boxer racer project

 i'm awake at 0430hrs, i try and get another half hour but it's no good, 0450hrs, in the shower, tea, final check to make sure we have everything in the van, pick up dangerous at 0600hrs and off we go, grab a coffee from macceedee's on the way, heavy shower's and just as a contrast, squally shower's, not much conversation, we are parked up in the mallory park paddock at 0745hrs, sign on, brief at 0815 hrs, i'm out for the first session at 0920 hrs, bike won't start, i borrow a pair of jump leads and get the bike started, down to noise testing, 'sorry mate, your 108 decibel's, 105 decibel limit, you'll have to baffle it down a bit' fucking fuck, i make my way back to the paddock, dangerous drop's the megga's and i sprint over to ken's van to get some baffling material, we pack the pipes and i miss the first session, i go for the re-test, 'sorry mate, your

106 decibel's', ' mate, i've been working on this bastard since last october, you really aren't going to fail me for 1 decibel?' ,ok, i'll give you a sticker, but it's more than my jobsworth.....' at last, i'm in the pit-lane waiting for my session, a couple of the travelling marshall's have a look at the bike and give it the thumb's up, i ask one of them to drop in behind and just make sure nothing comes adrift, out onto the track, two steady lap's, keeping the rev's back to 5000rpm, warm up the tyres, feel's good, step it up a bit, 6500rpm, motor feel's a lot better, a tz 350 tries to outbrake me into edwina's and end's up going straight on, 5,6,7 lap's, confidence growing, the front brake is shite, the front fork's diving too much under heavy braking, no-problem and easily fixed, i peel off into gerrard's, the never ending right hander, there's a squirm from the back end, as it drift's around to the left, oh shit, here we go, i get ready for slip, slide, sky, earth, the bike straighten's up but the clutch slips as i try to select fourth, the marshall zip's past on his 'blade and indicates for me to follow him through the barriers at edwinas rather than going through the chicane, we pull off and he show's me the oil pissing out all over my rear tyre, i kill the motor and push it back through the pit's, quick diagnosis reveal's a blown crank seal, game over, could have been a lot worse if i'd tipped it into the left-hander at edwina's as my rear tyre was slipperier than a very slippy thing with extra added slippy stuff,  we are home for 1400hrs, i'm not dissapointed, i've learnt a lot today, never had any faith in the engine that my 'mate' had built, the chassis, bar a couple of tweek's is good, i'm in this for the long haul, if i have to sell my sporty to fund the racer then so be it, i'm hooked me, i've had another glimpse today of what life's all about, it's not standing about in pub car park's looking at road bikes, it's not being 'cool' it's not about getting your bike in 'dice' it's about racing, that's what it's all about, all of a sudden it hit's me, we won't make the festival of a thousand bikes next week, gutted..........