The 2005 season started with a bang - literally! The weekend before the 1st round at Cadwell I crashed the Hornet at Snetterton leaving it in a very sorry state, infact the bike was pretty much fooked. Da Mechanic and me spent the whole week in the shed re-building it ready for the weekend, every nut and bolt had to be taken of and replaced or checked. All the body work was gone, yolks, exhaust, footrests (thanks Gaz - Dynamic Precision), bars, clocks wheels and most other things were all gone.

A big thanx to Nige for help with the bits we needed to get it back together.

Turning up at Cadwell for the 1st round brought with it typical Cadwell weather with visibility of about 10 meters! we managed to get some slow test sessions in to see if the the bike was straight, we had some problems but it generally seemed ok. come race day the weather was no better and the morning was cancelled - we got out to qualify around 2pm, but with the short mountain citcuit in use and the mixed grid qualifying was not easy with no-one really getting a fast lap in, we got 4th on the grid which seemed ok considering. Racing was then cancelled for the day because of the weather.

The next day we got on track and 3 races were run - so we only lost 1 round to be re-run later (maybe). The first race was ok I got off to a good start leaving the hairpin 2nd on the first lap - a crash behind held up some of the others leaving me and Michael Russell to clear of. It was very close until the last few laps when back markers got in the way and he cleared of a bit. Coming into the hairpin Michael over took 2 back markers under a yellow flag - the marshals came to me afterwrds and told me he would be docked 10 seconds - giving me the win - unfortunalty this was not shown on the time sheet giving me 2nd.

The second race was dry and we could ride a bit harder- this proved bad as it showed up a few more problems with the bike and I couldn't use the brakes in anger because of front end chatter making the whole bike leave the ground! we managed a 4th but were a fair bit behind the leader.

For the last race we had improved the bike a bit but because the forks are not adjustable we could only change small things, however it was much better and we held onto 3rd over the line after a very close race.

All in all a good weekend and it is definatly going to be a very competative and challenging year.