SNETTERTON - ROUND 5
JUNE 18th

We arrived Friday night for Sunday's race just to try and get a decent pit position. We were right next to the Holding area, perfect. Only a mains hook up would have been better !

We spent Saturday cleaning the bike, top to bottom and tidying my Laser tool Box up, did a bit of cycling and generally tried to chill out in the blazing weather.

AR M/C's organise the Bandits at each Round. Sorted !

Well the weather was Brill and I got a good qualifying session in, was 2 secs quicker than last time here and quite happy that I could go  faster in the race.

It could have been worse, this is what shortened Steve Jordan's Qualifying session.
He clipped a bit of Flint thrown out from the gravel trap and trashed a brand new front tyre !
I hadn't figured for the wind changing direction, into our faces on the main straight, so I ended up being slightly over geared for the race. Bummer.

I'm Far Left up the Pit Wall, my favourite place to be at Snetterton.
Dead Centre is R.Wynn (Black and Yellow) 10 Secs Penalty for a jump Start !

Garry (on Pole), Andy, Mike and Steve are on the front Row as usual, my turn soon I hope.

I got a fair start, fourth into turn 1 from eighth on the grid, and hung onto the lead pack for a good four laps until I finally lost the tow down the main straight and that was that, they dropped me off the tail. Without someone to draft on the straights and chase around the twisties, I couldn't match their speed. Despite riding with my left arm behind my back doing clutch less gear changes. At least it got noticed by the commentators "Here comes Dez-one-arm-Chand, stand back from the pit wall.......Warned you !!"

I was making a habit of getting up against the pit wall, the other side of the white line, one handed, to get out of the wind as much as possible. Besides, it's great fun making everyone jump out of their skin ! Apparently it sounded great too !

By now we had a good gap on the chasing bunch which I maintained, running in 8th place. With no one to chase, and no one up my rear end, I lost the "will to kill" and my lap times reflect this, as I dropped a second off my pace. By the last lap flag I was 12-15 secs behind the lead group and similarly ahead of the chasing pack, but there at the exit of the Bomb Hole was the evidence of the scrap going on just ahead of me. Stuart Maclure (31) was writhing around on the floor with his bike in a bit of a mess just spiralling to a halt in the kitty litter. Ouch. The fact that he was moving cheered me up, but the marshal with the crossed arms meant they wanted a stretcher to lift him so it must have hurt a lot. I hear he has a broken collar bone and three busted ribs. YOUCH! Get well soon Stuart. I'm sure you'll be back for Cadwell, if not Oulton !

Anyway, that lifted me to 7th place and as one of the Journo's ahead of me is on a "no points no prizes" guest ride for "Superbike" magazine, I get the £50 for 6th place.

That covered the diesel bill for the weekend, Nice. We packed up and buggered off as soon as possible.

I couldn't leave without a rostrum photo, even if I had to take it.
Andy Bond took his second win of the season (The first repeat Winner !)
from Garry (Left of Pic) and Mike (Right).
Well Done chaps. My time will come (I Hope).

Joy drove while I tried to recover from the dehydration that throwing these bloody great things about in 32C causes. A long soak and a rub down with "after sun" lotion was all I needed for a good nights kip. We got more sunburn on the way home in the van than we did all weekend sheltered in our caravan awning !

See you all soon, Oulton 8th July. I can't wait.