Race 1

Being sat in the middle of near 30 bikes on a grid is a bit intimidating especially when its your first time there. We had gathered on the grid, i was hoping i found my spot on the grid ok which i did, then in a matter of seconds we were off on our sighting lap.

I found my spot again and this was it................the lights went to red......then off it was go go go as Murray Walker says, i nailed the bike and i thought i had a decent start then i just seemed to get swallowed up by a mass of bikes, i was flat out and seemingly going backwards, we managed the first corner incident free and it was down to the chicane.....a few bikes went off and before i knew it i was past a handfull of bikes and seemed to have a bit of space and then tried to get my lines and braking sorted, it was upto the hairpin and the noise was incredible, the different sounds of all the bikes was tremendous, anything from a screaming 2 stroke to a single 660 supermoto, then there was me on my V4.

The 2nd lap had been and gone and the adrenalin was starting to get flowing, and on the exit of Gerrards i ran wide and got on the rumble strip, the bike was all over the place but i never shut off then it was down to the chicane again.

I was running at a good pace (well i thought so anyway) and managed to claw back a supermoto and a 250 which must have been having their own battle, as hard as i tried i couldn't close enough to pass, i was now leaving my braking as late as i dare and my confidence was slowly growing, the thing i noticed most about the race was the size of the crowds, as you make your way upto the hairpin and the bus stop you can feel the size of the crowd, into the bus stop and the camera flashes of a few of the crowd were in the corner of my eye, that just gave me even more of a buzz and making me want to go that bit faster....out of the bus stop a bit of a squirm from the rear of the bike and through devils elbow and over the line back round to the chicane and there was a rider down and his bike in the track, the race was red flagged and the end to my first race, i had kept out of trouble and finished in a respectable 16th position....