Winning weekend

There are few more beautiful sights in British racing than Cadwell Park on a sunny day. But the rolling hills, the lush green banks and the tall shady trees all mask the sheer ferociousness of this tight and twisty Lincolnshire track.

Friday’s testing went well, both Steve and Ben got lots of laps in on the Endurance bikes, and Steve took the Superstock bike for a spin round in the last session. Steve was convinced he could get more out of the big bike on Saturday and we were looking forward to race day.

We qualified early, putting in some blistering laps that got us to P1, but we were all acutely aware that we needed to convert that to a race win. Cadwell is always a bit of a rush, on account of having to pick everything up and move it to the bottom paddock during the lunch break, and once we’d done that it was race time.

Steve got a flying start – like a rabbit of the traps – getting away and building a lead right from the start. Ben increased that lead during his stint and from that point we built on it session by session. The boys rode as hard as they could, every session like a sprint, every corner totally committed and the straight as hard and fast as they could. Steve was awesome over the mountain – both wheels in the air and the pit crew were faultless. It was a flag to flag lesson in race perfection – not only that, with a P1 in qualifying and fastest lap, we got the gentlemen’s set!

A well-earned boost for all of us, and finally the wet and cold of the start of year is starting to feel a long way behind us.

Photo credit: Ian Boldy at Pistonbroke Photography