BSSO Cadwell Park – Rookie George smashes it up! | SPORT

With a late ETA, we set off from Southampton around 4:30 pm (after school). We had a long car journey of around five and a half hours.

After arriving at Cadwell I had a brief look at the scooter and went to sleep. The previous race at Anglesey, I was extremely confident and the scooter was doing great so there wasn’t much to worry about…

Saturday

Waking up to a lovely Saturday morning in North Lincolnshire, I had my breakfast and got suited up ready for scrutineering. My new leathers passed and I was ready.

Not feeling as nervous as usual, I made my way down to the holding bay for the Stock scooter practice. I went out last, like normal, and tried to set a good lap time. Unfortunately, I felt I could have got a bit over-confident. Sending the scooter flying into the left-hander before The Mountain, this left me in a bad position going up the right side of The Mountain. That part of the track is pretty steep on the left, never mind the right. With the steep hill under me and the power kicking in, my weight wasn’t enough to keep the little pink smallframe on the ground. It then lifted the front wheel, which slid me back on the seat and I pulled for more throttle. As the bike accelerated it flung itself into the air before flipping down the track. To make this situation even better it was in great view of the busy grandstand.

After I was flung up the track. I got back up and rushed to the side, I must admit seeing that bike all crushed on the side of the track made my heart stop as I thought my weekend was ruined…

Look at the size of the crease in the centre of the frame, nasty…

Walk of shame

Once the race was over, I rushed across the track and did the walk of shame as my family dragged my scooter up the hill. Leaving it outside in the paddock where we set up, it was sat in misery. People gathered around to assess the damage but there was no saving this one. The frame was buckled and bent. We used our time with the tools and completely stripped my original scooter.

In a later race, Michael Leicester’s engine had a mechanical failure and he kindly offered me to race his frame with my engine. We got straight to the engine swap as quickly as possible. We worked all through lunch and swapped the engine. By 3 pm it was ready to go!

Second Stock Race

I got out for the second Stock Race of the Saturday and just wasn’t feeling right on the scooter. I came in to assess what was going on before the Supers Race and was feeling really low. John the Greek came over and asked how I was and why I wasn’t going out. I explained how I felt and he checked my tyre pressures and adjusted the suspension. After he adjusted the bike it was 100 times better. I went out in the Supers Race and completed it, feeling a lot happier.

Saturday was easy and with the (DSC) Darlington team partying next to us it was definitely entertaining. I went to sleep early because I was starting to get a tad sore from the crash.

Sunday

Sunday morning was a beautiful morning. I had a lovely chat with Jer Crew who was one of the winning team at Teesside the day before (BSEC feature coming up next week). I checked over the scooter and got out for the first Stock Race of the day.

Going well I just took it easy as I wanted to enjoy the rest of the weekend. Crossing the line with a smile on my face I was happy. I decided to go out in the Supers Race, feeling good I was slowly improving my lap times. Feeling great, I was following people. As I went round the left-hander at Mansfield the carb popped off. The marshalls gave me some exercise and made me walk all the way back, it was a trek. Getting back, the rain decided to pour and I decided to retire from the rest of the weekend as I needed to give Michael his scooter back. After watching the rest of the wet races we slowly made our way home to Southampton.

Words and photos: George Fielder

Footnote

George was uninjured in his crash and is already building a new scooter ready for the final BSSO round at Lydden Hill on October 19th-20th. ScooterLab has supported George’s racing during 2024.