Club Racer report: 7

Round 4 took place on Saturday and again waking out to brilliant sunshine, Alex said his foot was “fine” a word he uses for a lot of things,

How’s the Bike? “fine”.

How’s the suspension? “fine”

How’s the gearing for that corner? “fine”

How’d it be if I stuck my foot up your……………

I watched how he was managing, as I was not happy to let him race if the pain from his foot was going to be a any kind of a problem, every thing looked Ok; so I agreed to let him out for qualifying. Although not having as much time on the track as his main competitors Alex managed to get pole with a 1.06.97 second just over a second faster than Jamie Hamilton with Aaron Easter third and making up the front Andy Burbridge.

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Race 1: On lap one a coming together between Mick Holden and Mike Jenkins seen both out of the race Mike J’s bike being beyond repair at the circuit. Mean time Alex had got the holeshot, took the lead and had a comfortable win, behind a close fought battle between Jamie, Aaron & Andy who looked good for a few laps, then tired falling back but still holding on to 4th place at the flag, Chris Pickersgill crashed out of second place in the championship on lap 5 as he came out of the Brooklands hairpin and Matt Bainbridge paid a heavy price for a jump start, his 10 second penalty put him back into 12th place.

Race 2: Alex didn’t get such a good start in this one, after the first lap and he was back in 4th place lap 2 and he made his way to the front and won the race by almost 10 seconds, from Jamie a very close Aaron “Azman” Easter and Andy who again had looked menacing in the first few laps but fell back; at the age of 27 he could not sustain the pace of the younger riders, every one complains or uses the youngsters weight as an excuse, could fitness be another factor in the way they are now dominating this championship?

I had been keeping an eye on Alex all day, after the first race he went out and played with his pedal bike, after race 2, I seen him kicking a ball, when I went to get him to take him back to the hospital that night he had already been to the circuit Paramedics and had the dressing changed. Now I put great faith in the circuit Doctor & Paramedic’s ability, they are a fantastic bunch and as Alex seemed to be “FINE”, we left the trip to hospital for the journey home on Sunday night.]

We get an update on the latest for club racer Alex Gault as he takes on the Pembrey circuit in South Wales for the first time.

Rounds 4 & 5 of the CB500 Cup: Pembrey

Rounds 4 & 5 of the CB500 Cup took place at “Pembrey” on the South West coast of Wales. This is the first time we have visited this fantastic 1.5 mile circuit and Alex loved it. Don’t know what it is about Welsh circuits; perhaps it is their location, the sea air or the friendly staff but they all have a holiday camp feeling and Pembrey is no exception.

With Alex never having been to this circuit before, and this being the only circuit on the calendar which Alex can test at before the race, we took advantage of the test day and made the trip down on Thursday night after Alex finished school arriving at the circuit around 1.30am Friday. Waking up to glorious sunshine Alex was out on track for the first session which went very well. A change in the gearing of the bike and out for the second session. In the third session another CB rider crashed in front of Alex coming out of the “Hatches Hairpin” Alex had no where to go and fell off in sympathy. That was fine, not much damage to the bike (brake lever, few scrapes) as I fixed it for the next session Alex headed of to play with his pals on his pedal bike – hobbling back into the garage soon after with a sore right foot, he’d fallen off the pedal bike. I set about getting a basin full of water for him toput his foot in increasing the temperature by pouring hot water from the kettle; this should increase the circulation and aid healing! All looked fine so I went of for a chat with a mate while Alex soaked the foot.

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When I returned Alex had his foot in the sink of our camper, running cold water on to it. He had come in to put his leathers back on for the next session, tripped on the kettle flex and spilt the boiling hot water over his “Left Foot”! It looked horrible a piece of skin about the size of your palm was hanging off the top of his foot! The circuit paramedics administered first aid and dressed the wound then I took Alex to the burns unit of the local hospital (it was actually the second nearest, as that one had a specialist burns unit). The doctor said it was a superficial burn and I would need to return and have it looked at again tomorrow to asses the damage and have it redressed. Then the doctor noticed the swelling on Alex “Right foot” and it was of to X-ray. Bl@@dy Kids, race motorbikes but then hurt them selves playing! Got the OK after the X ray only “Bruising” no broken bones! The Doctor laughed as he handed Alex a pair of crutches and asked “Which foot will you walk on?” On our return to the circuit I had decided to pack up and to return home to get him looked at in our local hospital, Alex suggested that as home was so far away and we wouldn’t be home till tomorrow anyway, we could stay over night, see how his foot was in the morning and go to the hospital at night to have the dressing changed. As we “were” so far away from home and was not looking forward to another night on the road, I agreed.

Round 5: Sunday

Thankfully it had cooled down a bit. Saturday had been scorching, reported 29 deg. It felt much hotter than that to me and Sunday was a merciful release from the heat. Again out in qualifying and again Alex took pole slightly faster with a 1.06.56 Aaron had upped the pace setting second fastest with a 1.07.57 knocking Jamie back into 3rd place with Andy B. taking up 4th again.

Race 1: 20 CB’s lined up on the grid and as the Welsh flag fell, Andy Jamie & Aaron had got away on the first lap, Alex passed Aaron going into the Hatches Hairpin but on the way out hit a false neutral and disaster for young Aaron when he crashed into the back of Alex. Alex stayed on the bike. However Aaron was out. Bitter disappointment he had looked very good for his first win in the championship. Alex carried on to the front of the field and won followed home by Jamie, Andy and Paul Russo. Alex was gutted for Aaron; after all are great friends and had been playing together all weekend.

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Race 2: Good showing by all the top boys in the class, made a bit more difficult as it started to rain quite heavily on lap 7. Just after, Alex had put in the fastest lap of the weekend a 1.06.48. The rain caused the top four to spread out a bit but it looked as if another race had started with a mad dash to the finish line when the next 6 bikes followed them up “speed straight” all separated by less than a second, fantastic! Sounded like a Lancaster bombing run over Bremen! Fantastic racing! The winner of that one if you can say there was a winner of a race like that? And taking 5th place in the race overall was Matt Bainbridge, after 10 laps had a race time off 12.01.44, Paul Russo12.01.47, Michel Shuker12.01.73 & Brian Gamble 12.01.78 Brilliant racing!

Thanks go out to every one who made it such a memorable weekend! For whatever the reason!

By my reckoning points very unofficially stand at:

Alex Gault 250

Jamie Hamilton 141

Andy Burbridge 123

Aaron Easter 112

Round 6 of the CB500 CUP takes place at Oulton Park on the 8th of July.