Castle Combe 22nd Aug

The run up to Combe didn't go quite to plan. I was hoping to get in a sneaky track day in the week before but fell foul of the noise nazis and wasn't allowed on track, couldn't belive it when the testing guy asked me to rev it to 10500!! I tried to explain that usually I get tested at 7000 but he was having none of it. All credit to the organisers though for fully refunding me and its only 30 minutes drive and thankfully the pub was open when I got home to console myself.

After the usual chaos loading up and organising people we arrived at the track just before 10 pm and still had to set the awning up and do some last minute jobs on the bike so slept like a log, unlike my boy who decided to wake up at 4am!

Practice went OK except I didn't realise it was timed for grid positions so ended up way down and I had forgot just how bumpy this place is.

The first race was the Allcomers open race and I lined up next to Ricky Elder on my old bike so really tried to get a good drive off the and the Trump didn't let me down. I made up loads of places but there was a pile up on the grid and the race was red flagged, turned out a guy had stalled and was ploughed into! scary stuff.

The re-start wasn't so great and came up behind a fellow NG'er on an R1 which was frustrating as I was quicker in the corners but he had the edge on the flat out bits. The only way to get by was a shit or bust at the chicane's but I didn't have the killer instinct and ended up following until we both went wide at Quarry and Ricky took us both. This motivated me slightly and I did get by the R1 but too late to catch Ricky. Consolation prize was getting a National signature for 16th out of 37.

There was massive crowd and it felt great talking to the enthusiasts in the paddock the main theme was how much Triumph's had changed since the 60's. I even signed an autograph for a small girl who came up with her mum, hope she wasn't too disappointed if she saw me on track!

I felt really confident for the first Sound of Thunder race and got away well with the leaders well in sight but on lap three I got on the power too hard out of the Esses and got high sided right out of the saddle, I was sure it was going to hurt but the Trump sucked me back into the saddle and off we went but a little more cautious than before and I got passed by three bikes in as many laps, one was a circuit instructor though so I didn't feel too bad.

The second race was a bit of a anticlimax, I fluffed the start and didn't show much Mojo at all! the two guys just in front of me were having a great battle and I kind of just watched them instead of getting stuck in. The same pesky instructor had me on the last lap and I finished 10th.

Overall a good day and got my signature so job done, back to normal service at Oulton Park next and I've even broke my stingy habit and booked the test day, might even buy a new tyre watch this space.