Day 3 – Close encounters of a racing kind

Saturday dawned a nicer day, not by much, but an improvement. The persistent southerly breeze was still keeping temperatures down towards single figures and by midday any signs of precipitation had vanished. Fingers were crossed that it would stay away for the remainder of the weekend.

Again we were last in the program which mean even later than the previous day, 1752 according to the programme. So again I took the opportunity to watch some of the Motogp classes practice (including Motogp from the roof of the pit boxes). It was a spectacular site.

Well after all the waiting around our race was upon us. It was indeed fine but in fading light and this time I didn’t make the mistake I had on the previous and put my clear visor on. We waited on the dummy grid and completed the sighting and warm-up laps we awaited with revving engines the lights to turn green.

Out they went and I got a pretty good start. That first corner is something I haven’t experienced before. In theory it should be taken flat out from a standing start on a 125 but that was easier said than done. I tried for the outside line but many others were there before me, nevertheless I managed to go around the outside of a few guys.

After the first lap I was sitting in 15^th position and there were a small group in front of me, one of which was my team mate Adam. I kept right behind them on the second lap waiting for an opportunity to pass. Coming onto the front straight after the fourth gear turn 12, Adam ran a bit wide and all I saw was a big cloud of dust. That must have been a bit scary, but that was all I needed to snatch 14^th position and 13^th was in my grasp.

I was again promoted a position when another guy ran off the track coming into the first turn, I didn’t pay too much attention to him but he did pretty well to stay on as far as I’m concerned. The next two laps went without incident, was just focussed on getting good runs onto the front and back straight to ensure that Adam (who was now in close proximity) didn’t get into my slipstream.

On the 5^th lap I was coming down into MG hairpin after lukey heights and all of a sudden I felt something hit my backside as I was leaned right over. I took a quick look over my shoulder as I tipped into the next left hander and I could see Adam and another guy had run wide. Bit too late on the brakes I think, never mind, it didn’t end in tears.

This gave me the buffer I was looking for and I just focussed on the final lap. I ensured I didn’t make any errors and crossed the line in 13^th place. This was a good result and I was pretty happy about it. My fastest time this race was a 1.51.9 so nearly 2 seconds up on my qualifying time and I was improving again with every lap.

When we came into the pits the close encounter was very plain to see. There was a big black tyre mark right down the right side of my tail piece under my race numbers and a small one of the back of my leathers. Gotta love close 125 racing. As per the previous day, that was the final act of the day and we all went home happy after a good result.