Central XC Rnd 5, Daniel Edmonds, 1180 Castle Hill Road, Sun 29th April 2018
It was drizzling pretty much all day so it was lucky that the pits and the chicane were all in the holding pens under a nice big roof. There was also a radio that we took full advantage of.
They had had a bit of rain so the tracks were a bit greasy with some boggy bits here and there and due to said drizzling didn’t get any better throughout the day.
The tracks still rode ok but, if you made a mistake, especially on a hill, it was quite difficult to get started again.
I didn’t really cover myself in glory. On the first lap I was going slow just because it was greasy and I didn’t really know the track properly. Despite this I still got temporarily off course. There was a big grassy downhill and, just before the bottom, you turned right and joined up with a farm track. I didn’t turn right. At the bottom it was pretty obvious that you were off the track, so I looked around, saw where I was supposed to be, and carried on.
Then, on the second lap, I did exactly the same thing. Judging by the skid marks I wasn’t the only one to miss the corner.
I was slow in the second lap because I got stuck on a hill and spent about five minutes mucking around there. My third lap wasn’t that great but I didn’t get stuck or go off the track again.
I was actually going alright on the fourth lap. George Ellingham lapped me at the start of it and I managed to stay with him for about three quarters of the lap. Then I saw Ella stuck on a hill and stopped to help her out.
On the 5th lap my bike crapped out. The chain was skipping teeth on the sprocket when I opened the throttle too much so I gently rode it around the track. When I got to a main farm farm I short-cutted back to the pits.
Just before I got there the bike stopped so I had to push it the last 100 metres or so to the van.
I quite liked the track but it was a pity about the bike.