MONDELLO PARK

Mondello Park is Ireland’s best short circuit, in fact it will be hosting a round of the British Superbike Championship next year so it must be good.
 
The second weekend in October is not a good time to be racing, it’s either cold or wet or both! And true to form it was both cold and wet!

PRACTICE

It was a lovely cool crisp morning when we hit the circuit for the first practice session so the bike was running really well and as Mondello is my favourite Irish short circuit I instantly got the big smile on and really enjoyed myself. ( I go faster when I’m enjoying myself). As it has been two years since I last raced there I spent the first few laps relearning the circuit and then it was time to get it on.
 
Second practice was much the same but this time we were battling for grid position. As I sat warming the bike up in the pit lane I kept thinking something was amiss but I just couldn’t work out what it was. And then it hit me or should I say then I saw what the problem was. I had forgotten to put my specs on! I can see well enough without them but not racing a bike; as my eyes can’t constantly refocus quickly enough. After a bit of panic and lots of pointing at my eyes one of my mates realised the problem and covered the 100m back to the van faster than Linford Christie ever could have done!
 
 I got caught up in a dice with a 750 Weslake for a few laps; the ‘red mist’ came down and I forgot it was only practice, and we really went for it with a few hair raising passes being pulled out of the bag! We must have been really pushing it as I qualified third on the grid and my Weslake rival was fifth quickest. It was good fun though and it really set me up for a good run in the afternoon’s races.

THE RACE

And then it rained and rained and rained and rained and rained and rained. And then it rained some more! Well it is Ireland after all!

As we sat waiting for our race to be called all we could see were big black clouds everywhere and no sign of the rain easing. We got called to the warm up area and it was still tipping it down. Thankfully one of my mates had a big golfing umbrella so we were able to keep the rain off my glasses. ( I had remembered them this time!)

We were waved off on our sighting lap and as I got to the first corner (a hairpin) I just burst out laughing as there was a puddle about six feet wide right on the apex of the corner. The laughter was more hysterics as I thought only a complete eejit (Irish for idiot) would race in these conditions. As we made our way around the lap it got harder and harder to see where I was going and there must have been half an inch deep of water all over the track. The rain was so hard it just wasn’t getting the chance to drain away. As we made it to the grid and lined up I could see the clerk of course in deep discussion with the other officials and then the race was aborted. It was the right decision as it just wasn’t safe to race in. 

The whole meeting was abandoned shortly afterwards as time was running out and there was no sign of the rain easing off. Next time I’ll bring a Jet Ski just in case.