I couldn’t keep up the pace of Guintoli and Takahashi who were now at the head of the battle. I was doing high 1min 49secs/1min 50secs where as before the race I thought I could do mid 1min 49secs consistently.
For the next 10 laps I was still about ½ a second too much on the group in front and that was as much as I could do. Then from lap 15 onwards my engine started to behave quite strange and wouldn’t rev now and again. At the start of lap 20 just as I notched up into top gear going down the start/finish straight the engine again cut out and this time definitely didn’t want to come good - and then it seized up, so I quickly pulled the clutch in.
A post mortem on the engine showed that somehow a bit of the rubber carburettor seal had broken off and worked it’s way into the float bowl and was blocking up the main jet so in turn there was no fuel coming through and they don’t like that much!
Obviously the whole team were disappointed along with me. The race started really well and unfortunately as the race went on it showed that we didn’t come across the right set-up in qualifying and we started to fade. At best I’d have scooped a few points but realistically we should have been still in contention for around 8-10th position. Looking at my rear tyre after the 20 laps I did it looked pretty well spent.
So we’ve got to look forward to Assen which I am looking forward to. Unfortunately Guintoli and Debon gained quite a few points over me so we need to make a mends from the next race.
In other news, I’ve finally got myself a road bicycle after many months of researching so a big thanks to Brian from Yellow for helping me out with that.
This weekend I have my first race called the Shropshire Highland Challenge; Guintoli is coming down from where he lives in Leicester to race in it so we’re going to have to work together for a change!
It’s 71.5 miles so were going to have to bide our time and be patient and then see how we feel in the last 20 miles and then attack! It should be fun. Wish us luck and I’ll tell you how I get on after Assen.
Chaz#57
