Jays Jottings 

A Yorkshire Challenge

For a few weekends a year myself, Bert and Steve venture a bit further to attend one of the bigger national meetings, usually because we know someone from the organizing club and they want to bolster their club officials with some expertise.

Definition of expert:-
An ex is a has been
A spurt is a drip (or drips in this case) under pressure!

Seriously though, most club officials can talk their way out of a self made mess at club meetings, but at national meetings, there is a lot at stake for the riders and things can’t always be undone, the best way out of a mess is not to make one to start with!

We had contacts with Pickering through Rob Bradley, to whom I had been subtly suggesting that Pickering should have a crack at the Qualifier after the success of the National there a few years ago, but Rob had to make sure he had already qualified for the meeting so he could help on the day! The other contact was Janet Cooper who kindly helped the Dunmow Club run the Inter Centre at Ugley in June.

The other Pickering stalwart that we know is Dave Brown (The Yorkshire version) who managed the Yorkshire Inter Centre Team to success this year.  For those that don’t know Dave, he is a fearsome character and Pickering club blood runs through his veins, they run a variety of other disciplines as well as Grass Track and Dave is always at the forefront of operations. I heard a story about Dave that when a rider rang for Regs for a Pickering Club Grass Track, Dave asked him who he was “Never heard of you” he said snapped in a broad Yorkshire voice.  “Where do you come from?” enquired Dave. The rider cited his home town to which Dave replied  “its too far for you to come” and then put the phone down! 

Dave is not as bad as his bark, but you need to get beyond the bark to make progress!

So, off to Yorkshire, we piled into the Laguna, its an eco diesel now, so we always travel back from the meetings on cheap fuel, the waste cooking oil from the chip van!

We arrived at the end of my drive at 09.58 and had to wait 2 minutes as we said we would leave at 10.00. The latest acquisition is a Tom-Tom (a legal acquisition as it happens!) it has Europe on it too – (but it took 4 hours to update Europe on the PC from new!) and speed cameras were added just before departure so that the trip would not prove too expensive!

It was a 4 hour plus trip and we made excellent progress and it looked like we would do it in 3.5 hours until we got just past York racecourse, which is where Dave Knowles lives, his father Chris would be doing the starts at the meeting, the traffic on the dual carriageway slowed and then stopped. It was stop, start for several miles and Bert, who had already been asking when we was stopping for lunch for the past 23 hours, spotted a service are with a McD in it, I don’t particularly like McD I said and was almost past the slip road when I spotted a fish and chip shop in the services, luckily I was in the nearside lane else I would have certainly caused an accident as I swung violently into the slip road.

Wow they were some fish and chips  - and they served a pint of John Smiths with it too, we were beginning to like Yorkshire already!

Bert was very wary about coming on the trip – the last time we went up to Yorkshire three years ago he was propositioned by a buxom Yorkshire lass (more like a lassie dog I thought).

It was on the Sunday night just as we walked into a pub in Pickering, she strode across the tables (yes –the tables!) to make a lunge for Bert (She should have gone to spec savers!) Bert panicked and said – “Lets get out of here”, I said we weren’t leaving just yet as this could make a good story for the club newsletter…………………

Back on the A64 the queue got worse and we was down to 3mph, I confidently predicted that once the 2 lanes had gone down to one it would move again – WRONG!  As we spotted the end of the dual carriageway in the distance, the traffic jam, in single file now, wasn’t moving at all and people were getting out of their cars. All patience was finally lost and we sped down the cross hatching in the outside lane to the end of the central reservation and did a U turn!

We detoured around the York ring road and proceeded North towards Pickering on some narrow back roads, trying to persuade the Tom-Tom NOT to take us back onto the A64.
We found plenty of sheep, pretty ones according to Steve but then again, he is not usually fussy!

We arrived at the track an hour later than estimated and found that Rob Bradley had arranged for a mates caravan to be delivered to the track for us to sleep in that night – now how about that for service! Top man!  (The caravan was much better than my own one that we had decided not to drag all the way up there in case it fell apart (again). A caravan really does the mpg on your car, the Laguna managed an incredible 48mpg at a steady 77mph on the way up – oops I mean 70mph ‘cos you are not allowed to do 77
mph!

Club members were busy setting out the start gates, Paul Cooper was trying to calculate how wide each solo start grid would be on a 16 yard wide track and 8 riders on the start. “Try 2 yards each” was the response from the onlookers, but obviously Paul’s paces are not a yard long ‘cos it turned out the bloke in grid 8 had 3 yards to play with!

Paul then grabbed by Track Racing News and stuck his head in it, I was trying to keep it out of sight from everyone – buy your own if you want to read it, insufficient sales means it will not survive, so don’t let anyone read your copy – wave it in their face and then hide it ! Paul was due to ride at Newport for Sheffield Speedway the next day, the forecast was heavy rain and he was convinced he would get to Newport and then it would be called off.

Had to balance the page out with something - Ed

I got the job of pacing out the sidecar start gate, “Easy” I said, until I realized that 6’s don’t go into 16!  The chairs ended up with 2 yards and a bit each, the “bit” varying from gate to gate!

Rob Bradley tested the gate to make sure it worked ok “It worked in my garden last night” he proudly announced to everyone!

Track done (well almost, someone had to raid some road works for the last 100 metres of trackside parking rope! )   

 

We adjourned to the bar, where Bert and Steve were already leaning against the bar. Bert had bet Rob Smith a tenner that Rob wouldn’t get a drink out of me. I was about to buy him one when Bert whispered in my ear “If you don’t buy Rob Smith a drink then I will give you a fiver” 
Sounds a good deal to me – that makes me £8 quid up before I have even started!!!!

 It was a beautiful sunny evening and the beer went down well, at about midnight – or shortly thereafter the beer tent closed, but not before I had a received a lecture from Tom Perry’s father that my forum predictions were wrong and that Tom was going to win tomorrow, at least I think he was trying to say Tom Perry, the beer was getting the better of him and his speech was slurred! Mark Warren was one of the last to leave the beer tent, he was searching through the grass for 5p pieces, he had found two already and thought some more may have been dropped……………  (No chance of finding money on the floor if Bert has been in the vicinity earlier – he is like a hoover!)
Sunday came and my predictions went out of the window before the event started, Martin Sturgeon (My predicted solo winner) had to withdraw after a bee sting, his hand was like a football, what a long way to travel and not ride!   I persuaded Martin to show his hand to members of the TRC to prove it really was bad and hopefully they will have some sympathy with regard to a wild card.  You don’t drive from Kent to Yorkshire with no intention to ride!

My other predictions?  Harland Cook didn’t finish his first race, and Charlie Saunders had serious bike problems all day, and made the start of a couple of races by the skin of his teeth, not ideal preparation for the race. On one occasion he sat in the pit box and when he went to push start it the clutch slipped so badly it wouldn’t even turn the engine over! (I guess the ball bearing had dropped out!)

My sidecar predictions were better with 2 of my 3 predictions being on the podium. Richard Thomas didn’t get a souvenir hat on his parade lap as they had ran out, so he said he would have a wulf jacket instead “In order to get one of those you will have to win today” he was told. “Ok – I will see what I can do “ he replied!

Practice went well, but after practice there was a lot of loose on the pits bend so Rob Bradley turned digger driver and started to move it, scraping it and picking it up is easy if you know what you are doing, but Rob had never driven it before.    


He received 3 differing instructions from 3 different onlookers before choosing to back pull the loose and then forward push into the pile of loose to pick it up.  Getting it wrong on the digger can mean a big hole in the track and a disaster!!!

Race 1 and a nightmare for the Clerk. The race was stopped early after someone fell and the bike remained on the racing line, quite right to stop it - but how many laps had been completed?

It turned out that the leader had started his last lap before the red flag came out, but all the other riders had slowed and changed positions on the bend before they were due to start their last lap. 

Those riders were convinced they should have a re-run. It was announced (quite rightly by the rules) that as the leader had completed 3 laps then the race would not be re-run.  But then the lap scorers pointed out that they had not got any other (accurate) positions for everyone else for 3 laps. So the result was announced as 3 laps for the leader and as at 2 laps for everyone else.  Fair?  It depends on who you overtook on lap 3, but it was in accordance with the rules, but some people were not happy - but hey but that’s racing!  I was glad I was only doing the Scrutineering and pit boxes on this occasion!

The reverse situation arrived later in the afternoon after Trevor Colvin somersaulted on the back straight, the leaders had gone past the clerk when he put the red flag out and the riders insisted they had done 3 laps!  But in fact the flag went out after they had passed the clerk but before they had got to the finish line to pick up the last lap flag, but of course – they had not seen it!

News filtered through from Newport speedway that the meeting had been called off one hour before the start – bet Paul Cooper and his dad were spitting feathers, they didn’t want to go in the first place – but that’s speedway for you! The mileage they got paid didn’t even cover their diesel; let alone wear and tear on the van, so to you youngsters out there – STICK WITH GRASS TRACK!

The other big spill of the day was Neal Owen and Kevin Colbourne who launched upwards (and eventually earthwards) on the far bend after coming into contact with Andy Gribble’s machine (or was it Nicky Owen – Andy’s passenger!) on a slippery first bend.

The radio message said Neal had cut his face (Neal ALWAYS comes back with a cut face after an accident – it must be something Welshmen do!) much worse was Kevin Colbourne who couldn’t be moved for a considerable time, and when in these situations, as an organizer or an official, you have to do what the first aid tell you (they can sometimes be persuaded to get an air or road ambulance in – but if they refuse you are in their hands!)

And so, eventually, after two lengthy hold ups, the meeting ended at around 5.30pm, just as it started to rain – phew! 

We were going to stay overnight on the Sunday, but it just kept raining, and when the beer tent closed we decided we had enough and changed plans, we started the journey home. We hadn’t gone very far when we saw the fish and chip shop again – was we hungry – yes we were! We decided on a take away this time, to save time, which meant no John Smiths with it L (I can’t balance fish and chips and John Smiths on my knees when driving!)

After the food stop the Tom-Tom said arrival in Thaxted at 11.28 – damm - the pub shuts at 11.00. We pushed on and as darkness fell the time of arrival had gone down to 11.03, hey – ho, if we hit no queues we may get a pint of ESSEX ale. Bert and Steve fell asleep – you get a much better standard of conversation from them when they are asleep.

Arrival at Thaxted was 22.38 – Yea! The two rip van winkles couldn’t handle a drink so they toddled off home, and I retired to the pub for a pint (or two) of Adnams ale!

Ok, ok, ……………so it’s brewed in SUFFOLK! (So there is something good about Suffolk after all then!)

Jay

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