Yeah sorry bout that boys and girls, has been a fairly hestic last week or so for me, but I'm here now
Just to re-cap, last weekend was the second round of the series at Cadwell, and a normal, proper two-dayer -well, three days for me and 99% of the competitors if you count the optional Friday test/practice day.
As I’ve previously mentioned, Cadwell is a circuit that I’ve a fair amount of experience of, and one that I love- the weather was also looking remarkably good so that coupled with me having my (new to me) Mk2 3.5” front rims on, I was really looking forward to this one.
And it’s fair to say, the weekend it didn’t disappoint- in fact, overall, it exceeded my wildest dreams, if I’m honest!
The week-end started well on Thursday afternoon when we arrived at the circuit with us managing to bag a really decent spot in the paddock directly above the scrutineering shed and just along from Alan the tyre man- really were fortunate there as despite it only being just gone 6pm just about everywhere with hard-standing was taken.
Got the gazebo up and the bike etc unloaded into it and buggered off into Louth to Mrs Miggins B&B (well, it was actually called the Beaumont Hotel but like a lot of places in Lincolnshire that I’ve experienced, it , and specifically the owner was, umm quite special......
)
Anyway, it was a big room with a comfy bed and decent bathroom so just the job all considered. I even sent my old mum a video of it on Saturday, as she likes that sort of thing, and golden-bollocks Mart (my younger brother and helper for this week-end) had sent her a vid of his place, not that it's a competition between us of who is the best son of course (but it is
)
I struggled to turn my brain off and so hadn’t had that much sleep, but didn’t matter, friday was perfect weather so I got to the circuit nice and early and left Isabella fast asleep at the hotel- one massive advantage I had at this round over Oulton was that my brother Mart was coming up to help and staying Friday and Saturday night and as well as helping with tyre warmer / wheel change etc duties, was happy to be a taxi driver, which meant I didn’t have to try and get a (non-morning person) OH out of bed / hang around unnecessarily etc, really made life so much simpler and more relaxing for me.
Practice went well, with me taking it fairly steady and building up gradually in terms of speed, and learning lots from some of the properly fast boys, particularly in terms of where the edges of certain bits of the track are, and you do need to know and use that if you want to go fast there.
I was still running on the Sportsmart TTs that were on the bike when I bought it, so in the afternoon I treated it to a new set (as they are the compulsory control tyre, they’re Dunlop subsidized and only £220/pair fitted at the circuit, which is a proper bargain IMO), and a new set of SBS Carbon front pads in readiness for Saturday morning qualifying- the tyres seem to last for ever, relatively speaking, but can’t say the same for the pads. They are however by far the best in terms of stopping power (and the worst until you get heat in them so I would never use them on a road bike) you can set for these shitty old sliding calipers though.
Saturday morning came and I got a nice surprise and two trophies before I’d even got on track!
Apparently at Oulton, although I thought that I’d had a pretty rubbish couple of races, although I’d finished 11th on the road in the second race, I was 3rd Senior (50 YO+) home, and they award pots for top 3 Seniors too, which I hadn’t realised- Yay! On top of that, I also got a nice big tall one for top newcomer of the meeting- I have to say, I felt a bit of a fraud as I thought my performances were mediocre at best, but, well, I didn’t argue and accepted it with grace
After that excitement, I went out for warm-up and all was well, then came qualifying- I got my head down and although I never had what I considered to be the best lap I could do in the allotted 12min session, I qualified back on the sixth row, a good 6 secs and way off the top 2 or 3, but well, none of those boys are mugs and there were still a lot behind me so I was reasonably happy with that.
My first race came and went in a blur- I got away cleanly and was fast up through Coppice but got absolutely mullered by many in Charlies 1&2 after which I managed to get my head down, got by a good few and had a fabulous battle with one of the (well established) other seniors for the last 3 or 4 laps, just missing out to him after he got me back on the last lap, but finished 10th on the road, and 3rd senior, so another trophy, and my best lap was 3 secs faster than my qualifying time- Yay!
I had also entered the Newcomers race, which was the last race of the day, and TBH was slightly nervous about this one as I was the only Bandit in it, amongst S1000RRs, R1s, and current model R6, ZX6 etc, but having said that there were also some Minitwins and PI 600s, but it was all very much an unknown quantity to me.
Not sure how they’d decided on grid positions for this one, it looked like it had been random rather than laptimes, but the good news was I was up on 3rd-row f, not that it helps too much against 200 geegees (© Yozza
) 1000s on that run up to Coppice, but at least meant I should have a decent chance against the Minitwins etc in front of me, and the nice thing about this race is that it was effectively two classes (and hence two awards of 1st-3rd trophies) out at once- “middleweights (basically MinitwinsSS400s and pre-injection 600s/636s , which the Bandit, of course, qualifies as ), and then anything you like up to 1300cc.
And then just as I was putting my lid on and about to go to the holding area, an announcement came over the PA that I and four other Bandit racers had to go to the scrutineering bay immediately for technical inspections- arse!
I ran down to race control, where the head of the Bandit series was waiting and explained that I was just about to line up for the newcomer's race, and he said fine, but as soon as the race finishes ride straight up to scrutineering rather than back to your van
So down I went to the grid and the race was absolutely brilliant- I really felt like I got into my groove for this one, and bit by bit was reeling in the leading middleweight, a guy on a Minitwin.
If the race was one lap longer I am certain I’d have had him - he started in front of me on the grid, my fastest lap in this race was a second faster than his, and pleasingly for me, I was also 1.5 secs faster than my fastest lap in my previous race.
I just ran out of laps though and went over the line and half a second after him, but still a decent result of 9th on the road and 2nd in the middleweight class so another trophy!
I got in from my race and rode straight to the scrutineering bay, and then it was seat and tank off to check airbox and carbs, and a few other things, all of course were all in full compliance, and although it was a bit of a faff and meant we didn’t get away from the circuit until well gone 7 pm, I was really pleased to have been checked, particularly as I was starting to get some results.
Quick shower and the three of us then had a very mediocre curry in Louth (The Raj Mohal if you’re interested- it’s really shit so don’t bother going there unless you want bland greasy food and the most indifferent customer service ever
), a few drinks and bed, and then it was Sunday.
As for Sunday’s racing, long story short (ish), despite some unforecast rain showers and plenty of offs in mainly other people’s races meaning some delays, I had another brilliant day, scoring another pot for 2nd Senior in my first Sunday race despite chronic right arm pump for the last few laps that had my forearm blow up like a balloon, it reduced my braking ability and was really weak and painful for over an hour after the race.
Thankfully it did recover in time for me to polish the day off with a my first win in my last race, which was an absolute cracker- (heart rate averaged 138 with a 181 peak in that one, for anyone interested
)
Overall with the weather gods being kind to us too, it was just the most fabulous way to spend a weekend, and I have to say, I am really starting to love my shitty old Bandit- the wider front rim has made a big difference to stability and front-end feel, and 10w fork oil and the amount of preload spacer I have got in there seems fine.
I actually reduced the amount of preload on the rear shock a bit after Friday and wound some more rebound damping on , and although I’m always open to further tips and suggestions from people who have more experience with these than I do, I reckon it is probably about as good as it can be for a MK1 within the rules now
The old girl didn’t miss a beat, has brakes good enough to lift the back wheel, handles well enough for me to know the limiting factor in how fast we go is me and is just tip-top fun to ride all considered – roll on Pembrey in May, another track I know fairly well and like!
