Cold and windy with plenty of sunshine when Robin and I arrive at Castle Donington on the Friday afternoon. Saturday morning is wet and windy but it clears up during the day and doesn't interfere too much with practice. Fortunately a day race here so night qualification is required, this also has the benefit of getting us to the bar before closing time - a rare privilege!

Sunday race day and we are greeted by the best weather so far, a nice dry and cool but sunny day. We have a 20 minute shake down warm up session at midday and then the other classes have their races while we prepare for our 15:00 start.

Pleasant weather and a sunny starts as Barty goes out for the warm up and practice start laps.

The 'Le Mans' style start at 14:58 and after a poor start when the bike wouldn't pick up immediately Barty settles in nicely picking places up. Progressed steadily from P18 up to P6 doing steady 1:18's

Lap 28 - Stint TWO

First Pit Stop for Fuel @ 15:35 

Mick on the bike for the second stint, he's in the groove by about lap 8 but struggling with traffic.

We're now up to P5 after a couple of retirements. All of a sudden on Lap 50 (Mick's' 22nd) there are waved yellows and Mick's down at Redgate as the font washes out - he's walking away safe but Angry! ...Phew!

Finally the bike is returned to us and its all hands on deck to check for damage!

We empty out gravel and replace fairings, swap wheels and we're back out.

Lap 51 - Stint THREE

Spike is rearing to go now but there's a lot of ground to make up, we're now in last place (now 41st) and 28 minutes behind the lead which is still swapping primarily between the Neates and Team Force. Spike is really on it and gets fastest lap on his 5th lap (Lap 55), Spike is carving through traffic in steady 1:15's laps.

On Lap 65 Team Force snatch back fastest lap with a 1:15:002 but on his 25 lap (Lap 75) Spike has fastest lap again with a 1:14.899 and we're now up into P36.

Lap 82 - Stint FOUR

(31 laps & 41 mins behind the leader)

Barty's turn again - a refuel and splash of oil and we're out circulating into 5 laps of safety car after a spill somewhere on the track. 

After the safety car clears Barty is away and settled into steady

1:17/1:18's without further drama, we are picking up places steadily and at the end of his session we are in P26 a fantastic achievement by all. 

Unfortunately at the pit stop Barty draws Alf's attention to the bike and both Alf & Terry are not happy with the noises, a quick assessment is made and the risk of the bike letting go is too great for bike and rider and Alf reluctantly calls an end to the race. 

A promising start showing the potential of the bike and team and after a several improvements are implemented we will see how things progress at the next venue at the classic Spa track in Belgium 30th June – 2nd July 2017.