Elvington 7th August: Auto66
Been looking forward to this meeting since I put my entry in back in June, I needed to get a race under my belt from across the pond! After a chat and bit of advice from fellow SV racer John Batty I decided to give Elvington near York a bash and with my last race at Jurby being only a week before the Elvington meeting meant I had a fairly busy week to get things sorted.
The bike needed a change of race number and a change to the gearing followed by a head to toe check over making sure every nut and bolt was tight. My generator had decided to start playing up at that last Jurby meeting with a cracked plug cap and split ht lead meant I had to order a new one before leaving for Liverpool on the Saturday. Thankfully by the end of the week I got everything sorted, thanks to Kev for his help with the front sprocket nut, I couldn’t shift it but between the two of us we got the job done!
Crew Chief Quilly arrived on Friday evening and once again thanks to Jock and Laura for the loan of their van for the weekend, we set about loading her up. We decided it would be easiest if I stayed at Quilly’s on the Friday night in Douglas as we had to check in at Douglas harbour for 6.30am on the Saturday morning, so a Chinese takeaway was ordered and I got a reasonably early night.
Saturday morning was glorious weather wise, and before long we watched the Isle of Man disappear into the horizon as the Manannan made steady progress across the Irish Sea heading for Liverpool. Team John Batty were aboard the ship too, after a chin wag with the guys, and before long (3hrs) we docked in Liverpool. Heading off the loading ramp I put the coordinates for York into the borrowed Sat-Nav (thanks Julian). It took a little for our Tom-Tom to wake up, but soon enough we were getting steady directions heading east out of Liverpool. As we climbed the Pennines the weather started to go downhill and before long it was chucking it down.
After a couple of hours we arrived at York, were heading for the train station to collect Simon my Big Brother only to find out the main rail signal box had been struck by lightning, delaying all the trains! By this time the rain was bouncing off the roads and not doing anything for my pre-race nerves…Gulp! Eventually his train dropped Him off and we went for a bit of sightseeing around the City of York, a beautiful City it is too. The rain continued to fall and after a while it was time to find Elvington Airfield, just to find our bearings and work out how long it would take to travel from there to Julian’s house as we would need to get to the circuit nice and early on race day in the morning.
It worked out to be 60 miles from Elvington to Julians house where we are staying for the weekend, and the journey took us an hour, it was tea time by the time we arrived at our accommodation, and as soon as we’d arrived we were heading back out to a very nice country pub for our dinner in the company of Julian and His good Lady Wife. After a really good meal is was time to turn in for me, a big day ahead tomorrow. A massive thanks to the two of them for their hospitality this weekend, it really was a home from home and we were made to feel very welcome, cheers mate!
I woke up on race day at about 5.30am and looked out of the window to find a really nice sunny day, what a result! By the time we’d all got up had breakfast it was 6.45am and time to hit the road, we’d got our fuel the evening before so just had to head straight for the track. After checking in at the gate we hit the main runway of Elvington, this place was vast. Rolling up in the paddock we found the familiar faces of John Batty and His crew, and Manx racers Ali Foster and Steven Beale, a Manx invasion of Elvington! We’d been warned to arrive early as Sign on and Scrutineering would all take place pretty sharpish. Fair play to Club Auto 66 everything ran like clockwork and as the threat of rain was expected to hit after 3pm, the club made sure we would get through the program without delay!
It’s fair to say with the arrival of Team http://www.roadracingsupporters.com/ I’m proud to say I had a healthy team of supporters, who’d all made the effort to make the journey to come along and cheer me on, thanks guys it was much appreciated. Matty Boy travelling from Lincolnshire bringing chairs and awnings, Louise and Ady bringing the Jaffa cakes, and Jude travelling from Blackpool bringing Her camera to capture the moment, thanks also to Mr Messy from SV650.Org for coming along, will see you at the Manx mate , no pressure then!
I was in the first practice session of the day, and I’d only seen a diagram of the circuit before, all I knew was it was a clockwise circuit with a length of 1.3 miles, mainly right hand turns meaning I’d be using the opposite side of the tyre to what I was used to at Jurby. As the session got under way I was to learn that not only the Jurby circuit likes to use traffic cones as I clipped one with my knee. We seemed to get a reasonable amount of time on track, I started to learn my way around very slowly, and made a mental note of how good the surface was back at home in Jurby as the stone chippings bounced off my helmet, on very tight horse shoe right hander was immediately causing me problems, and would continue for the rest of the day!
I had entered 2 different classes, the “Northern Junior” and the “Clubmans Lights” you get three races in each class so after the practice session I had 6 races to go, your result in the race would determine your position for the next race. Before long I was called out for my first race, I just tried to keep as cool as possible and ride as smooth as I could, considering it was the first race of the day I actually rode really well. With a local lad on a trick Ducati 749 and a couple 600cc’s in front I was pleased to be in 7th position, in front I could see a couple of Kawasaki ER6’S and I was gaining on them, unfortunately the last lap flag came out and I crossed the line half a second behind them, another lap and I’d of been on them, after a look at the paper work after the race I was running a second a lap quicker than the two ahead, 7th place not bad!
Before long it was my second race of the day, sadly my form was to be short lived as I had a pretty poor run, not only running wide at the dreaded horse shoe but completely running off the track taking to the grass, all of a sudden I was on the bucking bronco on an out of control SV, I couldn’t do a thing apart from hang on, and with the Marshal’s box getting closer and closer I somehow managed to get it back under control and back on track, a sideways glance I caught a rather relieved looking Marshal, I was to finish this race in 11th, Rubbish!
3rd race It was threatening to rain, in fact it was raining on and off, I had a couple of slides and brought it home in 8th place.
After lunch and the weather was looking good, no rain! And with some team talks with my crew and a few words of encouragement I managed some better results and really enjoyed the rest of the days races, I kept my lap times consistent and managed to finish ahead of the Kawasaki’s I had previously finished behind with a best finish of 6th place, not bad considering I’d never seen the place before.
After the final race while enjoying a celebratory beer some of the local racers I’d been on track with and some of the local spectators came over for a chat and to have a look at my adapted controls on the bike, and of course to take the micky out of my earlier grass track incident!!!
We headed back on the road for our final night at Julian’s house, I only managed a couple of beers before an early night, we had a long journey home to get through the following day, I was knackered but it was all worth it!
I ended up really enjoying the day, it was great to see everybody who’d made the journey to meet up at Elvington, everybody was really friendly and helpful, and http://www.auto66.com/ ran a great meeting too plus another signature towards that all important licence upgrade, I hope it’s not too long before I can make the trip across the sea again and this time maybe try a different circuit, time to start saving (and earn some brownie points with the Wife!!).
With just over a week to go until the beginning of the Manx Grandprix, things are already taking shape for the races here. Last night was our sector’s DSM Meeting, I’m marshalling for the full two weeks again at the Kerromoar section, as they say no marshals no races, if you’re thinking about it then why not sign up and help the event go ahead.
The best of luck to all involved in this years MGP, Please have a fast and safe one!
If you want to get involved with Team BigMitch Racing and feel you could help in any way or have an idea, doesn’t always have to be financial then please get in touch. You can remain anonymous or you could advertise your business and /or have yours or your family’s name on the bike, you will be welcomed into the team, please get in touch.
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Thanks to all the photographers for the superb pictures
Next double race Meeting 24th & 25th of September
August 12, 2011 at 9:32 am
Another great read again Chris. Looks like you had a great time.
Inspirational fella
August 13, 2011 at 10:19 am
Cheers Dave, got to try and get away more often, good to see a different club, circuit and competitors! Jurby next, after the Manx that is!