The Cub all seemed OK from the last outing, but the tyres were getting old, so a new pair was purchased at vast expense. A slightly smaller sprocket was also ordered and fitted to the back wheel, potentially adding 4 or 5 mph to the top speed if the engine is feeling up to it. Mallory is quite a high speed circuit, where the Cub is flat out most of the time.

Jenny was also due out on her Ducati – it had struggled to pass the noise test at a test day in March, so had had baffles fitted. But when the time came for the practice session, it did not sound happy – two Ducati experts were to hand, who agreed that the baffles had to go. That meant missing practice and the first race while bits were sawn through, but it squeaked through another noise test, so she was ready to go by lunchtime.

Meanwhile, I was out on the Morini in the first race of the day, the track had mostly dried out after the overnight rain, though a damp patch had provided an interesting moment at the beginning of the practice session. Sadly, there were almost no other 500’s – no chance to avenge myself on the Ducati that beat me last time out. The 500 and 750 BEARS classes had been (accidentally) merged, I kept ahead of a 750 BMW but the other 500 was an early 1950’s BSA prototype which someone had developed over the last 60 years to great effect – it was astonishingly fast and came in third overall out of 19 finishers (ahead of a 1100cc Suzuki Katana). I had read about BSA not having pursued that project, some saw it as a missed opportunity, and it seems that they were right. Still, BSA did sell lots of Gold Stars instead.

The first race for the Cub saw me keeping ahead of a couple of Bantams, in the second one Jenny was going well on the Ducati. She had to start from the back of the grid, having missed practice, and her faster bike came blasting past in no time. However, there were also some much faster, bigger bikes out with us, and before long the leaders were lapping us, one of whom decided to go through Jenny rather than round her.

Jenny going well before the accident.

She and her bike went separately down the track at around 80mph and the race was stopped. With a cracked shoulder blade her meeting was over, we deposited her at Coventry hospital before returning home on Saturday night, and after Sunday’s races got her van back to her home (fortunately not too far from the hospital, which had released her later on Saturday evening), our friend John giving me a lift back to Mallory to collect our van. The good news is that a couple of weeks later Jenny has started – rather painful – physiotherapy, and the bike survived surprisingly well too. Next stop for me is Cadwell, and then we will both assess what may be possible for the rest of the season.

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