11th June 2000: Cadwell Park, Derby Phoenix Motorcycle Club
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Race 2: 1st
Championship position: n/a

The weekend began with a five hour journey in a van with three 125s and seven bodies. We arrived at Cadwell Park an hour before the evening practice session began, prepared the bikes and went out.

Saturday gave a taste of what the race day would be like: mayhem. All the bikes were out at once, so the diesels would hold us up in the turns and we'd be in their way on the straights. Going up the inside of a 600, the rider turned in not expecting me to be there and clipped my elbow with his front wheel; later in the lap, another big bike (presumably one of the first guy's mates) came round me and turned in, deliberately banging my fairing.

Of course the ambulance came out soon enough. A rider had hit one of our boys before the hairpin and careened straight into the tyrewall, holding on with a death grip before bouncing down the track. Stretchers were carried: last I heard he'd broken both arms, both legs, eight ribs and his collarbone.

Sunday came, and the weather was still good; maybe too good. Derby Phoenix, the organisers, do not allow slicks in order to level the playing field. Last year I was happy about it (I didn't have slicks, so for everyone else to be brought down to my level was good); this year I wasn't quite as excited. The tyres, fresh on Saturday, were totally chewing up at the edges, but I didn't experience any loss of grip at the edge so it wasn't too bad.

I had been entered for three classes: 125 - 1300cc open, open 250 & production, and Formula Phoenix / LC RS / Production 500. Out of six races, only one started on time. The rest, held up by ambulances, saw us all sitting on the grid. Some riders were angry because their tyres were cooling; others because their engines were overheating. Either way it wasn't good, and spectacularly mismanaged. There was no warm-up lap, so trying to go hard in the first few corners was out of the window.

The races all seem to blend together in retrospect. In the open classes there was no chance; I must have placed something like fourth from last in all four of them. Every time I managed to get past a diesel he'd just come steaming back, all flustered after being shown up by 'only' a 125. Several times they'd fly past with another forty miles an hour only a few inches away, totally unsettling my bike. The only highlights as far as I can recall were having private races with some of our own boys on the 250s, and binning the bike in the hairpin.

Having gone well through the hairpin in practice, I was disappointed to drop it. I came in faster than usual, turned in late, tried to tighten my line just as the front wheel went over a dip in the asphalt. It just tucked under me and went straight out. Sum damage: one bruised knee, bent footpeg, and scraped handlebar. Amazingly, my new bodywork got away fairly lightly.

The Formula Phoenix races were more fun, as most of these bikes were two stroke 350s, 400s and the like, with a couple of 500s, 600s and the odd 1100 thrown in as well. Passing everybody round the outside in fifth gear with the bike cranked all the way over was awesome until they realised that it was blockable; I had some great dicing with a guy who was torturing his 500, always getting past him on the brakes. He made a brave move on the last lap and passed me, crossing the finish line five yards ahead of me; I took 9th and 11th out of 23 riders, 1st in the 125 class in the second race according to Motorcycle News.

Of the Scots, John Leech was consistently fast, although oddly not as quick on his '97 bike as last year on his '91. Kenny Bisland, new to 125s at the ripe age of 14, was incredibly unlucky to get t-boned by a diesel coming into the hairpin, destroying his seat, rear wheel and (maybe) exhaust pipe, although he fortunately walked away without a scratch.

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