Pembrey Mallory  Brands Cadwell1 Lydden Croft Snetterton Cadwell2

CRMC Round 2 - Mallory Park May 3rd

We got to Mallory via an unplanned scenic diversion as we mysteriously missed the turning for the A46 off the M40. Like we've never been to mallory......never mind, we got there, basking the new found top end of the lorry - Bones had discovered that the throttle was only opening about 2/3rds of the way and having made that essential adjustment, we now could keep up with the traffic in the slow lane and no longer had cyclists and old ladies out walking their dogs overtaking us! Luxury! To cap it all we got flashed by a friggin speed camera too!!!!!

There had been the usual ponsie bunch of puftas at a car meeting at the track before us. We know that cos the burger van had sold nothing all day, and when we all turned up he didn't what had hit him. He did more business and got more abuse in 30 mins with us than he had had all day!! And so to the bar........which I have say is a soulless place! But it sells beer, but then again, we had beer in the van and that had more atmosphere and some music on offer! So we retired to the GlamWagon to put the world to rites and discuss the forthcoming Pacific Post Classic Match races. More of that at a later date, suffice to say, we are trying to line up a set of races at Philip Island against the aussies next Jan/Feb.

We awoke on race day to the pitter patter of raindrops, or was it George having an early morning leak? No, it was hissing down, blowing a gale and it was freezin'. Ah we must be at Mallory. But hold on, what's this strange new building, and run off at Devil's Elbow????? Wow, investment in the track facilities and some relative safety on a corner that has broken more bones than Mike Tyson.

Practice in the rain was no fun. Is it ever fun in the rain? The river crossing the track at the Esses sent the bike sideways and was    s   c   a   r   y. The puddles round Gerrards made for controlled (???) aquaplaning. Luckily by the time the race came around, 6 hours later, the sun had come out and the track was nice and dry. Sadly the investment in track facilities does not extend to the tannoy system, and nearly all the post classics turned up late and almost missed the start of the race!  Riga bob had problems with his clutch and had to start from the pitlane, holding the bike back on the front brake and spinning up the rear tyre before being let out (why was he ever let out of the asylum anyway?). God had to start from the back of the grid along with several others. The start took two goes as the starter dropped the flag, but not all the way, but enough for the boys at the back of the grid to think he had, but in fact he just dipped it a bit as someone on the front row had started to go way too early. Much cursing and stalling and all sorts went on. All the back half of the grid were now stopped in the front half of the grid as they had realised the race had not really started.......so to get it all sorted, we were sent on a second warm up lap. This was handy as E1 had a brand new unscrubbed rear tyre and the 2nd warm up lap gave him a chance to scrub it in a touch more than the first warm up lap had managed.

And so eventually we got underway in the race for real. E1 got a screamer of a start off row 3. Clive Wadey had the holeshot on his P&M into Gerrards, with E1 2nd. Wide Boy and Nasty, self confessed mallory specialists (sad eh?) were trying to make moves around the outside, and both managed! Nasty was on a mission. And his bike was smoking heavily. He was pulling away fast. Wideboy was following. E1 passed the Wadey Wagon round Gerrards and set off in pursuit. Coming round the Elbow, attempting to test the new run off, Wideboy highsided, headbutted his front mudguard, and somehow managed to fall right on top of his bike and carry on!! Very impressive! So it was Nasty, Wideboy and E1, followed by Wadey Wagon and God somewhere behind. Nasty Nige was canning the proverbial out of his bike. He was a second or faster than the rest, and pulling away. You could see where he was by the trail of blue fog behind him and sur enough,  by lap 7 he was sat on the side wondering what had broken.....

That left Wideboy and E1 at front, separated by a second at the front, with God some 4 seconds further back. E1 set about reducing the gap, and it started to reduce. The backmarkers were a nightmare. Some people were getting lapped after only 3 laps! However, with one lap to go Wideboy found neutral on the entry to Gerrards and E1 instantly got right on his tail. The next lap and a half were very close....but the backmarkers did it again..... coming out of the hairpin on the last lap, Wideboy and E1 were almost side by side and came across 3 slower riders at the entry to the bus stop. Wide boy was in front and dived under all three going into the Devil's Elbow. E1 tried to get alongside but a having been passed by Wideboy, one of the backmarkers moved straight across onto the apex in front of E1 who had to take drastic action to avoid running into him. Gavin we need a word.......So Wideboy took the win with E1 a few yards behind. God had in the meantime worked his way into 3rd, a good few seconds further back.

Wow, that's 3 different winners in 4 races. God leads the championship by two points from E1 with Wideboy just a few more behind.

Bring on Brands!!!!!

Other runners:

DJ brought it home safely having crashed twice at Pembrey. That said he still binned his 350 !!!

Gremlin, having crashed at Pembrey as well, suffered ignition failure on the first lap so was not a happy little alien.

George had an off weekend. I'm saying on more.

Dangerous Dave didn't make, bike still not repaired after the blow up at Pembrey.

Stalker brought his Foale home safely and quickly. This bike is getting better at each meeting!!

Planet had his first ever outing in the wet in practice and was not impressed! In the dry race he was doing fine!

Bob, having no clutch, and starting from the pit lane put in an impressive performance and finished well up the field.

The Wadey Wagon came home 4th. He's another Mallory specialist, but was riding his P&M for the first time as his less than legal Katana was sickly. Stick to the P&M its a better bike!!!