James Egan 81 - 2015 UK Race season adventure

We have had quite an introduction to British Racing - Rain, dry, rain, oil, dry, safety car breakdowns, delays and more!

This morning started off clear and chilli like a normal English morning. Then the rain came down, wet the track, and then riding started...

Luckily we had put our wet tyres on a set of rims yesterday, incase we had to make last-minute decisions in tyre choice because we sat with minutes to go before even putting any wheels on the bike, not knowing whether to use dry or wet tyres with the ever changing conditions. We opted for a wet front and dry rear as there were dry spot on the circuit were we could get the power down.

We had an 8min warm up to get a feel of the track, in conditions I have never ridden in before, it was much needed track time. I ended a dismal 14th. But qualifying was yesterday so we were still 12th for race 1.

The rain came and went many, many times during the day, bringing all sorts of crashes and delays in proceedings with it. First off being a Ducati dropping its guts all over turn 1, 2, 3 and 4! This saw 5 bikes crash all at the same time, then add a light to rain that, and more delays! We were scheduled to race at 2:30pm, but were now delayed to 3pm.

Next was the British Supersport 600cc race which was on just before us. The rain drizzled down, again setting these tricky, in-between conditions. A string of crashes saw the 3rd red flag for the day, and more delays. The sweep truck came on to clear oil on the track, got to the bottom of Paddock Hill, and burned its clutch out!

Now a 5 ton washing machine was stuck on the circuit when we were meant to be on our sighting lap. They got it cleared, but by now it was 4pm and the Superbikes needed to qualify, so they bumped us even further down the pecking order...

They sent the sidecars out first for their race to clear the oil,then the Superbikes went out for their 3 qualifying sessions. Eventually at 5:40pm we got told to get to pit lane for our race! We kitted up for the 4th time, and the rain came back...

We slapped the wets back on and bolted out before we could be stopped again!

I took up my 12th position qualifying spot on the grid and waited for the lights to go out. The start went well and I got up to 5th spot by turn 2. I struggled to get used to the wet tyres and strange conditions and eventually finished 7th. A result we are very happy with considering the top 20 riders were all within 1sec of the leader in lap times!

We start in a much better 7th position tomorrow for race 2,and hope to see better circumstances too!

Vodafone has decided I don't need communication,so my phone has been down all day (and still is) so hopefully they will sort themselves out tomorrow and I can keep the updates regular.

Thanks for all the support - we really appreciate it!

Until tomorrow, cheers!