Photo of Jamie taken at the Wirral 100 race at Anglesey
Saturday 28th March
The plan for the Saturday had been practice and qualifying sessions, but Anglesey was very cold, wet and very windy meaning that the conditions were very poor for any practice or qualifying.
Due to the bad weather the day was mainly written off. The officials had no choice but to show red flags out on the track, which meant we had to keep stopping so the day only saw us get out for one 20 minute session at the end of the day.
Sunday 29th March
The Sunday morning was much the same weather wise with heavy rain and strong winds.
First up was a combined practice qualifying. Full wet tyres has been fitted to the bike in preparation, however before Jamie could even get out onto the track his visor had steamed up completely so he had to return to the garage.
After cleaning and re-spraying his visor with anti fog spray he tried again, but the problem still continued so he made a quick decision to change the visor completely. Fortunately this worked and he was out onto the track, however due to the delays it meant he only managed to get one lap in before the end of the session.
The session was plagued with yet more problems, as when he got back in the garage there were reports that the circuit timing system had gone down towards the end of the session which meant he hadn’t got a lap time and would have to start from the back of the grid.
Not the best start!
Race One
By the time the first race came to start the rain had stopped, but the track was still wet in places so Jamie stuck with wet tyres.
Jamie managed to get a good start and made some places up in the first couple of corners. He managed to get up to sixth place and had a good battle with the rider in 5th place, changing positions four or five times, before running out of laps and finishing in sixth place at the flag.
Race Two
By the second race the track had dried out so the bike was fitted dry tyres. Starting from sixth place, Jamie was able to get another good start and settled into fifth position right behind fourth place.
Jamie and the fourth place rider were both lapping at the same pace and although Jamie was faster in places, he was unable to make the pass and finished the race in fifth position.
Race Three
As the third race was about to start there was a light shower, but fortunately the track stayed mostly dry so Jamie stuck with the dry tyres.
Jamie started from 11th place this race, and had yet another good start and by the end of the first lap he was up to 3rd place.
As the race continued Jamie did slide a couple of times on damp patches on the track, so wasn’t quite able to make the ground up he needed to catch up with the first and second place riders, and Jamie finished the race in third place.
Summary
Overall not a bad start to the race season, especially given the bad weather on the first day.
A full race report can be found on the Wirral100 web site – www.wirral100.co.uk
