We took a half-day holiday from work and arrived nice and early, but when we arrived were advised that we wouldn't be allowed into the paddock for a while - so we parked up and made a brew to pass the time. Once we were let into the paddock we abandoned the caravan at the first mains hook-up point that we saw and then parked the van behind our main home for the weekend - Garage 12.
Saturday Race Day
Our garage was shared with fellow-600-racers and thoroughly nice chaps Max Ainscough and Caleb Williams, along with Aintree-champion (and "Stars at Darley" racer) Danny Lewis. It made for a delightful place to be for the weekend.
We were out in the first two sessions of the day, which gave us a chance to reacquaint ourselves with the "International" circuit layout, which we'd last ridden 15 year ago. In the first session we did a best lap of 1'52.7, followed by a 1'46.5 in the second session. For whatever reason - the cooler weather, etc - we seemed to be struggling to get into the swing of things.
Out into the qualifying sessions and we set a 1'41.2 on the Aprilia which qualified us 11th in the Twins class (21st on the combined grid), then we set a 1'38.3 on the Kawasaki which qualified us 5th in the Pre-2011 class (26th on the overall grid).
Just before the races began, light rain began to fall. After a short wait by the organisers, we headed out onto track for 820cc Twins Race 1 with a wet front tyre and a rear dry tyre. This was probably the best choice for us and we finished the race in 9th position.
With no resolution in sight, the organisers decided to continue running the meeting using a flag to start the race. After a fairly lonely race we finished 10th in class (14th overall) and set a new Personal Best lap of 1'39.1 along the way.
Sunday Race Day
We took part in the optional warm-up session on the Kawasaki, just to get back in the swing of things. We were feeling a bit more comfortable on the bike today which was promising - as the lap times from the Sunday-morning races would determine entry into the various Anglesey Grand races.
Our first race was 820cc Twins Race 3. We had been moved up to 13th on the grid based on our Saturday race results. During the race there were no Twin-class competitors near us but we did managed to have a battle with some Golden Era Supersport riders which was entertaining. We finished 8th in class (13th overall) with a best lap of 1'39.4.
Our first Anglesey Grand race was the "C" final. We made a decent start but lost the tow to the group ahead. With back-to-back races we decided to leave the race early as we were just circulating on our own - which scared a few people into thinking we had crashed as they couldn't see the track exit road from their vantage point (sorry for the scare!).
After a decent start we ended up in open space that allowed us to concentrate on just riding, which helped us to set a new Personal Best lap of 1'38.486 on the Aprilia on our way to a 5th place finish (8th overall).
The result also meant that our championship points tally matched with that of 2nd placed Scott McCrory - but based on the countback rules (i.e. most number of wins, then most number of 2nds, etc) Scott retains 2nd and we have finished 3rd in the Twins championship!
Pre-2011 Supersport 600 Championship Standings (Top 5)
Tom Harrison 170
David Carson 131
Matthew Perry 93
Caleb Williams 91
Max Ainscough 42
820cc Twins Championship Standings (Top 5)
Louis Dawson 155
Scott McCrory 103
David Carson 103
Sean Seddon 75
Oliver Morgan-Edwards 67
With the season now finished, we will gather together some stats regarding the season to produce another "Season Summary" blog. But in the meantime we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our supporters (if you're reading this - then that's you!), Dave Carson Snr, Steph Carson, Lorna Carson & I would particularly like to thank Pomerol Partners, Peraison and Rock Oil for their support. Thank you all for making 2024 another very special year! :-)