ROWRACIN- Storming Allington

[oldboyonrgv]

For the 6th (or is it 7) week in succession the Miller bandwagon went racing again this Sunday.
This one was another round of the Portsmouth MX club summer series and was at Allington Lane nr Eastleigh, another track that Row had not raced the 65 on and so had never raced around the long track here.
My expectation for the day were for positions in the 20-30’s

The track was bone dry and hard pack so dust was expected to be the biggest problem during the meet and would also mean that speeds would be up.

Row did a track walk immediately after arriving and said that there were no real technical sections although some of the jumps were ‘awesome’

No problems in practice although Row did his normal slower than a slow thing on the first lap and then visibly speeded up in the second and third. The bike was then gassed up and the chain adjusted ready for the first race.

RACE1 – 15 second board goes up and the revs rise, Row clicks it into gear– 5 second board – GO! Row hits the throttle, wheelies out of the gate, gets third gear and nearly holeshots the start ! he gets bumped a bit coming out of the first bend but is up with the front group and hanging in there, round the back of the track I see another few get passed him and they come round after the first lap with Row in 11th place with 4 riders hounding him for the position, Row is giving as good as he gets and there are constant positions swap’s throughout the following laps, to my surprise Row doesn’t gradually lose ground but hangs in with the group and is right in the thick of it throughout the race, he does a couple of overtaking manoeuvres (like braking into a turn on the inside, back wheel in the air) causing me to have kittens! The fight goes on until the chequered flag comes out and Row finishes in 13th place.
What a start to the day. Row just smiles and winks at me as he comes of the track.

Half a bottle of coke and a banana later and we are back on the line

RACE2 – Row is really keyed up for the start of this one - 5 second board and Row creeps forward, gate drops, but Row has crept just too far and the gate drops onto his front tyre, he drags the bike back, his gate drops and he flies off the line, he manages to claw back places into and out of the first bend and passes me in about 19th place on to the back straight, he’s playing catch up to the group he was battling with in the first race, takes him 3 laps to get to 16th place and tag into the group, he’s also being chased by another rider who is making up ground, the other rider overtakes then falls off on an up slope causing Row to change his line, no problem, Row just cuts to the inside and overtakes another rider whilst he’s at it !. Into the last lap and Row gets gifted a position when another rider falls and cannot get back up to speed before Row gets pass. This time its 14th plac eand it looks like our target for the first half of the year (top 15 by end of June) may be on the cards a month early !

Row flops into his chair, I give him a good spray of cold water and towel the dust off of his face, He’s very pink and sweaty and just wants to chill out before his last race.

RACE3 – well this is it, if Row can bring it in, in the top 15 we have achieved our aims for this point in the year, I have a word with Row on the line and tell him to be safe and bring it home. Once again he flies off the line (no mistake this time) and immediately latches on to the top ten group, then as they get around the back of the track, cloudburst! and we are deluged, hail and rain is lashing down, the riders appear and its immediately like an ice rink out there, riders are falling even in a straight line, the top layer of dust has been turned to slush on top of the hardpack chalky underlayer !, they disappear off for their 2nd lap, I couldn’t see where Row was because we are all busy picking up fallen riders. They come round to complete the second lap and its still raining, the track is just getting worse, I manage to count Row through in 9th place, he’s managing to keep going despite the conditions. Finally they stop the race as the track is now un-rideable and I run back to the track exit to meet Row “nightmare Dad” he says “I was running it in 4th gear and slipping the clutch and it was still spinning the back wheel up”, Row is soaked to the skin so I get him into the van and get him changed into some dry clothes.

I start to break camp and pack away all of the gear, thinking that they will call a result for that race. I wander up to the race control hut to find that they are going to re-run the race at the end of the meeting and that means they are out again next !!, I race back to the van and ask row if he wants to race again, he nods, we then have a manic 5 minutes while we get Row changed back into his wet muddy gear (luckily I had a spare top) get the bike gassed up and get him down to the line, he’s straight onto the line and ready for the race – phew !

RACE4 – the track is now drying with large puddles ready to catch out the unwary, Row is shivering with the cold wet gear he’s wearing - Go- Row fires it off of the line and gets into a midfield position out of the first bend, he then does another stellar ride (aided by some fallen riders) and brings it home in 13th place including a small off when he got it cross rutted.

I give row a huge pat on the back when he gets back to the pits, he’s full of smiles and well chuffed with himself.

What a day – Row has beat our target for this point in the year and has really clicked with the bike, he can now ride it nearly to its full potential and another 5-10% improvement will see him in the top 10 (our next target) the van is soaking wet and muddy inside as is all the gear but we don’t care .

Roll on next Sunday.

[phlat65]

WOW!!!! congratulate him for me! sounds like top 10 is a better goal for him now eh