Wednesday 5th May 2010

Three meetings done & I seem to be enjoying racing again. The March meeting seemed to go O.K.. Lap times were still slower than they should be but not too bad considering the temperature that early in the  season (cold track temperatures always make me nervous).

For Aprils meeting I made a change or two to the bike (main one was a different quick action throttle cam to give me more throttle feel) & things went a little better for me in race one. Conditions were changeable that day & I opted for my intermediate tyres which worked well in that race as I lead the battle for 10th (6th in class) for most of the time, up to the chequered flag . I also seemed to make a good start in that race which also made a change. Race two was not as good as I kept the inters on but the track was totally dry (still finished 6th in class though).

Last Monday's meeting was a lot better for me. Conditions were changeable again & cold but my first race was dry. The start was not great but the rest of the race was. I seemed to get into a few battles with other riders & progressed forward through the field & ended up in 5th place in the race (& in class). My lap times were in the 1.04's matching my best (that's not happened for 2 years). A rain shower fell just as we were about to start my second race so we all had to race on dry tyres (I was on slicks). This was the right tyre though as the track dried very quickly with the wind, but the first couple of laps had to be treated with care. I still got a good result & had the odd battle progressing forward as I did in race one but not quite as far.

I have added an additional meeting to our race calendar at the end of this month & I am going to give Mallory Park another go with New Era. Lets hope we can keep going in a positive way. T.T.F.N.

 Thursday 25th February 2010

It has been some time since I last updated my site, last year did not go as well as I had hoped. At the end of the season I went to Cadwell Park to do a track day just to try & feel good again about track riding. It was a good day out without race pressures, just what I needed before winter set in. It was nice to feel reasonably quick for a change, compared to most of the other riders in my group.

The new season is fast approaching (too fast) & I have been making some improvements to the bike over the winter ( not as drastic as last winter). I have changed the rear shock (same spring), changed the front brake master cylinder & altered the front fork oil level, so lets see how things go with that. Apart from this I have been trying to keep away from racing & the bike as much as possible just to try & get a rest from the whole thing. I found that by the end of last year I'd had enough & just wanted a rest from it.  I also had a period of time before xmas where I had some health problems which I seem to have overcome now.

I'm not sure if I am going to do all the meetings at Darley this year, the first one I wish was a test weekend, (not a one day test & race day the following day), so I will see how things pan out. See you soon.