Alex's 'Orrible Oulton

In life we all have things that we find frustrating, I think I have finally reached that point with motorcycles. I am not sure what it is but something, somebody, somewhere is not too keen on me doing much racing this year. With the issues that have already arose this year you would think a little good fortune would not be too much to ask, but alas it was not to be.

Birdy had rebuilt the Kwacker ready for the Oulton Park Round and although we were not too confident in the forks we had borrowed I was sure I could adjust them to somewhere near what I needed. The first practice session on the Friday started well and the bike was feeling ok apart from the forks being too stiff and not having enough rebound damping on them. This session was red flagged after 3 or 4 laps due to a crash out on the circuit.

Out on circuit for the 2nd practice session and I was circulating with Mike Edwards as we started to push the pace a bit and the lap times started to tumble. Unfortunately or fortunately the session was also red flagged due to yet another crash, I pulled into the pit lane and set about adjusting the forks again when I noticed water being sprayed on to my glove. The radiator had been rubbing against the front tyre and had worn through. End of session.

A quick phone call to Birdy and he had another radiator that he could leave at Ian ‘now not so’ Popularwell’s house for his Mrs to bring on the evening. Disappointing to miss the rest of the practice day but at least I knew we would have the bike ready for race day. There was obviously an error in communication as the radiator had been left on their kitchen table, about 150 miles from where it needed to be. At least the table wouldn’t overheat! With this disastrous news I attempted to repair the radiator but alas this was all in vain as we could not get the thing to seal.

Race day came and after a long bout of sulking came round to do Leigh’s pit board for him. What made things even worse was that Rob Elsmere who was leading the championship had two DNF’s so this could have been our chance to close right back up on him.

So there you go, circa £270 for the practice and race entry fee to do a total of 8 laps. £33.75 per lap. Not too good eh ?

I’ll let Leigh tell you his Oulton Park story shortly.