Race review - Croft circuit CRMC round 7

Symon Woodward MT125 2017

We were all really excited to hear Croft was back on the menu for 2021. We had a great time back in 2017 in the PC250 class gaggle with podiums achieved and the odd excursion into corn fields.We even had the 125’s out as you can see Symon Woodward above on his Honda MT.

We were that excited in fact, we allowed Paul Kirkby to enjoy it all by himself this year. For various reasons Kirkby (who was very happy to have his shortest commute of the year) was our only guy with Woodward attending to spanner for Joe.

This was Kirkbys first time at Croft so with a track day booked, he headed down on Thursday with his trusty beater, the Honda VFR750 RC24.

Seeing as we don’t have anyone else to talk about, in his own words, this is how Kirbys weekend went:

Croft, the last meeting of the 2021 CRMC soggy calendar.

Quite predictably for the North East of England in October the weather was sketchy. I’d never raced at Croft before so here I wasn on the Friday track day. Surface conditions were high on my mind second only to where that surface even went as I learned the track. Peeling into a rather damp Jim Clark Esses with leaves on the track did nothing to calm my nerves. Thankfully as the day progressed the track dried and the leaves became less of an issue. By the end of the day I at least knew which way the track went.

Saturday morning timed practice was damp and after much ‘umming’ and ‘ahhing’ I ended up going out on ‘dry’ tyres. Not my brightest move. I wobbled round like an old man before finally ending up 16th overall, out of 30, and 6th in class some 10 seconds a lap slower than the fastest time!

After much contemplating my racing future and ridiculing by Team Woodward I decided to go out in Race 1 after all. With the track still damp, I took my place on the grid in P17 but this time with ‘wet’ tyres on (ie slightly softer road tyres that is). In a flash of spray and dubious grip I held P11 by the end of lap one. I finally finished 9th overall, 3rd in class, but still 7 seconds off the leaders lap times. Race 2 was a similar result, the only difference being that I started from P8 this time. Oh well the forecast for tomorrow was much brighter…..or so I thought.

A disappointed Kirby had achieved a 3rd place in class on his first race at Croft in the wet. If any of you want to clock him round the back of the head and tell him to cheer up we will look away now.

Sunday came and brought the sun-shine with it. A well rested Kirby enjoyed a lie in thanks to the local church wanting to clatter its noisy bells around without the racket of clattering pistons and swearing from the 2 stroke riders.

The track was drying and everything was looking rosey….well it was until it started to rain again. Thankfully it had just about finished by the time I formed up on the damp grid with ‘wet’ tyres on for our Race of the Year.

A P10 and 4th row of the grid this time made for a good kick off point. I was up to P9 overall by the end of lap1 and not far off in front was the large group which included 1st and 2nd places in our class.

P8 was in the bag by the end of lap 2, 3rd in class, not bad but I was already eying up the 2nd spot. Unfortunately on lap 3 I managed to outbrake myself on the fifth gear approach going into the left-hander, Sunny In. With it still being tricky in places I gingerly turned round in the run off area and rejoined the race, just as a hard charging FZ750 came past on a mission. I was now 4th in our class. I tried to catch it up again but to no avail so brought it home in a safe 4th place instead….. but more importantly in one piece. The flying FZ750, on ‘dry’ tyres had actually recorded the fastest lap in our class, also breaking the class lap record, on its way to 2nd place so I didn’t feel quite so bad after all. This time I was within 4 seconds of the fastest lap and only one second a lap slower than the 3rd placed man, who was also the championship winner, so came away happy enough.

And just like that we were done. Well Kirkby was. Packed up and heading back home gave time to reflect on the race and the season behind it.

I actually quite enjoyed racing at Croft once I’d got going but can definitely see why the road racers go so well there, especially at this time of the year. The circuit is more about confidence than out and out speed as you spend a large proportion of the lap on the side of the tyre. Croft is on the Classic Racing Club calendar for around the same time next year so hopefully I will be able to have another go but with a bit more confidence before I get there.

A massive thank you as always to all of our sponsors and a thank you also to everyone that has helped me get the big VFR to where it is now.

A special mention has to go out to Joe Woodward. Symon has clearly plaid the long game in an effort to get another championship out of the CRMC and we are all very pleased to see Joe win the Post Classic 250 class on his dads RD250 and do very well in the Junior Production 600 on his VFR400.

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