Aston Hill – Root Canal
Its been a long time since I’ve been to the Hill of Aston. I have never been able to pull off a good result, and I find the tracks pretty hard to get on with if I’m honest. But the Root Canal race was set to change all of this, apparently…
We had managed to blag ourselves a ‘Trade Tent’ in the car park (Cheers to Mark Harris on that one) and we were set to arrive on the Saturday, early afternoon, in order to get everything set up and ready for Sunday.
We got there and found out we couldn’t set up until Sunday morning anyway, so we decided to let the track know who was boss instead… The track was bone dry, dust everywhere. It looked like something out of a Clay Porter movie in some of those corners. Loose as Ken’s Mum. Let me tell you one thing, it soon taught us a lesson! There were bodies everywhere and even Phill Atwill was seen busting through the tape! Proper well good fun though ay!
Most of the track had been there for a while and was fairly well ridden in, but there was one corner that was new. A long sweeping right that tightened at the end, straight into a left. It was a tricky one, and a good place to spectate. It took me a few goes to get the hang of it, but the key was slow in fast out on this one!
By this time young Aaron had wandered down the track to where we were sectioning and he seemed pretty nervous! Some of the braking bumps were pretty damn deep out here! We chatted to him for a bit about what was worrying him and then showed him a few lines to give him some options through the tough bits, which seemed to calm his nerves a bit. I can remember my first race on a tough track, I was a lot older than Aaron and I know for damn sure I was showing a lot more nerves than he was, he’s got some balls ay! Soon after this I sent myself over the bars in a corner and was cursing my desision to not put any elbow pads on! Every time I don’t wear it man, every time!!
It was soon time to pack in the practice as the light was fading and the food needed cooking! The signs said no fires but there was no other way to cook our food, and judging by the size of other peoples fires, a little barbeque wasnt going to get us unto any trouble, surely? My cunning skills meant we got away with it! It was soon bed time, and we hadn’t put the tent up yet, Doh! Ah well, good job the Van has got headlights!
In the morning we had to get up proper well early in order to get into the main car park and set up before everyone else got in and filled it up, this meant Tam was well grumpy and I had to feed the bear with some old bread before he would calm down! We got the stall set up in a flash and I got myself out onto the track for some practice! It was running much the same as the day before so all that needed doing was more runs! I had my body armour on this time so all was good. Aaron was riding the track so well in practice, it’s crazy to see a kid his size riding a track like that, but he was nailing it. A crash in his last practice run knocked his confidence a tad but he still went for it in his race runs. That kid is nails!
There was one corner that kept having me off all practice, it was my inside line, but I was convinced I could stick it. A crash there in my first race run left me in 4th spot and no doubt that I would have to take a safer line. Coming into the table top near the start of the track on my second run I heard some kiddy shout “Do A Whip” so I threw a big one. It was Rad. I managed to stick that corner this time, taking 6s off and putting me into second spot at the end of the day. Happy with that!
Aaron managed to stay on for his second run and took 6s off his first run time, he was made up with staying on for the whole track too!
I have to say well done to the Aston Hill team for this race, it ran without a hitch and changed my mind on the place, Cheers guys!
Until next time,
Keep ‘er sideways!
Burf
P.S. Not many photo’s in this one, sorry lads