Cadwell Park – 3rd May 2009

With the long trip to North Yorkshire out of the way we looked forward to the first of 3 visits to our home track of Cadwell Park.  We had already booked up to test on the Saturday before the Bank Holiday racing and this proved to be the best of the weekend’s weather.  But the new bike is hard on tyres and we decided not to go out at the end of the day in the last session to save the Dunlops for the race days.

Sunday morning started with rain and so we set off to do 3 or 4 slow laps to bed in brand new wets and then came straight in to change back to slicks as the sun came out.

Race 1
So we lined up in 6th place on the grid on brand new tyres and had a dreadful start off as the red lights went out.  It was pretty good fun to then work on getting past a few bikes that had got better starts but then it came as quite a shock to have the 250 Honda GP bike of Adam Hoare come up the inside at Mansfield.  His nimble bike was so fast in the corners and Paul was now beginning to struggle with the clutch problems that still hadn’t gone away.

After 8 laps Paul had managed to keep rapidly approaching Paul Noble behind him and was pretty happy with his 6th place which was actually 5th in class

Race 2
During the sidecar race just before the Thunderbikes were due to race, the clouds broke and there was a light shower across the Lincolnshire circuit which brought out the red flags for the 3 wheelers.

Spanners were flying in the Black & White camp but then just as wets we going on the bike the sun came out and the track was bone dry again.  So Paul went down to the assembly area on slicks as did most of the field.

2 minutes later the gate opened for us to go to the grid and immediately the clouds opened too.  Disaster!!  Paul nearly fell off at Barn corner doing less than 5mph and had to pull straight into the pits.  Race over!

Only 2 bikes had chosen full wet tyres and they went on to run a respectable race in the conditions while Paul watched from the dry of the commentary booth.

Round 4

Cadwell Park – 4th May 2009

Bank holiday Monday was supposed to be wetter than Sunday but as it turned out we kept the slicks in all day and had some enjoyable racing.

Race 1
The bike felt good for the start of race 1 on Monday and Paul was away with the leading pack for the first half of the race.  In fact, Paul had superb speed through hall bends leading to the hairpin and considered a move on John Coughlan but quickly changed his mind and was very close to making contact with the back wheel of Coughlans Aprilia.
But then the clutch gremlins returned and as the pack picked up the pace it became impossible for Paul to match them.  Unfortunately he also lost places to Ricky Chadwick and Jamie Harrison as his straight line speed was eroded away every lap.
So 8th place after 10 laps and it didn’t look good to be able to sort the clutch for race 2.

Race 2
The team adjusted the clutch as best they could before the last race of the weekend but as Paul tried a racing start on the warm up lap a big ‘clunk’ through the lever announced all was not well still.  With only a fraction of normal clutch travel remaining the bike was virtually impossible to get off the line and Paul was way back in the pack through the first corner.  Onto Park straight and the bike hit the red line immediately without really accelerating at all.  Ten laps of this was going to be painful but Paul got his head down and tried his hardest.  Trying all he could, short shifting through gears to minimise the clutch slip, Paul managed to actually get past Simon Rooms and Paul Noble.  The green Kawasaki of Mark Parrinder was just in front and for 3 laps in a row Paul lined him up for a pass at the mountain, twice at the bottom and then a crowd pleasing attempt to pass on the back wheel into Hall Bends.  But the pass was never really on and Paul came home in 9th place.  It was great racing, just a shame Paul was battling the bike more than the rest of the pack.

So many thanks to all the friends who came to support us at Cadwell, when the pressure is on as much as it was it really helps to have all that support help and advice.

The bike has been stripped down as soon as we got back and it appears the Sigma slipper clutch was packed incorrectly by the previous owner.  Fortunately its not a hugely expensive fix and we would like to say a big thanks to Neil Spalding of Sigma for all the advice that should give us a better than new clutch for Anglesey at the end of May.