Like the Churchill dog would say Ooooooooooooooooh Yes! 

Peeps, to tell you about my DD Championship Round 1 at Brands Hatch.
 


I decided not to have a freezing cold night in the van at Brands as most of the week I had been scraping solid ice off the windscreen before work. So Friday night I was Mr Snuggles in the warm, mmmmmmm, aaaaaaaah ;0)

I had fully packed the van and filled the jerry can up with fuel earlier in the evening on Friday and it was just a case of get up and go at 5am. I left the house around 5.30 and headed to the track. Not surprising the roads were dead, and I just sailed along to Brands, taking about 45 mins to get there. I arrived at the back Paddock Entrance gate to be greeted by chained up gates and no sign of life. Normally there would be vans already there so after about 5 mins I decided to re locate to the main entrance where the security said, very matter of fact "oh ye we aint usin that gate this weekend", ya might wanna let peeps know that as there is nothing to say that at the gate! "ye right", I don't know if they ever did, numpties.

I located Pit Garage number 31, I had decided to share a garage for the first time and quickly met Kev Palmer getting out of his pit and his lovely wife and Riders Rep Trudy, sporting some very fetching baggy fleece leppard skin PJ's. Got the bike off the van and into the garage and then prepped it, fuel, tyre pressures etc.

Thankfully Scrutineering was close to us and I lined up in the que of riders and their bikes at around 7.30. The bike sailed through with flying colours and so it was back to the garage, quick superman change into my leathers etc for it all to be checked seperately. Kit all done, and then off to 'signing on' to have my 2011 ACU licence checked and more importantly hire my Transponder for the day, it records the times (important!) 

Once signed on, it was back to the garage via a stop off to grab a coffie and bacon roll, mmmm, yummy. Whilst walking back I saw Flint, of the Prodogy, getting ready to race, as was Real Road Racer Maria Costello. Neither of them asked for my autograph......lol....how rude!

It was now just a case of waiting about for our 1st practice session, I hate the waiting about, which was due to be a 15 minute 'non timed' session. I thought to myself that I would use most of it to scrub in the brand new dunlop Qualifiers and new front brake pads.

I was only about 3/4 of the way round on lap 1 in the 1st Practice session when I just decided to go for it sticking behind Kev Palmer who had been setting .59 second laps from Fridays Test Day. Both the front runners Kev and Ron had both been there, getting tuned in, all day Friday so I knew that I had to dig deep and right from the off! I managed to stick with Kev and quite comfortably. At the end of the session I was full of confidence for Qualifying. 

We had to now wait for around an hour or so for our Timed Practice session and so I just tried to keep it cool and chill whilst thinking about my plan. My plan was to hook up behind Kev Palmer again and also the quickest rider on track Ron  Jolley. Stick with them and I'll be doing ok.
 
The time came round quickly and before long I was lining up in the Assembly Area ready for the off. I spotted Kev Palmer and went to get behind him but he was soon away down the pit lane and I was playing catch up. As we got out on track Kev was a few hundred yards in front and heading off quickly. I reeled him in as quickly as possible as I new if he suddenly puts his wrist down then I'll never catch up. Before long, after a couple of laps, we got into a flow with clear track and I could feel that we were tonkin along. We were having a bit of fun putting as much pressure on eachother into corners as we dared, you don't want to crash in practice, I did it at Castle Coomb last season and my day was over before it had even started!

With Timed Practice over Trudy got the 'time sheets' and we had done top notch. Sticking with Kev had really payed off and with low .59 laps I was 4th quickest in class, set up nicely on the front row, along with Kev, my mate Phil (Ghosty) and Ron Jolley, who was gonna be the man to beat if anyone other than him wanted 1st place. To give you an idea of how significant .59 laps were, the year before the top three bikes in class were all on 1.01 laps and .57 is the fastest lap ever set at Brands on a Class B machine with Class A's fastest at .55's.

I now just relaxed, changed into my casual clothes, prepped the bike, ready to go, and then it was a long wait for our first race after lunch at 2pm. I had a bit of lunch with Martin and his wife Becky who were down for the day, thanks for the visor de-mister matey, it worked a treat ;0).

Before lunch I had tracked down the mighty ginger Imberg, sporting numbers which I had quickly donated first thing in the morning after a phone call from him saying, "so where are the bloody numbers for sale then, I havn't got any bloody numbers'....lol......we got him sorted!

Danny had a nice crew sorting his bike (how the other half live!) which included his Dad Mr Imberg (pappa smurf to the crew!) who had a weird idea by soaking Danny's rear slick in petrol, we kept shtoom about that....lol.... good move Daddy Imberg might have put him off if you'd told him!

Should not have eaten lunch with Martin and Becky as I don't normally and now felt a full.

I got myself changed into my leathers with about 20 mins to go before the first race and then I just bimbled about close to the garage, thinking about me, the bike, and the race ahead. I decided that my main target would have to be Ron Jolley and I was going to go flat out to mix it with him if I could.

Race1 was upon us on the button at 2pm, and I have to say I was well up for it, full of confidence from a quick Qualifier, which had put me on the front row of the grid in class. When I was lined up on the grid, on the front row it felt soooo good and I just felt, that today, things were going to happen!

Having re grouped on the grid after the warm up lap, this was it, the starter (Phil) removed himself from the track and pointed the red flag towards the lights, rev's up to 7k rpm and clutch to biting. Red lights came on and after 2 seconds they were out and we were away! I got a really good start and found myself not loosing any places. I was tucked in against the wall at the start (as I would be for both races) and so was going into the first corner at Paddock Hill tight. The few front Class A bikes were quickly away and soon I was into a Class B battle with Kev Palmer and Ron Jolley, I was so pumped up for it and all I wanted to do now was win. About half way through the race I was in the lead, and I found that after a while I was in a comfortable lead, set up to win my first dry championship race. Come'n you can do this!

With about 7 laps to go (both races were set to be 18 lap races) suddenly the bike became very noisy from the exhaust and as soon as it happened I just shouted NO! I kept my pace on continually shouting out loud 'don't do this to me' and a few f's and c's were thrown into the mix! There were no bikes threatening me (that I was aware of) and I just thought if I'm not Black Flagged then I'm gonna just keep it on the track and win. My worst fears came true after a lap when I caught a glimps of what appeared to be a Black Flag at the end of the Pit Lane (meaning get off, your finished). I kept going, but after seeing what I thought was a Black Flag (I was not sure) and then several riders off at the side of the track, I felt like something was not right and I wondered if I was causing riders to fall off because of losing oil. This thought just meant there was no way and I slowed right down. Ron Jolley soon came blasting past pointing down to the back of his bike, then Kev came past doing the same and I quickly surrendered. Left hand in the air, coasting back to the Paddock on track. I pulled off the track and just could not contain my frustration, screaming and shouting in my crash hat and thumping my tank to within an inch of it's life. When I pulled up in the Assembly Area I looked down to see that the whole exhaust race can/ silencer was gone! Bollocks! Oops! Martin and Becky where outside the garage to see me back and to share in my frustration. My first ever race win was gone in the blink of an eye or should I say exhaust!

Martin allowed me time to calm down and re gain my composure, soon he was helping me to get the bike sorted and bike out on track for the second and last race of the day. One thing was certain, I was going to go out again and look to make up for the earlier loss and I now knew, I was just as quick as Ron Jolley! 

I grabbed my exhaust can from the Marshal who had kindly walked and picked it out of the gravel at Clearways and Martin and I got it back on the bike and secure within about 30 minutes. A hammer, brute strength and ignorance did the job nicely.

We were now the last race of the day and the sun had decided that he had had enough so it was now cold, overcast and there was the odd spit of rain in the air.

Race2 was finally upon us and soon we were again in position on the grid ready for the off. One quick warm up lap under our belts and it was eyes towards the lights again. Red Lights on and I decided to go on 2 seconds but unfortunately for me they had decided to throw a spanner in the works by varying the time, the result, an unfortunate jump start! Crap lets hope they didn't notice, ye right.

I headed off on a mission and was again soon into a battle with Kev and Ron, a repeat of Race1, which was exactly where I wanted to be. I settled into a good flow as did Kev and the running was pretty much Kev, Ron and myself. Kev looked comfortable at the front and myself and Ron battled for 2nd place continuously until kev made a mistake into the esses before clearways which allowed Ron through into 1st place and me into 2nd. for the remainder of the race myleft and Ron continually swapped places between 1st and 2nd place almost at every corner and boy it was close! Ron kept catching me at my weakest point on track, the left hander at the bottom of Graham Hill but I knew that I could stay with him with the chance of fighting to the last in Clearways through to the line. I was in the lead for the win but again Ron managed to have me back at the left hander at the bottom of Graham Hill and I was chasing him towards the esses. Through the esses I was inches off his tail and on the approach to Clearways we were totally on it. We went into Clearways with Ron on the Inside Line and I tried to give it as much beans as I could round the outside but we were right on the limit and I really didn't want to throw it all away with a last minute crash. We came out of clearways with Ron about a bikes length in from and that is how we crossed the line. What a race! Really hard fought and a seriously new era for me and my racing.

Danny texted and rang me to break the bad news that I had officially jump started with a 10 second penalty putting me down in 9th place! Damn. I was gutted but actually felt as if I had won both races so for me it was how I was feeling about myself and how I had raced which mattered more than anything.

Later when the time sheets became available it was quickly confirmed that even with a 10 second penalty I had still managed to get 3rd Place, so nice Trophy and a bottle of wine, result and a nice way to round off an awsome day!



Filled with confidence now for my next races at Anglesey on 28th/29th May and set up nicely to continue well so fingers crossed.

My thanks to the Fitwick boys Danny, Martin and my Tyre Sponsor 'DebbieJorma' of Staines

Roll on Anglesey ;0)