Pembrey Weekend from Mark Hanna

team traction control landed at Pembrey on friday morning without a rider as he was on route from doing a gig in Sweden which meant he was not going to be doing any friday practice;; it was a bit of a concern of mine that keith would have to go straight out on sat morning into practice with 30 other riders who had all tested on friday, but to be fair we did test there 3 weeks ago so was not all new to him. As it turned out it rained on sat morning for first practice which played right into our hands for Keith to familiarise himself with the track again, at a steady pace that everyone was riding, as every one was trying to find the grip level in the rain. Keith was very confident as soon as he opened his curtains and seen it was pissing down. Practice went very well, we got down to a 1 min 11 second lap in the rain, i was over the moon as most of the guys who tested on friday were all around the same pace as Keith in the damp conditions.

speaking to Keith after the session i felt he still had 3 seconds left in him in the rain, it does sound a lot but he was only getting into a good rhythm when the chequered flag came out. Next up was the 20 min race in the afternoon which was bone dry, Keith got away well and the lap times were falling every lap and he was looking very tidy and confident on the bike, i could see him going into the hairpin every lap and he was very strong on the brakes most of the time !!! apart from a few laps where he nearly wiped 3 or 4 riders out but luckily ran off down the slip road and spun it round and rejoined the track,  1 min 8 that lap !!! all the others were in the 1 min 4,s and then on the last lap Keith popped in a 1 min 3.08 ( fantastic) At the end of practice we had a long debrief about the track and the bike, as i was not happy about a few things and neither was keith. I had lengthened the wheelbase by 15 Mil which made the bike a lot longer and a bit lazy to steer but the benefits was it would make it more stable on the fast kink, also Keith had to alter his line a bit to avoid the big bump onto the start and finish as it was nearly taking the bars clean out of his hands, (bumpy old fuckin place ) We also discussed about running a bit too much traction on the bike and it was beginning to slow him down. We qual 2nd in class so we were over the moon with that considering all was not perfect with the bike, Paul did a great job putting in a 1min2.05 lap which put us right up there with the big boys!

Race day came and it was dry, we were all looking forward to the race; didn’t bother with warm up as it was only 4 laps and we were not going to learn anything in 4 laps only get frustrated !! Paul started the race and got a flyer, he came round in second in our class then back to 3rd he came in for the change over after 35 min , Keith shot out on his bike to take his place in the race, no sooner he got going after 3laps the yellow flags and the safety car came out for the rest of the session , he was frustrated when he came in and said the bike still felt lazy but he would put up with it for the next session and see if it got any better as his lap times came down. As Paul was out the safety car was brought out again with another rider down in the same place as the first one, paul kept us up there in the top 3 in our class, keith was out again and the heavens started to spit on us a bit but he handled it well, a little word in his ear, soft with the throttle and soft with the brakes in the damp on slicks and he would be ok and he did just that. Then it dried out again for him and he started pushing good lap times out. The track conditions were so inconsistent, dry one side and pissing down on the other, for Pauls last stint conditions were very similar wet and dry and out on slicks, he did a great job and got us up to P1 for a while then P2.

When he came in and Keith was on his way out for the last stint it was spitting with rain, too late for any tyre change and i sent Keith out with his well scrubbed slicks in, i nearly put inters in but the sky just said no to me, i did take some preload off the front forks for Keith to try make help him with the steering as it was now a problem for him go any faster, his last stint was hard work for him as the skys were open and rain was falling on one half of the track and not on the other so keith just did not know how hard he could push, he managed to get back up to p2 then p3 then p4 then back to p3 for the chequered flag, he was great . I said to him before he went out for his last stint that this will probably be the hardest you will race this weekend as we wanted a trophy and it was up to Keith to bring it home in the top 3 , which NOBBY did and also produced a Fantastic 1 min 2.08 last lap. A big thanks to the Madges; to Rob and the boys for their hospitality and to Paul and Keith for putting on the show.

till next time, Mark Hanna