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The Preston Club meeting at Three Sisters attracted an entry initially of 18 but we ended up with 15 after a couple had to cancel due to injuries while another just didn't turn up. We were race 10 on the programme which was just as well for Phil Underwood who must have eaten the dodgy sausage role on Friday night as he definitely wasn't well on the Saturday morning. He did make it to the riders briefing in body if not mind but he and Pete Scott put in a performance near enough on a par with the FawltyTowers "dead guest" episode. In case anyone is wondering Pete was playing the part of Basil. For race one it was a draw for grid positions and the one who really lost out was Mick Baillie who drew 19 out of the hat. His first reaction was to put it back or turn the peg upside down there was no way he could get away with the first option and turning it upside down gave him 61 so 19 it was. When it did get underway it wasn't to long before Rob Eley got to the front on his GSX1100 but after a couple of laps it became clear that Andy Wimpenny was going to give him a hard time on his X7. This was Andy's first race for near enough two years and the first time he had raced his X7 near enough four. After quite a scrap that involved quite a bit of unintentional contact Andy eventually just got the better of Rob. Adrian Sanders, RD400, took third and he was followed by Terry Davies, GPZ750, and Shane Stocks, RD400. Following him was Mick Baillie, GPZ 750, and Nigel Griffiths, GS1000. Behind them came the 250s of Richard Insall and John Turner with Richard just getting the better of John by 0.3 second. Rob Patterson followed them home and he was in turn followed by Trevor Wagland. Trevor had a few problems with his Z1100 not being able to make its mind up how many cylinders it was going to fire on, not what you want round Three Sisters. Paul Sperry was the next finisher and he was in turn ahead of Phil Underwood. Pete Scott failed to finish while as far as I can recall Darren Wood never actually made it to the start as the clutch on his GS1000 failed on the way to the grid. By the time the second race came round the weather had taken quite a change for the worse and a few decided they weren't that bothered about going out in such conditions and decided to give it a miss. As the race went on the conditions worsened and towards the end it must have been a close call as to whether it would be stopped. Adrian Sanders ended up being the first home closely followed by Andy Wimpenny whose X7 it must be said went off song from mid race onwards. Shayne Stocks was next to finish while Mick Baillie was the first 750 behind him. Rob Patterson was the next to finish and he was in turn ahead of John Turner. Trevor Wagland was the next to finish being the first 1100 home. Pete Scott followed him home and he was in turn ahead of Paul Sperry and Terry Davies. Darren Wood was the last to finish he going out on Jayne Spooner's GSX400 as his GSX100's clutch problems weren't going to a simple fix. Steve Bailey. |