sunday, barse, gordy and chris w turn up at mine at 11am, i've left a message with mucker marsh but he doesn't trap, ben is having new wheels fitted to his bimmer and picking his suit up, [fuck me, ben is jay-z!], dangerous turns up, we are off to curborough for the national hillclimber club meeting on the twisty sprint track, into the lion garage for fuel, 50 miles max on a tankfull on the sporty, i brim the tank and pay, we turn left onto the 517 to ashbourne, into ashbourne and onto the a515, past darley moor, there's a meeting on there today, down past the prison at sudbury, onto the a50 and back onto the 515 for the quick ride down towards lichfield, pick up signs for fradley and i know we are almost there, nearly miss the entrance to the sprint and we park up, barse get's the tea's in and we wander around the pits, there's some great stuff here, i'm looking at the 250cc velo and decide to have some sport, 'you should be ashamed of yourself'', i say, 'you should restore it and put it on display in a museum', 'fuck off', says one of the lads, 'mate, i'm taking the piss' i say, 'i know you are son',

say's the bikes owner, his mate chips in, 'he'll pay you to take a photo', brilliant, no over restored precious motorcycles, just bikes used and abused, we lunch on fried egg butties and tea, barse, chris w and gordie skin out, me and dangerous watch some more racing and skin out to darley-moor, things are different here, a different type of vibe, tension, if someone needed a clutch lever for a r1 or whatever you can picture them saying 'sorry mate, ain't got one' even if they have 5 in the van, you ain't valentino youth, your'e just a clubman racer, one of the feature races gets red flagged when one of the novice's has a big off, the leader slaps his bike and starts giving it the big 'whaddafuck' shoulder thing, mate, your fellow racer is down and injured, show some respect you twat.

......so, friday afternoon, finish work, quick shave and shower and i'm at second-skin for a session with ben, 'the world's most handsome man', quick brew and down to work, we talk about 'festival of a 1000 bikes', tattoo's, mutual 'friend's', my ducati, rat's running across the road and getting squashed, ben's cat, my dog's, football, mz's, led zeppelin, the weather, roy, [ben's brother-in-law and my mate who sit's behind me at pride park or the home of the mighty, mighty, ram's, two week's 'til the new season, away to dirty, dirty leed's first match], the knocking shop across the street, chocolate hob-nobs, barse and jake turn up, we have a brew, ben get's his ape-hanger's out, [well, not his actual ape-hangers but the packaging that they arrived in, the bar's are at the powdercoaters for a good thrashing and painting in black], just another typical loveless afternoon then....

kicked the idea of trying to get to brand's this weekend into touch, we have to be realistic, the bike isn't ready and as ed [of fingy moto blog], told me we need to get the bike sorted before committing loads of money on race entries, van hire and days off work, i don't want to be standing in the pit's watching, i want to be out there, so i need to get my entry in for the cadwell meeting in august, get my finger out and sort the bike, found this lovely picture on e-bay believe it or not, love it, headlamp canked up at the stars, rust, paint peeling off the shed doors, mz badge on tank upside down, brilliant.........

been looking for a cover for the carb for ages, had a bit of rag stuck in there but having nightmares about forgetting to remove it before starting the bike and it getting sucked into the motor, walked in the kitchen last night to wash my hands before having my tea at 10pm [again] and found this on the work top, fits great..........

.......i flick through the programme and

there it is black and white, d.crofts, 248 ducati, but then i look at the other riders on the list, tommy robb, 250, works honda, bill ivy, 250 yamaha, alan dugdale, 248 yamaha, terry grotefeld, 246 aermacchi, mick chatterton, 246 ducati, dangerous was there back in the day, big-up, d. crofts, 248 ducati...........

we get home around 7pm, unload the hire van quick beer and dangerous is gone, i sit in the shed, have another beer, my emotions are all over the place, quick shower and settle down to watch the second half of the world cup final, i pick up a couple of old race programmes that dangerous has left with me, mallory park...........

out onto the track for the sighting lap, mick comes past me on the rudge, bloody hell it's loud!, i follow him round until we come around the devils elbow and everyone starts to jockey for position, over the start and finish line and we are off, i pass mick into gerrads and don't see him again, mr fzr comes past down the straight but hasn't got a clue as we reach the esses, i stuff him on the inside and i'm away, round the hairpin, devils elbow and past he comes again down the straight, i stuff him again around gerrads, i'm flat on the tank, tucked in and he doesn't pass, my confidence in the bike is rising, the tyres are well scrubbed in, the handling is ok, no horrors like i expected, i'm 'old school', i can remember riding old brit's, twitchy 'strokers, bikes with bad suspension, tyres made from rubber out of a john bull printing set and big jappers, heavy, skinny tyres and loads of horsepower, i used to ride all year round until a few years ago so know about cold tyres, shit weather, dark, freezing winter mornings so riding an mz in lovely warm weather shouldn't be a problem, all of a sudden it all clicks into place and my nerves disappear, i become one with the bike, i can feel what's happening and my riding becomes smoother, one thing about riding on a track is that you get to go around the same corners over and over so you can get the line, find out where the bumps are and you don't have to worry about going 'round a corner and meeting a john deere head on, it's the way forward, my fingers are still wrapped around the clutch lever though, i can feel myself getting quicker and i start to lap some of the other lad's out there, all of a sudden the black and white flag is being waved and it's all over, i sit up and as i cruise back to the pits feeling good the bike stops, i scoot it back to the van, forty minutes untill the next session, i keep my leathers on as we go over the bike, it's frigging hot and i'm overheating, we wipe the bike down, check the plug, we need to jet down, too much fuel, tighten up the fasteners that have come loose, i'm drinking water likes it's going out of fashion, i'm dehydrated, i wheel the bike around to john's starter roller, he's given up now and changed into his civvies, '2nd gear, drop the clutch......', the bike starts but doesn't feel right, down to the holding area, marshall checks, onto pit lane, bike stops, bastard, onto starter rollers, bike starts, stops, onto starter roller, bike starts, bike stops, i push back to the pits, dangerous has the stand out, my day is over, too hot, jettted too big, don't want to damage the bike, i slump in one of the fold-out camping chairs still in my leathers, i'm gutted........ then, nige, des's team mate in the bmzrc championship turns up, we met at cadwell a couple of weeks previous, 'been timing you mate, 1minute 20's', ' sorry mate', i say, 'is that anygood?', nige gives me the good news, 'the 600's are doing 1 minutes dead around here with about 90 brake, youv'e got about 30 brake and your'e doing 1minute 20, do the math' i change into my shorts, put a brew on and we pack up to leave.

second session, everybody is watching carl fogarty and freddie spencer so the pit's are a lot quieter, i get changed into my leathers, our mate john is zipped up, helmet on and ready to go, we help him push his bike onto the starter rollers, three tries, nothing, i back the 'zed onto the rollers and she fires up straight away, dangerous is running backwards and forwards down the pits trying to bump start john, i ride down to the holding area, i'm first there this time, the marshall checks the scrutineering tag and my wristband, shows me the session number, 42 and i nod confirmation, i get a hefty slap across the shoulders, it's mick wild on his 1931 500 tt rudge, 'bloody clutch is slipping like a bastard, where were you yesterday?, i bought you a bike!', mick had promised me a ride on one of his other rudge's on saturday, but, as you know, we were trying to get the 'zed ready until 10pm on the saturday, i make my apologies and mick laughs, 'don't worry about it son', the holding area is rapidly filling up and i glance over my shoulder, everybody looks nervous just like me........ except the bloke on the yamaha fzr750 who appears to be sneering at my mz.......... and the other bikes in the line, your card's marked matey.

put the ducati on e-bay tonight, great bike and i'll be sad to see it go but i've been doing the maths and i can't afford to keep four bikes especially as i want to go racing, three meetings left this season, won;t make brands this weekend due to machine problems, [and lack of funds], that leaves cadwell and snetterton, got to get at least these two meetings under my belt and then get ready for next season, talking to some of the other lads in the club it seems you need to budget for around 6 grand, lot of money i know but i'm addicted so it's goodbye to the duc i'm afraid.....