2006 Diary
Go here for 2006 race results.

Go here for a report of the European Women's Cup, Cartagena 22 October 2006

Brands Hatch Indy with Bemsee, 7th & 8th October 2006

Unfortunately I'm the only Feisty left unbroken or financially able to race! It's a great shame but the team were still out in full force; in fact mostly in serious party mode. I behaved well and sent myself off to bed both nights with earplugs in place, but actually didn't perform as well as I do when I've had a few beers and I'm feeling tired. So away with the extreme training regime and bring on the red wine!! (I'm hoping Deb "put that drink down Sooz" Cartwright doesn't read this).

The team report by Tammy is here. A little summary is that I'm disappointed with my performance as I was hoping to be fighting a little higher up. I certainly let myself down by turning up late for 2 races, but it's a learning excercise. There's no tannoy in the garages, and you have to rely on seeing the previous race's last lap flag; however, for the first race in the morning and the first one after lunch, you don't have the benefit of that flag and have to do a bit of guessing. A few of us were penalised for not getting it right, you live and learn.

The biggest incident was my first crash on my lovely new R6 in morning practice. It was bound to happen and it's a part of racing so damaging the bike really didn't worry me. The only concern was getting it back on track and being able to race still, as a small leak in the tank and the time factor were worrying. Deb and Conrad were fantastic - they worked with me to get the bike ready just in time for race one, which I had to do on completely cold tyres. I really felt the sliding on the warmup lap so I took it easy for the first couple of laps of the race, then started working my way up the field, passing around 8 riders I think. It felt great, and I was pleased to get a 52.0 time.

The rest was a bit of a let down, with placement at the back of the grid meaning I was fighting lower down the pack than I wanted - a hard thing to overcome when the pace is so close.

Now it's the end of the UK club racing season for Feisty Racing and, as well as planning the European Women's Cup in 2 weeks, we're already looking ahead to the 2007 season with an 8 strong team.

Brands Hatch GP with Bemsee, 16th & 17th September 2006

How is it possible that every single weekend is mixed with so many emotions? I'm wondering now whether a build up of too many highs and lows over a season can actually make a person explode. Maybe spontaneous combustion is only a fast lap away.

The reason for this was another absolutely awesome racing weekend for me, mixed with the rotten luck of my teammate Leila, getting her ankle badly broken in Saturday warmup after a nasty crash on practice day.

Poor old Deb with her broken ankle from Snetterton is itching to get out competing with me in the Clubman 600, and I really wish she could - having someone to aim for is a huge driver for me, and I know Deb will be the biggest driver - we're both extremely competitive and have a need to be the fastest girl as a minimum... I can see sparks and elbow flying next year!

Instead I had to "make do" with the very fun challenge of trying to beat a load of blokes who are also friends. The biggest challenge for me was Phil Edwards, closely followed by Alex Bailey. Both, unfortunately for them, were having a bit of an off weekend, with too many crashes taking their toll. I ended up losing the closely fought battle with both in the first race, coming in 16th, but then getting in front for the subsequent 3 races. My biggest high was coming in 7th for Saturday's second race. I couldn't believe I could do that well in such a competitive field in my 3rd race meeting on the R6, so the ear to ear grin lasted for hours. Not bad for an old bird. I'm into the 1min38s on the GP circuit, so quite pleased with myself, though still plenty of learning to do.

Photos courtesy of Eric O'Brien

Racing against Phil Edwards

I'm now really keen to try the European Women's Cup on 22nd October in Cartegena, but this depends on the ACU awarding me a UEM licence in the next couple of weeks. We'll make the preparations and cross fingers that it's possible to try the EWC out. Deb, Leila and I hope to compete in this series for all four races next year, so this will be a great way to try it out and see just how much work we have to put in. I got arm pump quite badly after only 6 or 7 laps at the weekend - the EWC runs over 20+ laps, so training, the gym and relaxation methods are much needed.

Pembrey with Bemsee, 26th & 27th August 2006

I went along to this weekend seriously expecting to be at the back as I was competing only in the MRO Supersport 600 class with youngsters aiming for British Superbike fame. I just wanted more time on the bike to get used to the R6, as well as the opportunity to get pulled along if at all possible.

Practice day was a mix of wet and dry conditions; I ended up missing a couple of sessions due to tyre changes and excessive rain. Still, we were out with the Rookie 600s and Powerbikes so at least I could feel good about overtaking some people. My lap timer showed a very encouraging 1.04 time which I hoped to improve on during racing conditions. In fact my best time of the weekend was 1min04.068, unsual to have the same pace in practice as race day for me, but it shows that I'm at least smooth and consistant. I now need to start pushing it a bit more and getting to the edge to get the lap times down.

I qualified last, so I was very pleased to end second from last in the first two races. Only 11 finishers in the last race, so although I came last I'm now the proud owner of MRO SS600 points. MRO races are longer than average with a shorter sprint race on the Saturday and two 14 lappers on Sunday - this is very hard work and really warrants lots of winter work at the gym. Fortunately it's late in the season and I'm definitely "bike fit", so managed to keep going, albeit flagging slightly when it started spitting with the excuse that I knew I was last so I may as well make sure I stay upright!

All in all this was a great weekend, with Deb Carwright and Tammy Milsom coming along for help and moral support (Deb supplied the wheelchair for stunts too).

Snetterton with Bemsee, 19th & 20th August 2006

This was the debut weekend for me on my brand spanking new R6. I spent a few weeks getting the bike ready, but forgot completely about running it in, so a last minute day off and a day early at the circuit, and I spent 300 miles running it in whilst instructing for Focused Events on a track day and evening - thanks to Debs for organising it and Focused for having me!

The practice day turning into a nightmare, with Kat's bike dropping oil around Corham's and Deb crashing on it straight away. It was a bad one and Deb didn't emerge from hospital for 2 days, with her ankle plated up both sides and a broken collar bone. We haven't had much luck lately with the racing girls and keeping bones in one piece. Kat and Leila both came off over the weekend at the end of the back straight - a fast place to bin it!

Another win!!

On the bright side I had a cracking weekend of racing. In the Clubman 600 I was honestly expecting to come in near the back, but I managed 12th, 13th and 14th in the dry and a fabulous 6th in the wet!! Still plenty to learn and improve; I haven't even touched the suspension yet from standard factory settings. I went out on the SV for morning warm up and found the thing impossible to ride after the R6. Unfortunately the old bird realised I didn't love it anymore and decided to break in a clattery engine type way. Kat and Moosey kindly offered me their 400s for the Shootout, for which I was eternally grateful. The whole weekend was a gamble of dry or wet tyres, and I was lucky enough to have a wet bike (Kat's) and a dry bike (Deb's) to choose from. I went for Kat's, but it was dry so I mullered the tyres... but I did win though :-) Sunday I did the Shootout on Deb's bike and didn't get on with it - too small, revvy and extreme for me I think, so only came in 5th. Not bad for never having ridden it before though.

The new R6 - shiny but not yet sporting the Feisty colours. Photo by Wildcard.

Darley Moor with North Glos, 12th & 13th August 2006

This started badly with my van breaking down in a major sounding way early in the journey. I thought my weekend was over before it started. Fortunately team mate Deb, an absolute star, came to the rescue from 3 hours away stating "I would have been bored anyway". We transferred my stuff from van to van, abandoned the caravan and got to the circuit just after midnight.

A night on a cold van floor sharing an airbed that slowly deflated in the night wasn't the best for morale, but fortunately we were able to share with the lovely Dave Hallet (monkey boy), Gav and gang who provided entertainment, shelter and cups of tea. Saturday night we wimped out and went to a hotel after Jay (of A&R)'s BBQ.

On the Sunday I was offered a go on a spanking new ER6 - Kawasaki's answer to the hugely popular Suzuki SV650 (Dave H won both minitwin races on it on Saturday). My battle scarred SV was lent to a grateful Gav who couldn't get on with the ER6 and needed something a bit less hard on the suspension. I loved the feel of the bike, and I'm sure with a bit more time on it (just two 10 min races isn't much) I could have improved on my SV time.

My results both days were mediocre, overshadowed by the camerarderie then the fact that Feisty sidecar passenger Shelley and her pilot Bruce had a major crash ending in hospital with Shelley's arm pinned.

Brands Hatch (Indy) with Bemsee, 29th & 30th July 2006

It's not hard to say what the highlight of the weekend was for me; I took my first ever race win in the Clubman Shootout - battling past 2 places to gain the lead in the last 2 laps!!! What a high that was; the grin won't wipe off my face. It was the last race of the weekend and was a hard fought battle - having come 3rd in Saturday's race I knew I could make the front if I really pushed. The whole race was a big mix of oil on the track, back markers and 600s with different lines. Tony Courtney (winner of Saturday's race) wondered where I'd come from with a move up the inside on the drive out of Graham Hill into Surtees on the last lap. You really do punch the air automatically when you win.

In my main championship, the Clubman Minitwins, I had a slower start, with a 7th and a 9th on Saturday earning a self administered "must do better" lecture. Sunday racing was better with a 5th and a 6th breaking into the 53 second lap times I'd been managing 4 weeks beforehand.

It's 2 weeks til my next race at Darley Moor (solo instead of with the team), then Feisty Racing are all out at Snetterton 18th & 19th August, with 3 of us in the Clubman 600: Deb Cartwright for her 3rd 600 outing, Leila Williams for the 2nd time this year and me for my debut on the 600. Hopefully Kat's broken arms will be mended enough for her to be back in the Clubman 400. Deb and I will be closely contesting in the Clubman Shootout on our normal steeds (400 and Minitwin) - we're currently lying 2nd and 3rd in the championship and both want that top spot! Come and cheer us on - the Feisty support team grows with every round and we love the company.

Some odd chaps under the name Wildcard took this photo. They like hanging around in our all-girl garage for some reason. They take bosting photos though so we put up with them ;-)

Cadwell Park with Bemsee, 8th & 9th July 2006

Cadwell must be one of the UK's most physically demanding circuits; it's technical and twisty with only moments of respite on the start/finish and back straights. The Gooseneck is a fast right-hander into left-hander which really works the muscles as well as the tyres - I came a-cropper there with a cold left side of the tyre on a 1st lap last year and I did it again this weekend.

Saturday was a little slow for me. In fact my times all weekend were disappointing; for the first time I didn't improve on last year's time, only getting into the 1min46s when I'm sure I should have been at least a couple of seconds quicker. I managed two 6th places and a 4th in the Shootout.

Sunday morning's first Minitwin race was just typical of me. My family were visiting - including my oldest sister over from Texas. The last time mum came to watch was at Silverstone last year - they turned up just as my first race started then wondered why they didn't see me come round - then found me in the scrutineering bay with my mangled machine.
The race start was my absolute best of the year; from 6th place I was 3rd into the first corner which I held onto until just before Chris Curve. Detemined not to give up 3rd I pushed a little too hard for the tyre (it had only been on a warmer for 10 mins due to iffy weather conditions) and had a big off at the Gooseneck, with the bike ending up on the back of my neck trapping my head. This was very worrying until I wiggled into a position that allowed breathing and I realised I wasn't broken. The wonderful marshalls lifted the bike off and the paramedic looked after me until I ended back in scrutineering bay saying hi to mum and siss. Oops. No wonder they worry about me racing!

The worst two things were 1. I had to start the next race from the back of the grid, and 2. my beautiful trademark pink Arai lid has to go in the bin.

My second Minitwin race was rubbish - back of the grid and nervous after the crash, it took me ages to get past the mid-pack guys. I ended up following Chris Cuckoo (honorary Feisty) for a good couple of laps before being able to make a move past; I came in a disheartening 15th. The last Clubman race wasn't too bad - another 4th.

Brands Hatch (Indy) with North Glos, 24th & 25th June 2006

This must be the most relaxed racing weekend I've ever been on. I love Bemsee and the Feisty team but racing on my own is a lot less pressured, and the North Glos paddock is much quieter than the Bemsee one. I was garaged up with a great bunch of guys in their rookie Street Stock year, who had an entourage of about 50.

On to the racing itself; having missed the practise day again I had to remind myself of the circuit in the 10 min morning practise - fortunately we raced here twice last year so it wasn't too hard. My aim was to break through my best time of 54secs and hopefully get a cup in the process. When I saw the line-up I realised that a cup was maybe a little out of reach, with some fast MRO lads beefing up the usually small (8-ish) NG grid to 15 strong. At NG the Minitwins are gridded with the Sound of Thunder - a series which consists mainly of 1000cc Ducatis and Aprillas.

NG run 2 races in a day but for some reason call the first race a qualifier, so no points or prizes. I was extremely happy with my performance in this 1st run - I made my best time of the weekend, a new personal best of 53.7 secs, and was trying to get past Mikey Collins (fast MRO competitor) for a good few laps, eventually ending up behind him and another minitwinner who pipped me under a yellow flag (pushing me into 5th officially, but I call it a 4th as it was an obvious illegal move!).

In the main race I wasn't quite on the pace as much, albeit getting into the 53s again, I was a little inconsistent. I ended up coming in 5th.

Sunday's qualifier found me half asleep, lacking in energy and pansying round doing 55s. In fact it's not as bad a picture as that; my start wasn't the best and I ended up watching the usual minitwin carnage going on around me, with so much paint battering I wondered if anyone would get through. I actually held back a little from the melee to preserve myself, and ended up coming in 7th but living to fight another battle!

Sunday's main race was loads better. I'd had a good nap over lunchtime, eaten something and had an energy drink. It all helped to get me back fighting and I ended up carrying out some passes I was very proud of. It took a few laps to despatch another Minitwin rival, then I was stuck behind a 1000cc bike for several laps - he was holding me up through Druids, Surtees and Clearways but the extra horsepower meant my better line out of corners didn't matter as he powered away from me. 2 laps to go we came across a backmarker and he was unlucky enough to mistime his manoevre as I sailed round the outside of both of them at Clearways. I held on to the place across the finish line and ended up a creditable 4th place (12th overall).

Snetterton with BMCRC, 10th & 11th June 2006

What a fantastic weekend; after last weekend at Shelsley Walsh it's hard to see what might wipe this silly grin off my face!

Saturday was THE BEST - from 17th to 6th in the first clubman race then 4th in the second with a best lap of 1min19.113. This meant I was gridded on the front row for the first time ever on Sunday morning. I wasn't as fast on Sunday which showed in the results - 5th and 8th.

However, lets not forget the Clubman Shootout - 1 race per day. I came 2nd on Saturday and 3rd on Sunday - my first ever non-rookie cups!!! I was also awarded Rider of the Day on Saturday by A&R Racing - so a big thank you to Alan & Jay Russell.

I won't go into huge amount of detail about each race; just an overview so you don't get bored reading it....

The Saturday Minitwin races were where I found my form; my best time last year was 1min20.861 so getting more than 1.5 secs off that was great, as Snetterton hasn't been my favourite circuit. I'm also running a "naked" fairing this year, which I'm unable to tuck into the for 2 long straights - perhaps this would take off a little more time but stupidly I didn't pack the full fairings. The 2 most important corners to get right are Russells - leading onto the start/finish straight - and Sears - leading onto the back straight. This is because you need to start accelerating as early as you can to build up top speed; a great opportunity to make other riders think you're carrying a few extra horses. I was definitely struggling with the entry to Russells and still haven't quite got the hang of it; which meant that this is where my peers could make a move on me. But hey, it's all a learning process - maybe next time I'll get it cracked as I'll put all my concentration into getting it right.

On Sunday my pace dropped by a second a lap... I'm not sure why, my day to day ability doesn't seem to be too consistent. It's odd since the 19.113 wasn't a one-off - that was amongst a race full of 19.2-19.3s. Maybe I still need to get to the gym more!

The Clubman Shootout races were kamikaze dicing sessions. The grid contains 1000s, 600s, 650s and 400s so the faster 650s/400s tend to take the slower 600s on the corners and then the 600s accelerate past them on the straights. The first few laps of each race were very "interesting" with so many different lines being taken.

All in all this was a cracking weekend. The weather was up to 30deg and we had a huge paddling pool out to keep us cool. I can't wait for the next race meeting - Brands Hatch in 2 weeks with North Glos. See you there.

Croix en Ternois with BMCRC, 27th & 18th May 2006

At last, a fabulously happy weekend for me. This round saw me racing in the Clubman Minitwins instead of Dyna Pro (MRO) which really helped my confidence. However, the biggest thing of the weekend was sorting out the suspension problems which have been plaguing me for so many months! I had a spare set of forks "sorted" by Steve Jordan and had been avoiding putting them on since there was no rebound damping. But on Saturday night I thought "enough's enough" and spent a tired late night fitting them (thanks for the help Boffin). This included me snapping the pinch bolt on the left clipon and having to change it... so not tightening them up as hard... with consequences reported later.

In Sunday's first race I managed to fight up to 7th place, suddenly finding I was able to outbrake people for the first time and wow, the bike felt so well planted into corners! It felt like a different machine. So for the second race, after not such a great start, I managed to fight up to 4th place by the 5th lap and was gaining on the guy in 3rd! Then the right clipon came loose - oops. I tries nursing it round for 1/2 lap but it was impossible so I came into the pits. Gutted, but also elated to be back on the case at last!

Chasing the pack, Sunday Race 2

I got them all!!! Then had a DNF

Mallory Park with MRO, 30th April & 1st May 2006

Again I was the only Feisty girl racing at this meeting, pitted with friends Alex (boyfriend of pit monkey queen Trix) and Greville (400 superstar racer). In fact there were more helpers than racers, with Kat & Chris, Deb and Tammy all helping out, plus more visits from Bikegirl forum members - sorry about being a bit stressed guys!

This meeting was another one full of many emotions - most race meetings seem to be; maybe that's what it's all about? Mallory is a short circuit which, as of 2006, has 3 very tight chicanes - the Bus Stop, Edwinas and the new Gerrards bend. It all serves to highlight any suspension problems a bike may have, and boy oh boy did I have problems! Everyone who saw me braking into Edwinas commented on how it looked like a jack rabbit - with the back end coming up and the front bucking around - it was so hard to get settled into a corner that I lost loads of time at each chicane. The in-between bits were great - give me 4 sets of Esses and I'll be a happy racer.

Deb and I got our heads together and visited Steve Jordan for some tweaks then after-race advice; Rob Wittey helped, as did Kenny Everest - thanks to all. There was some improvement during the Monday, but progress was hampered by the rain - the slower pace means it's almost impossible to test suspension as full race pace is really the only condition to bring out the imperfections. Hopefully we'll get some testing in before the next race meeting as Croix is another circuit which is very hard on suspension.

Monday was a difficult day hampered by showers and occasional storms mixed with bright sunshine. At a race meeting this means that we're all constantly reading the sky to see if the rain tyres need to go on. With 10 minutes for a full wheel change and the worry of a bad call (go out on the dry tyres in the rain and you're likely to come off, go out on rain tyres in drying conditions and you can ruin a £210 set of tyres) it does make for quite a stressful time. In fact I had 3 races on Monday due to several long stoppages on the Sunday postponing my 2nd race. The first was dry and bright, and served as an initial test of reworked suspension (better but still not good). The second was wet to drying and both ruined my wet tyres and saw my only incident of the meeting (well, not including the large highside I managed to recover from 2 laps previously). This was a "coming together" with Ian Read coming out of Gerrards Bend which snapped off my front brake lever. I didn't notice until I'd powered down towards Edwinas intent on not letting Ian get the better of me, then I attempted to grab a handful of brake... to find my right hand clutching at nothing. Eeek. Fortunately I found the rear brake and brought the bike to a halt on the tarmac run off.

The last race on Monday showed an improvement in suspension, with my best result of the weekend - a 19th place. All in all I'm disappointed, but reasonably pleased to have identified a potential progression point. Still, I'm considering asking to drop to the Clubman race so I can get back some much needed confidence and competition.

Donington with North Glos, 22nd April 2006

The best thing about this meeting was the large number of Bikegirl Forum members who came along to support Feisty Racing (well, erm, me only on this occasion, blush). Kat did a fantastic and much appreciated job as Pit Monkey, specialising in warm tea and cheering. Matty Wildcard was along too for additional support; it felt like a real family affair!

The 10 minute warm-up was a time to learn the circuit as my last visit in January ended in a big tumble on Craner Curves in the first session; prior to that I think I had a track day here about 4 years ago - you wouldn't believe I live 2 miles from the circuit! Donington is a circuit of lovely smooth corners but you need to know what you're doing - in particular Redgate and McCleans are hard to get right without plenty of practise.

The qualifying race was fun, although I didn't feel all that fast I did feel as if there was steady improvement. I couldn't believe it when the results showed that I'd qualified 3rd out of the 11 Minitwins (gridded amongst the larged engined "Sound of Thunder" series. Tim Jones kindly offered advice to help me out and I really thought that my performance in the final race was much improved. Unfortunately my lap time wasn't much improved and certainly not what I was aiming for, and I ended up in 4th place. Not bad, but not a trophy!

Lydden Hill with MRO, 8th & 9th April 2006

This weekend was an improvement for me, but I left it until the last race to really get my race head on, ending up knocking a second off my best time last year with a 46.2 sec lap (the front runners were doing mid 44s).

The Saturday qualifying was wet, and having missed the practice days (and being a bit of a wuss) I only qualified in 26th - grandly surpassed by my old sparring buddy TC (Tony Courtney) who managed a superb 11th! After this the rest of the weekend was dry.

The first race was absolute carnage with riders taking different lines in typical Mintwin style and sliding on cold tyres. There were 7 fallers throughout the race, including last year's rookie winner Jon Helm who looked up to see my pink wheel flashing past inches away! I was gifted a 19th place due to the number of fallers.

Saturday 2nd race and Sunday 1st race were a frustrating pair, with my aim of beating No. 60, Ian Read being thwarted by my lack of fitness and therefore dropping off the pace on about lap 6 (of 10).

My best race was the last one, I kept Ian 3 riders behind me and held Jon off for a good few laps, keeping TC in sight - in fact I even seemed to be gaining until about lap 7 when fitness started dropping me back.

So I have a new aim - bicycle and gym - I should have done it over winter but laziness prevailed, and it's time to get back on the pace!

Dicing with Ian Read at the hairpin. Photo again courtesy of our mates at Wildcard.

Snetterton with MRO, 25th & 26th March 2006

I'd like to start with a positive note this time; and that is that the next round will be whole lot better!

Another positive is - what a fun weekend!! It was so great to be back with the Bemsee crowd - it's a real family - you start racing and instantly acquire a great group of friends which grows with every meeting. Getting the new Feisty team all together for the first time in 2006 was fantactic. We all seemed to gel really well: Moosey, Kat, Radka, plus honorary Feisty Chris (Kat's boyfriend) and spanner Bully (Radka's boyfriend). I'm looking forward to a season of frolics which will be even better when the weather brings out the barbeques.

Tackling Russells about to be passed coming onto the start/finish straight. Thanks to Matty at Wildcard for the shot.

On to my race report...

A little spill onto the grass on practice day was manageable (another brake lever purchased from the lovely A&R Racing), but it just felt as if I had lost the ability to remove my brain a bit in order to go fast! During the 4 races no matter how many talks I had with myself I was more than 2 seconds down on my best lap time of last year and getting increasingly frustrated. However, the problem may have been revealed - I was sent to the dyno (a rolling road test to check that no Minitwins operate over the 72 brake horse power limit) and it emerged that my SV650 was running at an abysmally low 63bhp. This initiated another carb strip to see if the front carb had dirt in (see my Pembrey report) - no. Thanks to Bully for not only helping with this but also spotting the very likely cause of the power loss: the choke cable was pulled slightly out of its carb mounting point - most likely cause by my Donington crash, which meant that the bike had been running rich since then. I managed to fix the problem so I hope that I'll get back to last year's form. With any luck this was the cause of poor performance at Pembrey and Snetterton so I can stop beating myself up about it and focus on improvement.

As far as results go, in the Bemsee rounds I've been bumped up from the Rookie class straight to the top class, Dyna-Pro Mintwins. That and my (or my bike's) poor performance mean I'm running near the back - a little disheartening but only to be expected with so much to learn. I'm aiming to work my way up to the middle by mid season.

Pembrey with North Glos, 18th & 19th March 2006

A new year and a new "naked" look to my Suzuki SV650, but the season didn't start off too well for me. I didn't book into the practise day and, having had a tumble at Donington a couple of weeks before, had struggled to get the bike ready for this weekend. I went out for the 10 minutes practice on Saturday morning to find that the bike was only running on one cylinder! Not so good when you've only got 2 to play with in the first place. So the next few hours were taken up investigating the cause: battery, airbox, spark plug change, carb strip - it turned out to be dirt in the jets. Then the bike wouldn't idle I scratched my head and played around a bit, changing the radiator water (long shot) changing the other spark plug before a helpful chap suggested the idle adjuster screw was sticking, so a few splurges of WD and I was up and running again. I'd missed the first qualifying race but made it onto the back of the grid for the final, having only completed 2 laps of the circuit since last June. I managed to scrape a few places up, ending 6th out of the 8 Minitwins competing, though I was very disappointed with my performance and excessively slow times, but looking forward to getting my act sorted the next day.

Sunday boded well with beautiful sunshine and butterflies in my belly; I knew it was going to be a good day. My confidence boosted when I started remembering the lines and gears in the practice session which wasn't happening yesterday. My day almost came to an abrupt halt on race 1 lap 1, coming out of a fast corner and aiming to "slingshot" past a couple of bikes, the red flag to stop the race was hidden by all the bikes in front of me; the rider directly in front braked and I rammed into the back of him. My bike did a lovely ballet dance with me hanging on for dear life; I knew this was a bad crash and couldn't believe my luck when I landed back in the saddle with the bike upright! I had a broken brake lever so figured that was race 1 out of the picture again, so rode back to my awning with my head hanging to nurse the new bruises. Then I got wind of a race stoppage so replaced the brake lever and managed to make the restart (albeit missing the warmup laps), yipee. I'm not entirely sure where I came out of the Mintwins, but was gridded 21st for the final (the grid includes 1000cc Sounds of Thunder bikes too) having started at the back, so wasn't too unhappy.

My times were down to 1min8s; not my best but getting there. In the final I had a fight for 3rd place, but lost out in the end after being thwarted by a backmarker - I need to learn how to get past these better. I got 4th out of only 7 runners. All in all a disappointing start to the season (notice all the rookie bibs around me!), but it's only the first round, and I intend to do a big hunt around the house for my bravado; I must have left it at home! I won't forget it next time.

Thanks to all the following for their help with the mechanical problem on Saturday: Gary (advice on what the problem was), Brian (finding Gary, popping back to help, undoing that bolt I'd ruined, figuring out the idle problem), Alan from A&R (helping me to strip the carbs once I'd got them off and blowing the dirt out).