Podiums A Plenty At Snetterton

Well after what seems like an absolute age it was great to be back racing a bike again at Snetterton. We were back on Birdy’s Kawasaki racing in the Junior Powerbike class with the ThundersportGB club. We did some testing on the Friday to ensure things were all tic-a-tee-boo and after a few suspensions modifications to help the bike hold a line better, as it was running wide on the power exiting corners, we were confident we had a good set up for the weekend.

This proved to be the case straight away when we managed to secure pole position in qualifying by 0.009s from young Sam Coventry on the 800cc Ducati with Rob Elsmere on his Aprilia SXV550 in third on the grid only another 0.1s further back. This looked like ensuring some close races were to follow.

The first race was exactly like this, after a good start for our bike, which meant I only dropped to 5th or 6th place I was soon up behind Sam and Rob. Once passed Sam, Rob and I passed each other 2 or 3 times every lap which made for a fun exciting race. Rob’s Aprilia was a little quicker than our bike and he could pull around 5 bike lengths on us out of the slower corners. Unfortunately this was to be our downfall as I led out of the last corner but Rob with the extra drive of his bike and my slipstream meant he crossed the line in front of me by 0.043s, bugger, but a bloody close race.

In the remaining three races of the weekend we were hampered by very poor starts, we knew this would be a problem with our bike as it has a close ratio gearbox which means it has a very high first gear, this coupled with the peaky power delivery of a 400 makes it very difficult to get off the line when compared to the bigger V-twins. This meant that I dropped to around 6th or 7th place off the start and by the time I had made my way through the traffic into second the gap that Rob had opened up was too big to close down. In each race I managed to get the gap down to a little over 2s, but I just ran out of time in each race. So four 2nd places was not too bad a weekend and I did however manage to set the fastest lap of the weekend for our class, so some consolation. I have moved up to joint second place overall in the championship but quite a lot of points behind first.

Leigh had an average weekend (his words not mine), managing 5th in the Mini-Twin class in all four races. Again the heat and his fitness levels were a large contributory factor i.e. it was too bloody hot and it’s time to stop smoking! Unfortunately Tim Jones now leads the championship but only by 4 points. One highlight of the weekend however was being the leading Hutchinson for half a lap. Managing to jump from 11th to 5th from a blinding start, overtaking whoever was in pole position. Oh, that’s right. It was me. The picture left was taken during Sunday morning warm up when I followed Leigh for a few laps then showed him the way around to try and give him some tips.
We enjoyed a few beers in the clubhouse on Saturday evening and the one thing we found strange was that my dad had managed to get his photo up above the bar as you can see in the photo on the left. Actually it is some Formula 3 racing driving but the resemblance had us in hysterics.

This was closely followed when one of our friends, Clive White (a MiniTwin racer that can be seen in the picture with me to the left) raised his glass during a charity auction and unknowingly managed to put a bid in for a set of leathers for £420 !! The panic on his face when he realised what he had done was a picture.

A quick well done to ThundersportGB for another extremely well run meeting, if you get the chance to get to one of these it will be well worth it.

Our next outing is on Thursday 23rd July at Donington Park MotoGP. The day is organised for the charity ‘Riders for Health’ and therefore a great cause. Hopefully we will see you there.