Sprint – RAF Colerne – 3rd May 2010 - Keith Attwood

Words by Keith Attwood

Published: 03/01/2012

Full results: http://www.bristolmc.org.uk/2010_Results/Wessex_2010_Results.pdf

A month later I was back in sprinting mode at the venue of my first sprint back in August 2009, RAF Colerne. For those that haven’t been there it is your standard airfield, so very flat, with the sprint being held on the southern side of the field. It’s a very quick course with the final section being pretty much never ending corners. With the long straight down the main runway I was reaching speeds of between 130-140mph.

Colerne is run in the classic sprint format with 2 practise runs and 2 timed runs. Again I was without a support vehicle so had to decide on my tyres the day before. This time I chose not to be conservative and went with the Toyo R888s. Also the weather forecast said it to be sunny!

Now due to the previous year I wasn’t going into this sprint in the dark. With nothing much to hit I knew I could push more than I would on an enclosed circuit / hill climb. The practises were pretty uneventful and I was holding my own in the top half of the class. Hopefully, this time around, I’d be able translate my practise pace into a good performance in the timed runs.

Video: http://www.vimeo.com/11442712

Well with the track heating up nicely I lined up for my first run. This went fine, apart from my ability to not be able change gear correctly and hit the limiter a few times. This being the case though I set a time of 81.99 seconds. Which as it stood at the end of first runs was second in class. Class leader though was around 5 seconds faster, which even with a herculean effort on my behalf would be unachievable. With third place man setting a time of 83.28, and knowing he was capable of around a time of 80 seconds I would have to hope he’d make an error on second runs, or that I’d go a fair bit faster.

My natural nemesis the weather would once again throw a double six, but this time it would be in my favour. With heavy shower between runs and there not being a great deal of chance for it to dry out before the second the class leader packed up and went home. I stuck it out and did another timed run, which came in at 92.32 seconds, and was the fastest in the class in the damp!

So as we all packed up and went home I felt very pleased with myself in securing a second in class, although only in a field of 7 this time, but knowing I’d beaten someone who was capable of going a fair bit faster than me.

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