Aldershot 17th February

posted on 19 February 2008

Another report from Scott.

With a crowd of 13 bikers for the meeting on the 17th Feb, it was two heats again with the bikes becoming and increasingly important part of the racing scene at Aldershot.

The weather was very cold and dry, but without the wind of the previous meeting. This meant the track was dry and reasonably grippy but the frosty grass and kerbs remained damp for much of the day meaning an off was rewarded with no grip for the half-dozen or so corners.

The trick to get a quick time today was to use enough lean to corner fast but keep the bike upright if got it slightly wrong in a few places. Slippery areas were at the hairpin after the sweeper and directly under the rostrum as usual. Once again needing the services of the inexperienced car marshalls would cost you dear, so keeping on the black stuff was imperative! There was lots of grumbling in the pits about 'I can't make it work today' - I think we were spoiled by the fully dry conditions of the previous meeting!

Riders of note this week during qualifying: Steve Leake is notching up soem impressive consistency and finished second behind Jev; Simon made a leap forward adding two laps to challenge the established front runners, Clarking was striggling after a long winter lay-off in the sun ; Chris was finally showing promise with his newly 200-shod Nitro bike and newby Fred Martin (an old PB Racing team member in the late 70's!), the oldest rider at the meeting banked 10 laps in his first ever bike race.

Jev got the only 14 in qualifying and positions 3-6 were seperated by barely 3 1/2 seconds!

In the B finals, Scott got his head sorted finally and won both legs comfortably with a pair of 13 lappers. The expected challenge from Matt T didn't materialise due to a combination of bike, marshall and frustration trouble, leaving Matt B and Fred to grab podiums in the first leg and Chris and Matt B getting 2nd and 3rd in the second leg.

A big thumbs-up to Fred who did very well in his first meeting, taking it steady and beating several of the regular runners in the process!

In the A-finals first round, Jev, Steve and Roki were flying to get 14 lappers and finsihed in that order, with Simon only about half a lap back. (Whatever Jev told Sy to do on the bike clearly worked!) In the second leg it was a bit slower with Steve taking the honours this time ahead of Andy and Jev.

The racing is getting closer and closer all the time with one mistake enough to make the difference between TQ and also-ran.

I'll see if I can put together a marshalling guide for the car boys to go in race control for next time - it may also be worth demonstrating a live launch at the drivers meeting if two riders can be ready for that next time. If we can get them better educated we'll all have less stress and more enjoyement!

_________________
Scott Adderson
KP07s Black Shadow + NitroNev Racing Products.
Aldershot Bike Section PRO

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