Oulton Park Practice day.

My first round back after getting back from Afghanistan was Oulton Park in the Cheshire countryside.

I settled slowly into the Friday test day. I hadnt been on a bike since March, and I had also never been around Oulton Park. This could be interesting. After walking the track on Thursday evening I realised that Oulton Park would take a lot of learning before having the bottle to really push it. So Alex was roped in to show me and Leigh around on the Friday test day. However the weather was amazing, sunny all day and barely a cloud in sight.

Leigh was in the same situation as me, having never been round Oulton before so we started off steadily following Alex's line's as best as possible, but within 2 laps he had well and truly buggered off. I looked behind me and Leigh was nowhere to be seen either. I pottered round trying not to do anything stupid on the blind corners. Eventually the session was red flagged. Upon my return to the pits I found a pissed off looking Leigh and a bemused Alex sat there.

Leighs bike was still churning out less power than a suffocated moped and Al's new forks were far from being perfect. So for the rest of the day until all of our problems were sorted we were pretty much on our own.

The second session was once again red flagged and I had felt like I was making progress. Taking about 4 seconds off my time. But as I returned to pits Leigh and Al were both there again. Leighs bike was producing uneven power, which during the corners was scaring him half to death, and Al's bike decided to spring a leak from the radiator due to it being mounted too far forward and rubbing against the wheel. Day over for Alex!

For the rest of the day I steadily improved my times getting down to a 1.58:7 which I was quite happy with. Leigh fettled with his bike after every session, tinkering with the wiring loom, checking connectors and just about everything else bar recruiting voodoo magicians to cast spells on his poor bike. And Alex quite justifiably just skulked around the garage after not being able to get a spare radiator for tomorrows races.

Here's to a good day tomorrow.

I'M BACK!!!

Hi everyone.

Well as you can see I am safely back from the "Stan!"

I had a great time to be honest, but still gutted to miss out on the Pembrey and especially the Cadwell Park round as it is my favourite track.

Still, I have been following the championship while I was away and I've been surprised how open it has been. Also top stuff from "Lethal" Leigh Hutchinson, taking over my championship lead. Nice one mate, but don't get too comfy up there bud.

I'm now languishing down in 6th position in the championship standings but hopefully a few good results can see me back up into the top three.

Feel free to come along to any of the meetings. I'll be publishing where I am in the near future.

Chris. #86

New Minitwin Website.

Just a quick post to say a massive thanks to Yvonne Baird and the team for setting up the new Minitwin racing website. Hopefully this will broaden an already massive following of one of the best classes in club racing.

Link, http://www.minitwinracing.co.uk/

See you all soon!

Chris #36/#86

The cameras are out, best do my hair!

Sunday was scheduled to be the Televised day for Thundersport GB so if I didnt get on the podium today I would be dissapointed that I had peaked a day early. So I tried to focus on where I could loose some time around the track. With the conditions much calmer and the sun breaking out I couldnt exactly blame the weather so it was all down to the rider.

I knew that with Dan Hopkins falling off twice yesterday he would be more than up for the races and Richard also seemed quicker than me almost everywhere apart from a few corners.

I trundled onto the grid for the first race and saw a line of grid girls on the front row. If only I had been a few seconds quicker, not that I would have looked of course. But I managed to regain my focus and watched for the lights. I got off to a blinding start and saw both Rich and Dan dissapear behind me. I didnt want to push too hard for the first few laps but I tried to stay with the JP riders for as long as I could. But it wasnt long before they were back on me and past me.

Dan seemed to be gone very quickly but once again Rich was in sight. I pushed hard, finally breaking the minute barrier on lap 8 but it wasnt enough . I crossed the line in 3rd but I was more than happy with my efforts.

The last race went pretty much the same way but with Dan and Rich getting better starts it almost seemed a foregone conclusion. I did begin to catch them toward the end but I caught a back marker at the wrong moment and lost a lot of time through the Bus Stop. So once again I crossed the line in 3rd.

Luckily there were no interviews as I seem to forget how to speak when it does happen. Alex picked up two more trophies on Sunday and Leigh was happy to make it through the weekend unscathed. However his bike does need a little work now. Also congratualtions to Poppy who rode well all weekend in the Streetfighter B class.

Unfortunately that is my racing season over, until June that is. When I will be back for the Oulton Park round.

Well atleast I can say I lead the championship at some stage, I think? I'm still waiting on the sheets to be published.

See you all in June, and dont forget to watch MotorsTV on Monday 30th March at 7pm to vouch for the bullshit I write on here. My memory does get a little blurry when racing. Channel 413 on sky folks.

Bye for now.

Chris.

The best awning in the paddock. Pictured left to right, Ian Popplewell(17), Alex Hutchinson(77), Leigh Hutchinson(15) and Myself(86).

Mallory... What a day!

After a good nights sleep on Friday night I woke up and couldn't wait for the first race. I went out on my warm up and apart from it being a tad windy, everything felt great.

The first race was pretty chaotic with 2 restarts ontop of the main start reducing the final race to just 4 laps down from 10! With the pack dissapearing around me on the grid I was quickly up to 6th position overall and before I knew it the chequered flag was out. I punched the air so hard as I crossed the line realising that I had finished 1st in the minitwins! With Alex winning the JP race and Leigh finishing 3rd in the Minitwins.

We killed a bit of time by tinkering with the bikes and watching a few races before our 2nd race. The second race was a little less chaotic but still involved one restart reducing the race to a 7 lapper. I got another great start and was in the lead in the Minitwins again for the first lap before Richard Willsher managed to get past me going into Edwina's. I was on his tail for the entire race and on the last corner of the last lap he seemed to miss a gear. I crept toward him but unfortunately it wasnt quite enough. He pipped me to the line by 0.077 of a second. However I was still more than happy with another trophy. Leigh managed to bring a now ailing bike home in 4th and Alex crossed the line in 2nd.

Feeling happy with our day we had our usual Lasagne (Thanks Jax) and Guiness.

I couldn't wait till Sunday.

Thundersport is go!

The first round of the season with Thundersport GB at Mallory Park seemed to come round very quickly after Brands Hatch. After all it was only 4 days. But Jacqui and I arrived on Thursday night to a semi set up awning. Cheers Mick! It would be quite strange going out on the Friday straight into qualifying, but this was only due to how many entries they had received. I was feeling relieved that I did the track day two weeks ago, otherwise I would have been lost. The race was to be run with three different classes in one race of 32 competitors. Minitwins, Moto 450 and Junior Powerbikes. We would get an overall grid position but the results would be for class only.
The bike was scrut’ed by 0700 on Friday morning and I was eager to get out into my first 20 minute qualifying session. I went out and seemed to be on the same pace as the track day very quickly, setting a good solid time. This placed me in 9th position and I felt that I could push up further in the second session. Leigh however was still feeling very battered and bruised and was about 2 seconds off his usual pace but he pushed on regardless.
We were out straight after lunch and wouldn’t you know it, it began to drizzle. Nowhere near enough to warrant putting full wets on, but just enough to put that nagging doubt in the back of my mind. Only because my previous two crashes last year were in similar conditions. However just before we went out it stopped and the track was bone dry.
I went out and settled in nicely but then it started again. My confidence dropped and I became rigid on the bike, and I didn’t improve on my time. I dropped down to 12th on the grid with everone around me improving, which unlike BEMSEE would be my position for the entire weekend. Making qualifying all that more important. Leigh also didn’t improve on his time and was back on row 5. However his brother Alex managed to qualify in second position.

I'm Famous

Well after a pretty avearge Brands Hatch round with BEMSEE I was over the moon to find that myself and Leigh had been published in the latest edition of BSN. Making the front cover! Awesome. Thanks to Alex and Leigh for pulling the strings on this one! You may recognise the picture.