Team Lucking Fast rides again at Oulton 13th Sept
Discussion
Time for my write up and I'm sure Fleegle will be along soon to tell his story too.
The day started early for us with a 6am get up ahead of warm up at 8.45.we woke to another gorgeous autumn day, that was only ever going toget warmer. The weather for the whole weekend could not have been better. Even after only doing two races previously it felt a bit strange being first out. Onto warm up and clearly none of us had listened (or been told) where to assemble. We all headed to the end of pit lane and after 5 mins were turned around and pushed up to another area at the top end of pit lane. It was clear a few us are going to pooling round our three laps as we had brand new tyres that needed scrubbing and were now stone cold. Oops.
Anyway, three laps out of the way and then back into the pits for a jittery 30 mins whilst the other classes did their warmup. Race start and, as neither of us really fancied the start, I volunteered for it. Out onto the grid and another few minutes wait for the sighting lap. Have to say the way we set off was interesting, and it was just the sighting lap!
At race start all the bikes are lined up for a LeMans style start. Fleegle held the bike for me, whilst I crossed the track amd waited for the lights. By now the butterflies were going crazy and this was compounded with another delay as one team ran off to get their transponder. I mean, what kind of a daft team forgets their transponder
cough, Anglesey.
The lights went off and I jogged across the track and onto the bike. Just as I swung my right leg over it, my calf muscle cramped and it was agony! No choice but to ride through it through it. The start / finish "straight" at Oulton is thankfully longer than Anglesey, so the first corner was a bit less hectic and things had settled down a bit by then. That was after a hairy moment though, as Russ Mountford of Silicoen Engineering's bike bogged down and lost all power. I was accelerating hard and just moved over to try to overtake a rider and was on his barely moving bike in a flash. I reckon I'd be OK on the Mod 1 swerve test! There's a video on my FB page for those connected to me (about 10 secs in)
After that the first stint was about trying to find a rhythm and keep up the pace, whilst managing my cramp! I settled into a run of 1:55 / 1:56 laps, which was consistent, if a bit slower than I was hoping for, but not too bad considering my cramp. That's a bit of an excuse though as I was too focused on the riding to worry about the pain. I came in in P23, so had lost us 2 places from our grid position, but that's not a surprise as I didn't fancy fighting too hard in the first couple of corners.
Next stint for me after an hour and I'd managed to eat about 5 bananas, a bag of ready salted crisps and some anti-cramp pills wall of which did the sum total of f
k all to ease the cramp! Again I was trying to get into a rhythm and managed to get some more consistent 1:53 / 1:54 so a bit happier and had some good dices out in this session. The really top guys would occasionally go flying past amd there were some top, top riders out there, such as Hudson Kennaugh, Gary Mason, Gary Johnson, as well as some up amd coming riders like Malachi Mitchell-Thomas and Jonathan and James Lodge (who won it). I think I managed to keep us in P21 that Fleegle had got us up to and was having a real tussle with the team just in front (who were competing in the National 1000, so two levels up form us). I just couldn't quite catch the roder though as the gap something's closed, then opened up a bit, as we hit traffic, or I made a slight mistake.
I did notice that I was getting the bike a lot more out of shape and StuB's words were ringing in my ears about the suspension being too stiff and the tyre doing too much work. He was right.
Anyway, I completed that run and then had a 30 minute break ahead of my final stint.
More of the same, was all I could think as I went out, knowing that I had to survive this amd not fall off, as some teams were starting to crash and that a as costing them time and places.
Steady 1:54 / 1:55 this time and again I just tried to keep closing down the rider in front who was exactly the same rider that I was chasing in the second stint. This time I seemed to be succeeding in closing them down until a mahoosive rear end slide coming out of the first chicane lost me a load of time and a bit of wee too. After that it took me three laps to be confident enough to push any harder and I settled for where I was.
The inboard came out and a lap later I was trundling down pit lane realising that it was all over for me. Despite being absolutely shattered I wanted to carry on, amazing what adrenaline can do for you. We were still in P21 and Fleegelw as out for our final run.
I'll let him tell you about his time, but suffice to say he was riding faster than he's ever done before at Oulton.
It has made me realise though that I need to do quite a few things, one being to sort out the suspension, the second is to get some more talent!
The day started early for us with a 6am get up ahead of warm up at 8.45.we woke to another gorgeous autumn day, that was only ever going toget warmer. The weather for the whole weekend could not have been better. Even after only doing two races previously it felt a bit strange being first out. Onto warm up and clearly none of us had listened (or been told) where to assemble. We all headed to the end of pit lane and after 5 mins were turned around and pushed up to another area at the top end of pit lane. It was clear a few us are going to pooling round our three laps as we had brand new tyres that needed scrubbing and were now stone cold. Oops.
Anyway, three laps out of the way and then back into the pits for a jittery 30 mins whilst the other classes did their warmup. Race start and, as neither of us really fancied the start, I volunteered for it. Out onto the grid and another few minutes wait for the sighting lap. Have to say the way we set off was interesting, and it was just the sighting lap!
At race start all the bikes are lined up for a LeMans style start. Fleegle held the bike for me, whilst I crossed the track amd waited for the lights. By now the butterflies were going crazy and this was compounded with another delay as one team ran off to get their transponder. I mean, what kind of a daft team forgets their transponder
cough, Anglesey. The lights went off and I jogged across the track and onto the bike. Just as I swung my right leg over it, my calf muscle cramped and it was agony! No choice but to ride through it through it. The start / finish "straight" at Oulton is thankfully longer than Anglesey, so the first corner was a bit less hectic and things had settled down a bit by then. That was after a hairy moment though, as Russ Mountford of Silicoen Engineering's bike bogged down and lost all power. I was accelerating hard and just moved over to try to overtake a rider and was on his barely moving bike in a flash. I reckon I'd be OK on the Mod 1 swerve test! There's a video on my FB page for those connected to me (about 10 secs in)
After that the first stint was about trying to find a rhythm and keep up the pace, whilst managing my cramp! I settled into a run of 1:55 / 1:56 laps, which was consistent, if a bit slower than I was hoping for, but not too bad considering my cramp. That's a bit of an excuse though as I was too focused on the riding to worry about the pain. I came in in P23, so had lost us 2 places from our grid position, but that's not a surprise as I didn't fancy fighting too hard in the first couple of corners.
Next stint for me after an hour and I'd managed to eat about 5 bananas, a bag of ready salted crisps and some anti-cramp pills wall of which did the sum total of f
k all to ease the cramp! Again I was trying to get into a rhythm and managed to get some more consistent 1:53 / 1:54 so a bit happier and had some good dices out in this session. The really top guys would occasionally go flying past amd there were some top, top riders out there, such as Hudson Kennaugh, Gary Mason, Gary Johnson, as well as some up amd coming riders like Malachi Mitchell-Thomas and Jonathan and James Lodge (who won it). I think I managed to keep us in P21 that Fleegle had got us up to and was having a real tussle with the team just in front (who were competing in the National 1000, so two levels up form us). I just couldn't quite catch the roder though as the gap something's closed, then opened up a bit, as we hit traffic, or I made a slight mistake. I did notice that I was getting the bike a lot more out of shape and StuB's words were ringing in my ears about the suspension being too stiff and the tyre doing too much work. He was right.
Anyway, I completed that run and then had a 30 minute break ahead of my final stint.
More of the same, was all I could think as I went out, knowing that I had to survive this amd not fall off, as some teams were starting to crash and that a as costing them time and places.
Steady 1:54 / 1:55 this time and again I just tried to keep closing down the rider in front who was exactly the same rider that I was chasing in the second stint. This time I seemed to be succeeding in closing them down until a mahoosive rear end slide coming out of the first chicane lost me a load of time and a bit of wee too. After that it took me three laps to be confident enough to push any harder and I settled for where I was.
The inboard came out and a lap later I was trundling down pit lane realising that it was all over for me. Despite being absolutely shattered I wanted to carry on, amazing what adrenaline can do for you. We were still in P21 and Fleegelw as out for our final run.
I'll let him tell you about his time, but suffice to say he was riding faster than he's ever done before at Oulton.
It has made me realise though that I need to do quite a few things, one being to sort out the suspension, the second is to get some more talent!
George29 said:
Do Cadwell on 4/5th of October with Derby Phoenix!
No chance. I don't really like Cadwell and probably ducking out of next weekend as well, as things have got busy at home. Plus the van is in for MOT on Sat, which I forgot all about. That's going to cost some money to get through I reckon. 
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