Cadwell Park
New ERA MCC Round 8+9
Well with 3 days at Cadwell in front of me I was really looking forward to trying to jump the mountain and get some good races here under my belt. It’s the second time I’ve been here although the first time was an open pit lane event at the start of the year and only good for getting to know this wonderful circuit a bit better.
The Trackday as per usual was a pretty mixed affair with plenty of racers there but also some trackday heroes that think they are the next Rossi. Shame they just get in the way. First couple of sessions was to reacquaint myself with the lines of the place and then push a bit more in the afternoon. With another mate of ours turning up for his first time at the track it meant 3 of us all having some fun for a change.
With a few tweaks to the setup I started to find a decent rhythm and the lap time were tumbling. Sadly not to the extent I had wanted but this track is such a physical place that after 5/6 laps flat out it really starts to get to you. I wanted to achieve a few things from the trackday and by the middle of the morning I had already got air and had my lap times under 1:45’s so half way there. Next was to try different gearing to see how it felt and also try and improve my body position to help me get more comfortable on the bike come race day.
By the end of the track day I had achieved everything I wanted to apart from getting under 1:40. My lap timer was reading 1:42 as my best for the day so although I was pretty pleased, I knew I had my work cut out come race day. I needed to get under 1:40’s to remain what I would class as respectable and competitive. So we’ll try what we can and hopefully find a way to drop two seconds off my times.
Race day came and I was really looking forward to seeing how the rest of the field was going to fair. With the skies being a bit grey and temperatures down on yesterday I made sure tyres were set to a decent pressure as last time I didn’t up them when it cooled down and felt the rear just wouldn’t bite properly. So hopefully sorted this time I went out for qualifying with the bit between my teeth.
Somehow I managed 8 laps and didn’t feel as worn out as I did in the trackday so things were looking good, that was until I came to get my times and grid position. I hadn’t managed to beat my time from yesterday and so with a 1:42.79 and 11th position. Not too bad but certainly lower than I had wanted. Heyho lets see what the race brings. I know I can start ok so should be able to make up a few positions at least.
A long wait till my first race meant I could get to see some of the racing and the Allcomers at the start of the day never disappoints. My best mate and team mate was in it and he usually goes very well and today he wasn’t being shy either. Coming back with a solid 6th place against many larger bikes more suited to the straights of Cadwell.
Just after dinner I kitted up and got down to the first race of my day. I was lined up 11th on the grid. The usual anxiety runs through my veins as the start man walks off pointing his flag towards the lights. They light up and before you know it, they are off and we’re racing. I didn’t get the best start but certainly didn’t get the worst. I fly past a couple of riders before the melee going into Coppice for the first time. Quite a few riders are sat up and this causes a mess lower down the order as everyone shuffles round without hitting anyone. Thankfully I make it thorough unscathed but am forced wide and don’t exactly get the best line through Charlies 1 but it does allow me to get a good run through Charlies 2 and superb speed down Park straight. No problems all the way through Chris curve to Mansfield but got my nose chopped off going into the chicane. Recompose myself and fly up the mountain trying my best not to loop it and then nail it hard towards Hall bends. Not the best lines I’ve ever taken through there but made up some ground to the man in front only to lose it as I nervously round the Hairpin. Barn I lose yet again more time as I make an early apex and have to take two steering inputs to correct and lose four or five bike lengths instantly. Thankfully the bike is a rocket and I claw back some time going down the start finish straight and get back onto the tail of the bike in front as we go up the left hill at Coppice and then manage to get great drive through Charlies 2 and fly past as we go down park straight. Only to lose out on braking into Park itself. This messes me up on the run to Chris curve and another rider shoots underneath me just as I tip in. I decide to follow for the rest of the lap and try and stay clam. Trying my best to hold on we make a couple of flying laps and really starting to get a feel for the corners I’m not so hot on. Manage to pick up on his lines through the Gooseneck and it really helped me to get drive down towards Mansfield. I do however start dropping back slightly from the quicker rider and before I know it my main rival has passed me. Knowing his bike I tag onto him and make sure he doesn’t get away. Barry and I have had some great battles and this was the start of another one. None of us giving each other an inch but all very fair we battle out for a few laps with him always having the lead on me. He’s quicker through some corners and I’m quicker through others which always makes it great fun. I did however spot my chance to get past as the previous couple of laps I was being held up quite bad as we went over the brow of the hill. So I dropped back slightly to get a better run up there and managed to get round the outside before tipping right into Hall Bends. Now the pressure was on me and pretty much straight away I almost lost out to him but hung on for a lap before he sailed up the inside of me at Barn. We crossed the line and the last lap flag was out so I knew I didn’t have much time to make my move but though if I could get past before the mountain then I can make the most of that section and try and gap him slightly before the end of the race. Now I had been watching him through the Gooseneck and knew I was quicker so last lap I decided this was the point where I’d have a go. Extra wide round Chris curve I had the line to go for it and down the hill to Mansfield we were level on the brakes together when all of a sudden he just let off his brakes and tipped in. He had got about 2 yards advantage but as he was coming across my line I had to keep braking hard as not to hit him. This unfortunately is where my experience comes in and instead of releasing my brakes and tipping in, I held them on for far too long forcing me well wide I tried to make the corner only to go onto the grass and as soon as I hit it the front end folded and down I went. Absolutely gutted as this was my first DNF of the year but no damage to the bike or me meant I could get out for Race 2 and try again.
After the long wait we finally got to the grid but this wasn’t before a fair amount of “do we, don’t we” with the choice of Dry or Wet tyres. The rain had come down quite badly and there was quite a lot of standing water about. So the choice was wets. On the warm up lap everything felt great and I was ready to push hard from the start. Which again I seemed to fly off the line only to get caught up in the first corner with everyone shuffling for position. Down to Park and things calm down a bit with a bit more space for everyone. Although one rider does go round the outside of me as I tip into Chris curve. I know its wet and leave him to it; I’d rather get into it before going mad. The next couple of laps fly by with one rider passing me but that’s it. Steadily we go round and I’m looking at most corners to try a pass but never close enough and in the wet I’m not the sort of rider to try and force it, so I stay where I am. Thankfully the rider in front exits Barn quite slow and I tear past him on the start finish. Now I have my rival in front of me again so I try and stick with him and not be as brash as last time as its only lap 4 and there is another 4 to go. Sadly by this point this track is drying quite rapidly and the bike starts to move around underneath me. As long as I stay where I am I would be happy so as another lap ticks off I’m happy with the way things are going. That is until on lap 6, I tip into Chris Curve and power a bit hard, this starts the rear sliding and I’m not exactly Garry McCoy when it comes to these things so instead of rolling off the power and potentially causing me to highside I keep constant throttle and steer into the slide. I think I must have steered a bit much and instead of sliding and turning the corner the whole bike was travelling sideways and before I knew it I was heading to the grass, and FAST. I stood the bike up as soon as I could to try and let the wet grass trim my speed as much as possible, slightly trailing the rear brake to slow me down as well. Sadly though the tyre wall was approaching far too quickly and I made the decision to lay the bike down and jump from it. This worked as far as I was pretty much unscathed, a few bruises but nothing major, the bike however didn’t fair quite so well. As I was sliding on my back I could see the bike skimming the grass then something dug in and the bike ended up going end over end.
Once back in the pits it was time to assess the damage, broken screen, clock bracket, bent clip on, very badly snapped/broken/splintered bodywork and to top it off the rear subframe was poking through the seat unit and the radiator inlet pipe fractured. Game over for the weekend as I didn’t have a spare radiator. Well so I thought anyway!!
I cannot thank Daniel Miles and his father enough. After scouring the paddock for a spare radiator and nothing turning up, Daniel and his Dad took a quick look and said yeah we’ll fix that. So I left them with that and got on with repairing the body work that was left. The good thing about having a black and white bike is that you can get Gaffer tape in both colours. So there I was on a very, very rainy night at Cadwell repairing my fairings with Gaffer tape, even the Mrs was doing her part to get me out for Sunday. She did the best repair to my seat unit!!!! After the awards ceremony in the bar it was time to refit the radiator and make sure its water tight. Sadly it wasn’t, once up to temperature there was an ever so slight weeping from joint, definitely weekend over I though. Well until Dan and his Dad came up trumps again with a very strong chemical metal which we plastered all over it and left it over night.
Bright and early, as is the norm when racing, I got up and tried the radiator again. With time running out for my qualifying I was devastated that the repair was still weeping slightly. A bit more of the putty around the joint and another wait for it to cure meant I had missed qualifying and was sat there waiting to know if I was going to race or not. The putty had looked like it had gone off and so I tried it again. The bike seemed to take ages to get up to temperature, eventually it did and nothing. No leaks, steam or anything. Kept trying to dab the area with a paper towel to pick up any traces of wetness and nothing, still dry. I can remember shouting to myself in joy that I’d be getting out at last.
Having missed qualifying it meant a back of the grid start. Nothing major, I did it at Anglesey earlier on in the year so didn’t really worry about it. So there I was sat on the grid with a bike that was looking decisively 2nd hand knowing that as long as I finished it would be an improvement over the first days racing here. The lights g out and off we go, I again make a good start but am forced out wide into Coppice, so I have to try and sneak up the inside going into Charlies 1. As I was down the grid slightly I managed to do this and then headed up to Park again passing another rider although he did come back past on the brakes. I managed to get past going down towards Mansfield as he was braking way too early. Somehow I had managed to get past my rival and was leading him into lap 2 when he flew past exiting Charlies 2. I stayed with him until Chris Curve but confidence for me just wasn’t there and he kept edging out more and more of a gap. By the end of that lap he had got way ahead and now I was being hassled by other riders. This spurred me on and I tried to tag onto the next rider who came past but this proved to be more of a task than I expected. It was one of the quick lads who had taken a bit of an excursion to the grass but had remained upright so carried on. He quickly got well ahead but he had towed me up to the next rider on track. It was another R6 so I thought as long as I stay with this guy I’ll be ok. He was much better on the brakes but I always seemed to get a better drive out of the corner so we yo-yoed back and forth for the best part of two laps until I was in a position to make my move. I managed to get out really wide between charlies 1+2 and got great drive and flew past him on the Park straight and made enough of a gap for him not to be able to come back at me on the brakes. Now I could see the next rider a bit further on the track but with 3 laps to go I pushed as hard as I could to try and catch him up. At one stage I almost threw it all away again, flicking through the left right at the bottom of the mountain I apexed slightly too early on the right and touched down my peg and brake lever down on the rumble strip at the side. This caused a leg off the outside peg and a wobble up the mountain but thankfully didn’t cost me too much time. I continued chasing down the rider in front and knew I was catching him but sadly not enough and I was .31s behind when we crossed the line. Gutted I hadn’t caught him but pleased to have finished the race on one piece and to have no bike problems.
Race 2 my confidence had grown immensely by the good first race of the day and so sitting in the grid I had visions of me flying through the field. Again a good start passing quite a few people but this time managing to avoid any problems at Coppice, I had made up about 7 or 8 places and had a great run down to Park, this is where it all changed for me. As I was powering through someone came underneath me and forced me slightly wide but being Cadwell, slightly wide means on the grass. I couldn’t believe it, I was grass tracking again and on the first lap as well. Now don’t ask me how but I did actually manage to stay upright and got back on track. The others had gone out of sight down the Gooseneck so I had my work cut out to try and catch someone up. However I got my head down and slowly the laps ticked by and I was noticeably catching the guy in front. Each lap getting closer and closer I could start to smell his fumes ahead and by the time we entered the last lap I was almost on his tail and the guy ahead of him wasn’t very far off either. Tried as I did though I couldn’t make it past two at once and they were too close to each other to take one at a time. Sadly I didn’t manage either but final corner he shot out of Barn and I got great drive too we crossed the line simultaneously. However this was still either last or 2nd to last place. Upon the collection of timesheets it was deemed we crossed the line together and with us only getting times to the hundredth of a second he had got it but we had equal times of 11:07.85. So that was it, my first last place finish. Although pleased to have finished both races I wasn’t best pleased with the last place and couldn’t talk to anyone so grabbed a beer and proceed to let the amber nectar take away the worries and doubts caused by the weekends racing. Off to Castle Combe next and with no practise there, the first time I’ll see the track is in qualifying. OH GREAT!!!!!