Whaddon Race report - 12hr - June 2006

Well, as Napoleon was supposed to have said at Waterloo, “It sounded like a good idea at the time”. What did , you ask? Doing the bloody Iron man class that’s what!! With the benefit of hindsight, I can still say that I was pleased to have done it, but using the word “fun” probably only applied to those riding as part of a team.

Perhaps I should have started to wonder a few weeks before the event, as all my mates just kept shaking their heads and muttering “Nutter” every time the subject came up.

Spirits were still high on the Saturday evening though. It is a rare treat for me to be able to just kick back with a beer and talk bikes with a few mates, but that was mostly how Saturday panned out. We sat around until late evening until it turned a little chilly. As ever, Al Liddington was as prepared as ever, and hadn’t bought anything with him for keeping out a chill,  so was left to don his MX gear to keep the cold out as that was the only other clothing that he had with him. Now I’m sure that sky blue and white is a fine combination on some, but on Alan…hmmmm. Lets just say that it didn’t bring out his masculine side much! As we debated the point along with a few beers of course, it was noted that Al’s new gear came with additions that posed a few questions. For now, let us call them “Spoilers” for want of a better description.

After much debate on aerodynamics, rescues handles, and many other suggestions, the consensus was that they were “Love handles”. It did take a few minutes to register with Alan what we were talking about, but several graphic demonstrations by a bunch of drunk bikers managed to get the message home so to speak!

Feel free to mention them to Alan if you see him. Let’s face it, You’re not going to miss him are you!! I shan’t mention the manufacturer for fear of litigation, but look at the photo to make your own mind up!!

The  mood around the whole camp on the Saturday was light and friendly, with much banter being exchanged. Despite my plans for an early night, some more beer was drunk until we headed off., I would say to sleep, but I didn’t get any!! That ground was bloody uncomfortable!

Had I known in advance that the ace start would be delayed by about 45 minutes, I would certainly have had another half an hour in bed.

The delay was due to the late arrival of the Paramedics.  It wasn’t our usual team of medics led by Kim however, A point clearly missed by the organisers as they rang Kim repeatedly to find out where they had got to. Kim’s phone was switched off, but there would have been little that she could do to help as she was busy floating around the fjords of Norway on a cruise at the time!!

The delay did have one benefit though. It appears that Ben Ilott found himself mysteriously trapped in a portaloo with only 20 minutes to the off. A mysterious gust of wind was said to be the cause, planting  another toilet cubicle right in front of the door of the one he was in!!!!  However, my source, (Whom I shall not name to protect the guilty!), seems to have a lot of information regarding the episode! The delay allowed his cries for assistance to be answered in time to make the grid

I wasn’t too worried about the delay myself , as we all know what awaits us at Whaddon don’t we? Well not this time we didn’t I think.  Apparently the 12 hour course last year was set quite easy, and I guess I was expecting more of the same. Yeah right. God knows who’s been playing there recently as the place looks quite badly cut up now, as bad as I’ve seen it for a while. I think the course setters managed to find just about every bit of awful going that they could this time.

I was actually quite surprised at the amount of mud and water about early on because of the recent heat wave. It didn’t take more than a couple of hours for the first boggy bit to become impassable, despite the best efforts of the marshals, including Ali Carver, who was drafted in to help at short notice.

Roy’s kitchen shelves were again called into action to create an alternative route around the mire!

I have to admit to giggling to myself as I spotted Ali Carver walking back up to the paddock looking like the creature from the lagoon, because of her mud bath. I understand she then went on to spend three hours at the hospital with the injured Andrew Childs (see below). Thanks for mucking in Ali, and sorry for giggling! Also thanks to Anne Lovell (a new riders missus) for collecting both parties from the hospital and returning them safely to Whaddon.

The course did claim a few casualties, mostly as a result of mechanical failures I think.  The most serious looking of these was Andrew Childs, who I understand had his throttle stick open after running repairs earlier in the day. Fortunately the crash didn’t turn out to be as serious as it appeared, with Andrew suffering only bruising to his legs after his bike looped back on him. I hope you’re feeling better now Andrew,

I saw a few others scattered around the track, including Jason , (55) who it turned out had seized his engine.

There was a team from Banbury who entered a new Enduro bike from Quadzilla (the Quad manufacturers) and it would be nice to hear how they got on! Saw them once trying to free up the back brake! How did you get on with the bike lad's?

I thought the support for the guys doing the Ironman was tremendous. Every time I came back around to the paddock, I passed the pit of Sam and Ray Carver, who cheered me on as if I was leading the Dakar. Many more were encouraging to, but now I’m starting to wonder if they were actually running a sweepstake to see how long it would be before I collapsed!!

The guys chipped in at every fuel stop and helped me to refuel and adjust the chain etc. It was great to be on the end of the help. So this is what it feels like to be one of the factory boys then, easy peasy !!! Thanks for your help guys.

As fatigue set in I found a new game to play. It was called “guess where the blue tape will be this time”? It appears that there was a constant problem with speeding riders around the blue tape area, and Roy had his work cut out keeping people safe. Roy did ask me to mention it and expressed concern as to the consequences of what would have happened had there been another crash like Andrew’s in that area.

One spectator that behaved impeccably was the dog! Indeed someone commented to Roy on how well behaved his dog was.

It wasn’t his dog!! (it was actually landowner Doug’s dog!).

I mentioned the great support for the ironmen earlier, but I’d like to give an example of what makes riding with TBEC such fun.

At about 10 hours, I was completely knackered. I pulled up next to Roy Sadd just for an excuse to remove the KTM from my arse again! I noticed that there were some numbers written on his hand, of which mine was one. I asked him if that was the bad boys list, but Roy replied that they were the numbers of the ironmen, and he and the marshals were keeping an eye out for us all to make sure that they helped us to keep going, as well as yelling support as we crawled past. What an excellent sentiment, and many thanks for the boost that it gave us Roy.

Congratulations to everyone who competed, but in particular to my fellow ironmen Les Liney and Andrew MacDonald. God knows how you managed to do those extra laps, but you deserve the medals. Well done lads.

The weather was kind and my bike needs a major service, tyres, chain and sprockets and air filter, but did I enjoy it?

Well at the end of the race, Dave Roberts asked me if I had enjoyed myself. I told him that I’d enjoyed it so much that next year I was doing it as a four man!!

Hope you all had fun too.

Take care and I‘ll see you all at Buildwas

Dan #15