Walter Hayes Trophy

Firstly I wasnt even going to do this race! Luckily a Mr Richard Misters offered to lend me his car!

Motocross Onboard

I have finally pulled my finger out and got some headcam footage on a motocross bike.

I went practising here last night: http://www.apexmotocross.co.uk/gallery.php

So here it is:



This one is a cool, showing more of the handle bars etc

Life on the road.....

First of all well done Matt - very well deserved!!

Been a while since there has been an update from me. Last you heard I was about to do my first motocross race..... well four weeks later I have not only done my first, but my second, third and fourth!! With three motos each day that’s a fairly whopping 12 races and all for £120 entry fees (the cost of lunch at Silverstone).

Its seriously hard work, and the gate starts are very intimidating (20-30 riders all starting level going for the first corner). But its an amazing buzz and very full on. I crashed a lot to start off with (4 times in the first 3 races alone) and the second round in Ross was very, very hard. But by the time we got to Wet Wales for the third round I was beginning to get the gist of it even on a borrowed bike for the last race of the day (broke mine in a crash). So last weekend I was getting there and was running sixth before..... you guessed it, a small crash on the last lap - ending up tenth. The two other races didn’t really go according to plan, but with my first top ten finish it’s encouraging :-)

It has been fair eventful and I seem like I am always on the road at weekend clocking up the miles to various tracks.

So far I have managed to:

Break my helmet (a bike landed on it!).
Broken 4 spoke out of my front wheel (crashing into another rider)
Ridden over someone else’s bike.
Got my leg caught in between the swing arm and wheel of another rider's bike - luckily he stopped!
And generally bruised and battered myself - but I am having fun!

Some pictures here (more to follow).

Pictures From My first Meeting at Tirley (Gloucestershire)

Pictures From Longdon (Worcestershire) Last week:

First Motocross Race

I have got my first motocross race on Sunday. Should be totally different to the enduros I have done - 30 riders with a gate start and races that last only 10 mins! It is very cut throat through and people go for it a lot more - so a bit of trepidation (I have never even watched a motocross race before).

I have also changed my 250 for a 450, as I wanted more power. I certainly got it!

Motocross requires a license (like car racing) and just like car racing I look like a freak in the picture:

Richard's Borthday.

A good day was had by all for Richard's 29+1 (apparently that’s funny if your old).

Rounders and BBQ were brilliant (I scored 3 of our teams 6 rounders) and we finished up with a sesh in a local pub.

Pics here:

Moto GP

I was lucky enough to be given some Paddock passes to the Moto GP qualifying at Donington Park on Saturday so I spent the day looking round the paddock and the pits. We watched the 125 qualifying form the Pit Wall!! Unfortunately press and TV only for Moto GP session, but we walked out to watch from the outside of the craner curves, the bikes are awesome and so quick. I have followed it for a few years, but never seen one in the flesh before - I am DEFINATELY going back.

Here are some of the pictures I took:

KTM Pit

Dani Pedrosa walking to his garage before qualifying - he put it on pole by over half a second.
Nicky Hayden's Honda warming up
A 250 Pit
Behind the 250 Pits

Racing yesterday didn’t go too well. Never even got the start line due to Dave’s brain failure relating to whether our bikes run on DIESEL or not!! An hour and half striping they carb in the mid day sun was fun though. Dave did well and led for a while, until……….yep the diesel found it way into the engine (he had topped his up with diesel, I had filled mine)!

At least my bike didn't need cleaning!


I also bought a photo printer last week and I have been printing masses of pictures that I have taken for my wall:

Onboard Videos From Combe

There is Matt's onboard above. He drove very well and took the points home - good lad!

And Heres mine below, Unfortunatley in conked out just before the end of the first lap. Still get a bit of action though!

My day started well. Rich and I got to the circuit in pretty good time considering we got fairly drunk the night before at a beer festival. I qualified well with sixth (staring straight at the back of Rivett's gearbox). Unfortunately the revs still arnt working properly on my dash so I got a fairly poor start inabel to see if I was going to bog down or spin the wheels up (I bogged down as it happens). I Fell to about eighth but felt quick when I got maimed from behind at the end of the first lap - it put me on the grass and I lost a load of places/time. I pulled some of them back, but yellow flags and a few laps behind the safety car ruined my recovery drive and I ended up ninth - pretty rubbish but thats how it goes sometimes.

See if you can spot which goon hit me:





The week before I also did my first enduro with Dave and I sharing the same bike. It was ok, he did more laps than me, and I was pretty tired but good experience!

Little Brothers New Zealand Trip

My Little Brother has just returned from New Zealand after a 6 week trip. It sounds like he had an incredible time with Kayaking, White Water Rafting, Motocross and crucially drinking!

He also did TWO skydives, heres a vid of his first:

Experimental Exhaust

Dave (avec silly shorts) and I have been experimenting with a new KTM exhaust - it sounds awesome and looks cool too!

I don't really know why I took a picture of of his dad's Morgan three wheeler - but its taxed and MOT'd now so I am hoping hes going to take me for a spin in it pretty soon!!

Seconded.....

Absolutely Brilliant Weekend.

By Monday night I was exhausted...falling asleep on the motorway exhausted!

First thing on Saturday morning my car had no rear end and as the bellhousing had only just been re-welded after a shunt at Brands!! Anyway Dave and I worked form 10am to 10pm to get it together. That plus a late night then a 5:30am start (really Richard) on Sunday to finish it off. Got oil pressure eventually and we headed over to Dave’s house to finish off his Jedi as he was also racing the next day.

Jedi Complete we headed out to Combe and got there for 8pm where Rivett was already waiting/making friends/being worshiped by combe regulars/going to the pub with strange men. Anyway we got a space in the paddock and had plenty of time to unload and set-up!

We got up early (well 7:30am) and enjoyed a bit of a chill before qualifying as the cars were ready to roll! I had two sessions for qualifying as I was doing the open single seater fun race at the end of the day. I was a bit pensive before teh action started at Combe is known for being a really specialist circuit (teh champiosnhip only uses one track so teh locals are good) and "outsiders" historically never do taht well there.

First qualifying went well and I found my feet again after a 2-month break. This was the first time I had driven the circuit properly in the dry save for a terrible test day last year when my brakes kept failing! It started off bit damp and then dried - shame because I was consistently third or fourth on the timing screens in the damp! Anyway it dried, and I got held up by backmarkers on every quick lap I did but managed ninth - so not too bad and in the top ten! Meanwhile Dave's engine dropped a valve in the monoposto qual session after only two laps so he was going to miss that race and use his dad's car in the open fun race.

I managed to knock another half second off my first qual time in the second session (for the open fun race) to get down to a 1:13.4 which landed my 14th overall and top formula ford (we were in with all kinds of single seaters with a lot more power and wings!). Dave was awesome and put it on pole out of everyone a second a lap quicker than his dad in the same car! His little brother wasn't too shabby either in sixth. Matt didn’t do this session, as he wanted to concentrate on FF1600s.

It kind of went a bit wrong about 1pm.......Dave's dad got tripped up by a backmarker whilst running third in the monoposto race and knocked three corners off his car! The decided that instead of taking three corners off Dave’s car (with the blown engine) that it would be quicker just to swap the engines, make one car form two so Dave could take up his pole position for the race later. So with Dave swapping engines I was left without a helper, which was a shame because......

It rained shortly before the race prompting everyone to put on wet settings. We went to the collection area, and waited, and waited, and then to the grid.......and it had dried out! With no helper to change the rollbars and damper settings I was in trouble (as I watched everyone else on the grid change them!) Matt's dad very kindly dropped my tyre pressures to dry so that would limit the damage!

I got a good start and got up to around seventh when I started going backwards, with these settings the car wasn’t working and I was getting wasted! I dropped back to around tenth or eleventh whilst I waited for the tyres to get hot (with the car so soft it could work the tyres hot enough to make them grip) finally they did and the car started to grip, and I was on one.......bit of a collision at the second chicane with Matt's championship rival (his fault) and I soon picked of Chris Acton, Bob Higgins and then started to reel in Paul Barnes. I managed to lunge him into camp on the penultimate lap only to miss a gear and allow both him and Bob Higgins to get along side me! We went three a breast, but Barnes bottled and I got squeezed allowing Higgins through again. I made a move round the outside of hammerdown (a flat out right hander) and stayed on the outside throughout that whole section, through the very fast Tower corner and stuck there until the second chicane where we both ran wide (no a lot of room there) and Bob spun leaving me with one corner to go to the flag and sixth place and a 1:12.9 so another half a second off! Matt and fastest lap with a 12.1 so 8 tenths off with semi-wet settings - Brill!!

Dave meanwhile gave up with the engine change so was unable to take up his pole for the fun race. It absolutely lashed it down just before and it was super wet. Some people got caught out with wet tyres and didn’t make the start and some pussied out on the green flag lap as it was too wet! I didn't work my tyres hard enough on the green flag lap so despite my good start I got passed for the FF1600 lead on lap two and lost a fair bit of time. I soon got it dialled though, and started Reeling in Nelson Rowe (the leader) unfortunately I pushed too hard and spun putting me down to fifth! I managed to pull it back to third in the end but no worries - its a fun race! Still had fastest lap by almost a second and was only a tenth slower than Dave's brother in his 180hp slicks and wings Jedi!

All in all a great day. Two races, little sleep and early mornings took their toll though and I was in bed early with my wrist aching still! (I have now bought a support for it until its all better!)
It was so much fun my next race is going to be......................... Castle Combe - 25th June

ps - I have already cracked my fancy nose cone! Alex Ames cut me up passing me in his F3 car in the fun race, then slammed on his brakes for the corner leaving me no where to go......so I hit him up the gearbox (wheels locked trying to avoid a big accident) which was enough to crack my nose and enought to tip him into a spin ending in the tyre wall. I guess F3s have better better brakes than FF1600s, sorry Alex.........

Matt chasing me into second chicane in qualifying

Another New Toy!

Well I have sold my Kona Downhill Bike (harldy rode it) and have invested in a new (probably more dangerous) toy.

So here is my 2003 KTM 250 EXC I am going to try and get to as average as I worked up to when I was sixteen when I had a Kawasaki and do some enduros with my dad (who's 450 is pictured behind).

On four wheels: Both Matt and I are out on Monday at Castle Combe, thanks to West Midlands Fatseners I have got a new set of tyres plus thanks to M-Tech composites a very tasty composite nose cone:

Richard is going on holiday so he wont be there but I am sure he can look on here to see what happened!

I have got a fairly busy weekend planned putting all my rear suspension back on as well as the bellhousing and gearbox, here goes........

Busy Weekend Planned!

Well a lot seems to be happening this weekend contrary to our quietness this week!

Matt "the" Rivett is racing in round two of the Castle Combe Championship on Monday. He is in Scotland (accchhh) tomorrow so hes got a lot of travelling to do! Either way he is well up for it and his car is all/close ready!

Rich has gone down south (sarff) to see his rents + friends and is actually going to fix the damgae to his swift sustained at Brands! He is going to come back up to watch Donkey Kong at Castle Combe on Monday.

Meanwhile I have got an action packed weekend ahead with half the normal amount of wheels! Mini-motorcrossing tomorrow and on saturday (with full sixed ones too!). Seeing a friend on Sunday and the watching my dad take aprt in a historic motorcycle hillclimb on Monday!! Downside of this is I am likely to miss Matt's race - I am going to try and dash down there late afternoon (he doesn't race until 5pm anyway!) so we shall see. Meanwhile I have got to get my cracked bellhousing welded up before the end of the month in time for Anglesey - its off, but need someone to actually weld it (magnesium is hard aparently!)

Updates coming next week: Headcam of My dad's motorbike enduro last week, headcam vid of his hillclimb on monday, pictures of mini bikes, moutain bikes, pics frrm matts race and pictures of rivett riding a motorbike!!!

NW Championship RD1 - Anglesey

Well its official - I now lead the Northwest Formula Ford 1600 championship!

But that only half the story as Matt says! It was a really hard weekend for all three of us with a mileage between us being around 1200!!

Combe was good, and as ever the atmosphere was brilliant and Matt was on top form (second quickest in qualifying without a nose cone!!) but got robbed my the conditions in the race. Still he was fifth and his main rival (Ed Moore) didn't finish - so roll on Easter Monday for him!



After much ****ing around with hotels (turns out its quite traditional to book them - especially when theres a netball tournament on in Bangor!) and something to eat we finally got to a hotel on Angelsey around 9pm. We landed on our feet with a a family room for £40. Very nice it was too with nice beds (bunkbed for Matt). After ahem a few drinks and after Richard hiding my phone and all the toilet roll we actually got some sleep before waking up (without the alarm call we ordered but never got I might add) and did the usual **** the clocks have changed panic!

Qualifying went well with third - 3 tenths off poll, and surviving more than a few leary spins unharmed!

It hammered it down before the race and we quickly changed the setup (record pace thanks to Matt and Rich)and bolted on some new tyres. I got a good start, and after Ian Gough loosing it at the hairpin I was up to second and onto John Hutchinson in the lead only for the red flags to come out! (incident at the third corner). After a 20 minute delay we finally re-started and I got a bad start and dropped to fourth. I was into third again by the second corner and with a 15 minute race figured I would just bide my time and see what happens at the front. I made a move on Gough for second on lap 3 only for the door to be closed, rather than hit him I tried to get around the side only to spin!!!

I fell down to around seventh - and assumed I would be lucky to get back onto the podium! When I passed every car except the two leaders in one lap I figured I might still be in the hunt! I pulled the gap back to "hutch" in second and put a move on him round the outside into the radar chicane - he didn't see me (or lost in to the inside and slid into me) and we tangled, I had the choice of the tyres or his side pod, so I had to keep turning into him to avoid the rather tough-looking tyre wall! We ended up stopped and tangled, I floored it and we managed to un-hook each other! Even more bizarrely no damage!! Off I went even further behind Gough, add this to someone dumping every last bit of his oil (plus a bit more) on the track and it was looking tricky! Despite a half spin and and over-the-grass moment I caught Gough on the penultimate lap and after we fought through what seemed 100 back markets I got him round the outside of the hairpin to take the lead with one lap to go - a bit of a relief as you never know the laps remaining on a timed race! Needless to say I took the last lap very steadily and took the win by a tenth! What followed was much relief and a lot celebrating and much beer and Chinese at home!

Could NOT have done it without Matt and Rich so thanks for all you help and hard work guys!

So there you have it - I am leading a championship overall for the first time ever :-) but this time next week it might be all different with Oulton Park on Saturday for round 2!

Next race - Oulton Park 1st April - Round 2

Broken Wrist

My right wrist 6 weeks ago and 3 weeks ago - Feels fine now, but not very strong :-)

Justin at Mallory in 2005

This is an account of our 2006 and beyond.

Matt is racing in the Castle Combe FF1600 championship, and I will be racing in the North West championship. Richard plans to do a mix of different stuff.

Next race: Brands Hatch 19th March - all three of us out together for a non-championship race!

Out of Racing we all Mountain bike and plan a few trips. We need to wait we for Justin to recover from his broken wrist though...