It was round 2 of the Beach racing championship this weekend.
Unfortunately
again I was riding my Honda CR 250 in the 450 class as the CR500 still
has some work to be done before it is race fit.
My brother Tom
was back racing the beach this meeting and since he dominated the 450
mx class last year, I felt a little pressure to do well!
I followed him out in practice and passed him on the last lap which gave me great confidence!
Again,
I struggled with starts all day. I tried starting in 2nd gear this
meeting which was better that last meetings 1st gear starts! I think a
450 might be a little easy to make the starts with the more tractable
power delivery, but I can be too sure as I havn't raced one at the beach
in nearly 2 years.
I was 4th into the first corner in all 5
races behind Tom, Ben and George. In the first 2 races I made a pass on
Ben to finish 3rd.
Race 3, I met a lapper and made a bad decision to go around the outside, resulting in a 4th place finish.
Race
4, I followed George into turn 1, he turned right on me and rode though
the large puddle/hollow on the track which absolutely drowned me, going
down the back straight my bike started to splutter... I rode around
slowly to try finish the race to get point.. but by lap 3, I felt it was
doing the bike any good so I pulled in. The air filter was wet through
and water was sitting in the air boot. A quick drying session with the
public toilet hand driers and my bike was ready again for race 5.
Race 5, a repeat performance of the first 2 races, a 3rd place finish.
I'd
say it was one of the closest meetings in terms of racing and battles
I've ever had, great days racing with bike lengths finishes between us
4! Hopefully it'll continue the rest of the season..and I'm hoping the
my results will improve as I ride the CR500!
The
next race meeting is on Sunday 3-11-13, but theres a chance I'll be
doing demonstration flat track races at the Dirt Bike Show on the indoor
concrete arena! - I'll let you know!
Regards,
Tim