TerraRoot

 

After an 8am start getting scrutineering and paper work done, we had a 30 min practice session. I went out just enough to figure out which way the track went (not been on the national circuit) and that it was make of soap, and broke the wee bike! poor alex braham and stephen never had a go, which is quite bad since they have never ridden a honda 90.

So we had to fix it, race was starting asap, bikes fucked, cutting out under load back firing, struggling to rev. Checked plug gap, wd 40 all over the HT lead, nope, dawning despair “are we gonna get out at all!?” We missed the le mans start. Tried to get out after cleaning the carb from a pit start starting 1 lap down, made it to the gravel turn the rally cars use, turned around and spluttered around the back and into the pits. We need a second hand coil, steve tobin knew a man, top job. Replaced coil bike started right up first prod SWEET! jam helmet on, we are down about 20mins 10laps 48th place, out i go, track is drying, Don’t end up on your arse tim, other people need to get a spin, dry track made it easier to get around i could just leave it in top and keep the corner speed up, get my head over the front of the bars, elbows up, everything running sweet, passing loads of people in the lower class’s. and team Manly (66) came by, the one with guy martin on the team. Get them. and so i did, another lap and team BikeWorld (3) also joined the battle, didn’t know at the time but they were in my class, at about this time i posted a 1:30.684 lap 7th fastest lap of the whole race. on my 24th lap. Taking it sensibly in the corners because i’d never hear the end of it if i broke the bike and nobody else got a go i got stuck behind some back markers and 66 and 3 pissed off. End of session came up and i had moved us up to 37th!

Alex went out next, two quite long full course cautions in his session, but he moved us up to 30th, had a great race with another team (haven’t got their number)
Braham got us up to 25, more full course cautions, everyone is having trouble with dunlop corner, the off camber entrance combined with trail braking mean the rear brake pedal would drag, dodgey situation. we decide to pull him in a 10 mins early, the timer board says their is about 55 mins left in the race.
Stephen goes out. Crashes on the fourth corner. Of his first lap. Luckily near the back pit entrance so he is back into the pit garage before even a lap is up. I’m up at the pit wall, turn away thinking “it’s his first lap be ages before he comes aro.. WTF!” zip over a scrutineer is doing his job well and spots a bent rear shock, i fix it with my mighty right arm, the mud is scrapped off and he’s out again. not too much time lost 
We look to be getting a top 20 finish, 4th in class, not bad, practically slapping each other on the backs at that point. They extend the race finish time, we worry have we enough fuel, people are pitting, stephen hasn’t a clue whats happening we’ve no pit board. we keep waving him onwards. don’t run out of fuel don’t run out of fuel. After extra half hour of racing we got 14th place and 3rd in class, I’m in awe of our selves, We did the fucking business

 

My pre race night bbq, best steak sandwich ever, van got a bit smokey tho…

 

Morning of the race, it’s a bit wet…

 

 

 

 

 

Alex and Stephen

Guy Martin and Stephen, poor guy 🙂

Next years targets

At this point i though we’d gotten 4th in class. but yellow flag infringements and penalty’s pushed us up!

Best fucking day ever, totally hooked, all ready booked for next year, will even finish putting the engine back together properly now. Gonna enter in the watergrasshill superpole if i can make it

 

 

Tags: honda 50 racer, honda cub 90

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2014 at 16:42 by TerraRoot Lande and is filed under Bikes, honda cub 90. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.