That wonderful time of the year is upon us again - when it is time to visit Castle Combe for their annual Grand National motorcycle event. This is the third time that we have entered the event and it never fails to entertain and impress!
We headed off on our 168-mile journey from Northwich on the Friday morning and managed to set-up near what is becoming our "usual spot" by the scruitineering bay, ready for the two-day event that is run by NG Road Racing.
We headed off on our 168-mile journey from Northwich on the Friday morning and managed to set-up near what is becoming our "usual spot" by the scruitineering bay, ready for the two-day event that is run by NG Road Racing.
 Set up... |  ... noise tested... |  ... signed on! |
After the usual setup and scruitineering procedures had been done, we headed off for a look around the paddock at some of the "exotica" on offer...
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An 08:40 practice session on the Kawasaki Supersport machine meant that we were out of bed nice and early on Saturday morning, with the Kawasaki Supertwin practice coming shortly afterwards.
We used the practice sessions to bed in new tyres and new brake pads and put in a best lap of 1’23.6. Our best ever lap around Castle Combe is a 1’20.1 - which was set on the Kawasaki Supertwin during our 2014 visit and then matched during our 2017 visit. So our target for the weekend was to finally break underneath the 1’20 barrier!
We used the practice sessions to bed in new tyres and new brake pads and put in a best lap of 1’23.6. Our best ever lap around Castle Combe is a 1’20.1 - which was set on the Kawasaki Supertwin during our 2014 visit and then matched during our 2017 visit. So our target for the weekend was to finally break underneath the 1’20 barrier!
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Out into the Supertwin qualifying session and we set a new Personal Best lap of 1’20.009 (not quite under the 1’20 barrier!) to take 16th place on the combined grid and took 6th place in the Supertwin class.
The Open 600 qualifying session was an amazing experience. The Kawasaki Supersport machine feels “just right” for Castle Combe - and going through the first corner flat out on the throttle stop in top gear and then watching the gear-change light flashing for a few seconds whilst heading towards turn two really gives a great sensation that you’re shifting! We set a 1’17.770 lap that qualified us in 21st place out of the 42-person grid (top half!), although worthy of note was that there were a number of British championship riders taking part in this event (because the British championship does not visit here) - including two former British champions!
The Open 600 qualifying session was an amazing experience. The Kawasaki Supersport machine feels “just right” for Castle Combe - and going through the first corner flat out on the throttle stop in top gear and then watching the gear-change light flashing for a few seconds whilst heading towards turn two really gives a great sensation that you’re shifting! We set a 1’17.770 lap that qualified us in 21st place out of the 42-person grid (top half!), although worthy of note was that there were a number of British championship riders taking part in this event (because the British championship does not visit here) - including two former British champions!
 Photo by Anthony Boothman |  Photo by Anthony Boothman |
It was now time for the races... At the start of the Supertwin race, we felt good so just kept on pushing harder and harder - and we smashed our 1’20 target and set a new Personal Best lap time of 1’18.798. We also picked up a 7th place finish in the Supertwins race.
The Open 600 race got going well but was red flagged on lap 2, which gave us the opportunity to drop one tooth from the rear sprocket (as we were bouncing off the rev limiter in top gear for many seconds!). After the restart, although the change helped slightly, we were still hitting the rev limiter for several seconds and maxing out at 143.0mph - so considered further gearing changes for Sunday’s races. Even though we were involved in a battle (so couldn’t put in a properly clean lap), we managed to reduce our 600 lap time down to 1’17.284 and finished 17th in the 600 race out of 35 finishers.
The Open 600 race got going well but was red flagged on lap 2, which gave us the opportunity to drop one tooth from the rear sprocket (as we were bouncing off the rev limiter in top gear for many seconds!). After the restart, although the change helped slightly, we were still hitting the rev limiter for several seconds and maxing out at 143.0mph - so considered further gearing changes for Sunday’s races. Even though we were involved in a battle (so couldn’t put in a properly clean lap), we managed to reduce our 600 lap time down to 1’17.284 and finished 17th in the 600 race out of 35 finishers.
Onto Sunday and we had a further four races. Supertwin Race 2 was a solid race. We got down to 1’18.8 lap times (0.1 of a second from our Personal Best times) before the race was red flagged due to a fluid spill on lap 5. The race result was called at that point and we took 8th position in the Supertwins race.
Spillage that caused the Supertwin red flag - Photo by Arthur Devlin
Open 600 Race 2 was very interesting, with a CBR600RR rider highsiding out of turn three on the opening lap (fortunately everyone scattered to avoid him), before a ZX6R engine expired without the rider knowing on the second lap. The rider then completed a full lap of the circuit before the red flag was shown, and produced a smokescreen that James Bond would have been proud of! :-)
 Photo by Clive Dodd |  Photo by Christopher Jones |  Photo by Christopher Jones |
At the Open 600 Race 2 restart we got a great launch and were immediately into the groove and put in a new Personal Best lap of 1’15.867 and finished the race in 16th position - 0.8 of a second behind the final points scorer and only 0.007 of a second ahead of 17th place, after messing up the final chicane and having a battle around the last corner on the run the finish line...
The last 650 Supertwin race gave us mixed emotions. It was a solid race with a group of riders having a great battle, but in the group were a mix of different race classes which, this time, didn’t work in my favour. We put in another 1’18.8 lap but we were sure that given a bit of a clearer run that we could have gone slightly quicker... Nevermind! The race itself was fun regardless and only waved yellow flags in the final section of the final lap dampened the fun (as no overtaking is allowed). We finished in 6th place but 5th place was a possibility. And for a change - as we are usually the ones capturing video footage - we feature heavily in John Dudman's video (below) for the first six minutes or so.
The last 650 Supertwin race gave us mixed emotions. It was a solid race with a group of riders having a great battle, but in the group were a mix of different race classes which, this time, didn’t work in my favour. We put in another 1’18.8 lap but we were sure that given a bit of a clearer run that we could have gone slightly quicker... Nevermind! The race itself was fun regardless and only waved yellow flags in the final section of the final lap dampened the fun (as no overtaking is allowed). We finished in 6th place but 5th place was a possibility. And for a change - as we are usually the ones capturing video footage - we feature heavily in John Dudman's video (below) for the first six minutes or so.
The final race of the weekend was Open 600 Race 3. Unusually for this class this weekend, we actually managed to get our full 8 laps in! From the start we settled into a good rhythm and avoided most of the usual first-lap bumping and barging. During the race we set a new Personal Best of 1’15.095 (which we are delighted with!) and even had the rear tyre sliding and drifting on the exit of the third turn on numerous occasions - which is a new experience for us... As a bonus, we finished in 15th place, which gave us a championship point!
 Photo by Anthony Boothman |  Photo by Anthony Boothman |
It was a fabulous weekend and we leave this event with more great memories of the Castle Combe circuit. Our next event, on Sunday 16th September, will be Darley Moor Round 6 - we'll see you then!
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