Snetterton was Gordon’s first race of the year, the first time he had turned a wheel since his crash at Cadwell and consequential complete rebuild by Peter Day. The motor had been rebuilt with a new gearbox and a complete freshen up so it would be interesting to say the least to see how he faired here. However, after Brands Hatch I was unsure whether or not to bring Ming along to Snett because the long straights that would highlight his lack of top end power but right at the last minute we decided to run him and see what he could do against the ultra quick Kawasakis.

The weather forecast was awful so I phoned Pat at Dunlop to order some tyres and hearing the news that they were ‘out of stock’ of wet rears really put my head in a spin.

Steve and Sarah Jordan kindly let us all in their awning.

On the way down to Snett we called in at Peter Day’s house to collect another front calliper and a brake line to suit Gordon, I had decided (at the last minute) to run a second disc on Gordon as we had now fitted a Yamaha FZR 400rrsp front end to him.

This would give us the opportunity to utilise the use of Ming’s wet front wheel so I only had to carry one spare wheel for both machines. But as soon as we arrived at Snett I realised I had forgotten the wheel spacers for Gordon’s wheel, this now meant that we would have to keep swapping the front wheel over between each outing of each machine, Doh!

Saturday morning both machine managed to get through technical inspection OK and Steve had both bike fuelled up and ready to go, Ming was out first but with the wind and damp conditions I just trundled round to get the feel for the place then pitted. I was amazed to find out I was on the front row (third) for the first race, but I knew straight away it was going to be an uphill battle for top speed against some of the front runners.

Gordon however just didn’t want to play and refused to start, new spark plug and fresh fuel and still no go. Roy from Slipstream came by just in the nick of time and sprayed some brake cleaner into the carbs as we turned Gordon over with the starter engine, after some spluttering and banging he burst into life. I would never have thought of trying carb cleaner so thanks Roy!

By now the track was dry but still very windy, I had decided to do just about 5 or 6 laps, once again I was surprised to find out I was on the front row missing out by only 0.061 of a second from second place!

Ming was out first and as the red lights went out I realised what a job I had in front of me, I was swamped up to the first corner exiting in approximately 10^th place. Down the back straight and a bit of ‘danger braking’ and I was up to 6^th. Young Adam Lyon had shot off like a scolded cat, ‘he was going to take some catching’ I thought but hung in there and tried my best.

I managed to catch on the back of the group fighting for second place but even in their slipstream they would pull away 50-70 yards down each of the straights, there was simply a lack of corners for me to make up the gap before the next straight so had to settle for 5^th place.

After the race all the top six machines were placed on the dyno, strange really as there is no class power limit, however Ming was up first and banged out a figure of 61bhp.

After all the other five top machines were tested the dyno guy came down and left me a graph showing the best of them against Ming, 61 bhp against 77bhp!!!

Now I can ride round maybe five bhp but 16 – sorry I’m good but not that good.

The Supermono race was up next and we were all excited to see how Gordon would fair against the field this year, there were over 30 machines out on track even after some had retired in practice.

Red lights out and we were charging off into turn one, Gordon’s lack of power against the top bikes was going to make it tough in this race but he had a standard road gear box meaning he has a low first gear, this in turn means off the line he goes like a rocket!

Only Mark Lawes on the Mick James Pami BMW out dragged me so I followed him on to the back straight, hoping to get a good tow down to the Esses for the first time. It worked and I was right on his tall as we braked at the end of the straight, I hung grimly on to him for a while but the speed advantage started to show and after 3 laps he had started to pull a gap on me. We in turn had pulled well clear of the rest of the field so it was a two horse race from now on, before we knew it we caught some back markers.

Mark was a bit steady getting through them and this gave me the chance to catch up and even pass him exiting the chicane.

It was a bit cheeky of me I know and Mark knew what he had to do next, he shot passed me over the start finish line and pushed hard for a few laps. I simply couldn’t match his speed and pace but maintained mine to the end finished a good second place with Henk From (Marks team mate) third.

After the Mono race all the machines were weighed, Gordon tipped the scales at 137.5kg, no lightweight but not bad as the road machine is 170kg. Next was the noise test, now Gordon’s stroke is 88mm and the piston speed/noise test should be done at 4,200 rpm but they wanted me to rev him to 5,000rpm. Mad as he only revs to 8,000rpm out on track. As it turned out Gordon is very quiet, 101db due to the excellent MHP exhaust system.

I don't know how, but Andy Driver managed to crash his MuZ while running it in???

Photo: www.racing-line-photography.com

The second EDI 400 race was a carbon copy of the first race, me pushing hard to catch the leading group but not being able to make any more progress there. I was starting to get a bit frustrated so made the decision not to race Ming on the Sunday, mainly because there was nothing I could do to Ming to improve his performance and I knew to get through the pack I would have to stick my neck out, something that could have a negative result!

Sundays weather turned out to be wonderful, bright sun and almost no wind, in fact it was like spring/summer (well it was actually). Morning warm up for Gordon went well despite the session being cut short due to a red flag incident so we looked forward to repeating his first race result. Steve Jordan and I altered the rear shock damping to help Gordon’s tyre life and I was confident of a good result.

Loads of people had turned out to see Gordon as his ‘fan base’ is now getting quite large - so as the lights went out for the start of the second race I focused on getting him of the line as quick as I could.

He didn’t disappoint, he scorched away into the lead and held it out of turn one, out of third gear and into forth when suddenly and with no warning his con rod broke.

I knew instantly what had happened as the rear wheel locked up, grabbing the clutch and keeping out of everyone’s way I managed to pull to the side of the track and off the racing line.

There was steam and oil everywhere, thankfully the belly pan worked and caught most of the engine contents, and we were out of the race.

Mark Lawes who was directly behind me when the motor blew later jokingly complained about being peppered with engine bits and bobs!

Photo: www.racing-line-photography.com

He wasn’t lying either as I got into the back of the recovery van with Gordon one of the marshals handed me a handful of alloy bits and pieces from his engine.

There was a massive hole in the front of the engine block and crank cases, I know pretty much what Martin from Slipstream is going to find inside when he opens Gordon up to do a post mortem.

It was a sad end to the weekend, the damage to Gordon’s motor will run into thousands of pounds and with my budget a repair/replacement is out of the question.

The conclusion I come to is the project to take a old street machine – juice it up and race it competitively has now gone full circle.

Gordon went out in a blaze of glory a fitting end to a great machine, that is unless there is someone out there who wants to donate a complete race motor, you never know miracles do happen...

Gordon races into the sunset...

Photo: www.racing-line-photography.com

It was the debut of Jody Lovatt in the supermono class.