Lydden

I rolled into Lydden Wednesday afternoon, taped off the third tier for us and prepared to defend it against all-comers. One sidecar crew were game enough to cross the Hamster Line of Death, well bad breath n body odour, but moved shortly thereafter, hopefully ashamed of their response when told the area was reserved for the YPM. Only a handfull of brave souls turned up for the Thursday practice and given the forecast I was wondering why I had turned up.

However practice morning dawned clear, bright and promised to be a scorcher. By the last morning session I was back in the grove and looking forward to a weekends racing on one of my favourite circuits. I even had to jack up my rear shock to counter dragging my peg through Cheesons.

Before that I was up and away at 6 on Friday morning to catch a ferry as part of a cross channel dash to stock up on baccy n beer. As usual I was stopped by immigration control, but they were so tickled by the Thunderbird 2 paint job I could have had a van full of refugees.

I got back to Lydden by 5 and settled down to enjoy a well earned cup of java. It soon lost its flavour when "Nitro" explained the origin of his other nickname "Two-tone". I wondered, at first, if this was down to a love of Ska music, if only it had been. The origin of this moniker was soon on display as he showed us the "Root" of the problem. He has a skin colouration problem and it is most obvious on a part of him that I didn't need to see. In truth it looked like he has just been a touch too vigorous in applying self tanning lotion, sure I saw a thumbprint,,,,

Race one and I had a joker to play. My starts have always been pretty poor so in an effort to improve I had joined a local drag racing club. On the Sunday prior to Lydden I had been out with them running the 1/4 mile at RAF Honnington. From a first run of 15.8/90mph I improved with every run, ending up with a PB on run 9 of 14.3 and a terminal of 100.4mph. Its one thing to run down a drag strip, another to try and do the same thing on a grid of 30 bikes but it seemed to work and I consistently made better starts all weekend.

Race two was a better all round affair, good start and I managed to hold off Andy "Moose" Muse for 7 laps before he sneaked up the inside on the entry to Paddock and tho' I chased him to the flag I could find no way past. I blame myself for being silly enough to show him the way round in Thursdays practice sessions.

Sat Night and a bunch of us headed off to "DazStock." YPM founder Daz Mowatt turned 40 and had a 60's theme fancy dress party in Wootton village hall. Some had made a real effort with their costumes, I only had to look in the back of my wardrobe for mine. Prize for the least effort goes to Dan Wright who simply donned the team "Dam-it" dress which would also have left "Sqwelch" with a costume dilemma since it was his turn to wear it. Best costume of the night went to a silver velour hot pant suit worn by one of Daz's other guests, no it wasn't me. That would create a worse image than Nitro's tanning problem. Those who saw it will remember it for a very long time. I'm hoping we can get a cast of it for this years trophies.

Race one Sunday and I made one of my best ever starts and as usual when that happens the race was red flagged. The top hairpin looked like a bad day in Baghdad. Both Nick Shorter and Terry Poulter came out of it the worse for wear. Hope you guys get better soon and will be back out to play before too long. If there's an award for commitment, and he should be committed, it goes to the Colonel. Both he and his bike looked very second-hand afterwards and while I would have sat the rest of the day out Small Paul and Freddie worked flat out to get the bike ready for race two. Another good start was to no avail as Moose once again slid past as I left the door open on the entry to paddock. In hot pursuit I ended up having a race long scrap with Paul Robson, but I could find no way past and was piped to the line by a few hundredths of a second.

So that was Lydden a great weekends racing with a party thrown in. It doesn't get any better than that. I'll not be out at Snetterton since I am saving all my pennies for Brands GP. I'll be at Snett Fri. eve to drop off tyres and to lend a hand if any of you need one. This is George Watson, for Back O' the Grid - see you all at Snett.

BACK