Big congrats to Chris with his twins
Another great retrobike raid on MM and fortunately although hardly blazing the weather was at least less bad than last year. Thanks to the following
-Andy C for the sound system
-Spence and Church End for the beer
-Team Captains for pulling it all together
-Tim and James for giving me a lap
-Wookie for taking BBQ duties on the Saturday
-Andy, Mark and Andy for helping clear base camp Sunday morning
-Ed for being special
-Mark for kindly (unwisely!?) letting me borrow the VitT on Sunday
-Andy for the rice, chicken, samosas, urinal and intruding
-My Mum for the cakes
-Everyone for making the effort, turning out for RB and riding / supporting.
Friday night BBQ was good as ever, beer and music and chat flowed. Good to meet old friends and new faces as ever.
Saturday saw first taste of the new track. Pretty good in places, less so in others. Went out mid afternoon a couple of hours after rainmageddon. Seemed to drain fairly well, no clogging mud BUT it was mega slippy. Managed to bin it on the Kenda Koffin or whatever it was, bettered the first and seemingly more technical bit without issue but then managed to fall on the double track afterwards. Just passed a modern rider trippoding down, almost called them a 'sucker' but fortunately didn't given the chen shins gave up and landed me on my arse. Second time was on the mat at the end of the red bull timed section, the genius who puts a piece of slippy matting just before a bend needs a medal. Somehow contrived to sit on the nutted rear axle of the mirage, one inch to the left might've meant an awkward trip to the medical centre ('honestly, I slipped'). In all some good bits but most seemed like a lot of climbs would be tough on a dry day without 1000s of tyres passing. Better than Eastnor? Maybe as a course but overall no. The lap was pretty dull with zero support for 99% of the way round.
Saturday night saw more beer, another BBQ but no authorised heckling due to the fact we were miles from the track.
Picked up another lap for the 10 man SW team Sunday am, packed up and left.
All in all a top weekend but can't help but feel although the new venue has some pluses it is on the whole not really up with Eastnor. No trackside camping seems a schoolboy error. The arena seemed small and sparse this time. Even in the foul weather it was cool to sit and watch the lights dance up the far bank at Eastnor, couldn't really see any of the course apart from in and out of the arena.
Next year we need to give our attendance at this event some serious thought....