Croft 10 Mile TT, 23 Apr 2025

The first of this year’s 10 mile time trials was held on 23 Apr at Croft motor racing circuit. It was a cold evening and 12C felt like 9C with a 20km/h NE wind. Not really conducive to fast times. Arriving early I signed in, got my number and calculated I had an hour for some food and a warm up. I followed the pre-race warm up provided by Tim, and had just enough time to put the turbo in the car and head off to the start.

From the word go I began picking off riders and by the first bend felt good, but then this was Croft, renowned for its own micro climate. The first bend, a hairpin, led into a chicane and into the back straight, a slight incline and a headwind. I’d planned my strategy around even pacing for each of the five laps. I roughly managed this, saving the best lap until last. However, while I was pleased with roughly even times across the 5 laps, my overall time was slower than I had hoped for. Nevertheless a pleasing effort for the first one under the belt and 41 seconds and 1.6 km/h quicker than the same time last year, in similar conditions. Hopefully better conditions for next month’s will lead to a PB.

Bryan Harding