Somebody stop me!

It doesn't usually take me this long to update this page after a race meeting but anyway, here it is.....
We arrived at Shakespeare County Raceway on Thursday afternoon to set up camp, which wasn't the easiest task due to high winds, for a while i couldn't let go of the marquee or it would have blown away/self destructed, despite having 2 barrels full of water tied to it. Eventually the wind died down and we managed to secure everything properly.
Fridays qualifying was interrupted a couple of times with short rain showers but we were still able to get in 3 rounds. The first run was the obligatory messed up one, with the richness of the carbs fouling one plug on the startline and i ended up just pottering to the finish. With a fresh set of plugs in and another half turn out on the lectron needles we went for another run. Unusually the track wasn't too good and the tyre spun a little off the line and set the bike slightly aiming for the wall, the time was a not too bad 8.74 @ 155.87mph.
Next run was very similar but i softened the clutch as well as leaning off the carbs another half turn, and this resulted in a slower 60ft time but with a similar et of 8.69 @ 155.87mph.
At this point it seemed many people were having trouble getting down the track we were qualified easily in the field. Rather than change the clutch setting i decided to give it another test, unfortunately due to 2 oil downs that day the qualifying sessions were seriously delayed and with only one lane usable it wasn't till 4.15 in the afternoon until we got chance to run. This time there was no wheel spin, the 60ft time was back where it usually is, and it went 8.57 @ 156.29mph.
Unfortunately it wasn't enough and we missed out on qualifying by just 0.1 of a second.

Knowing the chances of getting a run as first alternate were slim. and needing to test some more changes i hatched a plan to pack most of the gear up that evening and go to santa pod in the morning for the RWYB that w as being held there. However .... after looking on multimap and seeing just how far it was to the pod, and being plied with alcohol and hospitality on my wander round the bike pits that evening i decided against it.
Earlier that evening (before i knew i hadn't qualified) i drilled out the nitrous and fuel jets to a size 28. The reason for this was firstly i'd given up trying to lean the carbs out any further and instead decided to throw a bit more nitrous in with the hope it would burn the excess fuel and turn it into a bit more power. Plus I'd drilled then the next size up so i would be getting a bigger shot too!
On race day then i took it down to the line with little hope of getting to run. However in the Dave Peters vs Nick Daniels race, Nick lost fire during the burnout and couldn't restart, so without any messing (as last time at the pod we were too slow at getting in there) i shot forward into the water box, did the quickest burnout ever and rode it up to the line. Meanwhile Dave had either lost fire or being shut off whilst in pre-stage. Anyway he got it restarted and was in stage immediately so i went in and the tree ran down. The bike launched well but at around one second in (before 60ft) it nosed over momentarily, spluttered a little and then took off again. I'm not sure what happened but it flew the rest of the track and crossed the line with a time of 8.70 @ 158.36mph.
What i didn't know at the time however, is that they shouldn't have let me run ... i just confused them with my "i'm here and going to runn-ness". the reason being that an alternate cannot be used once a bike a has reached the burnout box.
Oh well, at least we got another run and with a new PB top speed too. Not quite the improvement i hoped for but it's something.

All pictures courtesy of Sam

Well done to Ivan Birch for taking the event win, and to Stu, Paul and Nick who all went personal bests. Hopefully i didn't forget anyone!