Sunday the 21st of October was Race Of The Year and i was on the same bill, i raced in the Alamo Trophy, and the F400 class. The weather was perfect especially for the last week in October, it was a bit chilly first thing in the morning but when the sun came out it was quite warm, so plenty of grip.
To be honest id entered in the Alamo Trophy not really knowing who or what kind of bikes would be in there, so i was a bit apprehensive to see that it was full of 1000's and 600's, some of which had raced or were racing at national level.......oh well i had nothing to lose so went out in first practice to get a feel for the bike, id completed nearly a full lap when i came out of the bus stop and the rear of the bike was all over, it felt like a flat tyre so i coasted to the end of pit lane and pulled in, it felt serious so needed to stop as soon as.
I pulled in and Rob and John were there (Rob was chief engineer at Foggy Petronas and works at BSB with us, John tuned and has basically built the bike you see today) to cast an eye on proceedings, Rob saw straight away that the rear hub was loose.......DOH!!! id adjusted the chain the previous day and forgotten to tighten it. It was a mad dash back to the truck, where rob and john did a great job to adjust the chain and tighten everything back up so i still had a few more mins to get some laps in, i duly went out and posted my fastest time at mallory, id done a 1:02.702 which put me 20th on times, beating some 1000's in the process which gave me confidence going into the race.
I was 17th on the grid and i thought i was last , but no there were late entries and there were about 3 or 4 bikes behind me.......this was lambs to the slaughter!!
