22nd April National GP
Awesome weather & a good weekend’s practice & then GP racing on Sunday.
Had to try & learn the track again as hadn’t raced Mt Wgtn in Clockwise direction for 3 years. There are some bumpy areas & that can limit the lines available but this didn’t make things much easier.
Thought I’d finally sorted myself out & then after a few sessions of segregation fell in behind a couple of the other contenders who were bunched up. And couldn’t quite keep up. Oh dear!
Time for a stern word with myself.
Practice for Sunday was another corker. I set in again & tried a few new things. I then noticed I was gaining on the Aprilia that I was concerned about, not by much, but enough. Still main concern was DaveDs Derbi that is always fast & he is really a Mt Wgtn specialist & has probably done more laps & won more club champs & 2 hrs there than anyone else with a few GPs to credit as well.
The race started with Mark on the Aprilia off in first & I kinda fluked into 2nd, after a few laps I was pressing & he made a mistake so I fired through & then gapped him. About lap 10 (50 lap race) Dave on the Derbi was now right on my tail & the bike had sputted a couple of times. Then I made a mistake & he dragged past on the main to close the door in the sweeper. I had to hit the picks. It would have been an inspired move, -- if only I’d been the one doin’ it!
Here we go again, but the bike was going ok & I decided in my head that the race had just begun & convinced myself I was catching. I held on for quite some time & learnt a few things from his lines. A dozen or so laps later & I was now pushing instead of keeping up & trying a few poking a wheel up the side tests. Another dozen laps & we came across some lapped riders & I hung back & made a break through then Gapped him to hold for the win.
I was please as I’d redeemed myself for the last couple of years where I’d pretty much given up once being passed. Throw the bigbookofexcuses away.
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brief update on other classes but I'll leave that to others;
The F4 race was lining up to be a goodie, but with last years winner Nigel on his RS/RG100 favourite the opposition was Karl & Gary C on Connor prepared 125/140 twins. Gary didn’t finish & was a bit off form anyway (apparently self inflicted the night before) it was up to Karl to put in chase to Nigel’s early start. With his bike breaking down after a dozen laps Nigel easily Gapped & decimated the field. There were a few retirements but otherwise a fairly incident free race.
The Scooter race was, well a bunch of scooters going around, but there was one decent crash when someone’s tyre stopped holding air rapidly.
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Originally Posted by F5 Dave
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