The Last Rites - No time to lose!

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Another fine day in North Wiltshire – the sun shines and there is a cool fresh feel to the air. Normally we would be looking forward to such a day but this is the last weekend before the start of the season so there is a certain tension in the pits area. As soon as I park the car my eye is caught by a new water tank that has appeared on the top of the changing rooms. I gather that it’s there to increase the pressure in the riders’ showers but I am reminded of Prince Charles’ comments about a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a long lost friend”.

As the season approaches so we are joined by more of the characters who are necessary to keeping the meetings running smoothly. Kenny Bradford and his wife Mandy join us. One of their many jobs is to make sure that the pits are kept clean and tidy and then brushed out at the end of a meeting.

Out on the track the DaVinci boys are now turning their artistic attentions to the white line – they stand back and admire their craftsmanship – proud purveyors of the noble art of the long handled roller.

My first task is to get the green netting attached to the back of the air fence and then make sure that it is long enough to clip on the top of the safety fence. This netting, which stretches around the bends, is designed to keep as much of the shale on the track by preventing it from flying off over the dog track and beyond. We experimented with some yellow netting but it was curiously opaque and was swiftly discarded in favour of the green. Punch works on the track while Keith and Ernie make the final touches to the air fence. Clerk of the Course Mick Hunt “tarts” up his area of the pits with the liberal application of copious red paint.

By the end of the session, at about 2pm, the place looks ready for the behind closed doors practice session on the Sunday.

The drive to Blunsdon on Sunday morning is a “Curate’s Egg” – beautiful weather, empty roads and a twenty minute hold up at a complex set of traffic lights where every set is stuck on red.

As I drive in through the Pits’ Gate I can hear the distant whine of the air pumps. Keith, Ernie, Punch, Adam and Gerald have beaten me to it and are already inflating the air fence on all four turns. Our next task is to fix the advertising hoardings to the front of the air fence. These have a multiple use; they provide useful finance for the club during the season; they bind the fence panels together even tighter; and they keep the flying shale from besmirching our pristine air fence.

Work out on the track continues with grading, packing and watering. Practice sessions put a great degree of strain upon a newly laid track and we want to be in the best position to be able to see where any potential problems may occur.

The final piece of the giant jog saw that is the air fence is put into place - the section that covers the pits' gate. This has to fit snugly - any gaps and we would be looking at having to adjust all of the bags on turn 4 - not something we want to contemplate in our worst dreams!

Once this is done there is a quiet spell as we wait for the arrival of the gladiators. Fuel levels in all the air pumps are checked and then double checked.

First to arrive is Charlie Gjedde. He’s a little upset that the track has lost some of its banking but appreciates, from a distance, that it does look nice a flat. The air fence is completed when the pit gate section is in place.

The bright sun and keen wind are drying out the surface of the track rather too quickly for our liking - we need to keep applying water to prevent the surface from breaking up in a dusty cloud as soon as the mighty behemoths that are the bikes come out .

After all of the trials and tribulations of the last 5 months, the old place really looks good. The white line shines, the camber is smooth and the place is ready for action. In a strange way part of me doesn't want the bikes to come out onto the track - they might mess it up. Seriously, we are all slightly concerned that the riders approve of what we've done to smooth out the track and develop more riding lines.

As the first engines fire up in the pits even more water is put down on the quickly drying track. It's ironic that having spent all winter improving the drainage to get water away from the surface we are now faced with the task of keeping water on the surface. Even at this late stage, too little or too much water could ruin the practice. Punch and Gerald monitor the situation very closely.

Leigh Adams is the first of the 2007 Robins to ride on the track. Billy, his ever reliable mechanic, is on duty on the centre green. Leigh puts in a series of steady laps, stopping each time to allow Billy to make adjustments. Leigh settles in and puts in a series of startlingly quick laps.

It is immediately apparent that the old problem on turn 1 has appeared. A closer inspection shows that the sand in the shale is breaking up.

Mads Korneliussen is next up and it after he has been around that we are able to make a close inspection of the track on turn 1.

Under Gerald’s guidance, Keith removes as much of the sandy material and then drags new shale into place and hammers it down with the back of a track rake.

It’s a temporary fix – we really need to remove all of the suspect shale and replace it before running a vibrating roller over it to really pack it in place.

Apparently a promoter of some decades earlier used to solve the problems of holes in the track by mixing concrete in with the shale. This fixed the hole but made a rock solid section in the track. Where other surrounding areas of the surface would wear, the concreted section remained proud of the surface. When asked if this was dangerous he is reputed to have said, “Our riders know where the lumps are, they ride the track every week. If they’re daft enough to ride over one then it’s their own look out. As for the visitors, well, who gives a dam.”

Fortunately we live in more enlightened times!

Tomasz Chzanowksi powers around the track. It is interesting watching Tomasz in action; he moves around on the bike very fluently and tries out all manner of lines during his practice spins.

Further into the apex of turns 1 and 2 we find some more loose material with a higher than necessary sand content. There’s also an area of caking, where a layer of shale comes away from the base. It doesn’t look too good but it is much easier to fix and, frankly, it is the type of damage that we expected from such a newly laid track.

Gerald stalks the infield, frustrated that he can’t do more. He watches the riders with an intensity. Punch and I make sure that the water tanker, know colloquially as the “Mowlex” is full of water. The March sunshine and brisk wind is drying out the track quickly and we want to avoid a dust bowl at all costs.

Lee Richardson and Seba Ulamek are in Poland today for the press day for their Polish League teams and so there are nasty rumours that they may want to practice on Tuesday – my back goes into spasm just thinking about it.

Last out on the track are junior rider Billy Legg and our new number 6, Andrew Moore. He’s been held up in the aftermath of a motorway crash but soon impresses all of us. He has a smooth and economical style that seems ideally suited to the “wide open spaces of Blunsdon.”
As the riders make their way back to the pits and then the changing rooms the track staff leap (on second thoughts “lurch” would be a better verb) into action.

The loose shale around the kickboards and the air fence is inches deep and it all has to be dragged back onto the track where Punch and Gerald are able to grade it away This process takes the best part of an hour. The fence is deflated and the air pumps collected up and returned to the store room.

At the end of a stop start sort of day we are generally pleased with the way things have gone. No-one has been openly critical of the track, although there have been a few mutterings about where the steep camber of previous years has gone. Given that it is a newly laid track and that we have had the equivalent of probably two meetings worth of racing and riding on it, the surface has held up well.