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Sunday, 28th May 2000 Arrived at Mallory Park, minus a team member, who pulled the night before, had to pack his stuff from the the B & B and take it with us......it was lashing down again..... getting a bit fed up with the rain, you'd think I'd be good in the wet by now, but I don't like it at all. Practise was wet...... most of the riders were on wet tyres (oh to have a go on some of those) and they were really flying, I was only going steady. Mallory isn't that hard to learn, but I didn't get my lines or braking points right any of the time. I decided to use practise just to tootle round and bed my new brakes and tyres in, which is difficult to do when it's wet. Anyway, ended up on the 4th row of the grid and got a good start.... must have been around the top 6 going into the first corner (Gerrards) ,which seems like it never ends. By the time I got there and rolled the throttle, loads passed me... wasn't enjoying it at all..... still, signatures are what I'm after, so I got on with it. On the first lap at the hairpin, had a bit of a scare on the brakes......cos there wasn't much bite, pads obviously hadn't bedded in much, but became better as the race went on. Also, I had my steering damper too tight, which fishtailed the rear end, thought I was in the tyres at one point. Track started to dry and the pace upped and I ended up a disappointing 17th. I wasn't out again for about 8 races.. so I thought that I'd miss that one and just do the last one, because the rain had started again. It rained for about 15 minutes and then the sun came out as my race was approaching...... a dry line was appearing. I still wasn't going to do it until my girlfriend, Ann, said I may as well because the rain might come on again for the last one. So out I went...... ended up on the front row of the grid. Got a good start and I was leading in and around Gerrards bend, got passed going into the esses because I braked too early, settled down and had a steady ride and came home 3rd...... yippee my first trophy.......hopefully not the last. My fastest lap was 56.9 secs, 86.67 mph. I know I can go quicker than that..... just need more laps. The last race the sun was shining.... so I never bothered to duct tape my nose and mouth off to prevent my visor steaming up. On the warm up lap it started to piss down, on the grid it was worse. On the front row again, I got another good start and was second into the corner only because I backed off. The bloke in front of me was sliding a bit and I made my move on him at the esses and had a big slide myself... my visor steamed up completely and I couldn't see where I was going so I toured into the pits. I didn't want to fall off, what with going to Darley Moor tomorrow, bit gutted at bailing out while a comfortable second, but better being safe than sorry. The only time I didn't tape my face off when it rained. Must admit, my Dunlops are loads better, gives you more confidence, definitely be getting some more. Picked up Juan's (Kinnish) van and bike and drove to Darley, meeting Juan there tomorrow, when all three of us are racing. Looking forward to it. Someone looked up Darley Moor in the back of our Great Britain road atlas and the only Darley listed was near Harrogate in Yorkshire so we drove there only to find out that Darley Moor is in Ashbourne in Derbyshire... oops..... a 300 mile round trip for nothing. Was knackered by the time we reached the B & B in Ashbourne......... nobody would admit whose mistake it was, but it passed the time if nothing else.... Wetherby in Yorkshire seems a nice place........ for chips.
Results: Race 1: 16th place Mallory Park, Leicestershire. Circuit length: 1.35 miles
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Copyright © 2000, 2001 Tommy Clucas Racing.
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