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Snetterton 21st and 22nd March 2003  

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I had watched the opening round of the Nationwide BEMSEE championships at Brands at the start of March and saw some of my old rivals bringing in some pretty good results.  At the time I was thinking 'everything else being equal I would be in front of them'.  Before that round I thought I was going to be lucky to get a top 15, but seeing Mike Goodfellow (he used to be my primary target/goal post) brought home a 2nd and some other top fives.  Also looking at the lap times of the front runners I have matched or beaten those sort of times before, I was a bit more upbeat thinking even tough I was out of practice I might be able to bring home some good results too when I get into the swing of things.

As it had been a long while since I had straddled the race bike, I thought it prudent to do the practice day on the day before the race (Friday).  I intend to do practice days before every round as this allows me time to 'dial in' to a track, and from experience this makes a massive difference come race day.

Last time I was at Snetterton was in May 02 back then I was putting in 1:14s which had seen me a 2nd and a 3rd (had I not got knocked off at the last corner) so that was my goal, to be back on that pace by the end of the practice day.  However I realised I hadn't been on the bike for a very long time and was suffering from a confidence problem that had transpired from a combination of the reminance of my Mallory crash that put me out for the rest of the season back in June 02 and my strange minor off at Brands trackday in Dec 02.  In short I was out of practice and had a mental block when it came to grip.  So was looking at an initial goal of 1:18s, next goal 1:16s ultimate goal <=1:14s.

Drove up on the Friday and the forecast was OK, cloudy, but dry.  Looking at the skies on the way up it actually looked like it promised to be another in a series of sunny days.  Got to within 15 miles of Snetterton and it was really grey and spitting with rain ... great!!! Seemed like sods law, lovely day everywhere else and a damp and miserable day at Snetterton!  Although looking at the road the rain didn't seem to be settling it was enough to probably make things slightly damp and therefore greasy.  The conditions I hate most.  If it is dry I know where I am, if it is FULL wet then again, you have a tyre choice for this and things are calculable, but if it is damp you are in nowhere’s land, with it being too wet for drys and to dry for wets.  (we are not allowed to use inters in SS6).  But when all was said and done I realised this greyness should probably pass and we would have proper dry conditions later on in the day.

Arrived to an already packed paddock.  Picked a nice little spot just outside the main paddock, this was near some 'conveniences' (handy for pre-race nerves …) and looked onto the collecting area.  Looking onto the collecting area means that you know exactly WHEN to go to the collecting area.  You get tannoy announcements saying your race is to go to the collecting area, but these are notoriously ambiguous.  If you went at the first call you would be sat in an empty collecting are with your tyres going cold, completely wasting all the heat you have in the tyres from the tyre warmers.  Looking onto the collecting area means you can see when there are 50% or more of the riders gathered and then you can quickly rip the warmers off and get down there just in time for you go out to the grid.  It seems all the top riders judge this to perfection.  And you can tell the extra confidence in the temperature of the tyres pays off, as they seem to even go flat out on the warm up lap!!

So we parked up and I got signed on as first priority, then came back and unloaded the van.  Even though we got there on what we thought was time, unfortunately it took so long to get signed on and unpacked that I missed my first session. Well I could have made it, but it would have been a rush and I would have been out on stone cold tyres ... and cold tyres is what saw me on my @rse at Brands.  I wasn't overly gutted as it had now stopped spitting of rain and the first session of each group should go a long way in drying the track out for the second series of sessions. So just steadily unpacked and stuck the warmers on so they had a good 40mins before my second session was due to commence.

First session

Just riding the bike to pit lane it felt very alien.  I ride my roadbikes all year round commuting, so it wasn't my first time on a bike, but it was my first time on the racebike for a while.  The steering felt heavy, but the bike really started to drop on its side at the slightest input of turn.  I took a couple of clicks off the steering damper to help free the steering a bit.  Lined up in pit lane and was clear to go, the bike had only just been started and was showing ~40deg on the temperature gauge.  I normally run the bike between 70 and 85 deg, so this was too cold.  So I waited there for the bike to warm up a bit, decided 55 was enough for now as although the engine was getting hotter my tyres were getting colder!!  I would just take it easy on the old girl for the opening few laps to let her warm thoroughly.  This kinda didn't do much good as it air temp was so cold, down the back straight the temperature actually DROPPED to 50deg ... oh well.  Still took it easy for two laps then tried to get ‘dialled in’.

It just wasn't happening, everything felt wrong, and I don't mean the bike was playing up, just so so alien.  Think my first 'flyer' was about 1:35,  21 seconds off my old pace, that was stoopid slow, so tried a bit harder.  But I was having a real problem with cranking the bike over in the corners.  I usually use kneedown as an indication of lean and that really helps me corner.  As an example, I lost my kneeslider in a race last year so I couldn't use 'kneedown' (well I didn't want to go through my leathers) and I felt lost, my lap times really suffered.  Put a kneslider back on and bingo.  But in this instance the problem was that I didn’t have enough confidence in the grip/tyres to bang the bike over enough to get it on my knee, which in turn didn’t give me the confidence in knowing where I was.  The brakes seemed pretty pap too, so I was well early on the brakes, often rolling off well before the corner/apex as I was actually going too slow where I had over compensated.  I was now getting really frustrated, I knew if I was just to go a bit faster then everything would 'flow' better and I could build on it, but my brain was telling me different on approach to every corner.  Although it was all still a bit weird I had done a lap of 1:24 by the end of the session, but it just wasn't consistent.  I should have been taking gob loads out of the appalling initial times with every lap, but it was just not happening.  Got back to the pits and I was fuming with myself, pretty much ready to quit as I felt I had totally 'lost it'.  My pitcrew were saying things like 'it is early days yet' etc, they meant well but I didn't want to hear it, I was well p***ed!!

We changed the brake pads and I mentally re-grouped and went out for the next session. Telling myself 'Nick just throw it in the corner regardless what your brain is telling you and get your kneedown, it will be downhill from there'  But I just simply couldn’t override my brain, which was telling me that the bike would simply 'let go' if I did throw it in that hard.  I did eventually get my kneedown, but it was very tentative and not repeated ... COME ON BAILEY!!! I really was trying to improve now, and felt I was trying a lot harder, but I just couldn’t get below 1:20s ... and the times were erratic.  Came back in still miffed, but feeling I had done much better and more upbeat that I was indeed possibly beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.  Maybe the times didn't reflect it much, but I was starting to get a bit more of a 'feel'.  I would kinda go pretty well in one corner then naff up another, making the average time pretty much the same, but at least feeling I was starting to get some corners half right. That is all very well and good, but how was I going to get them 6+ seconds back and make it consistent???  I would be mincemeat come race day if I didn’t knock at last 2-4 seconds off that and at this point I just couldn’t see how!!!

Even doing the 1:20s I felt as if the rear was going to let go on several occasions and it did seem to be sliding even at that pace.  I had bought a new set of tyres with me as the old ones were past it, but intended to save them for race day.  The tyres on the bike I had raced at Pembrey, done the two 20 min track sessions of Brands on (i.e. before I binned it) and they had obviously seen a cold winter sat in the garage.  So they had seen better days and I had noticed back last year that even when new, after quite a few laps the rear would 'cold slide', especially in the little used LHS.  The rear was a 'Medium' compound and I had bought a 'Soft' in the knowledge that the medium wasn't coping with low ambient temperatures too well.  I knew I needed a new rear in there and then to aid getting my confidence back, but held off as I didn't want to burn that out prematurely.  I had intended to change the front mid practice day to get that well scrubbed in mind (fronts last longer than rears) So I persevered and thought 'got to get a 1:18 by the end of the day' at that pace I wouldn't set the world on fire, but shouldn't be a danger to the other riders come race day and would have at least achieved goal 1.

The sessions were getting 'red flagged' (stopped because of accident) on regular basis too, which wasn't helping me to get my head in gear and greatly reduced track time.  Also I was struggling to find someone who was the same pace as me.  Ideally you want to latch onto someone who is slightly faster to help 'drag you up', but it seemed I was either faster or much slower than the other riders about me, thus making the job even harder.

Gave it all I could muster for the final sessions but was still struggling to get consistent, did manage a medium-high 1:18, but a 1-off.  However I was now feeling that I was moving a bit and starting to get back some of that that 'balls out, on the limit' feeling that I remembered from before and strived on.

They opened scrutaneering for an hour at the end of practice so got the bike done (getting scuteneered at 07:30 on race day is a real fag!!).  Got the new rear put in and mentally prepared myself for race day.  I knew I wasn’t on winning form, but was hopeful that with the new rear tyre and the focus of close racing I would be able to quickly pick my game up further.

Race day

Cold in the morning, but the early signs were that it was looking to be a nice day.

It was an MRO (BEMSEEs sister segment/club) round the next day, Matt pointed out that not only were there a lot of MRO boys there on practice day they may well be racing this day for extra practice.  I didn’t like the sound of that, if only 5 MRO boys were in the pack, that is the top 5 places already gone … that isn’t going to make my places any easier to get!!!

All riders get a 5 min practice session at the start of the day and this would be my opportunity to scrub the new rear in.  Made sure the tyres were baking before I went out and proceeded to scrub them in.  On the 3rd lap I started to try and put in a bit of a  'flyer', felt I was doing pretty well, but was gutted to see a 1:21 on the lap timer.  Then all too soon the session ended.

This year as there are so many SS600 riders, they are doing two separate SS600 races in the morning and cream the top riders off both heats to make an A-Final, the ones that didn't make the grade for the A final go in the B-final. This is pretty much the same routine as what Matts race club run so I was pretty 'ofeay' with it. I was race2, the second heat of the SS6 qualifying races.

As there was no precedent to formally set the grid (1st round) I presume it was random and I was starting 28th on the grid, row 7.  A long way back (10 rows), but as I wasn't feeling particularly on the pace I wasn't that bothered and actually preferred to be nearer the back rather than have the pressure of starting near the front (having 40 bikes hounding down on you).  However I had drawn 3rd on the grid (1st row) for the Clubman 600 race ... although that was were I was starting from all last season and is the best place to be if you are confident … in this instance ... PHARP!!

Race one (SS600 1st heat) went off, I watched the start and the opening lap or two and then went back to get ready for my race, which was next up.  Got all my gear on and watched the collecting area as mentioned above.  It had filled up considerably so I gave my pit crew the all clear to get the warmers off etc.  I went down to the collecting area when race 1 were on the final lap ... perfic!!  On my way down to the collecting area the race was evidently 'red flagged'.  On arrival, I could see there were about three ambulances on the track attending an incident, which must have happened right near the start/finish line, which was visible from the collecting area.  (Well the actual line is obscured by pit wall). I realised it was going to be a while so retuned to the van to get the warmers back on.  Unfortunately my pit crew were not there as they had gone trackside to watch.  Although not their fault, I was getting wound up that my tyres were getting cold and I couldn’t get to the stands to do it myself, so I returned to the collecting area.  On my return I spotted Matt at the collecting area fence, he had twigged what was going on and I pointed back at the van, I returned and we put the warmers on.  It took a good 15-20 mins for the ambulances to clear and for my race to be recalled.

Race1 SS600 qualifier race

Started the bike and the oil LEVEL light came on.   Why now??? I knew my bike was using oil, so although untimely was no big surprise, it had gone from fully topped up to warning light level with just the practice the day before.  It used to last between oil changes (about 3 times as much running) with very little oil loss and no sign of the warning light even at the end.  There wasn’t enough time to top it up and it would be ok to do this race like that (the light is a bit sensitive so it is not like it was dry) this disheartened me as I am worried about the bikes durability and I hadn't even done a single race on it yet and the oil light was on, what chance do I have of it lasting the season??!!!

The lights went green and off I went, noticed someone struggling a couple of rows ahead of me, presumably he missed a gear and then wheelieing/weaving when he re-selected, the whole pack streaming by.  I moved over and swerved round him thinking 'someone is going to hit him'.  Got a pretty good start and arrived at the first corner mid-pack (probably making about 10 places) it was totally frantic, 5 bikes wide with everyone weaving everywhere, I just gave a bit of room, but kept the pace and picked my own line.  It was no big surprise when we were greeted with a red flag at the next corner.  That bloke on the start line had obviously been 'collected' and a start line pileup ensued.  It was going to take a while to clear and they called for an early lunch.

The start time was set to be 12:30 (in 1hr). 12:30 came and went and no call. I was totally unprepared when they finally said 'race 2 to collecting area' and it all happened really rapidly, so much so I almost missed getting out.  Just got to the collecting area in time, the pack was already leaving it!! I was directed to not form on the grid but sit at the back of the grid for the warm up lap rather than assuming my grid position.  Five seconds later and I would have not been allowed out!!!  Did the warm-up lap and lined up on the grid, a little unsettled after nearly missing the race.  Lights went green and I made a abominable start, I too missed a gear and my sphincter flexed thinking I was going to be collected in the same manner as the bloke the race before ... I got back on the drive quickly and luckily didn't get collected.  However I was totally ruffled and lost even more positions in the next few corners.  The races had now been reduced to 6 laps (from 9) as the morning hold-ups had put things behind schedule.  Re-composed myself and started to get my head down.  I started catching people and overtaking, working the bike much better and although still tentative on the throttle out of the corners, the rear was providing so much more grip and installing confidence I could push it harder.  My lap times fell from 1:21 to high 1:18, to low 1:18, to high 1:17s, and I was starting to feel like I was racing ... then the race was over.  Finished 19th, not a particularly great result, but as I said I was actually starting to feel I was racing!!

SS600 Race 2

Being a grid of ~40 with only 28 finishers, I Thought that my 19th would put me near the front of the B final, where I would stand more of a chance.  However they simply fill the A grid with the top finishers and let the dregs go in the B-race rather than splitting finishers 50-50 in numbers between the two.  So the A final had a full grid of 40, the B-race had about 20.  This kinda makes sense, but meant that I had finished height enough to qualify for the A final ... but on the back row!!!

Although a bit gutted that I was right at the back it didn’t really matter and at least I wouldn't have to worry about carnage if I fluffed the start again.  Could hardly see the lights from back there, and certainly couldn't see the little starter bloke who stands in front of the grid then points to the lights with a flag, indicating to watch them for the start sequence as he leaves the grid to safety.  Had no idea he had left the grid and didn’t know we were to watch the start sequence, which meant I was caught napping, I was still fiddling with my lap timer as the lights went green ... this wasn't dangerous as I was on the last row, but meant I had an abominable start!!!   Hooked up and off I went, presumably last.  Plops!!!  Still, dug in and my lap times soon fell, through the 1:18s,  into the 1:17s, took a couple of people, but the pace was so hot even at the back, race was over too soon and I finished an embarrassing 31st.  Had to chuckle though as that was my worst result ever and I had felt that I was giving it my all!!! I could laugh as I realising I was sill 3 seconds off my old pace, so even though it was all I had at that time, I WAS capable of better.

Final race Clubman 600

They have changed this this year and it is a 1 race event at the end of the day.  By the time it was due to start the sun was real low and the temperature dropping rapidly.

Therefore visibility was reduced and the good old nagging worry of tyre temperature was creeping back in.  Lights went green and I made a 'safe' start i.e. made sure I got away cleanly, but not necessarily the fastest way.  I wasn’t over defensive of my line either as I knew I wasn’t particularly fast in the corner and didn't want to get 'tagged'. Completed the 1st lap in 7th.  Got my head down and worked my way up to 6th, struggling a bit to get past 5th as he was slower than me in the corners and erratic in line, but made the move at my favourite bit, namely holding back a bit going into Riches and carrying more speed through it and getting better drive allowing me to get up the inside for Sears and make a block pass on the brakes.

Then there was a big gap in front of me I had been keeping an eye on my lap timer, which was showing 1:17s I managed to put in a couple of 16s now I wasn't getting held up, but as no one was in front I didn't have any focus so kinda didn't try 'pushing the envelope' any further.  Then got out dragged by one of the guys who I had taken 5th off a couple of laps prior.  He then proceeded to get in my way again through the corners but his bike was quicker than mine down the straights and even though I got the gap back on the brakes, I couldn't get close enough to him to make a clean pass (to be honest the move was there on several occasions, but I was erring on the side of caution and bailing out).  Then the bloke behind him passed us both in the same corner!!!  I was really narked at this guy in front of me now as I could see the other guy making a gap and I was faster than them both as I had already overtaken them once ... although he scared me with his over braking and poor cornering, I put a move on him, but he would simply out drag me again down the straights pass me, then get in my way again, and this chopping and changing went on for a lap or so and the last lap flag came out, I had gone round the outside of him the lap before round the v-fast Coram, a corner I don't like, but it is the penultimate corner (if counting Russell Bend (chicane) as one) and I had managed to keep him at bay to the line (out dragged me shortly after mind).  There was no point doing it anywhere else as he would out drag me and stuff me up, making me loose momentum, this way I was in control.  So simply follow him not trying to pass for most of the lap to put him at ease and line myself up for a repeat prescription.  Started to go round the outside, as planned and I was alongside, but he was going wide and I could see me being forced off the track (again if I had stuck with it, I probably had the momentum to be clear, but was playing it safe and bailed).  I couldn't out brake him into Russell’s either as something had spilt its guts on the alternate (overtaking) line the race before and although powdered to marked it and soak it up a bit, I is still there and to be avoided!!!

So crossed the line in 7th.

A bit miffed as 5th should have been mine, but all things considered it didn't matter and I was fairly pleased as I had stuck in some 1:16s, my second goal (still 2+ seconds off my old pace mind).

In summary I finished the day a bit disappointed I hadn't done better, but pleased I was getting some of the feel back and that last race I really felt I was getting there, so fairly upbeat.

Matt and I walked down the paddock later on to collect some official results and bumped into one of his North Gloucester racing mates 'Joe'  (that isn't his name but I will use that when referring to him here) who was doing a few BEMSEE and MRO rounds this year too.  He was walking towards us but looked very sheepish, Matt joked 'you lobbed another m8' (supposedly Joe is a bit of a crasher and like most racers are normally is pretty fine about it).  Joe said “did you see that accident earlier?” (he was referring to the 1st SS600 race start line ambulance jobbie (i.e. the one that must have happened as I was readying for my race)).  In short Joe had run over one of the crashers (presumably 2 bikes hade made contact and gone down) down the start line at over 120 and he himself had been spat 15ft in the air, Joe was physically unscathed (ish) but the other faller he ran over died.  Although Matt and I were aware there had been an incident, we didn't know/realise there had been a fatality.  The air got really heavy and it now became clear that he wasn't just sheepish, Joe was deeply traumatised buy it all (understandably).  It is difficult to know what to say in this sort of circumstance, so very little was said by neither Matt or myself, apart from checking he was ok and agreeing that it sounded like a racing incident and these things happen.  i.e. these things are sometimes unavoidable and he was not really at fault.  He said he has spoken to the guys parents/family who were there, he said they were a racing family and know the score so, although obviously upset didn't BLAME him.  Which makes it that little bit less hard for Joe to come to terms with.

Joe said he was packing up and going home (i.e. not doing the MRO round the next day) and needed to make a decision about the future (presumably talking about quitting).

Very sombre ...

If you race bikes this is going to happen from time to time, but two deaths at the first two rounds.  Well I don't really need to say it but how loud do these subtle hints have to get before I head warning and give up myself??  From a fairly upbeat feeling 10 minutes before I was now really really wondering if I was doing the right thing continuing to race, psychologically I could have done without this news.  But I realised that what had happened had much more gravity than my psychological state.

Much to think about, but as Matt said after, “these things do happen   The news doesn't faze him enough to make him even consider quitting”.  I know people die in car crashes etc every day, that doesn’t stop me from driving my car, but it will always be very sobering when you see the aftermath.  Also <v-topical> even though people realise they might die if they go to war that doesn’t stop them from joining army, they want the career and feel the probability of dying in combat is worth the risk.

What a mixed w/e!!!!

Still plan to do Oulton in April at the mo.

See Snett Pic