[Zimbo]

Last round but one. Wasn't looking forward to this one that much, Snetterton is reputed to be not 583cc monster friendly as it's got some long straights and it measn holding the poor thing flat out for ages. And it's a 4 hour drive each way for me. And I'm still sore from my off at Donington 3 weeks ago. And the weather looks not good.
Still, I get the van packed and head off late Sat evening. There's been a trackday on Friday and two non points scoring races on Saturday, so most will know the circuit fairly well, I've never been round it at all so it'll be a steep learning curve - just timed practice in the morning to learn the track and get quick on it, perhaps 10 laps at most, and then it's into the race!
Slob turns up Sat morning in good time as I get monica through scrutineering. We have a breakfast in the cafe and head back to the bike in good time to prepare for qualifying, check everything, fuel up, tyre pressures etc. It's rained early morning so the track is damp, we set the pressures at 31 front and back. Slob notices at this point that the rear brake is binding. Half an hour to qualifying, brake is binding badly so we get stuck in and strip, rebuild, bleed, sort the problem, qualifying is at 09.50 and we're ready at 09.52, I jump on and head to the collecting area and it's empty apart from a couple of karts just arriving. I find they're running early and the DD bikes are just coming off circuit. Great, I've missed qualifying. You're supposed to do 3 laps minimum practice before being allowed to race, so fearful I might have had a wasted journey I go to see the Clerk of the Course. He askes if I've been there before, I lie and say yes, and he allows me to join the back of the grid on condition I take it easy for the first 3 laps - if I fall off in that time I'll be in trouble! i promise I will (damn right I will, I don't even know which way the corners go!!!) and get back to give Slob the good news. On the plus side, the brake is now perfect.
Race 1 and I join the back of the grid, position 37. The lights are a long long way away! The come on, go out, I make a leisurely start and follow the pack into turn 1, not going to push it till I've had a chance to learn the track a bit. 3 laps in and I'm feeling a bit better about it, take the 3 riders in front of me, but it's a hundred yard gap to the next rider and I never close it down, just spend the next 7 laps learning how fast the corners can be taken without running out of track on the exit. Eventually the chequered flag is shown, I've been lapped by the front few 620 bikes but I'm back safe, finished 32nd (there were two fallers) best lap 1.33. Bike was fine, gearing OK, pulling 9000rpm most of the way down the back straight which is slightly higher than I'd like but there's a strong headwind going up the other way that the bike is struggling against so I don't want to gear it up any further.
Refuel, allow the tyres to cool, it's warmed up, dry, still windy, we drop the tyre pressures to 30 front and back and wait for race 2.