Round 3 - Cadwell Park

Unfortunately, the Cadwell Curse Struck again meaning I had a less than ideal weekend. From Bike mechanical issues to a hard fall (pictures below) I was still able to partake in all 8 races. Maintenance between rounds included replacing the clutch on my main R1 bike. I was unable to attend this month’s track day meaning I could not test the new clutch out before qualifying. 

The first qualifying session (R1 (GP1 classic) found issues with the new clutch. After 2 laps of the new clutch slipping, I retired the bike and went out on the spare R1 bike. This left me trying to bring down my qualifying laps times on cold tyres. At the end of the session, I qualified 7th on the starting grid. The second qualifying session (R6 (Pre-national 600) also didn’t go to plan. Regrettably, due to a fall, I wasn’t able to complete the whole qualifying session. Fortunately, I had already got some good lap times in and qualified 2nd on the starting grid. 

The first race of the weekend was on the R1. I competed on the spare bike which was not in full race set up. Despite this, I was still able to finish in 5th place. 

The second race of the day was on the R6. Unfortunately, the curse continued resulting in a DNF. I had a hard fall which resulted in my main R6 bike being left in many pieces and out of action for the weekend.  I was able to pick myself up, despite some lower back pain, and able to continue with the race weekend. 

My luck didn’t get any better for the 3rd race of the day (R1) where I had to retire from the race due to a mechanical failure resulting in the clutch on my spare bike breaking. 

This just left the last race of the day, fortunately, although I was using my wet bike I was able to bring it home in 4th place. 

After working overnight to pull together an R1 with a working clutch I went out to compete in the first race of Sunday. I was very happy to bring it home in 3rd place. 

Next was the first R6 race of the day. I didn’t get a great start in this race but was still able to bring it home in 5th position. Race 3 (R1) was another competitive race with some good battles for 3rd, however, resulted in a very close (0.119 seconds difference) 4th.  

This brought us to the final race of the weekend (R6). I got a fantastic start off the line but just didn’t have the pace to keep pole position from the flying race leader. This race was filled with a 3-way battle for 3rd with each of us changing positions as the laps went on. The result for this race was 5th position. 

Overall a weekend full of drama and damage with lots of work to do on all the bikes before the next round at Mallory Park in June. Despite this, I am still very happy with the 6 top ten finishes that I achieved.