Athea 2003
Athea is one of the nicest little road races anywhere. The Athea road
race club was formed 3 years ago and the meeting has gone from
strength to strength .
Athea is 5 hr drive from Dublin and I think we had a better drive
down after arriving in Ireland at 8pm
It was around 2 am when we finally get the tents up and settle down
to try to get some sleep.
After getting the commando and the f1 through scrutinering and
attending the riders briefing I was ready to start practice on the F1.
I got 2 laps in before the engine cut out I was stuck out on the
track with a broken F1.
I wanted to get back to the paddock to practice on the commando. I
thought I had loads of time to get back until they put the 1000
classic out with the 350 classic for practice!
You have to do 5 laps in practice before you can go out in any race.
As soon as I got back to the paddock I was running around trying to
get the commando started, then find out what we had to do to mend
the F1. The Ignition back plate had come lose on the f1, so not much
work in re setting timing and its is a runner.
I did one lap with the commando. It was a bit under-geared but ok as
this is its first race since 1998 I was not looking for much more
than a run round.
I eventually did the 5 laps required by going round at the back of
other classes doing their warm up laps.
Bad practice good race I what I was thinking as I was sitting on a
wall watching the other riders run round.
After a couple of beers and some food things looked better.
Athea is a lovely little village in the middle of nowhere.13 pubs but
we haven't been in them all yet.
Race day morning I wasn't up on any grids because I had no qualifying
time. After some debate I was allowed a start from the back row.
This was the first race on the commando with the 850 engine. As I had
a look round the grid it looked a little depleted only a handful of
1000 classics. They had to amalgamate the classes so at least we got
2 races.
As the flag was lifted to indicate the start of the race the two
riders in front waited for the flag to drop!
We were a bit bunched up getting to the first corner and a guy on a
250 Suzuki fell off in front of me I ended up in 3rd place on the
road but leading my class.
2nd race of the day on the f1. Starting from last row of 400 support
with other non qualifiers for the 750 Support but end up 4th in what
was now the support b race I suppose
The 2nd classic race same as 1st 3rd on road 1st in class.
Two wins one third and a 4th all in 3 races!
Spent the rest of the day in the pub spending the £90 prize money
and drove back on Monday to make the evening ferry home.