Wow! What a fantastic time we had.

Richard, as some of you know, was involved in a bad smash at Mallory on the 29th March which resulted in him spending several hours in Leicester Royal Infirmary and escaping with nothing more than very severe bruising and a mallet fracture of his left thumb. This left him very sore and prone to migraine attacks which he got one of when he went to board the plane at Exeter to go to Spain with Mike and Katie.
The plan was then to get hime to Spain with the old van we bought from Timus and by the time Richard felt better and could travel we had less than 2 hours before catching the ferry to Roscoff.
We disembarked at 22.20 in Roscoff after a slow journey to France. The ferry to Santander travels at 30 mph (Yes, I was sad enough to take my GPS on board and log the speed) but it only does 20mph to Roscoff! However the new boat, the Amorique, is fabulous and very smooth!
Richard drove to Lorient and then I took over for the night stint to Bayonne whilst he slept in the back (air bed and sleeping bag). Then it was my turn to kip until Richard decided to follow the 'goat track' (dual marked as the E05 and E80) between Andoain and Vitoria-Gasteiz! I was flung around so much I crawled back into the front and slept sat upright!
The van did spectacularly well, averaging 32 mpg for being tonked at speed fopr 1200 miles to Guadix with us arriving at 17.30 Friday afternoon. Richard had only missed one day of the three he had booked there.
Guadix track is a bit of a tip but Clive (the owner) is affable and helpful when one of the team's tyre warmers packed up. Guadix track is about 3400ft up so quite chilly may be an understaement?
Richard managed to get his leathers on - a combined 2 person operation - and enjoyed the track, managing enough miles there to run the bike in enough to change the oil and filter. The hotel and their restaurant food were good but after the first night I decided to sleep in the van as one of our team snored due to a cold.
On Sunday afternoon we headed off to catagena and found the Roda Golf Appartments where Hottrax had booked us accomodation. Very nice with all mod cons and we settled down to watch the MotoGP....then it was cancelled!
The following day we spent in glorious sunshine (Yes, I did forget the sun tan lotion and got seriously burnt legs) with me spannering for several people as well as being chief time keeper. Mike got into the groove and was doing consistent 1min 47sec laps with Richard trailing at 2mins 8secs. Katie and Jack (Jack is a professional Fish Juggler and all round good egg) were also in the 2 mins bracket.
On Wednesday Richard was feeling quite a lot better and set the bike up for some fast laps. Jack had cracked 1min 58 and Richard got down to 1 min 55 on a standard '09 'Blade. I do have to point out that the bike record for Cartagena is 1min 37 by a local Spanish Superbike rider who did it on a Gixxer 600cc! There was also a Mini-Twin SV650 doing consistent 1min 54's much to the shame of the Ducati 999. 748 etc as well as all the Japanese 4's.
Star of the show was a chap who'd rideen his Moto Guzzi 1100 Sport all the way to Guadix and Cartagena and toured round Cartagena in 2mins 38 secs. He stayed off the racing line in the slower group and everybody enjoyed his company.
My spannering was....
Pit crew for our team, Jack, Mike, Kt and Richard as well as the odd helping hand for Grant and Helen (600 Gixxer riders from Yeovil).
Fixing (what I do best) a Gixxer thou for Paul Pickering. The bike ran before it was transported to Spain but wouldn't when it was unloaded. Many hands had been at it before me with Power Commander wires hanging off every where and the bike almost stripped to the chassis. i got involved and soon sorted it....a corroded main ignition fuse (there where no instruments or ignition switch on the bike as it runs directly from the kill switch so no lights when 'switched on'). The owner was well chuffed as I'd saved his 3 days at Catragena and his wife gave me a big kiss.
Then the Moto Guzzi threw a wobbly and I was soon stripping the starter motor. I thought it had heat seized but no, it had destroyed 2 of the field magnets which had jammed the armature. I removed the broken bits and the third magnet which had come unglued (probably the heat) and put it all back together - I honestly didn't think it would work and the owner went off to try and source a new motor. He returned just as I'd finished bolting the motor back in and said he could get a motor couriered over from the UK for Thursday for £200! However, when he pressed the starter...it burst into life. The motor runs a series of planet gears so is very low geared. Considering it only had one field magent to 'pull' on I think that was probably my best save yet!
The one I couldn't fix...the R1 which the owner said wouldn't start because of a flat battery.....nope...the engine had lunched itelf and could only be turned over through 120 degrees before catching and stopping dead. That's why the starter wouldn't turn the engine over.
Yes, I burnt the back of my legs but it was well worth it. The journey back was easier then the journey down as we stopped in Bayonne for the night.
A great time but I wished I'd had a bit more time to prepare as I would then have taken my RC8....roll on next year!