That Noah had his head screwed on you know….

I’m starting to get an idea how Noah must have felt as he was knocking together his old ark. From the first trickle of rain down his neck to all his clothes being soaked, concerns about hoof rot/trench foot. And that sinking feeling... As he woke up in the morning, with the rain hammering down onto his caravan roof.

Ok so Noah may not have had a caravan [this fact cannot be denied or confirmed] but with the seemingly endless rain at race meetings these days it’s getting to be a bit of a grind. I guess at least Oulton Park had organised tractors to pull the motorhomes & caravans out of the living area/swamp, if the lord works in mysterious ways on Sunday evening he was driving a ford tractor in Cheshire.

It’s not racing in the wet that bothers me – in fact it helped me get back on the podium, with other more experienced superbike cup riders struggling to keep up in the tricky conditions. Although climbing back into a set of cold damp leathers can’t really be classed as a “perk of the job”.

But it does seem a bit relentless as the last 3 races and the croft test all included A LOT of rain. And yes I have seen the forecast for this weekend… Yep that’s right… Rain?!?

Still I can’t complain, I don’t have to round up a load of animals and clean up their poo for 40 days (and 40 nights). And before anyone mentions it, all of our highly skilled team are perfectly rounded gentlemen, not animals, thank you!

A short week between Oulton and Mallory = a short blog.

Come back soon for a new and improved blog, with no religious reference (but probably still harping on about the British summer weather)

Ta ta for now

TT#21

Rain…Pah!... I’m bloody sick of it!!

For anyone who’s not been to Knockhill, its one of those places that when the weathers bad it’s BAD. It’s the only place I’ve seen rain go upwards.

Apparently there are loads of theories of how to read the weather there.
E.g. the weather is going to be bad when:
1) The sheep start running down the hill
2) You cant see the top of Knockhill
3) The tractor turns up ready to tow cars out of the field

As you may have seen on the telly none of those “weather vanes” were needed as the river running down pitlane was a clue that the racing may be affected

Still the marshals and race organisers did a cracking job and we got two races.

I was lapping faster every lap in each of the races as I got more feel and understanding of the changing conditions. Still, absolutely gutted to miss out on the podium by ½ a second.

We got an insight to the future at knockhill with the Rocket man. Now I’m not talking about racing legend (and former sideburn nurturer) Rocket Ron Haslem or his lad Leon. No I’m talking about the rocket man with a jet pack on his back.

A bloke who has made his own jet pack in his garage and now does demonstrations of his flying techniques. He’s a brave boy but what happens if his throttle sticks open?

As soon as the meeting was over we scrambled out of Scotland and headed to Croft for a two days test.

The first day followed on from Knockhill with rain showers so heavy that the test organisers threw the towel in the afternoon as the track was flooded.
By now I’m actually starting to enjoy riding a superbike in the rain.

Rain… It aint so bad after all!

Still the second day was more like it – a bit of dry track time and… wait for it… Sun!

It turned out to be a good test and should save us some time when we get to race there.

Enough two wheeled action?? Me thinks not… At the weekend headed to London to see the Tour de France – “Allez Allez”.

Enough of this I’ve got to got to oulton see you soon

TT#21