After Mallory I was still struggling health wise so decided to sit this one out from a racing point of view and just go watch.
I arrived Saturday Morning after a good journey down ( apart from a talking to by the constabulary for apparently using a bus lane to get into the supermarket )
The VMCC meeting was not well supported with many people opting to stay away. We still had 31 scooters across two grids though!
It must be 20 years since I went to Pembrey last, and I had forgotten just how crap it is for spectators. For the racers the main problem first off was the very blustery wind which seemed to be coming from all directions at the same time making things very inconsistent. Rain was in the air too.
I parked up with Chris Geyton who \i was going to help over the weekend. Chris had just taken his newly built engine down to Replay Scooters for some dyno testing and was puzzled by the results which showed a major drop in power from the regular dyno used by SRP to develop the engine. Its was even more puzzling as once on track Chris was just flying. He was right on it and was up with Charlie Edmonds for the first few laps and matching his lap times. Race 2 was wet and Chris was all over Charlie as they both tried in vain to chase down the super rapid Group 6 monster of Guy Topper.
The wet 2nd and 3rd races really made me wish I was out there as I always do so much better in the wet! Although watching race 1 in the wind gave me no such desires !
The auto races were great to watch with Scott Chapman and Keith Terry swapping places in a right old ding dong. Once Scott had his bike fully sorted though he was away in race 3 and mixing things with the fastest of the zips.
The changeover between races is really quick at Pembrey and with a lower entry more of the VMCC classes were combined, meaning less races overall. So we had negotiated an extra race on Saturday to give us a 3 race day. The races were 10 laps long so these were long races all weekend and some of the riders were looking a bit jaded come Saturday evening!
Saturday night was best described as wet and windy! I'd eaten my burgers and bacon so went down to the bar with a few of the other guys . A nice evening ensued with the usual scooter and racing chat and assorted garbage being spoken and worlds put to rights. Of course the heaviest wind and rain was as we came to leave the bar and walk back to the van...... so 10 minutes was spent waiting in the foyer for the wind and rain to die down before making a run for it!
A sleepless night ensued kept awake by wind and rain before Sunday broke to reduced wind ( well - a bit ) and a strange yellowy gold thing in the sky!
Sunday saw Guy Topper and Doug Turner flying away again on the Group 6 bikes, Charlie Edmonds again being the fastest of the Group 4 bikes, with Chris Geyton and John Woods both having a right old tousle...... but as I watched from the hairpin I heard the tell tale click from Chris's bike of another broken gearbox...... just like he did at Mallory as well!
Oh well.... overalls on and gloves on to help sort things out! Chris stripped the race bike whilst I stripped the spare engine to get the gearbox out of it. We ended up having to swap everything including the layshaft due to the damage.
In the last race Chris's motor had gone right off...... 60 laps over the weekend had taken its toll I think.
This was the first time in 2 1/2 years that I had been a spectator and it was kind of nice not to have the pressures that a race weekend brings. The journey home continued my hate / hate campaign against Wales when I caught a speeding ticket. Nothing to do with Wales is ever good for me it seems..... bloody place!
Hopefully I'll be on track for Donington Park next weekend........ My least favourite type of circuit but its an experience to ride the classic full GP circuit as ridden and driven by heroes like Rossi and Senna.
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