Great Racing, Andy Ibbott and a surprise…

Saturday, August 27, 2011 0 Comments

The races

Well, I did book the sun and it didn’t disappoint, red hot both days.
The supporters turned out in force which made the weekend, barbees n whiskey in full flow
and everyone really enjoyed themselves, I avoided the whiskey, obviously…
First job was to swap the wheels on my bike and put the drys in for a change ready for
qualifying. This round they had put us Steelie racers in with the powerbikes and super
twins, should make it interesting I thought. The front of the grid was made up of these guys
so we were pushed down the order, no worries as we were only racing each other. My plan
was to roll round, stay on and not set anything on fire, the only flames i wanted to see
were in the BBQ, I came 5th and 2 secs off my PB, fine by me.
First race I was up to second place then I decided to ‘road shift’ to 2nd gear instead of
‘race shift’ to 4th, (must swap my FZR 750 to race shift!!) nearly blew the poor thing up and
Sam went by and went on to win it, mega job mate.
Second race, another mistake with gears meant a bit of grass tracking at the end of the
back straight and again dropping from 3rd to 5th!! Lowest points score of the season that,
damn. That’s the excuses out of the way, last race I came in 3rd.
It was a proper weekend for all concerned, Martyn, Sam, Richy and Mike were on fire and
rode mega and the only incident was Mikes bike over heating which the lads repaired for
him. Top work J and Karl.

A very nice surprise

On the Saturday evening after the BBQ some of the lads called me into their tent, they told
me they had put their heads together and come up with the idea of supporting me due to
my recent run of bad luck. They decided they were each going to donate £33 as it’s my
racing number, they had also asked friends and family and gave me a big wedge of
money. I was gobsmacked and really moved by everyone’s generosity, I really couldn’t
believe it. A massive thanks to everyone who supported me.
As a wee thank you I am going to put everyones name on my bike, titled 33 for 33 and on
this website. Go to the sponsor section to see their names.
Stickers are on order…

Other stuff

It’s been a bit hectic lately, what with christenings, kiddies parties etc etc and my life long
mate Carlo got hitched to Lucy which was fantastic, lovely day, great catching up with
everyone and really made up for them both.
I’ve booked a week off in September with the family so we can get away in the wobble box
again over to Aberystwyth this time. I intend to do as little as possible except make sure
our little guys have a brilliant time, can’t wait.
As my number one bike has died I’ve decided to get a replacement in the mean time and
see if I can resurrect it over winter so I’ve got a 14 hour drive up to Aberdeen, only 740
miles!! Wish I could find one closer to home, the others have been from Hull and Devon.
My bro Ian has offered to book the day off as well to come and keep me awake. If my new
badges have turned up in time I’ll take my new race leathers to get logo’d up on the way as
well. I hope to call in on friends in Edinburg and Montrose as well, fingers crossed they’ll
be home, should be a good wee “man trip”…

Andy Ibbott

Ive just been updated on the progress of my great mate Andy Ibbott, director of the
California Superbike School who was taken seriously I’ll a few months back, he has just
managed a 2 mile walk whilst wired up with some electric gadgetry that his neuro physio is
using to stimulate certain muscles in his leg to aid movement, next up will be vocal chord
surgery then they will move onto his swallow, he’s up against it but he has such
determination I know he’ll pull through, wish you the best of luck fella…

Well with just one round left and lying joint fourth in the championship, the title looks out of
reach, I’d have to win all 3 races and the others would need to have a bad day at the
office, having said that the rain is a great leveller so you never know, I’ll be pushing hard
that’s for sure. Im hoping to be on my replacement bike and fingers crossed it goes well
and doesn’t give me any problems. I’ll have to swap the forks and shock off my destroyed
No1 bike so it handles, switch it the race shift, get on it and stretch the throttle cable, wish
me luck…
See the events section for the dates as I hope as many friends as possible turn up for the
“Grand” finale, oh and this round is on the full circuit. So bring your tents if you can stay
over or just pop over for one of the days but please come, it’d be ace to see you there.
Don’t forget to click on the twitter and Facebook tabs to re tweet this blog for me as I could
use the support.. Cheers

I’ve put some new pics in the gallery too so see what you think.

Go big or go home…!!

Al Racer33