres. Got to the holding area and had a look at what my rivals were running. Juan was on Intermediates as was Atkins (he didn't have time either). Cooper had a wet front and Intermediate rear and Tranter was on full wets..... shit! The difference wet tyres make in the rain is unbelievable..... (apparently) but when you're on the track and see how fast you can go without sliding...... I wouldn't disagree. Anyway, alongside Juan on the 4th row (it had stopped raining but the track was soaked), had to get as many points as possible as this was the ACU Star Race. Lights turned green, and we're off, a lot of jostling for position at the hairpin, tried to be as smooth as possible and surprisingly started to pass people on full wets.... wey hey. Juan drove up my inside at Dibeni Bend, so I tailed him for a lap and crossing the start/finish line we were side by side, he had the inside line on me for the hairpin, so I thought I'd try and outbrake him. Got my front wheel ahead of his..... so, not wanting to be outdone he tried to outbrake me back, locked his wheel up, which put him into a slide, so he had to overshoot the corner (plenty of run off at this point). Had a little chortle to myself and got me head down. Could see Tranter two places ahead of me and was catching him, but didn't manage it before the flag, he only finished 2 seconds ahead of me, another lap and I would have got him. Finished in 8th place, Juan in 10th, six seconds behind... I was well made up... beat Kinnish for the first time this season, I enjoyed that one, good fun dicing with Juan. I think it was 7th in the ACU Star Class, which is 9 points, Tranter would have got 11, Atkins finished 14th and Cooper 12th, so Tranter still the man to beat as far as I was concerned. I was the first rider home with non-wet tyres.... Juan second. I still don't like the wet, although I'm not doing too bad in it. I seem to go better when the rain goes off and the track is still damp. It would be interesting to see where I would have been placed if everyone had been on the same tyres as me. The winner only finished 20 seconds ahead, and I never had a slide, I think the damp conditions suit my non-knee down style. Graham was struggling to get into the top half in the 400 Class as the pace was really hot, and dave was doing the most fettling in the pits on that TZ350 and was having brake problems, and a buckled rear wheel - he's had the same tyres on it for two years, Christ Almighty! My last race on the day was Race 21, it had dried up and this time I was on row 7. No points again in this one, so I was going to use this one for more track time, it wouldn't be clever falling off in the last race when I have to do tomorrow as well. Made up quite a few places at the hairpin and started to pick riders off one by one, making my way up the field I had a couple of slides, most notably coming out of Hatchet's Hairpin (or "Juan's" as I'm now calling it). Juan had picked this point to watch (resting up for tomorrow's assault on the points), but I've got into the habit of not using the throttle too much out of slow corners while banked over, as the R1 has that much power, you'd get flicked off every time. Anyway, finished in 6th place, only one second down on the bloke in front, another lap and I would have got him, there's nowt like having someone to chase. I was still not fast enough around Brooklands and Honda Curve, so I just defended my line on some occasions to keep my place, but there were areas where I was faster, I was also not bad on the brakes into "Juan's". I finished 3 places ahead of Tranter, so that stood me in good stead for tomorrow. He now knows I can have him. Good fun when I duffed him up the inside on the brakes. He was faster than me at Brooklands and Honda, he had this huge rear sprocket on and got great drive out of the corners, but I'll have him tomorrow... So, not too bad, got me signature (number 15) and a sixth and some points. Was hoping for more, but there's loads of locals that are taking points off us - they'll probably be shite at any other track. So, I have to be happy. The scrutineer told me that there were 28 "offs" today... Jesus! I was glad I wasn't one of them. Went in the van to a pub for dinner, nine of us in total, including Kevin Atkins and Jason Lichfield (fellow competitors). Got to sleep around 11pm. Circuit: 1.456 miles
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Copyright © 2000, 2001 Tommy Clucas Racing.
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