|
The 6th round of the championship was held at the New Era meeting at Oulton Park on 19-06-04. Prior to the day we had no idea how many entries we had or who we would be out with. Oulton is a circuit that we as a club have never been to before, although a few had prior knowledge of it. Quite a few took advantage of the test day on Friday to refresh their memories or at least get some idea of where it went. Some decided to walk the track the night before only to find out it took longer than expected. It's a long way round. On Friday night while scrutineering and signing-on, we found we had 25 entries, which was slightly better than expected. We were all running together with the CB500s, Hornets etc. On looking at the programme however there were two entered in the Earlystocks class who were not club members and to make matters worse we had no idea what they were running, as the type of machine wasn't listed in the programme. Several people mentioned this to me but as I said to them, at New Era meetings we have absolutely no control who or what ends up being entered in the Earlystocks class. If someone with a GSXR1100 enters the Earlystocks event, New Era will put them down in it. They will not check eligibility. It is similar to what happened at Darley Moor with non-eligible machines entering Darley's Earlystocks and Forgotten Era classes. Fortunately neither of these two entries turned up on the day. To say that Saturday started damp would be an understatement and in practice people were going off all over the place. Fortunately none of them were our riders. Some people found out that full wets aren't much better than anything else when you hit three inches of standing water. The weather was very changeable and by the time the first race got away it was more or less dry although it was a circuit that seemed to have different weather from one end to the other. Not everyone got out in the first race, Mostyn Bullock being one of them. He had come off his GS1000 on Friday and in Saturday practice it just wasn't right. There were potential engine problems that he knew would have cost time and money if he had risked it. Things didn't start off too well for Clive Wadey as he elected to start from the back the grid after his 1100 Katana started a random misfired on the sighting lap. He just didn't fancy the idea of it bogging down or worse on the line when there were 33 bikes behind him. Being at the back of the grid meant being right at the back behind all the 500s that were behind us lot. This was a problem shared by Rob Thorpe who had been reserve but at least he got out. With Clive out of contention it was left to Steve Cave to take the win ahead of Barry Swailes who actually set the fastest lap on his GPZ750. In 3rd was the RD400 of Adrian Sanders who looked from very early on as if he knew exactly where he was going. He didn't do the practice day but who knows. All I'll say it is he's already been up to three Sisters for a bit of practice. Behind him was Mick Baillie who was ahead of Pete Boyles as they took second and third in the 750 class. Cass was the next Earlystocks rider to finish, ahead of Andy Charlesworth. Then it was Clive Wadey on his three-and-a-half cylinder Katana who was in turn ahead of Richard Insall, the first 250 home. Terry Davies followed him and he was in turn ahead of Rob Thorpe who just managed to get by John Turner to take the 500 production class win. Following John it was Rob Patterson, Jayne Spooner and then Mark Taylor. Following them it was Howard Friend followed by Alan Butler whose X7 sounded a bit flat. Glenn Graham failed to finish as his RD seized on the 5th lap probably due to cracked exhaust caused in a first corner coming together. Colin Young went out at the same point a lap earlier with a broken chain while John Hardwick's X7 also let him down. The only faller was Pete Mabberley who ended up rather battered and bruised with the main injury being believed to be a badly sprained knee. The second race was 14 on the programme and by the time it got under way the track was damp in places but drying fast after heavy showers. Clive took no chances this time and went out on his spare a GSX1100. It ended up with Steve Cave taking first ahead of Clive and he was followed by Barry Swailes and Adrian Sanders. The next to finish was Mick Baillie and close behind, Pete Boyles. Cass was the next finisher ahead of Richard Insall who was in turn followed home by Colin Young. Andy Charlesworth was next just ahead of Rob Thorpe who was ahead of Terry Davies. Rob Patterson was the next finisher and he was ahead of John Hardwick and Mark Taylor. Alan Butler was behind them and he was in turn ahead of Jayne Spooner and Howard Friend. The only non-finisher this time was John Turner. Opinions that I got from people about the meeting were difficult to gauge and the weather didn't help matters. All agreed that the facilities were a step ahead of what we have come to expect at most circuits we run at and the actual circuit layout was impressive. However quite a few mentioned that they were a bit surprised that the actual track was so uneven, i.e. ripples in the braking areas and also that the place didn't have much of an atmosphere. This impression was probably due to the size of the paddock, the weather and the most barn/industrial unit type bar I have yet seen. Steve Bailey. |