Pembrey Mallory  Brands Cadwell1 Lydden Croft Snetterton Cadwell2

CRMC Round 1 - Pembrey April 20/21st

Once again the season was upon us. Strangely enough we had been ready for a couple of weeks and had even had a weekend practice at Pembrey with the North Glos club. That was fun, putting it about with the modern stuff!

Andy at MA Nicholl had done a lovely new paint job on the #1 bike, including a Kawasaki logo on the tank in some gold stick on letters......temptation got the better of team glam and these were prised off and rearranged!

Anyway, we went down thursday night, froze our bits off cos it was fruggin cold, so were surprised to wake up to bright sun shine on friday for the practice. Team HH were playing it cool, chosing to potter around in the morning and watch with amusement while Top Banana and all the others packed in as many laps as they could. We then went out for a wobble round in the afternoon and blew away a few cobwebs, still confused by the lack of oil leaks and no need to swap forks between #1 and #1! Strangely, lots of people had been crashing in practice on the first bit of Dibeni bend. And I mean lots. However DJ lost it big time on the start finish straight, having got into a tank slapper coming out of honda. He wrecked his leathers and helmet, so E1 lent him his spares.......

Friday night was a tad worrying, Team Glam and Top Banana had gone to bed by the time we got out of the bar, about 11.30 so we stayed up and put on the music and cracked open a few tinnies. Shirely the racing has not got THAT serious? Don't we do this for fun?

Saturday dawned and we were greeted with drizzle and cold. D'oh. It started to brighten up as the morning progressed. E1 went out for practice on the #2 bike with Dunlop KR 364s but was happy to find it was dry everywhere except for Honda curve. 

Everyone was very nervous before the first race, lots of pacing back and forward, mainly to the toilets to lose a few more lbs! Top Banana were continously fettling their machines and cursing this that and the other, wrong wheel bearings, fairings ground out, misfires, illness, Nigel's farted again..... Zzzzzzzz. Their new race transporter was um, LARGE! Its and old removal truck (complete with livery) and its very tall and spacious! We are going to have a disco in there at some point and invite the whole paddock!

Good news, the grid this year is bigger than ever with more big growlers out, including Dave Demon Brown as well as a couple of new boys. Demon Dave is famous for his hard riding and is the former keeper of George's missile. This year Dippo is building him a new 'state of the ark' Moriwaki, but as that is not yet finished, DD is riding Dippo's own Moriwaki which by his own admission, is short of tlc! We had a quiet side bet that DD would kill it off very quickly!

And so after the long wait the flag dropped. E1 was on row 4, next to James. Planet was on pole and Glynn and Nigel were on the front row! Bob and George were on row 3. Demon Dave was somewhere further back....A frantic dash to the hairpin saw Glynn, DD, E1 and God come out the other side in that order. The first lap was manic. God watched from 4th and E1 passed DD and then nearly ran into the back of Glynn as he took some odd lines through Dibeni. That allowed DD back through. It was more like a supersport race! And then the red flag came out. DJ, not content with falling off in practice, had fallen again at Dibeni. He was OK, but E1's spare leathers were now nicely scuffed!

And so a rerun, a full 12 laps. Gulp. We only put enough fuel in for 12 and we had done 3 before the red flag came out. No time to worry, and no warm up lap either even though we'd sat on the grid for 5 mins!! Off we went, another impressive start from E1 saw him 3rd into and out of the hairpin behind Nasty Nigel and God. Not bad for a row 4 start! Apparently Bob had almost wiped out E1 and God with a dodgy move outbraking himself and passing between E1 and God at high speed as they both turned into the hairpin!!! E1 then passed God and then almost ran into Nigel, pushing him almost onto the grass at Dibeni. That allowed God underneath and he quickly passed Nigel and started to pull away. E1 then regained his composure (yeah right, got the red mist down you mean) and got Nigel on the start finish straight, by which time God had pulled a bit of a gap. E1 then set about closing that gap, which he did in a couple of laps. It all felt under control and after 5 or 6 laps, E1 and God were pulling away from the pursuing mob, or at least that's what the pit boards were saying! There were a couple of times when E1 thought about passing God, but decided to just sit behind and watch. It was clear God was faster through Dibeni and round to Brooklands hairpin, and E1 was quicker through the kink and Honda curve, and down to Hatchets Hairpin. Interesting!!! The gap opened and closed every lap accordingly. On the last lap, E1 made a special effort to keep as close as possible through Dibeni. On the approach to Brooklands, Phil Sherriff on his little 600 seemingly in a different time warp loomed......both riders had to take a tight line underneath him into the hairpin which helped E1 get really close to God. Down the back straight they were neck and neck. E1 went through the kink faster than any previous lap and then dived up the inside of God at Honda, keeping it neat and winding it on, he crossed the line a few feet ahead! What a race. What a start to the season. Behind us, Glynn was a second or so off the pace in 3rd, and not a happy camper. Gremlin had fallen  at Spitfires but was OK. Demon Dave had surprise surprise blown up the Moriwaki. Nasty had a misfire but had come in 4th. Bob and Planet had a good dice and Stalker ont he Foale was just behind them. A couple of new boys on P&Ms were then in front of George who was also not happy, although to be fair he had knocked 2 seconds off his practice lap times.....

Needless to say, Team HH were a bit happy, and E1 had a fixed grin for, well, he's still got it!! Team Glam were less happy, but not as browned off as Top Banana who were licking their wounds and wondering why they were so far off the pace. In reality, E1 and God had moved the pace up another notch and God had set a new lap record, more than half a second quicker than last year. E1 was also well under the old lap record. DD then appeared, on the scrounge for a bike to ride in race 2!

A few minor adjustments including extra fuel 'just in case' led up to Race 2. Grid positions were determined by finishing places, so E1 was on pole, God second etc. E1 got a flyer but so too did God who outbraked E1 into the hairpin. However, E1 then took God going through Dibeni (there's a first time for everything!) who then took E1 going into Brooklands hairpin. God then gave E1 'the bird' which really set the scene for the rest of the race. What a ding dong. E1, red mist to the fore, then went through Honda on full chat and out dragged God down the straight! And so it went. The lead changed on almost every lap. There were more moves than John Travolta. On one occasion, God missed a gear coming up to Spitfire and E1 snook up the inside, and the fairings got within a coat of paint. The commentator was apparently close to a coronary, sure that we had clashed! On the last lap, God was in front, E1 was closing. Coming up to the esses 3 backmarkers loomed. God nipped under the first going into the right hander and E1 got stuck behind as the other rider pulled across. That gave god the 20 yards he needed and he duly took the win by 1.3 seconds. The lap record had gone again by .1 of a second. Once again Glynn was 3rd 10 seconds behind. Nigel's gear lever had broken plus he had other machine problems and finished well down (lapped tee hee!!). Bob and Planet had again had a battle that Bob had just won. DD had borrowed Glynn's stocker and it gave great pleasure to E1 and God to lap him! George was still struggling a bit but had picked up another half a second. Gremlin finished this one albeit with a gearbox problem.

 It has to be said, it was possibly the best day of racing between James and Keith that either could remember. A memorable race indeed. Strangers came up on a number of occasions after that to talk about that race to James or Keith!

Suddenly DD appeared spitting feathers. It turned out that as well as the wife and kids, he had also brought his beloved Labrador to the meeting, and Rover had been spotted laying a walnut whip in paddock by some keen welshman. The ACU official at the meeting then told the CRMC that either DD was kicked out ot the meeting would be abandoned. So Dave, Rover and family packed up and went home to Yorkshire, tail between his legs as it were.......

Despite that, as the day had been so good beer was called for. And beer was found! Oh dear! Luckily the race the next day was not until the afternoon. As usual about 2am the complaints started and we turned off the music and headed for the sleeping bags.

Sunday was warm and bright. Unlike our brains......a cold shower, greasy brekkie and a redbull or two soon things on the mend! Well, apart from the frequent trips to the toilet that is.....what IS in that welsh beer?

Sunday's race was 15 laps. E1 was first into the hairpin after a cracking start. The first couple of laps were back to race 2 with God and E1 changing positions. Then E1 took the lead and started to pull out a gap. About lap 10, Glynn passed God for 2nd. Hmmm. That went down like a lead balloon. God upped his pace immediately. A lap or two later, E1 made 3 mistakes all in the same lap. He overshot at Hatchets hairpin, then ran wide at Dibeni, and then overshot at Brooklands hairpin. Hmmmmm. God caught up and overtook. E1 then got caught by 2 backmarkers riding side by side through Honda which let God get away a bit. With two laps to go, E1 was feeling very very tired, but put in a huge effort and caught God at the end of the start finish straight. Coming out of the hairpin E1 was right up Gods chuff. But then disaster, coming out of Spitifre, E1 lost the backend big time. The marshals had actually got the yellow flags out but somehow E1 got the thing back under control. Sadly God had got away again and took the win. At the end of the race, close inspection of E1's rear tyre revealed the problem....it was totally shagged out!! Never mind, E1 had set a new lap record of 1:05.97 on lap 14, some satisfaction anyway. Once again Glynn had got 3rd, but this time he was much closer to the pace and smiling at last. He'd been a right grumpy sullen unhappy little git up until then! Nasty got 4th, still suffering misfires and teething troubles. Planet had at last got the better of Bob, including some sideways speedway action on the grass. George pulled off with a gearbox problem, but not before knocking another two seconds off his previous best. Gremlin had more gearbox problems and Stalker had had a successful weekend on the Foale finishing all three races. Not bad for a completely unknown quantity in its first outing.

What a great start to the year. Usually God has a clean sweep at his favourite track. Not this time. And E1 has the lap record. This could become E1's favourite track!