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Wales? Usually a wet place? The weather forecast was not looking too brilliant for the test day as well as the weekends racing. Not that it matters, even if its wet you race.

I went to Pembrey back in 2001 on my ZX7, up to now, that was my one and only visit. Friday was our test day, the forecast said showers, perhaps it would be a tyre lottery. Having spoken to some locals at the circuit, they said that it should be fine until about 15:00, sounded like good news to me. I had selected a gear ratio of 15/46, the circuit is bigger than Brands Indy and rumour has it, slightly faster, not a lot though.

We set up base camp late on Thursday night, Dave had already got to Pembrey and had saved space for us. Soon after we arrived, the other member of the trio turned up, that’s Wal. We had passed him on the way up the M4. We were also joined by Ian, he hasn’t had a good year up to now, he’s knocked himself out twice already.

We seem to have brainwashed a few people into thinking green is the fastest colour, Ian is one of them. He asked for something green to stick on his otherwise red bike. I duly obliged, I had a broken piece of fairing from my ZX7 with me. He stuck it inside his fairing, time would tell if it worked!

Test session one went quite well, I seemed to be circulating quite well and had soon worked out where the lines were. Braking points were hard to achieve, the circuit is flat and doesn’t really have that many features to give you a guide, it was a case of trying to pick a mark on the track to judge from. I seemed to be running ok on the gears that I had selected to start with. As the pace picked up, I started finding that perhaps it wasn’t quite correct though.

During the lunch break, I changed the rear to a 47 sprocket, so I had a session running 15/47. This did not appear to make things any better. My mate Dave was running 14/46, the same as I use on the Indy circuit at Brands Hatch. I changed to that and gave it a go. It felt good, perhaps not quite correct but close. We had managed 5 nearly dry sessions, just a few spots had come down during the day. With one session left to go the heavens opened.

I installed the wet wheels and went out for the last session, still on 14/46. Boy was it hard to see. I got some clear track, then I caught up with my friend Wal. I changed lines to get away from the spray coming from his bike. I soon made the pass and got clear track again. Not wanting to push too hard, I got a surprise when he came back past. Even though it was only practice, this was a good opportunity for me to practice riding in the wet. I overtook him again, a couple of laps later he came past once more. I overtook him yet again as well. It was good fun and nice to have a practice battle.

Dave had practiced well, I don’t really think there was much to choose between us. Ian had gone well, perhaps slightly slower but it was marginal and it was certainly the best I had seen from him all season, the green bit of fairing was working! Kev also seemed to be doing ok, things were looking good for all of us for the racing ahead.

According to all the paperwork we received with our entries, we were to race as a mixed class this weekend. That should mean qualifying, something that we hadn’t done since the very first round back in March. Everyone seemed to be really confused, rumours were that we wouldn’t qualify, we would start on the grid behind the other bunch. Talking to other people in the class, there wasn’t anyone that had the definite answer.

We usually get the bikes through scruitineering on the Friday after practice, this time we couldn’t, it wasn’t open. A big queue was going to happen at 07:30 on Saturday then when were told that it would be open. So we sat down for the evening with Wal and Pam, David and Jaqui, Ian and Sarah. We all seemed to be tired, 6 twenty minute intense sessions had taken their toll. My legs just didn’t want to function, infact, I could hardly walk. I just had to hope that a nights rest would get them to recover enough.

We had been called from Duncan to say that both he and Slappy were on the way up. Coming up by bikes through the pouring rain. That’s some dedication. We went to bed, the boys hadn’t arrived as yet. We got a call late on, they were still on their way, somewhere on the M4 still! I went to bed, phone next to my ear so that I could answer and tell them how to find us in the paddock area, we were tucked away, out of general sight. With no lights on in the area, it wouldn’t be easy for them.

I never heard the phone go, probably because it never rung. Duncan had decided that I would be asleep and didn’t want to wake me by calling. I was rudely awoken at just gone 3am by a helicopter hovering overhead. I got up to see what was going on. When I got outside, I was greeted with the sight of 2 bikes parked up. Slappy came out of his tent and we stood there having a chat and a smoke. Apparently Duncan and Slappy had been riding round the paddock for half an hour trying to find me. Some kind soul had pointed them in the right direction. How Slappy managed to get his tent up in the pitch black I shall never know, Duncan was lucky, I had already done his!

I went back to bed, all I could hear now was Duncan’s snoring! The caravan was all shut, no windows open. There was an awning containing the bike and tools etc before you got to Duncan’s tent! I drifted back off and was rudely awoken by the alarm at 06:30.

I got up early to check the bike over and prepare for the punch up at scruitineering. I wandered around and found out that scruitineering was open at 07:15. I dashed back and got the bike out, accompanied by Slappy, we went off to get scruitineered. The bike soon got through, just a couple of minor things pointed out, a missing dust cap being one of them! We took the bike back to base camp where I adorned kit, this also has to be checked. Back we went, straight through with flying colours. Then it was in to the office to sign in and ask the question that had been tormenting some ‘Were we qualifying?’. The answer was affirmative, come ten past nine, we were to have 15 minutes to put in our best time and get a grid position.

The bike still had the wets on it from Friday’s last practice. The track was drying from the overnight rain already. I put the dry wheels back in, nice new Super Corsas adorned them. A couple of laps to scrub them in and then I would have to go for it. A good grid position was going to be important.

I did what I could, I managed to get the bike on 13th, Dave was right next to me in 14th. The times showed that there wasn’t really anything between us. The battle would commence in the first race.

We got called for our race, we waited and waited in the collecting area before making our way to the grid. The parade lap comes first, a good chance to have a test getaway. Mine went well. We all completed the lap, warming the tyres and having a good look at the track, just incase something had changed from our qualifying earlier in the day.

The grid proper formed. I got the revs up, clutch at the bite. The red lights are on, the mouth is bone dry, the tension oppressive. The lights go out, we are away and gunning it for the first corner. First, second, third, fourth, fifth gears. Slam on the brakes and round the corner, a sea of bikes. The first corner of this circuit is a hairpin bend, I hadn’t been looking forward to this at all. I made it round, in the middle of lots of jostling bikes. The next corner is a right hander, called Spitfires, round that with no issues. I have made a pretty good start I think, Dave must be behind me somewhere. I don’t have time to look back to see though, I just concentrate on going forwards. Into the big left hander we pile, still jostling around. So far so good. Lap one completed, still many of us sandwiched together. We take the hairpin again, this time going from 6th down to third, perhaps some into 2nd. I got round it again and completed the second lap. This was going well, I couldn’t really complain. I was right behind Ian Gilder who is usually in the top three in my class, he wasn’t getting away either. The race continued, I got passed by Charles Hodgson, I was determined not to give in without a fight, and fight we did. He would overtake me, I would go back through. We diced for quite a few laps and I finally got across the line in front of him. What a race, and what a battle for a good few laps. Best lap as a 1:05:111, it actually turned out to be my fastest of the weekend, but only just.

My race naivety showed here though. As we approached the last corner, there was a coming together between Ian Gilder and Martin Bissell, both not far in front of me. If I had not been mesmerized by this, I would have hit the throttle as usual and I may well have finished third. Unfortunately I didn’t until too late. It was so close though. I was 0.018 of a second behind fourth. Fifth wasn’t a bad result I suppose, I was still happy with that, especially as I had taken great personal pride in winning my battle with Charles Hodgson. So that was valuable points in the bag, Dave had come home 8th, I had gained a few precious points on him, the gap was down to 25 now. Ian came home behind Dave in 9th, his best result of the season so far, this bit of green fairing was perhaps making a vital difference!

The second race, I was still nervous as hell about that first corner hairpin. We set off, another pretty good start and I got round once more in the sea of bikes. Round the second right, through the left, back to the right, down to the old hairpin and then red flags! We all got stopped on the track, apparently there had been an accident at the hairpin, something I had been expecting to happen. It just seems a crazy corner for the first one of a race. Wal pulled up next to me and told me it was Dave. I was gob smacked! He didn’t know how he was but said that he wasn’t moving. I don’t think that I can actually describe how it feels to be sitting on the track when you know that your friend is lying there. You can’t see him, you can’t find out how he is, just stoney silence. Rumour soon started spreading amongst us that Dave had clipped another bike and gone straight over the handlebars.

We sat there for what seemed to be an eternity, it was probably ten minutes in reality, that’s still a long time in racing terms though. A long wait is never good, you fear the worst. Eventually we got sent to the grid again, I can’t really say that my mind was on the race now, I wanted to know how Dave was. Its racing though, and you just have to get on with it. I made a good start again, Charles got past me after a couple of laps and I thought that this time, I would just sit behind him and get him on the last lap. It turned out to be a silly idea, I got barged off the track on the left hander! I had to stand the bike up, if I hadn’t I surely would have crashed, perhaps along with the Looney who barged me off. This is a fifth gear corner where we are pulling around 100 mph on the SV’s. Fortunately, well perhaps, there is a cinder road off the left hander that is used for the super moto track. I exited off circuit down this. The bike was squirming on the cinders as I tried to keep control. I had visions of a nasty crash, I decided that the grass was a softer option and headed for it. Somehow, I regained some form of control and got back on the circuit. That was more than a brown trouser moment. I had lost a lot of places but I was still upright and in one piece. No chance of catching Charles now, I was gutted. I finished the race, 10th place. Not bad I suppose in reality but that was no consolation. I really wanted to know how Dave was, I also wanted to do some serious mischief to the twat who had punted me off circuit.

I got back to base camp, absolutely steaming mad. Slappy came into his own here, he basically dragged me off from going and having it out with the guy who had punted me off, this just happens to be the same guy that Dave had gone into when he crashed, and also happens to be the same rider who we thought was mighty dangerous during practice on the Friday. I checked with Wals other half as to what was happening with Dave, she didn’t really seem to know much. She thought that he had been taken to the med centre but that he seemed to be ok. I got changed and went down to the race office, they didn’t know but also said that he had been taken to the med centre. His bike had been brought back to the scruitineering bay, I looked it over and was surprised to see virtually no damage. Back to base camp I went and all four of us, Myself, Justine, Slappy and Biggus loaded into the van and headed off to the med centre to see if there was anything we could do, also to get an update. As I had walked through the paddock area, lots of people had asked me for news. The med centre is outside the circuit, with no tunnel or bridge we had to wait for the current race to finish before we were allowed to cross. Off we went as soon as we could, Slappy in the back of the van, ‘hanging off like a monkey’ through the side door!

We got to a deserted med centre, I couldn’t find anyone there at all. Eventually someone turned up so I inquired about Dave, apparently he had gone straight to Camarthen Hospital, about 20 miles away. I decided that it was probably best to go back to base camp and sort out what to do from there, Jaqui had gone with him to the hospital and Emily, their daughter was being looked after at the circuit by Gran, the family had come to watch Dave race. We waited for news, original news had been good in that Dave had been knocked unconscious in the accident but there was no sign of anything else wrong. So we waited with baited breath to find out. Life continues though, we had to get on and that’s what we did. Justine played with Emily, kept both of them occupied for quite a while.

We stoked the BBQ up for some well needed fodder. I calmed down a bit. The guy who caused my off track excursion came over to apologise, not something I accepted readily I have to say. I had already found out that a fair few people had told him that he was out of order, I don’t think that he had apologised off his own back, he had been told to. It actually seemed to be one of the talking points of the paddock, as I wandered round later on lots of people asked me what had happened and those that had seen the incident said that it was a disgrace.

We finally got news, Dave was round and there was nothing broken or wrong with him. Perhaps a fortuitous escape from injury. He came back to camp late in the evening, rather groggy. So I think we all wished him well and let him go to sleep. I kept looking in on him throughout the rest of the evening to make sure that he was ok. Dave and Sandra came up, more support. A long way to come just to watch little old me. They took camp for the night and got up to date with the days events.

Sunday morning came, I signed in to get my practice pass. I wanted to try an extra gear change at the old hairpin to see if I could get more drive from the corner. It’s a reasonably tight corner, but, my gear ratio was upsetting the back of the bike too much going down two gears. So I tried it out, and wasn’t comfortable. Slappy helped me change the gearing, I decided to go back to original practice spec of 15/46.

Dave surfaced soon before we were to go out. He seemed ok, perhaps an appearance of having had a few too many, he certainly didn’t seem to stable on his pins. He wished us luck, and off we set.

The warm up lap went well, I tried the double down change at the hairpin, way smoother on this gearing. Time would tell if it was the correct call though. The race set off, we piled into the first corner again, another time I got through it without much aggravation. I could and should have done better in the race. My mind was wandering back to the events of yesterday. I was dreading seeing the guy who had punted me off the track. Well it happened, in another somewhat dubious manoeuvre he went past me, I was right with Charles Hodgson yet again, I have no idea how there wasn’t a collision. Whether it was just in my head or not, I wasn’t going to get involved. The guy was not in my class and I didn’t need to be battling with him. Anyway, I didn’t make progress at all, I had been battling quite well up to that point. It all went a bit pear shaped. Rob Mallinson passed me, then I made a mistake and Martin Bissell got through. I soon had him back though. The last lap was on, Martin passed me. There were four of us right close together now. I got back passed Martin, just ob and Charles to go. I got alongside Rob going into the last corner, all that was left was Charles on the run to the line, I thought I would get it. Rob has some experience, he got outside me on the corner and stopped me accelerating, this stopped any drive I had and let Charles away, it also let him passed and absolutely gutting for me, Martin dived through underneath as well. That’s racing for you I suppose, I wasn’t happy though. I came 7th, I suppose that I shouldn’t really complain but I wasn’t exactly happy with that. I got duffed up by more experienced people, something I need to learn from.

Charles came to see me after the race, apparently the looney had been at it again. Charles was none too happy with him either and was thinking of complaining. Having heard about the antics of said looney behind me, I went off to the office to have a word. They didn’t seem at all interested, apparently seeing as he had apologised over the antics of Saturday that made it alright! That’s not my take on it and never will be. So I left the office, I had said my piece and voiced the fact that I thought he was a looney.

In my fourth and last race of the weekend, I again got away well and circulating in a favourable position. Looney tunes got past me, not a problem really, at least I knew where he was. I followed him for a good few laps, I was better down the start finish straight and thought that I could have him into the hairpin. He had completely got in my head though, I wasn’t wishing to risk it. I just stayed right on his backside. It turned out to be a bad move though, this hesitancy enabled Charles to get past once more. He is one brave man, he tried taking looney at the hairpin, I feared the worst, and boy was it close. I am not sure if there was a collision or not, but looney went out of the race. I had a huge smile inside my helmet, perhaps I was safe after all. I never kept up with Charles, he was on a mission. I came home 6th, not far behind 5th. I was alive and in one piece, that was the important thing.

We packed some of the stuff and watched some friends in other races. Dave and Sandra set off back home in their camper. Slappy and Duncan soon after on their bikes.

We were supposed to have been staying at Daves Sunday night, I didn’t think that would still be on the cards. To the contrary, Dave said that the company would be nice. We agreed to stay the night. Dave had to see the medic at the end of the day, this gave us time to stow everything away nicely, watch some of the races and say cheerio to many of the people that I know. Dave was not in a fit state to drive, I was a little concerned about them getting home. I asked Jacqui if she wanted me to drive Daves van and trailer, she readily agreed. I think she has only towed once before, its actually not that easy. So Justine drove our set up and I drove Dave’s. We seemed to make reasonable progress and had a nice curry supper before going off to slumber land.

The next morning, Dave seemed a little better, definitely not 100% though. We had a little wander on the common followed by a lovely pub lunch.

Dave has assured me that he will be out there at Brands GP for the last round of the championship. I hope that he is fully recovered. After the weekends results, I believe that we are dead level on 201 points in 7th place in the championship. All to go for between the two of us, something we have been waiting for all season.

So it was a difficult weekend for me. I did reasonably well results wise. I was decidedly unhappy about Daves mishap. I was livid with the looney, I just hope that I never land up on the same track again. I was over the moon with Ian’s results, by far the best he has done all season. As for Charles Hodgson, hats off to you mate. I thought that I could battle with you, the bar got raised by you and I couldn’t get over it.

Huge congrats to Barry, the Rookie Champion of the season, he won 3 out of the four races, the guys good, very good. I wait to see what he can do in the future, he could go a long way and deservedly so on what I have witnessed this season.

I would like to say that the marshals and medics did a great job this weekend, there seemed to be more crashes than usual. Perhaps this was because we were in the centre of the track, incidents seemed more obvious.

Thanks to everyone for their words of encouragement and support yet again, also their concerns over Dave.

A big thanks to Dave and Sandra for coming along, it’s a long way for a day out! Massive thanks to Slappy and Duncan, guys, you are unbelievable. All that way in atrocious weather just to watch me, you deserve a medal.

Hope to see many of you at Brands, it’s the last round, lets hope its good and we can celebrate at the end of it.