Fantastic weekend at the Kielder rally. Cracking weather and a nice fast course that saw me sitting at 55-65mph for most of it. 4 laps over 2 days saw 320 miles in total, with only one special stage on each lap as the 2nd special was abandoned as it was too dusty and you couldn’t see a thing. 
Bumped into a friend who was marshalling, which was nice.
Saw my times in the special stage drop from 7:28 on lap one to 6:42 on lap 4 and from a provisional 23rd place on Saturday night to a 20th out of 36 in the class in the final results which came out this afternoon.
Wasted the brand new rear tyre so I’ll be taking some spares with me to the Ryedale. Only other casualty was the lens on the tail light which, as it’s a sealed LED unit, costs £88 to replace the whole thing!!!
Only injury to myself was a badly bruised shin from slipping on the tail-lift of the truck when loading bits of the awning. Some others weren’t so lucky tho. Mark, who’s bike I transported up, hit a tree at about 45-50 and needed the paramedics. Nothing broken, but some serious bruising. One guy overshot a bend and ended up in a ditch, but hit a concrete culvert in the process, requiring airlifting out. Some serious fractures there, but I’ve not heard any more.
Just waiting for the points and placings to be calculated for the ATRC now. If I’m right, I should have got some more points.
What I’ve learnt?
The new bike is night and day compared to the KTM. Lighter, faster, nimbler, everything about it is just better.
I’m not as slow as I thought I might be. I’ve come in a couple of places higher than a couple of riders I was expecting to beat me.
Some MUCH better riders commented that I was ‘on it’ for a couple of sections and that I left them behind on my favourite bit.
Looking forward to the Ryedale, although it’s probably going to be the most technically challenging of all the rallies.
