Heat
1 in the Thunderbikes, #99 fell in front of me, his rear wheel hit my
gear changer, bending it under the crank casing, and so I was unable to
change gear out of first, and so I had to quit the race. Heat 2, the
weakened gear changer again bent under the crank casing meaning I could
not change out of first gear, so I had to pull out of the race again.
Heat 3, I finish 1st from the back row. 10 lap final, starting with last
pick on the middle row, I hit neutral off the line and was dead last
into the first corner, I got my head down and started passing the field,
I was up to 2nd by lap 9, and on the last corner I aggressively passed
#26 up the inside to take the win!
After
struggling in practice, I did not get off to a brilliant start in my
first 450 heat race. I didn't seem to pick up the technique required to
ride Oxford track as I would have liked. The more aggressive and harder I
rode, the more people passed me, you had to ride very accurately, it
seemed the slower you went the faster you went, haha. I think that was
due to the large rut on turn 3/4 and the holes/bumps on turn 1/2. I
finished 4th in all of my 450 heat races.
Starting with first
pick on the middle row in my semi, I didn't make a brilliant start, but
managed to build speed throughout the race, passing riders to finish
3rd, which I was pleased with this considering my heat results, which
left me with 1st pick on the second row for the 15 lap main event.
Again, I failed to make a good start, but I did manage a good first
corner, and so I passed a good few riders up the inside on the exit of
turn 2 which put me into 4th position. Lap 5, Trapmore passed me up the
inside but failed to hold his line, so I shortly passed him back. #68
then passed me for 4th place putting my into 5th, I chased him hard for 3
laps but just couldn't put a move on him! I'm afraid that's all I can
remember, I believe I caught my right foot-peg in the fence, which
caused me to fall, also causing 5 other riders to fall as the fence had
been pulled across the track. Unfortunately that left with a broken left
collar bone, broken left radius (fore arm), small hole in left lung and
cut in my spleen. After 5 days in Oxford Hospital, I am now home and
healing well, just a little stiff and bruised. It's going to be 6 weeks
until get my casts off of my arm and until my collar bone is healed, but
unfortunately 3 months until I can ride again, just because I cannot
risk banging my spleen!
Tim Neave