Well this weekend was a weekend of bad decisions and interesting racingfor those that know me, know I HATE Cadwell so I wasn't looking forwad to this at all!!!
Arrived on Friday afternoon for the evening session to pooring rain and strong winds, I managed one and a half sessions before they shut the track due to the weather, bloody expensive track day [ch61516]
Saturday Race 1
Started 19th – Finish 23rd
Woke on Saturday morning to the biggest rain storm I’ve ever seen! The wets stay on, half way through the morning the sun comes out and we change the tyres (I’m a dab hand at this now) to the drys. Half and hour before the race is pisses down again so we then change them back to the wets. Phew OK we’re sat in the holding area, it’s been dry for 15 minutes but everyone is still on wets, the practice lap show’s everyone how wrong we were with the tyre choice, it’s bone dry!! The lights go out and we’re off, I think I must have been tired or trying to move the throttle on the wrong handlebar as everything was going from bad to worse. I seemed to be going backwards and only managed a 1:55 best lap.
Saturday Race 2
Started 23rd – Finish 10th
Back in the pits we change to dry tyres as the blue skys were appearing so it seemed a fair bet that it would stay dry. Sat in the holding area everyone, bar one novice, is on drys – then the heavens opened. I can honestly say I’ve never seen rain like it, at this point I thought they’d stop the race, nope I was wrong. The lights went out, I had a fantastic start and set about not falling off. There were streams of water all across the track and we could hardly see where we were going due to all the spray and rain. I seemed to be picking a few people off at a time, the back end stepping out on me on almost every corner. I then saw the number 2 runner in the championship (someone I only ever saw in the paddock or when he lapped me) caught him up, overtook, I then saw number 1, overtook (at this point I’m getting a little giddy) I finished 10th from 23rdwith a lap time of 2:05 in the wet with SuperCorsa’s on lol, I chuckled all the way back to the pits.
Sod the BBQ (who wants soggy sausages anyway) we’re off for a curry!
Sunday Race 1
Started 10th – Finish 32nd
OK, this time we’re not getting caught with the wrong tyres on – hmm maybe race 4 we’ll get it right, yup, out on wets, track was bone dry again (god I hate Cadwell), as you can see I didn’t fair too well.. Starting in front of the fast boys was a learning curve in itself, I now know that being lent on, shoved and generally beaten up on track is OK. This really knocked my confidence and I don’t think I recovered it that race. My lap times were appalling due to the fact I’d shagged my wet tyres the first race on Saturday and having the **** scared out of me on the first few laps :-/
Sunday Race 2
Started 32nd – Finish 23rd
WOO HOO we were out on dry tyres on a dry track!!! I’m exhausted just typing this but this race really took it out of me! I was determined to claw back a few spaces and banish my hatred of Cadwell. I was concentrating on being smooth and not braking too hard too soon. I really need to stop being so polite too as it seemed to take me an age to get past anyone. I had a good tussle with a 250 and outbraked him into the hairpin. I took a couple more around Coppice (the only decent corner at Cadwell) but there were just not enough laps to finish any higher than 23rd but I was a happy, but shattered, bunny!
