Round One - Mere Brow 2nd May 1998

Even Luke with his craft had to resort to his Parents new craft to complete the series of races for the weekend. This advantage secured a win by one point from East Bridgewater who had a storming meeting and were the moral winners.

Practise The Mere Brow course is near Southport and visible across the estuary is Blackpool Tower and the Pepsi Max roller coaster. The course is in the middle of a wildlife conservation area, geese and water fowl are everywhere. The course was modified at the last moment because a protected species (grebe) was nesting in one of the narrow canals behind one of the islands we were driving round. Nevertheless the course was interesting with a large water area where we turned around bouys in a chicane that spread across the lake and a narrow section behind the main island where overtaking was possible but difficult. Any mistakes in this area and the damage to the craft would be extensive as there were lots of sawn off tree trunks jutting out from the banks. The transitions were reasonably easy with the land sections being very short.

At scrutineering (John Rees and David Palfrey) spotted a hairline crack developing in the fan hub which meant a change of the aluminium blade clamp and setting up of the blade angles again. The large aluminium casting had barely 10 hours running before it hit the dustbin. We will check this component during race meetings in future as it exploding would be costly and potentially dangerous. Changing this component meant we missed the first days practise all together - the situation was made worse by the paddock being on an island in the middle of the course and we lost 20 minutes waiting to cross the causeway whilst another class was practicing.

Race 1 Since the course was quite complicated with the first out lap different to the rest of the race, my strategy was to follow Luke who was in pole position and that way learn the course. At the 2 minute board Luke was dragged off the grid with a failed power valve. So their I was out in front without a clue as to what the course was like !!! Fortunately  I guessed right and came round at the end of the first lap with a clear lead. At the final bend the engine stopped dead. Rather than attempt a restart on the lake I waited for recovery rather than risk sinking the craft (once lift goes I have to sit on the very front of the craft to get it float level and retain some freeboard - if I go to the back of the craft to work on the engine  water flows in through the hull air holes).

Simon Kearle of East Bridgewater team lapped very smoothly to go on to his (and Team Bridgwaters) first win - Ewan Black the team leader was seen running around the paddock punching the air yelling!! Very happy chappy.  Luke managed to join the race but finished down the field.

Race 2 We couldn't find anything wrong after stopping in the first race, and I was accused of knocking my lanyard off. So in the second race I was set down the grid again and I decided that I had to get in front of the slower craft before the narrow canal, so when the lights went green  I saw just enough room between Luke and Simon Kearle so I went for it and just squeezed through, so onto the canal and halfway around the first lap the engine stopped dead again, I managed to get to the canal bank and I was dragged up to dry land,  by this time the race was half finished, so I tried firing the engine up and it started first time, so I very slowly finished the race not knowing what happened in either races, the lanyard switch was intermittently faulty (so my dad owes me an apology) we replaced it for the following days racing.

Race 3 I wasn't racing because in practise that morning I cooked a piston. By the time the engine had been swapped the two minute board was up and we could not get to the grid. I watched Luke take first and Simon Kearle 2nd. Nothing much happened in this race with Luke taking a strong lead with Simon also with a lead over the rest of the field. But all through the weekend Simon Oakley, East Bridgewater B and Bradfield were having a battle, all being F25's they were quite well matched and it proved interesting viewing

Race 4 By now the whole family had lost all faith and would have been satisfied with a finish so I didn't even put the craft on 3/4 throttle to try and stroke it around for a few points but once again another piston was cooked on the large lake after 3 laps so luckily I qualified as a finisher and got some points for this race. The following day we spoke to the person who set up both engines and the cause of the piston problems we have had off and on since June last year became more apparent. The engines have always been carefully set up statically to the book but as we use non standard crank and ignition systems we now believe the timing marks are not as per the advised specification and inadvertently we have been dialling in 8 degrees over-advance. Dad has organised a big testing session in a workshop to check all this and he says sort it once and for all. (hope so - fed up of constantly stopping)

The battle between the F25's was still going on but Bridgewaters F25 clipped a bank which bounced him to the other bank and the impact knocked the belt off the hubs, the exhaust off and split the engine frame in many places. Luke had another victory and overall for the weekend was joint 1st with Simon Kearle. So the following days racing was crucial.

Race 5 Luke went flying off the grid first leaving Simon in second racing Mark Coles, the race was going smoothly with no one racing breaking down (because I wasn't racing!). But as Luke drove past me I noticed the engine was missing a beat and sounded very ragged, the next lap he stopped in front of me and the pull start cup was spinning and the magneto was not engaging the crankshaft so Simon finished First which put him first for the weekend again with Luke a close second.

Race 6 This was an interesting race because Luke was in his mums craft because his was definitely out of commission for the last race, this mean that him and Simon Kearle were matched better than ever before, Luke just had the edge to let Mark Coles squeeze into second position which left the overall standings for the weekend Luke first beating Simon Kearle by 1 point,

1st Luke Sedzikowski - Python Kawasaki

2nd Simon Kearle - Eagle Yamaha

3rd Simon Oakley - F25 Osprey Kohler

4th Fernqvist / Grey - F25

5th Bridgwater B - F25 Honda

6th Mark Coles - ? Yamaha

7th Edward Hurn - Eagle Yamaha

We had problems with the Ignition timing. Which caused the holes in the piston crowns (foreground)

Canal around the back of the island. Tight left hand turn at end back to main lake. The banks had tree stumps and fishermans stands to rip the hull apart if you got too close.

The causeway from the canal to the main lake was not only quite narrow but a real pain as it was also the only way to and from the paddock and access had to wait till racing was over.

At the two minute board Luke in J2 was dragged off the grid and left me frantically yelling at Simon O in J3 "which way??"

Simon Kearle in the East Bridgwater Team Eagle Yamaha lapped smoothly for the teams first ever win

Simon K is quite slight in build so sometimes he has to climb out of the cockpit to get best use of his body weight to balance the craft.

Mark Coles was to be the "King Maker" by finishing ahead of Simon K to let Luke through to a point win for the weekend

Luke Sedzikowski in the Python Kawasaki