Pembrey 17th September.
Saturday:
As funds are fairly tight i was only doing 1 day at Pembrey and couldn't afford the test day the day before so was kind of going into the race blind as I had never ridden the track before. I got there Friday evening after it took me 4 and 1/2 bloody hours to get there from Bristol! I rushed to get the bike ready for scrutineering and then sprinted down with the bike and got there as they were closing the doors, luckily the nice scrutineers of NG let me have the last go haha. Bike passed with flying colour.
After a cracking night’s sleep, I woke up to the sun beating down at 6:30am, which in Wales I’m sure is rare! I headed out for practise knowing I needed to get better on my down shifts as I was hitting false neutrals a lot at Anglesey. Low and behold 2 laps in and not getting on with the track I have to run on coming onto the back straight as I hit a neutral, I didn't want it trying to throw me off like it did at Anglesey so I just ran on. I got her back in gear and went on again, she did it again going into the first corner, again I ran on to safety and sorted the bugger out. Spent most of my practise pissing about with that and not learning the track so wasn't the most confident starting 3rd on the grid for the quali race.
Quali Race:
We set off on the warm up lap I got half way around and realised my bike was loud as you like, not quite normal. I looked down to see my end can had slipped of the link pipe! I got back to the grid, waited until the Marshall's weren't looking at me and I slipped it back on just. Knowing it wouldn't stay on I just needed it to be not so loud off the start. I got a good start, jumped into 2nd place and held it through the first corner, got passed by the 2nd and the 3rd corners and slipped into 4th to follow my mate Simon on his FZR so I could learn the track. Half way around my exhaust slipped off again so I was running a straight through micron system all race, my god it sounded nice, if I didn't have ear plugs in I think I’d be deaf! I was following Simon for 2/3 laps getting more confident as I was going and slowly gaining on him. Going into the first turn, which at Pembrey is a 6th to 2nd gear hairpin I hit a bloody false neutral again, I didn't fancy running on in the race so I scrambled to get it back into gear, instead of trying to get it down another gear I popped it into 3rd and she was all fine. I came out the corner in the completely wrong gear but at least I was still on the track! This slowed me down a bit and I got passed by my mate Dan on his FZR. I followed him for a lap and dived up the inside into the first corner, he then re passed me at the same place he did the lap before. He almost high-sided coming out the corner which was quite fun to watch, I followed him again, slip streamed him down the back straight and out braked him into the fast right hand last corner, this time making the move stick. I then went to hunt down Simon who was a good 2 seconds up the round, after a 2 flying laps and seeing the last lap flag come out I was sort of within range. With it only being a quali race I didn't want to try anything special so shot right up to the back of him into the final turn and tried to drag him on the way out, I finished 0.225 behind him and was more than happy with that.
Afternoon Race:
I was starting from 4th on the grid but wasn't too fussed about that as I knew my starts were good (Jinxed it myself) got away ok, hit a neutral shifting to 2nd and go swamped! I knew I couldn't let 3rd and 2nd get away from me (1st being Tim Bradley who is about 4's faster than anyone else) Braked super hard into the first turn and had the bike in all sorted of shapes but managed to get myself back into 4th. I got stuck behind a GP45 Aprilia for a lap or so and had to pull a fairly big move to get past as Simon and Martin were getting away. Once I was past the GP45 I felt super comfy on the bike, everything was running well, brakes were fine and I wasn't hitting any false neutrals. Simon put a big move on Martin for 2nd which allowed me to pull up to the back of them quicker. I got a great run into and out of the last corner and dragged martin on his zxr down the front straight and made a bit of a lunge up the inside, the bike was going a bit sideways, which I wasn’t all that used to but I made it stick. It took me another lap to pull Simon is as he was riding really smooth, coming onto the back straight he looked behind only to see me almost on his back wheel! I lined him up through the flat 5th gear kink into the last corner and made the biggest/scariest most exciting move I've ever done. It was all out commitment if I had hesitated at all we would have both been down. I shot up the inside, slammed the bike onto its side, my knee on the deck and had the back end wobbling all over the place mid corner and on the exit but managed to pull it off without touching! I knew Simon was fast and had more pace so I hammered in a fast lap to try and pull away, I’m not one for looking behind me so I just kept my head down. I'd been looking for the last lap flag for a couple of laps and didn't see it. Heading down the back straight my bike hit a false neutral without me touching anything, then put itself back into gear, I was a little confused but it kept going so I didn't worry too much, I went into the last corner fast knowing I lost a bit of pace on the back straight only for me to hit the throttle and the bike run out of fuel! I couldn't believe it! another podium chance taken away from me because of my stupidity haha. Initially I thought the old girl had blown up as it is a 400. It wasn't until someone said "does it have fuel in" that I checked and stopped panicking but got incredibly annoyed at myself.
Newcomers:
After almost brimming the tank to make sure I didn’t make the same stupid mistake again and swapping batteries as mine was flat I was set to head out for the newcomers and to try for my 3rd straight win. To say I was nervous about the start was an understatement! 40 odd bikes 1000’s/650’s/600’s and 400’s all barrelling down to a hairpin corner, it’s a recipe for disaster. I got a good start again, cleared all the Ducati’s and some mini twins and positioned myself on the inside of the track. I braked fairly early just to avoid any mistakes and had another 400 come up the inside of me, I wasn’t too worried I just wanted to make it around the first turn! I rolled around the turn with the clutch in, I came out slipping it and dived up the inside of Steve on his ZXR400 and got myself in the lead. For a lap or so I was following a mini twin and kept making mistakes, which wasn’t helping. Once I passed a few mini twins I felt really good on the bike again, there was a fairly big gap ahead of me to the next group of riders all 600’s and 1000’s so I had a good lap and a half by myself to race the track and pull a gap on the 400’s behind me. I Caught the R6/MV and R1 with 2 laps to go and had a good battle, out braking them, then getting battered down the straight. My corner speed was far better and racing with them taught me a lot about bike position and being able to utilise my corner speed. On the last lap I dived back past the R6 through a fast sweeping right hander, tried to out brake the MV coming into the sharp right before the back straight, I got right up the inside but he didn’t fancy letting me have it, we bashed knee’s and a few other bits and I came out worse off but it was just good hard racing. This clash made me come out of the corner far slower than normal so I was slipping the clutch to get the bike going, the R6 came barrelling back past, slowed in the kink and I dived back up the inside into the last turn, I came across the line 1st, my 3rd straight win in the newcomers in the 400 class and missed out on the championship by 4 points!
Would have loved to have ridden both days but I do love Thruxton so thought it best to save some pennies to race there. I believe I have another year in the Newcomers class so I’m hoping without some silly mistakes I made this year I can have the championship!