Brands hatch was the final round of the Bemsee Championship; with changes in my schedule it meant I was able to use it to get my last chance to ride Ming.

John Sanders, the championship title sponsor had travelled from Hong Kong for the occasion.

Peter had built a new motor, but as yet, it had not been raced; I had arranged some time on the Slipstream dyno on Friday afternoon to help set up the carburetion. When we first ran it up it was miles away from being right, however 3 hours later the graph was looking much better. Steve and Sarah Jordan had also kindly saved me some room in their garage so we were able to set up camp and prep the bike for the next day.

The weather forecast was good for the weekend which was a nice change as every meeting this year it had rained at some point, fingers crossed here!

As luck would have it arriving early in the evening, we had time to get the bike scrutineered so it was a lie in next day, great!

Our practice time came around before we knew it and getting out on track I knew straight away there were problems, the carburetion was far from being right.

It would only work on full throttle, if you used any less the bike would just not accelerate at all.

Not good when the bike is on its side in mid corner. Anyway, somehow I managed to put Ming on pole with a 1:39.2 - a bit scary, but I’d done it anyway.

Mark gives me the low down on Ming's performance

Mark from Dyna Pro said I could use his facilities at the circuit to see what he thought – almost instantly he knew what the problem was and gave me some setup information to try.

We had plenty of time so we adjusted the setup – straight away just running the bike up in the pitlane, I knew it was miles better.

We took Ming back to Mark to give it another run for him to compare, things looked great, but as I rode back down the paddock to the garage the motor started to make some strange noises.

I knew instantly it was terminal, a big end bearing I thought.

Thankfully Steve had nagged me to bring the spare engine, so we all set about pulling the motor out. There was no point in rushing because we would miss the first race so focused on getting it right for the second one.

An hour and a half later Ming burst into life once more and fantastically sounded good too!

As I missed the first race, although I had set the pole time - I would have to start the race from the back of the grid. Not the best place to start from but I have done it before and knew what I had to do.

Head off on the first lap and not let the leaders get too much of a gap with only 6 laps to make up the distance.

Ming is tricky off the line having a very tall first gear but I managed to barge my way through the field and started the second lap in about 6^th place, but Adam Lyon, Steve Palmer and Phil Polden were miles in front almost the whole length of the start/finish straight!

Photo: www.racing-line-photography.com

Photo: www.racing-line-photography.com

I had two options.

1) bumble round and get a better position for the next race start or

2) go for it and see just how much, if any, I could reduce the gap.

Thankfully Steve Jordan had set the suspension up brilliantly and Ming was riding like he was on rails. Good job really as the spare engine is the best part of 15bhp down on the leaders.

(Yes, I said 15bhp down…)

A few laps later and I had caught and passed Phil, this spared me on to pull in the leading pair. On the last lap I caught and passed Steve Palmer and was on the heels of Adam, but on the run down to clearways for the last time Steve out dragged me and held me off to the line pushing me out to third place.

In the process of catching the leaders I had set a new outright 400 lap record of 1:37.3! Not bad with just 61bhp….

Ming was working as well as we could possibly expect of him, so after a clean up and check over it was off the Kentagon for the prize giving.

 Sunday brought more lovely weather, and after a quick run round to test a suspension set up change, we prepped Ming for his first race.

Steve Jordan measures the suspension.

The EDI girls looked the part - every inch of it!

Unfortunately due to some race stoppages, the organisers changed the program and an announcement over the tan

noy told us that the EDI 400’s were only going to get one race.

This time I was on the front row for the start and as the lights went out I was swamped going into Paddock for the first time.

Young Adam was off like a rocket and had ‘checked out’, meanwhile I cleared the main group and set about catching the 2^nd and 3^rd place riders.

They were having a real ‘ding dong’ consequently not just holding each other up but me too.

I managed to pass them eventually but it was way too late, Adam was too far in front to catch.

Then to add insult to injury Ming started to jump out of gear.

The small gap I had opened up evaporated and after another missed gear on the run down to Clearways young Danny Buchan passed me on the way in, it was all too late for me and he held off to the line, another third place.

Overall the weekend came good, I can’t complain really after the motor went on Saturday morning we had risen to become a Phoenix from the ashes; and to say that the bike is absolutely standard is more amazing.

Many thanks to Peter Day for most generously supplying and preparing Ming for the year. You can tell from the photos, that he is beautifully and meticulously built.
Cheers Peter, simply, without you it would not have been possible.

Young Parbury asks my advice on suspension setup.

John Hall is made up with his Aprilla 550, I can see why too.

Sarah Jordan returns to the garage after another great result on her 600.

Alex Hutchinson was helping out his brother and came over to catch up with things

Pier Hutchins collects his well deserved second place award.

A charity cycle race always brings out the 'nutters'.

Gary Budgen wrapped up the Thunderbike Championship, we all helped him celebrate the occasion.

Top tip - "Take your helmet off first Gary"