BMX Racing – Gosport Nationals Day 1.
Woke up, showered, got dresses and then ate breakfast before getting all my stuff for the day ready and then loading the car before heading to the track early.
Once parked up I headed for the team gazebo and waited for the morning practice session. The practice session went really well and I managed to get 3 laps in all with gates and then I headed back to the gazebo and refuelled for racing.
Racing started at 11:15 as planned and went pretty much as planned and I came last in all 3 moto’s and got moto’ed as expected! I did however get faster in every moto and just got pipped on the line in my 3rd moto which was better then expected!
I then packed up and drove home via my parents house and washed my kit and sorted my stuff out to head back to Gosport early in the morning for day 2 of racing!
I woke up at 5:30 and showered, got dressed and packed the car ready to leave at 6am. The journey was way faster at this time of day and took 1hr 45 minutes and there was very little traffic other than Salisbury for a change! Once I parked up I again got all my stuff and made my way over to the team gazebo and got ready for practice.
Practice was heaving and the session was way shorter so we only managed 1 lap before the session closed 🙁
Racing went better today although the outcome was the same and I came last but today I was faster than one or 2 people to the first berm every time so I was happy at that at least! I wasn’t happy at my track speed or line choice and I lost any places that I gained going into the first berm before the exit so I really need to work on that! I have come to the realization that I heed to drop my gearing from 37×16 to to 36×16 like most other riders ride as although my snap was fast I seemed to go backwards from the gate to the first jump as the other riders were able to spin their gearings faster than me 🙁 I also noticed that when the other riders got back on the pedals out of berms they were faster than me too!
I was however pretty happy at the way my manuals came along on the first straight and you could see that I was carrying more speed than the guys that I was beating to the first berm so another positive I suppose. Today I felt way more in the mix that the day before and my gates and first straight were definitely way better! I also managed not to crash this weekend so that was an added bonus!
I also arranged to swap the FTB frame for a Dialled MX 24R frame with a friend early next week so when I build the Dialled frame up I will build it up with a 36×16 gearing. I need to get used to the 36×16 gearing too as my Curtis Frame works best with that gearing and I want to race it next year and be more competitive so I need to get used to the lower gearing as soon as I can!
I also won a Dialled Bikes MX 20 R bike on ebay while I was racing and I arranged to pick it up in the evening from near Birmingham so I said my goodbyes and headed home to get showered and ready to head out to pick up the new bike 🙂