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Series: NORA UK
supermotard championship. Oh well, thanks to the financial problems of the Manby circuit, this round was moved to good old Blyton where the delicate aroma of the maggot farm was as welcoming as ever. Made a nice change to have yet another dry race meeting too. A few changes had been made to the track since last time – the left hander
after the first shale section had been moved deeper to avoid all the horrible
stones and gravel and the small jump had been smoothed on the approach which
helped to not sproing you into the air too much. The final dirt section had
been made wider which I preferred. Not sure about the ridge a few inches
hiugh going from the dirt onto the tarmac – caused a few punctures I believe. Practice A bit of a tentative start in practice to see if the bike was holding
together and had all been fixed - as is becoming the norm with me it seems, I
finished rebuilding parts of the bike the morning before I set off to the
track after spending the previous week trying to sort out an overflowing carb. Race 1 First race in the D group thanks to my championship position and not due
to being able to run at D group pace. Until now. :-) Managed to finish mid
pack ish after 6 laps, a few people fell off, which helped but I kept the
pace I think. Can’t remember much about this as it’s a long time ago now. Race 2 2nd race was more of the same, except as others got more in tune with the
track and improved I stayed at the same pace finishing nearer the back of the
pack but not far enough back to get relegated. Race 3 Parts of the track were watered before the next E group race and it caused
havoc with lots of them falling off but it had dried ok when I went out. I
think I had trouble getting going after the lunch break and ran at a slower
pace and finished in the last relegation position. Oh well. Race 4 Final race starting from the front row, average start but was able to stay
with people and actually race. And pass people and leave them behind! Finished in the middle of the pack or
so and somehow managed to lose 10 seconds from my previous best lap time
which was nice! Now why can’t I run at that pace earlier in the day? I think with having more trust that the bike was working ok, running full
wets to give me more confidence on the dirt (that extra confidence outweighed
the slippery feeling the wets gave on the tarmac) I was able to concentrate
more on riding. It seemed to work as I thought about the corners and worked
out how to do the dirt sections better. Pleasantly surprising to be able to overtake people on the dirt sections
too and to go so much faster than before. Roll on 3 sisters this sunday!! Interesting point, the front runners in the E group were running fastest
times that were on a par with the last half dozen riders in the A group! That
shows how competitive this racing is becoming. In the A group final it was quite a surprise to see Warren Steele fall off
on the first lap while trying to pass one of the KTMs on the inside into a
shale section. He restarted dead last and eventually finished in 9th. Wow.
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