Keith Stewart Racing

To say I was nervous on Friday would have been an under statement, but with the forecast of rain on the way I felt a lot happier as it would slow the quick men down.

I was out on the VRS Racing 600 first in the C group but all the rain that had fell in the morning and afternoon had dried up by the time I hit the road. I left the line on the 600 and took it steady on the first lap but I felt something was up at the start of the second lap as the bike felt like she was losing power and sure enough, it was…the battery had gone flat again! Something was draining the battery. I pulled in and stopped till the practice was over and with that, it meant I had no times for the 600 race on Saturday.

Next up it was time to go out on the VRS Racing 1000. The rain had started to fall just prior to me heading out and that put a smile on my face. The organisers had told us that we would only get 3 timed laps so I had to make every lap count. Looking around the grid everyone had wets on and I was on intermediates!!! But hey… still managed to finish 13th fastest.

On Saturday i was looking forward to the rain but it only stayed wet for the first few races and dried up and turned out to be a glorious day. Robbie had worked on the 600 to see if he could solve the problem but as we had no race I would have to wait to see if it was sorted. The open B race was my first time out on her and with me starting at the back of the second group, I decided to take things easy on the first lap to see how things were going. They didn’t go at all well with the bike just not handling that well at all. At times I thought I was going to go for a trip through the hedges a few times as opposed to going in between them but as I needed the road miles under my belt, I decided to stay out and get myself used to being back on the roads. I ended up finishing in 13th place and considering my arms and hands where near pulled out of me with the bike not handling too well, I was as happy as could be expected!

Robbie made a few adjustments to the bike so I had another go in the second open B race, the bike felt a lot better but more tweaking needs to be done yet. I stayed out as I felt that, as anticipated, the extra miles were doing me good in my progress back to race fitness.

The organisers decided to run a non qualifiers race at the end of the meeting so we took the 600 out to see if Robbie had managed to fixed the battery problem as I wanted the bike ready to go at the Tandragee next weekend. The wee bike was flying but I lost the left side footrest up the back hill section which all but ended my day. I was gutted because I felt the old me was coming back bit at a time and I was ready to finish my day on a high with some decent laps but there ye go…..I still take a lot out of my days racing and I am happy to build on this, and just like Scarborough, I am using this time to come to terms with all the adjustments and moves I need to make to get me back in the hunt again. I know it’s a bit of a task ahead but it’s just great to be back on the roads again. I’m also feeling a lot more at ease on the bikes as every lap goes by.

Thanks again to Robbie and all the guys at the weekend for all their help and I’ll see you all at the Tandragee next week

Keith Stewart 92

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