Hi,
Somewhat mixed emotions regarding Saturdays racing and very sorry not to have been able to race on Sunday.
I decided to skip the single cylinder class and just race in the (modern) 250cc class and, or course, the classics.
The 250’s ride with the 125’s (the smaller bikes being the undisputed kings of Three Sisters) and of course they were all modern bikes with the exception of my Ducati 250 Mk III. In the morning races there are trophies for both classes, and the finishing positions determine the grid positions for the points race in the afternoon.
All the classics ride together with trophies for the top three (irrespective of size) in the morning. The afternoon races the finishing positions are split into up to 250cc and over 250cc for the points. At the start of the meeting I was in joint 2nd place in the up to 250cc classics and looking for good points from this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) to stay near (or at) the top of the championship.
Practice went fine. The track was still damp but not too bad and the bike running well.
My first race was the 250cc trophy and qualifying race (with the 125’s). I picked peg 19 out of the bag which put me at the back of the grid, but I got a good start and ended up having a great battle with an Aprilia 250. I kept getting along side but was struggling to get past the faster bike, but I kept the pressure on, eventually forcing him into a mistake on the last lap (he ran off the track!) to achieve a 3rd place. This was a better result than I expected against the modern stuff, and it got me a trophy!!!
The classics qualifier was straight after the 250 race so it was off the track, straight back into assembly and onto the track again. Picked peg 14, so near the back of the grid (again!). A good start saw me passing a few others by the first bend and then I gradually made it past a few more in the first lap. A Norton with a 1931 500cc Rudge engine went past me on lap 2, but I clawed it back and had a great battle with him. I managed to get past going into the last lap but he got me back at the bottom of the hill. I nearly made it back past him but in the end he beat me by nine hundredths of a second! It didn’t matter too much though, because he was in the over 250cc class! The first 250 across the line was a Benelli 2-stroke. I was 2nd of the 250’s – a really good placement in a big field and one I really wanted to repeat in the afternoons points race as it would put me in contention for the top of the table.
In the afternoon my racing kicked off with the (modern) 250cc final. Not as exciting as the first 250 race as I didn’t get into any real battles but still managed to pick up 10 points for a third place.
Once again it was straight back into the assembly area, but with a bit of a wait while some bikes got recovered, then back on for the Classics final. On the sighting lap the handling started to feel a bit odd – checked tyres for a puncture but all looked OK. Got a good start, but then after only a couple of hundred yards everything went pear shaped. The engine suddenly went really loud (yes – even louder than normal) and the power disappeared. As I went onto the grass the engine cut out and the back end went away and I dropped the bike. Couldn’t figure out what had happened but then noticed oil on my left boot – could be serious. Serious too was the fact that I scored no points!
Got recovered back to the paddock where I started investigating with Andrew. A little bit of metal on the magnetic filler plug, but not much. Oil mainly coming from the base of the barrels on the left hand side, some from between the barrels and the head. Head off – all looked OK but noticed that the cylinder head bolts on the left were not so tight. Concluded that it was just a case of the bolts coming loose. Decided to take the bike home, drain the oil to check for any metal, check everything out and get back for Sundays racing.
All went well on Saturday evening until it came to torque down the head. Both the left hand cylinder head bolts had stripped the threads out of the aluminium engine crankcases! No racing for me on Sunday and no points again!!! Devastating for my 2007 championship chances.
I’ve not done a full engine strip before, so Sunday was spent taking an old one apart (handy to have something to play with) in preparation for taking the race engine apart. I’m confident its going to go OK – much less intimidating now I’ve done one – so tonight will be an engine strip then Andrew’s coming round with a helicoil kit and we’ll sort the threads.
Hopefully should be sorted in time for next weeks track day at Cadwell - if not then I’ll take the Darmah, but it would be good to give the 250 a run before the next race.
High point of the weekend – getting presented with a trophy for 3rd place in the 250 class against the modern machines.
Low point – getting no points in the Classics on Saturday or Sunday and effectively loosing my chance of being at the top of the championship at the end of the season.
Thanks to Andrew, Judy and family for supporting me so well. Thanks to Caroline for helping out until she went of to be a Marshall (they were short handed due to there being meetings at Oulton and Aintree on the same day).
Thanks to everyone else who came along and a big sorry to everyone who turned up on Sunday to find me not there - I really do appreciate your coming along.
Cheers,
Roger
I've swore blind repeatedly that I'm going to get to one of your races Roger but they always seem to clash with something else 
, This weekend I've got to take the family up to Edinburgh for the High school musical show 
