09/08/2021
Oh my God where do I start what a weekend, what a day what a race!
Riding as part of the JDB racing team with Elliott, Ross and Dave.
We had qualifying at 10:45 - each of us had to do at least 1 flying lap (3 laps each minimum). With Elliot and Ross both doing solo sprint races too, they had already had 15 minutes each on the bikes, leaving Me and Dave slightly behind on seat time.
Dave managed to get a spot on the Thursday test so should of felt petty solid on the bike going into the weekend, where as I had to work a bit harder. Ross and Elliot both did 1 flying lap as needed leaving good time for Me and Dave. Unfortunately a bit of a pit board issues (basically we borrowed someone’s spare for the race unknowingly the one we picked up was the wrong one 🙃) which left me sat waiting for my go with cooling tyres. All was fine in the end and I managed to get just 1 flying lap in 🙈
Dave managed to sit us P4 in class with a 1.40.044 👌🏻 15th overall
Lunch time we made a plan -
Ross
Elliot
Will
Dave on inters in case of rain 🌧
Will to hold the bike whilst Ross does the Le Mans run start.
Rider holding the bike must be in full leathers and boots
Race starts at at 14:20
14:10 no back tyre in Ross’s bike after changing from his solo race .
14:15 still fiddling with Ross’s back tyre
14:18 ross hasn’t got his boots , leathers or lid on
14:19 … f**k, will your half ready you’ll have to do it
I exited the pit lane with possibly 2 seconds to spare on the closing exit time. I was the last rider to exit shortly followed by the safety car so nearly didn’t make the start.. bunch of amateurs.
Yeah.. it’s my 4th lap of the day, my
first time racing. And here I am getting ready to run 🏃♂️ to my bike and do a proper endurance start.. talk about throwing a baby in a pool and hoping it swims 👀 😂
It turns out all the years of football have been useful. 🏃♂️💨 I managed to exit the first corner around 10th place* and held my own for the massively long 4 laps.
Here is where the trouble started. I was supposed 3rd rider out in our “plan” 😂 so hadn’t filled my tank. Obviously because in the “plan” I had a good hour at least before I was due to do my stint so no rush, no panic. Again, bloody amateur 😂 🙈
Next part of the plan - fuel light comes on = come in within 3 laps. Well guess what.. my fuel light come on on the first lap!!
Unfortunately Ross had pretty much only Just got back to the pit, Daves bike set up Ready for rain so that’s no good and Elliot trying to sort Ross out before I was back ❌ we lost maybe 1 lap to everyone, putting us last* overall and definitely last in class.
We got Ross out who absolutely road the wheels off the bike, after around 30-45min stint Ross had pulled us back up a couple of places. We released Elliott, who also managed to pull us up a place. With Dave still set up for wets and the tracking being dry I took the 3rd session out - with full tank this time! I Managed to sit around the 1.41 on times and even pushed us up the odd spot.
The next new experience was a safety car being deployed, 2 laps behind the safety car, before being released like a F1 safety car. We all waited for the leader to go and couldn’t pass before the start finish line. I was the 7th rider in the que behind the car.
Knowing I’ve possibly got some 1.33-1.37 timed national riders and world endurance riders behind me, I pushed on for another 8-10 laps before coming in. We now currently sat in p6 in class.
The race continued. We managed to send Dave out finally and he pulled us up the ranks.
Next up a red flag 🚩 rider down in the middle of the track so to the pits for a restart (you cannot swap ride or touch the bike at this point with out suffering penalty’s).
I sat in the pit lane for 20mins with cold tyres before restarting behind the safety car again. 2 laps and away we went . I think I managed around 7 laps before hitting my worst luck.
I came onto the start finish straight to be blinded by what can only be called as “the down pour from hell”. I watched the rider in front of me go down as I started to brake , I took the corner so slow and careful but it just wasn’t enough. Before I knew it I was following the other rider into the gravel as my rear end just came round - along with 3 others apparently.
I helped the Marshall lift my broken bike out the gravel and to the air fence. Before running off fully kitted back to the pit.
I managed to meet a team member at garage 39 cafe before dropping to a heap on the floor - again, thank you football for the running 🏃♂️ 🙄
Dave Ross and Elliot managed to get back out with a stint each to finish the race. Elliott was now the rider set on wets and lucky for us the rain came with 15 minutes to go.
We finished P5 in class and 20th overall around 14 laps behind the leaders with about 7 more stops ..
Endurance racing - what a buzz !
So proud of the team and all the pit crew.
#16
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