Rumours of my retirement have been greatly exaggerated. Mostly by me.
Well I think i've just started to feel warm again. Oh and just about sobered up too!
I didn't know Dave Holland but if the scale of this tribute to his life is a measure of the man, I would have liked to. Mark at Holbeach put on an awesome celebration that i'm very glad to have been a part of. I was only racing the Saturday as I planned to fully enter into the spirit of the festival and be in no state to ride on Sunday morning.
Qualifying went well, apart from being about 3 degrees and very busy on track with the mixed grid.
I only managed one clear lap in all the traffic and then it started to rain, so I pulled in and hoped I had done enough. Luckily I had and claimed pole from Danny Lister in 2nd, Jason Dixon 3rd and Paul Rogers 4th.
The first race started pretty well I got away well but got overhauled into the first corner by Anthony Hendy on his Aprilia. I managed to squeeze past him up the hill and tried to go as quick as possible but it was spitting slightly and the track was so cold it was hard to know how hard to push. As I came over the Mountain for the first time Barb gave me a big gap signal, cracking I thought keep it together and I'm onto a winner. After a couple of laps however it started to rain harder and as I came up the straight to Park corner I could see all the tyre marks on the damp track from all the other bikes. I slowed it down and tip toed round as I was on slicks. The red/yellow slippery track flags came out all around the track and I had a mega slide through Hall bends. Being at the front and having no one to judge pace from I slowed down to a crawl on the worst bits and shook my head as I crossed the start/finish in the hope they would stop the race. On lap four Barb gave me the signal to say someone was catching but I didn't want to push any harder and as I crossed the line for the fifth time out came the red flags. I started the season with a win at Cadwell and now I was finishing it with the same. It was Danny Lister on his Honda that was starting to catch me on the last lap but he said he has never been so happy to see a red square of fabric in his whole life. I'm glad it wasn't just me that had wanted the race stopped. I didn't make a big deal of trying to get it stopped as I thought everyone might have thought I was doing it just because I was in front but I was more than happy for it to finish early it was very dangerous out there on slicks.
The trophies for this meeting were on aggregate as they were sponsored by people. The Sound of Thunder trophies were Sponsored by N.D Dairies and Go 4 Despatch who are Anthony Hendy and his Dad who also sponsor Joey Reding. I was real keen to win that trophy because it was coming from those guy's that I have diced with and got to know well over this season. It had to be another win.
Second race I got away o.k but Danny and Chris Hawkes on his Suzuki 600 got past me up the hill for the first time. I was looking for a way past the Suzuki when he made it easy for me by over shooting the Mansfield Chicane. I then set about catching Danny who had got away a little at the front. The wind had really picked up for this race and a couple of times I nearly got blown off the track especially round Chris Curve and the Goose Neck making it difficult to go too fast. I reeled him in and knew if I got the drive out of Charlies onto Park Straight I could pass him into Park at the end. I got the drive and pulled nearly alongside up the straight, outbraked him into Park as planned but got all excited and went down one too many gears and ran a little wide on the exit, unknown to me at the time, he had tried to come back underneath me but made a mistake which cost him a couple of seconds, so I had a big gap straight away. I kept my head down and brought it home for another win securing the Trophy. When we got back to the paddock we found Barb just about managing to hold down the Gazebo which had virtually collapsed and was trying to blow away, so it was all hands on deck to take it down before it completely flew away.
As part of the terrific spectacle that had been put on we had a proper podium celebration with Champagne and everyone gathered round. I must say the combined weight of the Sound Of Thunder podium with Danny Lister, Jason Dixon and myself was probably the equivalent of an entire grid in some of the other classes.
From the podium to the bar where we stayed for the rest of the night. Anthony Hendy in a Borat style 'MANKINI' on the Rodeo Bull is possibly a scar that will never heal.
A great weekend with great company again. A very fitting end to a great season.
Huge thanks to Don and the guy's at Southern Cross for all their help this year. The bike has not missed a beat all season despite being piloted by a ham fisted oaf. Massive thanks to Danny Lister, Dave and Zel Hood, Geoff Mann, mine and Barbs families and everyone that has helped and supported me this season. I couldn't have done any of it without all of you and probably wouldn't have wanted to.
My biggest thanks to my long suffering better half Barb. I owe you everything and love you to bits.
So next season...............
Russell #45
