We took three bikes along; the Cub, the Daytona and the 500 Morini, now fitted with an engine borrowed from Paul Compton. This should in fact be faster than the previous engine, having gas flowed heads to suit the racing cams, and hopefully will hold together better too. It does need a piston running in, however, as well as general fettling. We got it sounding and feeling about right the day before Thunderfest.

In the event, the Morini refused to run on both cylinders, which eventually turned out to be muck in one carb (the other being completely clean despite being fed via the same fuel lines, very odd) and the Daytona, used in the morning practice, was going quite well but holding back at times. The Cub was used to set the target time, as planned, as I wanted to see if its new later-type oil pump would keep the piston happier, given its recent history of seizing on Darley Moor's main straight. The piston seemed happy enough, with the bike revving freely, but the bike followed the Daytona's example of jumping out of third gear. Not being able to rev hard in third meant being in top gear too early with resultant sluggish acceleration on the straight and consequent low top speed. Still, some fun was had catching up on the bends and I decided to use the Cub again in the final part of the event, trying to match my earlier time, which I signally failed to do. As a test day, however, it had been quite useful and informative.

Frank, the event organiser, always reminds us not to fall off and hold up the proceedings. The final session was stopped early as he fell off and broke his bike, which was hard to move out of the way with the front end no longer attached.

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