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East Fortune September
We set off on a beautiful Friday afternoon for East Fortune aiming to get there by tea time and crucially before darkness fell. When we arrived the paddock looked reasonably busy and we squeezed the lorry in at the end of the paddock. Little bit too far from the power supply so we piggy backed on to the Mayhews’ truck next door.
Once organised and fed we caught up with the Irish contingent and were introduced to Corran who had brought over a potential new engine for next season.
Saturday morning was lovely and sunny. We got signed on and scrutineered as usual and quickly got ready for to go out for second practice a bit sharper than our normal slot. In the morning there was a warm up session then a qualifying session and there were plenty marshals so the day got off to a prompt start. Jen had been trying to think positively since her last two scary East Fortunes which had put a big dent in her confidence. It worked and practice went quite smoothly. Less smoothly for the bike however which didn’t seem to handle very well. The track was pretty cold and there had been tractors in the tattie field which had left some ingrained dirt across railway corner and it would only come off as the track was used. Perhaps it would be time to start working on the geometry of the bike.
The qualifying session went reasonably too and we got a 1m 08.152s lap half a second slower than championship rivals Davie Annan and Grant Hunter. We would line up beside them on the second row of the grid. First race after lunch would be the Scottish Championship. Time to get the cash out at lunchtime and, no, not buy burgers, but pay for the new engine for 2010. Corran Smyth had taken it over for us from Ballymena. It is a GSXR 1000 K8 which should fit in without any modification to the wiring and with minor modification to the cradle. Deal done it moved into the awning. Kerr also took a rear tyre up to Davie Wrinn with a rather novel method of transportation.
Time to go racing! We got a cracking start but didn’t keep away from Davie for long. We kept him in our sights and seemed to be catching back up as he slowed but unfortunately Kerr’s hand pumped up and he had to back off a bit as he struggled to feel his hand on the brake lever. Davie and Grant took 3rd and we took 4th. Our fastest lap was 1m 07.4s. The points were back in the balance. Kerr’s arm was like a brick so we pulled out off the Melville race. Instead we decided to work on the chair wheel alignment. Ali Spittal came to give us a hand at the end of the day and we discovered that one of the shims for spacing the toe in of the chair wheel was in the wrong way round – not helpful! The chair was set properly with a little toe in so that it points slightly in toward the chassis which should stop it trying to pull left in right handed corners. We were looking forward to trying it out on Sunday. We also fitted a carbon fibre deflector, designed by Ali Spittal, which should help keep the nose down.
On Saturday night there was a rather unusual distraction of a mini moto endurance race where the young Scottish mini moto club members rode the full track for a whole hour to raise money for CHAS (Children’s Hospice Association Scotland) – superb to watch.
Saturday night saw some final East Fortune revelry including a wonderful duet between Norman Holland from Tomatin and Willie Moore from Belfast - exquisitely tuneful. There was quite a collection of Irish racers in the awning for the evening and the good craic may have had something to do with us finally making our minds up to go and do the Sunflower meeting at Bishopscourt in October. Update - now going to CELTIC MATCH RACES at MONDELLO Oct 25th racing for Scotland!
We were looking forward to Sunday to try out the chair wheel move. We went out in the quick warm up just to see what it would be like. It was certainly an improvement although a little unsettled around the lefts. There was just enough time to get the outfit refuelled before the first race. Davie Wrinn had clutch problems by the end of Saturday and took Davie Annan’s Windle out in practice and the first race. We stayed ahead and in third place for four laps before he took us as Kerr’s hand pumped up again and we pulled in to the pits. Just as well we did – as soon as we got back into the awning the radiator spewed water all over the floor. At first we thought it was just an overheat but then realised that the water was coming from the front of the radiator and it was burst – that was the day over. Disappointed we packed up to be ready to leave the circuit at lunchtime.
The marshals were going to get sidecar passenger rides as a thank you for all their help with the ‘Be A Passenger’ fund raisers. This was run at lunch time and we had hoped to take people out but instead we were packed up in the lorry ready to go. It was odd to be home so early. We have a bit of work to do to be ready for the Jock Taylor. Then we will be off to Ireland – really looking forward to that one.
Thanks to Rhys, Neil, Maria and Stewart for helping us out.
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