Scarborough Night Race 2008

Saturday the 4th October was the date of the Fat Face downtown night race in Scarborough. We arrived on Friday evening and set up camp before heading into town to play on the 2 pence slot machines and then going to the pub with the Hart family.

From the start of the track you go through the castle walls which were paved with cobble stones. These got very slippy when it rained. Turning left out of the castle arch you go down a 9 sets of stairs, rolling the first set and then jumping between 4 pairs of stair sets. Launching up the tabletop jump you go through an s bend in the path and over a jump onto a flatbed trailer. Landing on the roof felt in the centre was essential as the edges were slick wood which Steve found out on his run.

Dropping off the end of the trailer onto a landing ramp and it’s a sprint down a 200 metre section of nothing but tarmac hill. At the bottom were two options. A kicker which would send you flying up the hill and stop you dead or a small hop which would carry all of your momentum up the steps. Obviously I chose option 2 and doubled up the steps which had wooden boards to help you out.

A short sprint to get you back up to speed leads round a tight right hander with a high line to help you round and down a series of longer smaller steps. These were made up mainly of a sandy grit like surface so the very tight left hander at the end was changed from a tarmac path into a muddy skid pan. Carrying on down the path you go down several sets of stairs. These stairs were far apart and were quite steep and short in comparison to the top sets. It was rider preference as to whether they doubled these sets up. Onto the drop in the finish area there wasn’t much roof felt down and many riders went sideways off the drop. Round the roundabout / river and you go through the finish line on the pier.

Practice went well and I was finding the track fast and not having too much to think about for a change. In the seeding run I launched the huge table and my front wheel landed flat, digging my pedal into the floor. This scared me a bit and I just carried on down the track at a reasonable pace. My time was 1:20 and I came 8th. The winning time was 1:17. I knew I could go faster then that in my race run. The rain came down harder in the evening as racing started and had no intentions of stopping. I got my bin-bag on and walked to the top. Here we waited for almost an hour before the race was finally cancelled due to the bad conditions. A bit disappointing for the final race of the season.

I’d just like to thank everyone who has helped me out this year with my racing, especially Steve Felstead for being a top class manager and John Young for being my sidekick and making every race that little bit more fun. See you all next year.