Derby Phoenix at Croft 1st-3rd April 2005


And so it begins!

Purple Haze made her return for 2005 following a dreadful 2004 season which saw nothing but engine failures and an unfortunate crash leading to an early finish to the season.
The remainder of 2004 saw me making lots of new friends and acquiring an old HRC Steel Framed 600 which, quite frankly, was completely shagged out.

I spent the end of 2004 rebuilding it with the help of Steve Hammond and Geoff at Motrac Racing - well I would go out and source parts and lay them at their feet to be greeted by various noises of sucking in teeth and the like.

We finally managed to get a half decent bike together for testing in Almeria (early Feb) which put out a half decent 110bhp, but which turned out to have a slipping clutch, possibly a combination of a small problem magnified by a posh fully synth oil.

This meeting, however, heralded the final push to the first race for ages!! I was REALLY nervous, and, on the test day on the Friday, my lap times dropped from 2'00" to 1'50" to 1'43" to 1'41" as I became more and more confident.
At this point I should mention my Ace pit crew which consisted of Chris Costello, last year's technician, now elevated to the ranks of Team Manager (we need one for KRC this year) and the ever keen "Nice Guy" Dave. This was his first EVER race meeting - I think he was more excited than me but whoa what a keen lad! I have never had such a clean polished bike between races.
Well done to both of you - I couldn't have managed without either of you

Saturday saw my first race. I was surprised to see there were 3 heats for the Allcomers final! More surprising was that I managed 1'39.21", i.e 2 secs off my previous days time and qualified for 4th row of the B heat (out of A,B and C)! This was the equivalent I guess of my previous Open 1300cc races in EMRA. Alas there were so many crashes that day, including a nasty one where the outfit landed on top of the passenger with the sidecars, right in front of our trackside pitch. This was a bit of an eye opener to poor Dave, who, being a nice guy, was gutted to see such a nasty crash in front of him.

And the "Steel Framed 600" Class?? WOW! Those guys are MAD! Totally awesome racing saw me finish 19th and 18th (36 starters). My best position of the entire weekend in that class was in the last race of Saturday when I kinda fell asleep and did a best lap of 1'40.30". Ironically I went faster on Sunday but went backwards!

Sunday saw me half asleep again in the morning and again I did a 1'40" or so laptime to qualify on 9th row of the B heat in Allcomers class. I was hoping for C class to get a better position but ho hum...

The 2 steelie races on the day saw me get completely lamentable starts. The first race was the worst as everyone came around me on the first bend too making me effectively 24th from the start. I typically dug in and picked off riders from the back. My favourite technique was to tuck in on the back straight and outbrake them into Tower (trying to take 250 lines!). I caught about 1 a lap like this but as this was only a 5 lap race I finished 20th despite a time of 1'37.90" ! The timesheet shows I was faster than those who finished around me - DAMN those bad starts!
Also, in the first race, the Rennsport RS1 I had been donated by my sponsor, Buckley Tyres disintegrated really bad. I saved a big slide at Tower and Sunny In... nothing too bad but it hopefully psyched out a few of the boys behind me :-)
The next Steelie race was pretty much the same. I had poor starts and managed similar lap times.. Pah! Still find it difficult to get used to going out on new tyres too (RS2 this time!)

I was REALLY fired up for the Allcomers B final which was just 2 races after the last steelie. Hmmm... hope the fitness training over the winter holds up. I managed to start the bike on its peak torque and open him up letting me fly off... funnily enough the first start was a bit of a flyer too, oh well... and I made good progress through the field into the first bend. "YES!" I thought....alas we managed to get onto the second lap when the race was red flagged...and I had to start again.
We restarted and again I managed a great start (which was legal this time too!) I cut through the field and just stayed on, picking off riders at Tower, Sunny In, Sunny Out AND the Complex. I noticed a lot of people in the kitty litter and off the track as I went round and many was the time I saw the yellow flags flying. After an age (well, 6 laps) we were finished. I knew I had gone fast as I had SO many moments cutting folk up the inside and running out of ground clearance several times on the bike. The boys were looking well pleased as I pulled into the pits. "You finished 13th!!" Woohoo! However, despite 38 starters there had only been 22 finishers!! Talk about utter carnage! Mad!

I loved it!

Turned out I managed 1'37.03" in the last race, my fastest of the day.

Purple Haze is back!!!


More photos to come soon!


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