Lydden Trackday October 2007

Did you win the season?

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

Did you win the season?

Short answer – NO!!

If you actually care to know why – I can give the long answer - that year did spell the end of my racing career though!!

Oh well, you are getting it anyway!!

Its a long one, so I suggest you either get a cup of tea and read it, or move along!!
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The story of Blue_
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Ok, so like I said, teh DNF had punished me, but I had hit hard enough already to still be leading the championship at this point... again as has been stated, I had bent the forks and yokes, so needed to source new ones before the next round.

The next round was 2 weeks after, so I had about 10 days to get it sorted, looked at eBay, nothing that looked appropriate at that time. Now, I wanted 100% straight, so I’d have had to be lucky off eBay anyway … so was looking at buying NEW stanchions and yokes to guarantee straightens. ABE do aftermarket replacement stanchions, but they were out of stock and the guy was an a55 and wouldn’t really give me a definitive date on when they would get more … so with the KY jelly in preparation, off to Mr Yamaha I went … a pair of NEW yokes and NEW stanchions cost me the fatter part of a grand from Yamaha … ouch!! But they could get them in in time, so went that route.

So I stripped and rebuilt my forks at great expense, but at least I KNEW they would be 100% straight I had all this done with about 3 days to spare … it had been a manic rush (remember I do/did everything on the bike myself and have to go to work too!! ) but I was ready … sweet … phew!!

So a couple of days later, off to Cadwell I went, picked my crew up along the way and away we went!! … got about 1/2 way there and the van blew up!!! FFS, what next?!?!!!!

So needless to say I had to get the van recovered home and I missed that round … all those potential championship points given away like that, devastated … Oh and to add insult to injury, the club keep your entry fees, so that was money down the pan … and I had a van to fix …

The van had overheated (turned out to be a blocked rad) and blown the head gasket. When I got the head off, turns out it had warped the head too … so I had to get it skimmed and a new rad etc too ..

The next round was in France, I had to miss that due to money and time.

There was then a long break of in the season … then the next round … Pembrey in Wales … off I went in my repaired van … it got me there fine, she was a gem!!

Now bearing in mind I had missed 2 rounds, I hadn’t been on the bike for like coming on 3 months I think it was … and as usual I couldn’t afford/justify practice, so the first time I got to be back on the bike (with its untested new forks) was in morning warmup (~3 laps) … As it turns out the layoff didn’t really matter as I was soon at home on in the saddle again and where Pembrey had only been on the calender for a year of so, not everone was as well versed as say Brands …

However it was blatantly clear my engine was playing up (cutting out on idle (set at 3k) and no low/midrange). I did get on the podium at one point, but struggled all weekend in the slow turns with lack of drive. Also when you have an engine playing up it is hard to 100% fully ‘commit’ as you don’t know if it is going to pop or cut out … not good when you require it to drive you out of a turn else you will crash!!!

Anyhoo, the engine was not right, so had to send the bike off to the engine tuners to sort after that round …

Turned out it had burnt out all the inlet valves (or was it exhaust??) it wasn’t idling or giving low/mid drive as it had very low compression as many of the valves had no ‘clearance’ (where they had burnt out and ‘stepped’). Obviously top end power would be suffering too …

I wouldn't mind but I had only just had the engine 'refreshed' at great expense, but needless to say, it cost me best part of a grand again to fix … the tuner put it down to a dodgy batch of fuel!!

By this time not only did I think the world was against me, but the money was spiralling out of control, unlike many of my competitors, I had NO sponsorship and I was 100% fully self funded … its expensive enough to compete, without all these extra costs …

I had given away lots of points an powerless to prevent it ... I was getting depressed about the whole thing ..

I did one more round, but my heart wasn’t in it, I had only managed to make/complete about 1/3 of the season so far so I was falling behind in tracktime too (pace picks up as year goes on) and the results reflected it …

After that round I made a tough decision (read on).

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Ok, so I had been racing for quite a few years, riding wise I was at my peak, I was having zero practice on an ageing bike and still putting it on the podium at every round (i.e. before things started going wrong). Having this run of unlucky and costly events and watching my championship slip away when I could do nothing about it was soul destroying.

I desperately needed a new bike as technology was moving on every year and it was making my job harder and harder, I could do with a spare too as it takes the pressure off binning #1. I just didn’t have the cash for that and to race too …

Anyway, after having such a rough year luck and money wise, my passion for it had dwindled, I had been doing it for a fair few years now and I also had had enough of spending EVERYTHING (and more) on racing, I had let relationships suffer over my carrier as … well I had spent ALL my money and efforts on racing, not directing any/enough toward that …

So I had had enough … I had done the racing thing, I knew what I was and wasn’t capable of and wanted to do other things with my life, after seeing so many people die and get injured along the way over the years, I was also thinking more and more about the dangers; as soon as that starts, the rot sets in, it's all over … so for a combination of all the above reason, I quit there and then and withdrew the rest of my entries!!!

Oh and although only did ~1/3 of a season, think I had still hit hard enough to begin with to finished 5th (or was it 6th?) in the championship come year end ...

I don’t regret my time as a racer, but still wonder how things would have been if I had more money/a serious sponsor!!

Phew, told you it was a long answer!!