LVRC Dunton 3 - Thurs 9th June 11

Dunton 9^th June 2011

Howell Schroeder takes to racing as a duck to pole vaultingI

Apparently I had learned nothing from 50 of the longest and most humiliating minutes of my life, spent at Hog Hill on May 30^th tasting racing for the first time. When Richard Somerset suggested he could give me a lift down to the Dunton track on 9^th June the words ‘Thanks, Richard but absolutely never again’ somehow came out as ‘yes please, that would be great’.

So it was that Richard and I alone represented the North Road that evening. For those who don’t know it, the track is the old Ford test circuit and consists of a long and wide straight with concrete banked corners at either end. Frankly I spent the first thirty minutes terrified as about forty unfamiliar riders swept by far too close for comfort on the banking, so I opted to stay at the back and out of trouble, calculating that missing out on any breaks was a small price and in any case totally irrelevant to me.

As chance would have it, a break of six did get away, which sadly Richard narrowly missed, his heroic efforts to bridge across being defeated by a strong wind. Meanwhile at the back of the main field by the last lap I was feeling ready to give it a blast, accelerated down the straight, failed to find a convenient gap between riders to cut in and so ended up at the head of the chasing group. This upset to the world’s natural order lasted no more than a few sweet moments until I heard the familiar whoosh of thirty odd pairs of tyres as they swept past. The thirty pairs included Richard who led out the main field’s sprint and nearly stayed away before being overtaken on the line by his nemesis from two  weeks ago, so finishing eighth overall.  I trailed in some distance back, rehearsing the words ‘Thanks Richard but absolutely never again’.