Sunday 12th August.

Today saw the unfolding of round six of the ACU Supermono Championship at Donington Park, as always our friend Gordon and Mike “Spike” Edwards were with us in our garage, which happened to be number 2 (my lucky number).

When I arrived at the circuit early that morning the sky was a vivid blue with some wispy clouds and it looked as if the forecast rain would not taint the day. Riding high on our points at Pembrey we had it all to play for and Donington being one of Glen’s favourite tracks I knew that we would be in for some competitive racing.

The first practice session was only an 8 minute affair and with expected lap times in the late 1.17’s this meant you had to be quick, all went well and it was time for a new set of sticky Dunlop slicks a refuel for the bike and a cup of tea for us.

The timed practice followed at 11am and with a new chequered paint job the bike made its way onto the grid, again having only 8 minutes a clear fast lap was essential and Glen found just that, as a team we knew that Mark Lawes (Team James), Nick Chadwick (East West) and Spike (Gordon) would be on our tail and our goal was to pick up some more points and extend our lead.

When Glen pitted the bike at the end of the session he was despondent due to a vibration coming from the bike and as a team we set about locating the problem, then the times were issued Glen had done a 1.17.52 putting him on pole alongside Mark Lawes, Nick Chadwick, the ever consistent Jeff Claridge and Mike “Spike” Edwards.

After some head scratching we discovered that the front wheel was slightly out of balance and it was this which was the cause of the vibration so once fixed with nothing else to do the waiting started. Starting the race several points clear of our nearest competitor we had a built in margin for error but our aim was to increase our lead in the championship with our now unchanged goal of winning the UK 2007 series.

The race was called first after lunch and as normal the cat and mouse game of who would be first to make there way down to the holding area begun, finally after the 4th very late call the competitors were starting to make their way down the length of the garages towards the track.

One sighting lap back to the start finish line and away, the bikes started to fill the grid and what felt like an hour went by before everyone was in place for a fast and furious start, red flag up and away and with all eyes on the red lights we were good to go.

Jeff Claridge made a great start as always battling with Nick Chadwick, Aaron Easter made heavy work of the start and lost a couple of places as he darted into Redgate, Mick Hammond had a spill on the first lap coming into Craner and with him took Mick Burge and Clive Chitty.

Perry Goldstein stalled on the grid and after the pack had passed made some valiant attempts to bump start his bike, later joining from the pit lane, Daniel Rosamonds bad luck has struck again with him retiring after the first lap, this only being a 12 lapper the mid part of the race was exciting with Glen battling hard against “Spike” and now worthy threat Nick Chadwick, Glen taking Mark on the bends and Mark out powering the 450cc on the long Dunlop straight.

With only a lap to go the race ended in drama when the red flags came out due to a racing incident between Mark and Glen. Glen seized a window of opportunity pass Mark at Starkeys Bridge and the two very different machines having different racing lines had a coming together resulting in Mark crashing luckily for all unhurt.

The race ended with Glen taking 1st, “Spike” having a great result with a 2nd and Nick Chadwick in 3rd. Although we are dissapointed in the way the race ended with 133 points all we can do is look forward to Mallory.

Lee Andrews Scorpion-DART Racing