    |
 |
|
|
|
Photo by - Andy McGechan
Hi guys,
Well its been a flat out couple of weeks.
After the first British
Championship, Katherine, Scotty and some mechanics drove down to Spain for
the first WEC. I was lucky, I flew down. We all met up at the race place
Tuesday afternoon. The country side in this area looked very desert like
with only sparse scrubby plants on the hills. They say it only rains a
couple of times a year here.
I immediately started to walk tests. The one I had found was X test 2, a
test we nick named the jump test. In this test the organisers had gone to a
lot of trouble to build doubles everywhere, and in some cases damn big
doubles!
In the following days I walked the rest of the tests. X test 1 was what
appeared to be a grass test, but in the grass were hundreds, no thousands of
nasty rocks. The Enduro test was kind of like a MX track with a sick hill
climb in it. I was a little worried about it but I thought if I just hit it
wedged in 3rd I should be right.
Race day came and the saying \"The rain falls mainly on the plain in Spain\"
is bullshit, cause it falls in the hills as well. The trail was difficult
to start with but light rain made rocks that much more slippery. Some
climbs became really tough. One hill was taken out but replaced with
another hill that still required a lot of dog paddling.
My times were average. I stuggled with conditions of the tests, as in some
ruts were deep bull dust (powder) and on the clean grass lines were so
slippery from the rain. It was a weird combo of conditions in some tests.
I finished 11th in class, not overly happy but a better start than last
year.
Sunday was better I felt I could push harder and I finished 8th.
This put me 8th in class after round one.
We packed up on Monday cleaning all gear in preparation for a full 12 hour
drive on Tuesday to the 2nd round in Portugal.
The same cycle started over again, walk tests and test bike before
scrutineering and impound. The tests in Portugal looked nice. X test 1 was
in a paddock in town with good dirt (loamy in some places). The Enduro test
was a mix of fast and tight stuff with rocky ground. X test 2 was 6km long,
starting in quite a tight grass section and moving into some faster sections
through gum trees, a bit like Australia. This round also had an Extreme
test which started on top of a rocky hill, dropping down to the bottom and
back up an even rockier? section. Kind of trials type stuff.
On Saturday I got off to a good start, 3rd in class after the first test.
The rest of the day went well, some good test times, only problem was I
failed a plug before the start of the Enduro test. I changed plugs ok and
thought nothing more of it. I finished the day in 8th, happy with my times.
Sunday I was woken with the news I had been disqualified for outside
assistance. Basically when I changed my plug I was handed a spanner from my
bum bag. I was gutted (to say the least). I had to put it behind me as I
had another day of racing to do.
I had some good times with another 3rd in the first test, as well as a 2nd
and 3rd in the Extreme tests. I was happy with these times finishing 5th in
class for the day, with a best overall of 16th.
\"(Of course not one to show his happiness, although there was a slight smile
when told 5th place, this helped make up for a disappointing Saturday).\"
After two days driving I`m now back in Lichfield, Birmingham preparing for
an indoor enduro this weekend with the first round of the Fast Eddy series (UK GNCC series) the following weekend.
Catch you later
Paul
Typist: Katherine
