Round 2 - Thruxton (18/04/10)

...After several apologies and a crate of Guiness for Jeff the bike was back in one piece and on it’s way to sunny Hampshire for more punishment. And punishment is exactly what Thruxton means to most 2-stroke engines due to the amount of the lap spent with the throttle pinned to the stops. Fast sweeping corners are my favourite things and with the 125’s circulating with average lap speeds of over 100mph I always look forward to coming here.

My excitement was short-lived though. After only a few laps into first practice the engine seized. As it didn’t lock up before I pulled the clutch in I was hoping the damage was minimal but when Jeff started to strip it down we had an inkling all wasn’t well when part of the piston dropped out of the exhaust. With the spare engine in bits it took some seriously frenzied activity and a generous helping of colourful language before we got to the stage of being able to run up the bike again. But with 10 minutes until Practice 2 it ran up a treat and all seemed well until I tried going through the gears on the stand... 1st, 2nd, Neutral, 3rd, Neutral... 4th... b*****ks! Needless to say we missed the final practice and just hoped to be ready for tomorrow’s qualifying sessions.

Another late night ensued and we finally felt ready to give it full beans - and they must’ve been full strength Heinz 57 with a dash of Tabasco as we posted it on the second row of the grid in 6th place! :-) Even more sunshine was forecast for race day but we thought we’d switch back to the softer compound Dunlop I was on in my better qualifying session and hoped it would last the distance. I got a flyer of a start at the lights and almost hit the back of Fordy in the drag off the line. With only Brown, Lodge, Clark and Ford in front I tucked in and made the most of it! After Church I’d made up a place and then drafted Brian Clark to edge into 3rd for the briefest of moments before he took me on the brakes into the complex again. I crossed the stripe in 4th, feeling comfortable, enjoying every moment and hot on the tails of the leading 3. After a few laps we’d gapped the next group back by several seconds but I still had James Ford on my tail and he pulled a pass on me at Church. I couldn’t make an immediate counterpass on the brakes into the complex and crossed the strip in 5th and then our luck started to turn. Accelerating out of the first corner the bike lost drive which was exactly what had happened in first practice. I felt absolutely gutted and I couldn’t bring myself to pull in. With all the slip-streaming behind the leading bikes the engine had been running hot so I tried off-setting my position to get some cool air and covered the clutch with a finger expecting the worst but praying for it to hang on. It seemed ok rolling it on half throttle through the 2nd gear chicane but then struggled to rev around the next sections of track. I suddenly dropped over a second off my lap time, dropping off the leaders and watching William Dunlop sail on past until two laps later when I tipped it into the complex, let the clutch out into 1st and it finally locked up and turfed me off. Two engines down and two weeks til Oulton Park ...now where did I put the Wet & Dry...