12/08/2021
I haven’t updated this for ages and a few people have told me to sort it out, so whilst I should be working I’ve decided to give a bit of an update.
It’s Been a busy few weeks for us boys. We raced at Anglesey a couple of weeks ago and went alright. We had some bad luck at the beginning of the year after the engine we spent a small fortune on, decided to s**t itself after 20 laps. I’m still not over it so I won’t dwell but safe to say it was a right kick in the nuts. In fact I very nearly jacked the whole lot in but as I’m totally stupid I thought nah let’s go again. Unfortunately we didn’t have the funds for another top engine so we’ve put a standard engine in.
The race weekend at Anglesey was good considering. We managed a few top 3 finishes in the 650 twins class and a win in the junior open.
This weekend just gone we raced at Aberdare road races in South Wales and it was the worst conditions I’ve ever seen at a race meeting. Nevertheless we stuck it out. Me and the old man had a slight disagreement on the tyres for qualifying. My thinking was we go with our best wet tyres because it’s notoriously difficult to overtake at Aberdare meaning qualifying was going to set the tone for the weekend, he didn’t agree and said we’d need them later in the meeting. He agreed to let me go with it so the shiny new Bridgestones went on. We then went on to qualify on pole for the Allcomers race, P3 in sound of thunder (heat 2) and P6 in Welsh open. We intended to run on the Triumph 675 in Welsh open but had some gremlins so had to park that bike so all in all we qualified well.
The races were, as is expected with Max Dixon racing, up and down. I knew that we would struggle off the line with the standard engine especially as the grid lines up on a hill. Plus the Wilson Craig hondas had launch control and I had my right hand. So we got away and got into turn 1 in P3 and we were running well then the back markers got involved and did me up like a kipper. I banked on him taking what I would call the normal line but he decided to move over to the other side of the road, possibly in an attempt to get out the way but in any case he f***ed me right up and the guy behind sailed through on the other side. As I say it’s difficult to overtake and especially so with the standard engine so I sat in P4 for the next two laps. Luckily one of the Wilson Craig hondas had an issue on the second to last lap so we bagged 3rd. Next up was sound of thunder heat, we got out dragged into turn 1 and had a relatively quiet race and finished P4 although difference between P1 and P4 was about 2 seconds at the line so I had confidence for the final. By this time the track was drying and we’d damaged the wets but I thought we were safe. Unfortunately for the Welsh open qualifier the heavens opened and I was unable to push so we finished 8th which wasn’t enough to qualify for the final.
By the afternoon the track was still wet but not too bad so I changed the tyres for the other set of wets. We got away into turn 1 in 3rd in the second allcomers race and had company for the whole race but he couldn’t get past so another 3rd. This was enough for 2nd overall. Then came the sound of thunder final, which we had the pace to do well in. Unfortunately the heat system they use doesn’t use race time and lap time it uses finishing positions so the two heat winners line up one and two the two second place finishers line up 3 and 4. Of course this wasn’t good news for me as I’d been in the heat with all the front runners so even though I’d have won the other heat by a decent gap I had p7 for the final. I wasn’t too impressed by this but no one wanted to listen to my complaints, which in all honesty wound me up even more but then again rules are rules and I had to take it on the chin. As was expected we had good pace and worked our way up to P5 but I couldn’t find a way through and eventually ran out of laps. We had pace for 3rd but if my Aunty had balls she’d be my uncle so it counts for nowt. The last race was the consolation race which turned out to be a good race with Joey Thompson. Now Joey is a quick rider who’d also had a bit of bad luck and was struggling with the wet conditions. He was riding for Wislson Craig so off the line he did me before we’d even got into 2nd gear and then we had a race long battle. He was riding a 600 which by his own admission was a quality bike so I had my work cut out and as is to be expected he closed the door at every given opportunity. It certainly isn’t his first rodeo so I thought I’ll have to do something he isn’t expecting to slip through. So I went for a do or die round the outside move, now I’d got it 7/8th’s done but just that extra kick he had out the corner meant I couldn’t quite get far enough up the inside for the following left hander so I finished 2nd. I’ll attach a video of the attempt that one of the lads took watching it.
The Sunday was a total disaster. We had managed to get water into the electrics the previous day and could only get one cylinder to fire. Now Matty tried everything he could to get the thing running properly but it wasn’t to be, and that was that.
Thanks to the lads, Sam, Matty and my old man for helping me out. I’m reliably informed I can be difficult to be around on race weekends so nice one for sticking with me. We should be back out in a few weeks and I’ll try and keep up with the updates.
