Unbelievably Saturday morning was dry and sunny, I thought it was a dream but no it stayed dry all day, very un-Pembrey like.
Practice was a bit mixed, I managed to get two practice sessions but this went against me when I low-sided at the hair pin which broke the screen and a foot peg. Luckily for me there's people like Shaun Wynne around who didn't hesitate to lend me a spare screen, top bloke.
The Sound of Thunder quali race was a bit lame, I was just following people around rather than racing and finished 7th. I was getting the better of some of my bad riding habits though so it wasn't all bad.
Qualifying for the 600's was the usual mayhem, I lined up next to Daz on the grid but I'm really bored of him whoopin my arse so blasted of the line with the front guys and spent a couple of laps behind the class lunatic which was interesting! I was quicker than him but you just don't want to be anywhere near him and I was quite relived when he fell off at Spitfires. The race was red flagged due to Andy Lawrence high siding at Hatchetts which looked quite nasty hope he's OK.I ended up in 6th place and did a personal best lap time of 1;03.1 just short of my 1;02 goal.
After dinner things went great in the Sound of Thunder final, the two lead guys went down and I landed my best ever result of 4th but like the saying goes "to finish first, first you must finish".
The 600 final was more satisfying as I managed to tag on to Paul Jeffery and Jamie Adam, both quick guys, but settled into following mode for a few laps when perhaps I should have gone quicker. I made it past Jamie but couldn't stick with Paul and posted my best 600 result of 6th.
Sunday
The weather was back to normal, horizontal rain, gale force wind and 3 inches of water in the awning so I skipped practice in the vain hope it would dry for the races, no chance!
The SoT quali race was awful!! every time I went to turn into Woodlands the front would just shake like mad and it put the wind up me so I backed off, unlike Duncan Gibson who did a 1;04 in terrible conditions.
Before the 600 quali race I had a chat with Brian Halford about making a few changes and the changes we made to the suspension worked a treat. I just felt really confident in the wet and went for it. The start wasn't great but soon made back the lost places and got my head down until I came up behind Tom Fisher and to my surprise kept with him for a lap. I realise now he must have been saving himself for the final but lined him up for the pass at Honda which is a bloody quick corner but I got by him no problem until I looked up and saw a back marker right where I wanted to go. Not really sure how I missed him but next thing I am sliding across the mud into the air fence, bugger!!. As soon as I stopped sliding I got up and gave Helen a wave and the bike doesn't look too badly damaged just some bent bits. Unfortunately that's it for the day for me as there's sand everywhere and I don't want to risk engine damage so I asked Helen to drive home so I could console myself with lots of beer!We did stick around to watch Daz get 5th in the 600 final and Josh almost winning the 600 champs in dry conditions and I did think my personal best lap time would have come down but who knows!
Will be doing a bit of garage work ahead to get ready for Castle Combe next month but looking forwards to it.
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