Cadwell Park 28/29 April 2007
To be absolutely honest, I didn’t look forward to this weekend at all. I had been to Cadwell Park a couple of times last year, but I couldn’t get on with it physically or mentally.
‘Never mind’, I thought. ‘Friday practice will help me forget all my worries and fall in love with this challenging circuit.’ Well, that was my plan. Little did I know that we weren’t going to be let out onto the circuit till about 11 am because of heavy fog and that a Minitwin rookie was going to crash right in front of me in the first corner! Luckily, we only had to fit a new brake lever and give the bike a check over to get it ready to go out again. I came straight in after one lap of the following session, I couldn’t quite tell what it was, but the bike didn’t feel right. Bully took it for a test ride, but couldn’t find anything. Went out again, this time for the whole session, I still wasn’t happy. After a chat to Allan and Jay at A&R Racing, we decided to change the gearing, what a difference it made. What a shame there was only one more session left.
Sat morning race
I really wanted to get this over and done with. I was really nervous, as I still didn’t feel familiar with the circuit. I finished 6th in my championship, 25th overall. I felt relieved but as usual unhappy with my lap time. Challenge onJ.
Sat afternoon race
Sadly, one of our friends, Max Exton, Rookie 400, had a bad accident on the start. The race got red flagged to allow paramedics to access the scene. Luckily, Max was alright. As it took a while to clear the track, the race was reduced to 4 laps. I improved my best lap time from the previous race by 2.5 seconds, finished 5th Clubman, 21st overall.
Sun morning race
Now this was the biggest surprise of the weekend. Imagine this, you go out there just like you did the day before, wanting to improve your lap time, have fun and make it to the end. After the race, you casually walk over to the race office to see if you managed to go faster. You can see that the mission was accomplished as the best lap time you got was a further 4 seconds faster! Now is the time to see where you finished in your championship. So as you do, you ignore S’s for Superbike 400, R’s for Rookie 400 and count how many C’s there are before you reach your name. One, two, three. ??? One, …two, …THREE. ????????? ONE, …TWO, ... ‘I think I got third!’
I really couldn’t believe it. I walked back into the office to confirm it. A few seconds later I am walking away holding a trophy and a ‘Cadwell Park 3’ baseball cap. ‘I think I like CadwellJ,’ I thought to myself.
Sun afternoon race
Of course I forgot how hard one has to work to go fast. Especially if your race is one of the last one’s out. Finished 5th, 20th overall. Actually, I just about finished the race, the bike freewheeled across the line, which is luckily downhill, as my bike ran out of petrol. But we don’t want anyone to know that, do we?!
I really didn’t expect to go home looking forward to racing at Cadwell again later this season
Snetterton April 2007
So here they are. Comments, thoughts and emotions from the second round of the BMCRC Clubman 400 Championship 2007 at Snetterton.
Friday
You might find it hard to believe, but it was my first ever practice day. I went out every single session except the first one, which I missed because of noise testing. We had a few ups and downs that day, but overall a great success. I mustn’t forget to mention our track walk in the evening. (Or jog, Gabs?) Nearly two miles of race talk! Brilliant.
Saturday
For the first time I didn’t need to stress about having my bike scrutineered in time for the practice. As Bully and I have only turned up at the circuits very late on Friday nights or early on Saturday mornings in the past, we have always missed the opportunity to have my bike scrutineered on Friday evenings.
Because our race was run along with the Superbike 400 as well as the Rookie 400, my starting grid position was 25. There were 9 of us racing in the Clubman, 20 in SBK and 7 in the Rookie Championship. 34 men, Amanda and me. The first corner was rather interesting but thrilling nevertheless! As it was my last race as a rookie I really wanted to enjoy it. That I did by achieving fourth place and improving my lap time from last year by 2.6 seconds! My new personal best was set at 1:25.922.
Sooz and Debs organised a lunchtime ‘meeting’ where they helped us understand the track even more. Top job ladies!
The afternoon race was a bit tricky. Due to a sidecar incident earlier on, which led to a lot of powder having to be put on the track, we were limited as to what lines we could take round nearly a third of the track. It didn’t stop me from having a good time. I was chasing after Alex, who was running in third place. If only I was 0.207 seconds faster! Still, my personal best went further down to 1:25.766.
Sunday
The morning race was a huge learning curve. Thanks to Alex and I fighting really hard, my times dropped to 1:23 seconds a lap! Still, Alex finished in front of me. Fourth place for Alex and fifth for me.
I went to see him after the race, what a top bloke. We had a good chat about racing in general, but mostly about where we think the other one could go faster.
And what happened next? I fought even harder.
This time Alex didn’t get a chance. I was on a mission to catch up with the chap who got third in the race before! I kept looking for the last lap flag to see if I had enough time to do it. Each time I didn’t see the flag I thought to myself ‘Keep going, you’ve still got at least another two laps to go!’ I got close enough to out-brake him into The Esses in the last lap. I finished the lap in what I thought would have been a defensive style but wasn’t sure if it was enough as both David and I went across the line side by side. It was a fantastic feeling when Debs and Sooz told me as I got off the circuit that it was announced on the tannoy - I got third. Lots of people must have wondered what the hell happened to me as I screamed all the way back to the garages! I was so happy. I couldn’t believe it, really. Only when I had my Snetterton baseball cap and a trophy in my hand, did it start sinking in.
And what is my best lap time to beat next time we race at Snetterton? 1:23.390
I think things would have turned up differently if it wasn’t for the expert advise from Debs and Sooz, help from all the Feisty Racing team, my friends from around the paddock, Herbalife chocolate milkshake and the wonderful job my boyfriend Bully did on my RVF’s subframe.
Thanks loads guys,
Lots of love
Radka
Lydden Hill March 2007
The long awaited weekend finally arrived!
Unfortunately, as I was off sick all week and the side effects from the antibiotics I was still on kept giving me bad stomach cramps, my energy levels were very low the whole weekend. I had a constant battle to stay focused.
Bully and I got to Lydden around 9pm on Friday night where we joined Kathy, Amanda, Mike and Gabs. Susie, Chris, young Kat and Jay got there shortly after us. A big thanks goes to Kathy and Leila who saved spaces for us.
Sat race 1
I didn’t even get a chance to get nervous. Before I knew it, warm up lap was over and the lights went out! The race was also over very quickly. Went from 5th to 7th with a smile on my face.
Sat race 2
What a gamble! It started spitting very finely during our lunch break. It was hard to choose between dry and wet tyres. I went out on wets. Climbed one position up to 6th.
Sun race 1
I kind of knew it wasn’t going to be my greatest race judging how I felt. Even though I finished 10th, I was very happy to have stayed on.
Sun race 2
After a phone call to Debs and a great help from Susie and chocolate ‘milkshake’, I gathered all my remaining strength and went out to fight again. Went from 10th back to 6th.
The most memorable lesson I learned over this weekend was what Debs told me when I called her on Sunday. It is easy to forget how hard you had to work on Saturday to get your results. It is tough out there and one really has to dig deep to perform well again on Sunday.
Thanks to everyone who came to support us and helped weekend. I definitely wouldn’t have done all four races without you.
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