Aldershot 3rd February

posted on 5 February 2008 | posted in Race Reports

A race report from Scott Adderson.

The morning of the 3rd February dawned bright and cold, despite pessimistic forecasts of snow during the preceding week. 11 Bikers braved the cold to race, giving us two heats again.

The track stayed dry, mostly bright and surprisingly grippy all day. The recent rain coupled with the strong winds combined to clean and dry the track surface, meaning 28/29° lean angles were possible on 200 tyres. It was even possible to survive a trip across the kerbs and grass without just dropping it, just like a summer day but with the thermostat turned right down!

The first round demonstrated very clearly the effects of inexperienced marshals, when a crash could and did cost a whole laps-worth of time for several people. With e few changes to take advantage of the extra grip available over January’s meetings, most people did better in the second round. Early pace setters were Steve Leake and Andy Carless, with Scott joining them after round two and some excellent, close racing going on in the heats with a single mistake making all the difference. Chris’s NF Nitro struggled to start with, both wobbling and having vicious wheel spin from the kit Sirio engine. A bit of set-up help and the loan of a larger clutch pinion to calm the engine down improved things by the third round and he was making steady progress. The Foord’s also continue to do well, with Brian’s KP07 SB looking quick all day and Jack’s slower but steadily ridden TTe SS not very far behind. Matt Tims was flying with a new, more powerful, motor, recording the fastest single lap of the day but a variety of incidents prevented him from putting it on pole.

Jev missed all the qualifying due to having to collect his folks from the airport and returned in time for the finals. Due to the generosity of Brian Foord dropping from the last A-final place, Jev was able to start at the back of the A instead of dead last, which he used to good effect taking the win in leg 2.

In leg 1 of the A, there was some more very close racing, with Andy beating Steve by just 0.7s after a race-long battle with Jev just a few seconds behind. In leg 2, Scott got off to an early good start but couldn’t hold up a charging Jev who got past at half distance. Scott and Andy then had a close race to the end, swapping position a couple of times followed by a side-by-side dash to the line resulting in Andy beating Scott by barely a bike length and only 0.3s this time.

In the B final, Nev took a comfortable win in the first leg, but had radio trouble traced to a faulty TX pack in the second that prevented him from starting at all. Brian rued his earlier decision to agree to being dropped from the A to B-pole, son Jack beating him both times to put a huge smile on his face having beaten Dad!

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

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