SNETTERTON - ROUND 2
APRIL 2nd
Heavy overnight rain meant morning practice was a damp affair but at least we had a dry-ish line to scrub up the new rear tyre. After 5 laps we were in for a ten minute break before timed practice, the track drying all the time.

As each class went out there were more and more stoppages for red flag incidents. Two hours into morning practice we had only got four classes completed, another ten to go ! Not good for the nerves.

Out for qualifying I concentrated on getting quicker every lap which is exactly what happened. Blimey something was going to plan for a change !!! As the flag came out I'd gotten down into the 1'22" region. Still a bit higher than I wanted but not bad considering I hadn't practised here the day before like some of the guys including Steve Jordan (67) and Andy Bond (7).

Steve was out on Saturday in the Powerbike class. Worth the track time.

I was on row three, not the quickest but not the slowest either. Three guys had bitten the dust, 13, 21 and 70 and were in various states of disrepair from then until we were out for the race at around 3:00 pm.

Brett (21) had set a blistering pole time after just 5 laps and finally found the ultimate braking point for turn one, or just past it to be accurate. Whoops. The bike was a mess but at least the engine was intact. Lots of bolt on goodies and he was ready with a good ten minutes to spare !

Not so lucky was Steve Bryant (70) who had dropped it coming out of the final Russell's chicane after just his initial warm up lap, it came around him on the gas and ground a bloody big hole in the crankcase which then promptly filled up with mud and gravel. Finally we all realised what happened to a bandit when you binned it. Yuck.
Wait until you take the crankcase cover off

Oooh !
Bret (21) was also hard at rebuilding his beasty ready for the race.

Well they all made it out for the race, Brett (21) on his cobbled together machine, Garry (70) on a loaner and Paul (13) just holding together nicely after some frantic rebuilding.

The Red Lights came on and after a couple of seconds they still hadn't dropped to green so the whole grid twitched, a couple went further forward than others then the green came on. It was chaos.

Steve (67) and Stuart (31) both wheelied off the row in front of me and came together leaving me with no choice but to back off or join in ! So I started badly but got upto 6th on the back straight. I lost a couple of places after swapping them back and forth a few times.
I ended up battling with Richard Wynn for 9th which became a race for 8th when Mike (44) who was running a good third, dropped it big time at the Russell's Esses.  
One of the journo's, Wozza (11) I think, cut across the gravel twice in a row at Russell's almost taking out Steve (67) on both occasions. Plenty of other drama's ensued ahead of us but we were mercifully out of harms way. Behind us was another great battle ensuing between Sean (9) Terry (3) and John (16) as they fought it out to round off the top ten while Paul (13) pulled in with horrible noises coming from his engine.
We had a great scrap, swapping over once or twice a lap until I finally pulled out a gap with four laps to go. I thought I had it nailed but he clawed it back and showed me his nose twice at Russell's Chicane.
On the last lap he was right there so I knew he'd try it on.

I went in real hard then backed off knowing full well he'd be coming around the outside, desperate to pass. And he did. I went in slow and came out on the gas, whereas Richard went in hard and was struggling to turn the bike.
The scrap for the line was a close one but with the better drive I was able to pull top gear earlier and just eek ahead by a wheels length at the flag to grab 8th place. I was Chuffed. Richard is the "Bears" twins champ who has won shit loads of races at home and in Europe so I am calling him my first scalp. Wooo Woooo Woooo.

As it turns out the two Journos just ahead of me don't qualify for any prize money so I am granted 6th place (and final Prize money position) 50 quid.

I gave it to Dave who has been up almost every night this week sorting my bike problems out. It was beautiful mechanically, we just hadn't had time to get the suspension set up right. It was a wallowing old bucket but I was happy with the rest of it.

The Top three were Brett (21), Andy (7), and Gary (70)

Well Done Andy, well done chaps.

See you at Donington ??