 |
Benington Event Report 03-09-2006 |
 |
| Danny Van Man | ||
|
Well to be honest it didn’t seem much like Benington. For a start the sun wasn’t shining, I guess we’ve all become used to seeing the best of the weather at Benington every September. I’ve never known it wet at Benington and I knew that we were due for a damp one at some point so I guessed this might be it? As it happened it turned out alright as you’ll all know by now. At least this year we were back to our usual entrance, avoiding the wacky Races scenario that happened last year as we all tried to get in. For a change I’d actually camped over so it was nice to enjoy a bit of a lie in rather than the two hour trot down to Hertfordshire. Not that I enjoyed much of a kip during the night. The wind had really got up during the night, (nature’s not mine!!!), and it made for an interesting might. A couple of us took a look at the two quarries yesterday evening and it was nice to see a new climb out of the big quarry as the other one had been worn to quite a groove. The chalk pit looked the same as it always did, although the step on the hard route was getting quite pronounced. As I was off row 9, it seemed to take forever to get underway. I gather that there was a “Technical issue” (I heard that Nigel forgot to put the batteries in? or was it?) with some of the timing gear, which took a couple of rows to get sorted and adding to Ray’s results workload. Didn’t particularly affect me to be honest though, any further back and I’d have got a Stevenage postcode on my row number! When I finally got going it was good to see a new route coming out of the first quarry. As the existing one was now up to most riders’ crankcases it seemed the sensible thing to do. No-one seemed to be having much trouble with it anyway. Most of the course seemed pretty familiar, but somehow just didn’t seem as quick as usual. I don’t think I was particularly slow or anything, but I did enjoy those flat out blasts across the fields that we had last year, but as ever, Jason and the crew built us a fantastic course. Anyone who missed it can look at the days test by clicking on the link on the home page. An excellent video I thought, but made the course look a lot narrower, and made the climb out of the quarry look easy peasy. Frustratingly I was held up for quite a while by a travelling marshal of all people. There were three of us having a reasonable old ding dong for position as we came towards one of the wooded sections. Just as we were about to enter the woods, a travelling marshal that had been at the side of the track pulled out and went into the single track in front of us. What’s that all about then? In fairness it probably only cost us about 5 -10 seconds, but god was it frustrating to be held up. A little concentration would have avoided it. Did anyone else get the same? I passed one rider who seemed to
have a bit of a heat problem. I think it was rider 336, sorry I
didn’t catch your name. His bike was steaming away like a good ‘un
at the side of the track, as they didn’t feature in the final
results, I can only assume that it was the end of the day’s racing
at that point. Also down on his regular performance was Roger Newport managing only 2 laps. What with that and the early retirement from the previous day’s moped Enduro, I think he will have saved a load of money on fuel costs at the weekend. What happened Roger? We also had a bit of a “TBEC
Reunited” thing going on and it was nice to see Chris Sinclair
around the paddock again. I’m sure he’s been around and I think I’ve
seen Chris’s name down as a club steward or something last year, but
I‘ve never actually seen him for a while. Also at the race was James Barnicote of TBM fame. We saw James last year at Benington when he was writing for the next issue of TBM. Last year he was riding a Husky WR125, finishing an excellent 9th. This year James was on a TM EN250 which sadly only carried him to 13th overall and his fastest lap was over a minute slower than last years. Should we draw any conclusions from that when shopping for new bikes this year James? Sharon Bell, where are you? I heard Sharon has been a little unwell at the moment but lots better now and will be at Blounts. Right, whinge-time now! I was really pi**ed off in the afternoon crossing the blue tape pathways. As soon as the marshals disappeared from the second crossing, people were just riding past me as I walked my bike across, and I know that I’m not alone. One rider in particular wasn’t even good enough to make up any time as a result, as I soon caught him up to get a look at his number. As it was the last lap of the morning session I followed him into the pits and challenged him about it, the general tone of his response was “so what?” To be honest I was speechless, (not something that happens often!), the arrogance of his attitude really racked me off, so I trundled off and discussed it with the officials. Now I think that the problem with these cheats is that the offence has to be witnessed by a club official before any penalties can be levied. Do we really need to police our events to that extent? He didn’t even come anywhere in the results. I can just imagine how popular he’d be if we lost the venue because of an over zealous rambler making a formal complaint. I tell you what mate, if trying to get a trophy is that important to you, go and buy one! Even better, send me the bill and I’ll pay for it so you can sit at home and polish it instead of turning up at future TBEC events! I’ll be Clerk of the Course at one of the meetings next year, and I’m going to be a right Ba****D to cheats like you if you are spotted! NOTE: Many of you are probably not aware that one rider who wheelied in the Start Blue Tape Area (in front of spectators AND the ACU Steward!!!) was awarded a 30 minute pit penalty at Benington and Ray (CoC) would like to thank the rider for discussing the matter sensibly and accepting it. The alternative would have been exclusion! Talking of CoC’s with attitude!” BEWARE. Chairman Dave is going to be CoC at the next event despite planning to race. Due to a problem with formal qualifications with CoC’s, Dave has to take over from the planned CoC for Blounts. It’s probably fair to say that he’s not very happy!!! So watch out discourteous riders and cheating gits! On a final happier note I have to say a big Thank you to landowner Richard, as many KTM owners will have found to their cost, there is an issue surrounding the prop stand bolt on these bikes. Mine chose to give up the ghost during the course clearing, so I scrabbled around for the bits in the dirt before riding back with my bagful of stuff. Despite finding most of it, I was occupied with trying to prevent my tent turning into a sail after we had finished, and forgot that I had just propped the bike on the loose stand, so like a prat I left it lying in the field. I only found this out when I got home some 90 miles away! I rang my KTM dealer the following day and they advised that it was going to cost me £46 plus vat plus postage to replace it. Dash and blow I thought! and decided to see if I could find it. Another thank you to Ray Carver who put me in touch with Richard, and he was kind enough to allow me back onto the site to find it. As Benington is only about 30 miles from where I work down south, it made sense to risk a short diversion to save myself over £50! I knew exactly where I had been parked and literally walked straight up to the stand that was still lying where the bike had been stood the previous day, and saving myself £50 in the process. So many many thanks for your help Richard and Ray. As events go this one seems pretty straight forward, with no injuries that I am aware of, no big dramas to relate to you, and not much of anything other than a really good days racing as usual at Benington, there hasn’t been much to write about this time. Not even any e-mails telling me what peoples mates have done to embarrass themselves! As Blounts is a new track for us this year it looks like it could be the biggest field of riders that we have entered at TBEC. With up to 200 riders SOMEONE must have something to tell me about afterwards!!! You know where to find the link to my mail!!
If anyone has any information leading to the identity of the rider please keep it to yourself - BUT if you see him standing next to me make sure I have my back to the wall eh? See you all at Blounts then? Dan |
||
Finishing on a sad note I was sent this picture
of a rider who has decided to bat for the other side, and dress like
them.