15 October 2000: KDMC/IRsport 125 Championship, Knockhill
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Race 1: 8th / Race 2: 8th
Championship position: 5th

Coming into the last round of the championship tied in fourth place, this was always going to be a difficult weekend. The injuries from my street crash in August were still playing up, and I hadn't been back on a bike in a few weeks.

Practice on the Saturday went fairly smoothly after running in a new piston, although I was several seconds off the pace; the weather, remarkably, stayed dry, although I was hoping for a wet race, which would be easier on my body. A problem with the clutch plagued me for the first few laps of each session as it would slip going into fourth, fifth and sixth gears.

Sunday morning I woke up at 5, catching the 500 race in Japan before I left the house with my sponsor, Robert Sinclair. Scrutineering and signing on completed, I proceeded to check the bike over and put in a leaner jet which managed to break in half inside the carburettor. After some minor panics we were able to fix the problem and the rest of the day was to be calm, having prepared everything meticulously. I had to resign myself to settling for a position lower than my normal finishes when I saw Paul Robinson, fresh from taking 2nd place in the British Championship, had turned up to show us how the professionals do it. The morning practice session was smooth enough, and I had some elbow-banging fun with Vic Allan as managed to pass me coming out of the chicane, getting incredible drive towards Clark corner.

The first race was disappointing. Front row on the grid; the lights go green; I fudge the start, going into Duffus Dip in eighth position. Nobody passed me after that as I was caught in a curious void between the fast guys and the slower ones, left to my own devices. Again, the clutch was slipping in the first lap which set me back considerably. I managed to get my times down by a second or two, but the pain in my thumb was intense and my braking was earlier and softer than I would have liked.

Back in the paddock it was good to see a fair crowd supporters had turned up. Changing the gearbox oil and refuelling didn't take long, so we had a relaxed wait for the second race to start in which I took the opportunity to check the bike over again and take some painkillers to offset the difficulty with my thumb.



Race two. First on the grid again; I timed the start perfectly, pinning the throttle and starting to run just as the lights went red, the bike beginning to move as the lights went green. For the first ten metres I had a lead on everyone, and was so surprised that I let the clutch out sooner than intended and lost the drive, going into Duffus dip in sixth, wider than I would have liked allowing a couple of riders to slip through. The first few corners were good, close racing but I wasn't aggressive enough and I couldn't regain any positions. One of the Nicol brothers put on a spectacular pass and managed to make it stick. Again the clutch was slipping through the fast corner on the back section of the track, but I was surprised to be able to pass one of the faster guys around the outside holding the throttle wide open, and held him off through the hairpin until he passed me on the brakes at the end of the straight. After that he seemed to find his rhythm and disappeared, leaving me once again in the curious void.

The wind picked up through the race, which was bizarre. Going down the straight I would hit some ripples and the front wheel would skip to the left, pushed by the crosswind. Similarly, the occasional nothing-to-write-home-about wheelies coming out of the hairpin became a different beast entirely as the front would come down to the left. This wind, combined with my aggression throwing the bike around, didn't help the handling much and I had a couple of sliding moments with the front and rear tyres in the corners before coming in a lonely 8th again.

So, a disappointing weekend in many ways. I feel that, with another day of practice, I could have been a lot quicker, and given that I was only three points away from taking 4th place in the championship overall it was frustrating. (4th was taken by Anthony Czeyewski, who had held me up in the corners earlier in the season, and has improved enormously through the season).

It was sad to sell the bubble&squeak Honda at the end of the day, but I'm looking forward to the new challenge of racing in the United States next year on a quicker bike with better suspension. Many thanks are due to Robert Sinclair for his sponsorship through the second half of the season, and to Stuart Jones of JonesRacing for his engine work.

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