As I settled in for the night on the Friday ITV were showing that old favourite, 'Mad Max, beyond thunderdome.' I tuned in at the point where 'two men enter, one man leaves,' an apt analogy for the weekend which lay ahead thought I.

After 26 races at 5 different tracks it had come down to the final meeting for the Norfolk line ferries sponsored Yamaha Past Masters. In the blue corner with a remarkable record of 20 wins, 6 DNF's, never finishing off the podium all year, even when he had to borrow a spare bike to make the grid and numerous lap records was Mike Smith.

In the red corner with 5 wins, one DNF, three off the podium finishes and a streak of determination a mile wide was Pat Herron.

With a 31 point lead your money had to be on Mike and that dodgy haircut of his. The ever youthful Herron may well have had more experience at the tight twisty ribbon of tarmac that is the Lydden circuit, but the almost uncanny bike control shown by Smith would hold him in good stead. Both acknowledged that the hard charging TZR brigade may well play a part in the weekend, especially the hardest charger of all, Dan Wright. A safe third in the championship meant that the loosest screw on the grid had nothing to lose. He was up for it. Completing the top four was Jamie Cooper who stepped onto the podium for the first time several months ago and was looking for his first win.

The morning practice saw Mike top the table by over 1.3 seconds from Pat. The bookies wiped their slates and refused to take any more bets, the championship was now a formality. Surely he was unbeatable after that performance. In third was Pete Fishwick, who five years earlier had been in a similar showdown at this very track. Fourth fastest was Keith Roissetter whose experience of the place over many years was paying dividends, just ahead of Wright and then two wildcards who were looking to upset the apple cart and stomp firmly on it's contents, Fresh from the World endurance championship we had young Calvin Hogan whilst regular British Supersport causer of Red flags Dave 'monkey boy' Hallet was also in the mix. Calvin was present to race for the memorial trophy in honour of his dad Paul whilst Dave is a former YPM regular who was looking to prove a point after an uncompetitive outing at Brands on a shed of a bike.

There was the threat of the odd damp patch as the first race got underway and everyone seemed to be holding back ever so slightly feeling for grip. Already missing was Wright who managed to book the first bed of the weekend at Canterbury general after comprehensively destroying his bike in practice. On lap three the red flags came out after a very serious accident involving several bikes on the run up the hill. Tragically Roy Parbury later died as a result of his injuries.

Nine of the YPM gang had managed to land slots in the EDI Asia formula 400 race, led by Roissetter and Fishwick, who both went slower in qualifying than they had for the YPM race. This counted for little when the lights went out and the pair of them scrapped it out for eighth place beating a whole host of 400's on the slightly damp track.

Better was to come in the second 400 race of the day as Fishwick fitted a second hand wet weather tyre and scampered his way to 2nd overall in the race behind the very fast youngster Danny Buchan with Roissetter a short way behind in sixth. The amassed YPM fans in the grandstand cheered this feat loudly, a much needed fillip after the events of the morning The result meant that the likeable scouser Fish was able to claim £400 in prize money from EDI Asia boss John Sanders. John also generously donated £550 to the marshals fund on behalf of the YPM riders who joined the 400 grid at Oulton. Top bloke

It also meant a lot of 400 riders were wandering about wondering how they could be comprehensively beaten by two forty something blokes riding 20 something bikes! Get in.

Because of the stoppage of the first race the second start of the day was counted as the second race. Due to the stoppage and the result not being called the grid lined up according to championship position instead of previous race finishing order. This was a major blow to the trophy aspirations of Hogan and Hallet but they got their heads down and tails up and charged through the field from the off.

From the front row Herron led a determined Fishwick with Smith and Roissetter trying to hang onto them. From the gallery it was clear that Smith was having major traction problems and at times he was in full speedway mode as he tried to lay the power down.

By lap five the hard charging youngsters were hassling Smith for the last podium position as the two leaders swapped things around between themselves. Victory eventually went to Herron, 3 seconds ahead of Fishwick who enjoyed a similar margin over the Hogan/Smith/Hallet trio who were separated by less than half a second.

The result meant that the points gap was now 19, but everyone acknowledged that the conditions were a little unusual and there were a couple of ringers in the mix so perhaps a minor upset was to be expected. The title would still be Smith's.

Pat Herron was a very happy man as the race was also for the Paul Hogan memorial trophy and it is one that he really wanted on his mantelpiece as he knew the late racer well. He has been trying very hard for several years to add this one to his collection which already contains the Danny Whalin memorial trophy from this year after winning the trophy race at Brands Hatch.

Calvin and David were left wondering what might have been after their lowly grid starts. Better luck next year boys.

The second race of the day was a restart of the first one but the field were gridded according to their second race finish. Does this make sense? Up front the first half dozen were again mixing it closely with the noticeable absence of Hogan who was unable to start due to machine problems. Again the track was in less than perfect condition with no-one really pushing the envelope too hard because of the occasional damp patch. There was also some fog going into the dip just before the first corner which with the fast fading light made it very exciting to say the least.

Once again the red flags came out and as the field assembled back on the grid it was clear that the casualty this time was the championship leader Smith who had high sided at the hairpin.

Despite the slow speed it was a mighty high flick which left the mohawked one briefly out for the count. He would take no part in the re-start.

Once again the flag dropped and this time it was Roissetter who made the hole shot from the second row, much to his and everyone else's surprise!

He held sway for a couple of laps before Hallet found a way past, later admitting with a smile that "There was no way I was letting that aging fat bastard beat me again!"

Due to time the race was only five laps long and Hallet duly led home Roissetter who made it to the line just a tenth ahead of Herron with Fishwick in fourth. Fifth was newcomer Carl Newbigging in only his second meeting who just beat his brother Chris with returnee Paul Wilson and TDR mounted Paul Henson up next. A strangely off the pace Jamie Cooper led Barry Negus in to complete the top ten.

So as night fell the trophies for the day, and some of the ones for the year were handed out in the party tent. A clearly injured Michael Smith collected an award after being voted 'Riders rider of the year' A welcome change in luck after a pretty poor day. Other awards went to Spencer Reeves for best presented bikes, Tom Dyke for crasher of the year and Nick Griggs received a long service award. There were also trophies and prize money doled out for the Rush Europe sponsored Steelie and TZR tour which is a mini championship run alongside the main one. The www.ypmrc.co.uk website has full details.

Talk of the day's action was slightly more subdued than usual given the tragic events of the day. What wasn't subdued was the speculation over the championship outcome. At one stage Mike had held a 105 point lead over Pat, or basically a whole weekends worth of victories with some to spare. Now the gap was down to 3 with 50 points still on the table.

Sunday was due to be a late start anyway but the October weather ensured that no-one was going anywhere until the afternoon which meant that the heightened tension got a little higher. As people struggled to dismantle awnings in the storm that swept across the Kent hillside a faint announcement which almost got carried away in the wind came over the tannoy.

"Attention paddock, due to the weather conditions we are running a reduced program today. We are cancelling the first half of the program, consequently all classes will have one race today."

Thunderdome time,

I can only imagine what it was like on the grid as the tension in the grandstand was almost unbearable. On pole was Dave Hallet, second slot Roissetter was missing as he'd lent his bike to Hogan who was at the back alongside Smith. Herron was third and fourth slot Fishwick was another absentee as he wanted to watch the action and was wary of playing an unwitting part in the final showdown.

The much depleted field had only half the starters of the previous day which meant that the back of the grid was only the fourth and not the eighth row. In the wet conditions at the end of the first lap Smith was quickly up to fourth behind Wilson whilst Hallet nipped past early leader Herron to take over the front running,

A lap later Smith was up to third, and two laps after that he claimed second at the elbow. The championship would be his if he stayed there.

The crowd waited expectantly for Mike to challenge Monkey boy for the lead but it never materialised. Mike later admitting that he was in pain and struggling to stay where he was, let alone challenge the determined youngster for the lead.

Behind these three Dexter Eyre was working his way up to fourth ahead of Chris and Carl Newbigging. Hogan crashed Roissetter's turquoise machine heavily at the elbow, fortunately without injury to himself.

None of this mattered as all eyes were hypnotized by the action at the front. On the seventh of eight laps Pat closed the gap back to Mike ever so slightly giving hope to the massed Herron support in the grandstand. As the last lap flag went out fingers got crossed, lucky charms got rubbed and cries of support rang out for the both combatants.

Could Pat make a move at the elbow? The hairpin? Surely not into the daunting final corner, paddock? Knowing that time and tarmac were running out Herron played a blinder and shot down the inside into the first corner in a move that caught everyone by surprise. The three riders dropped briefly out of sight as they rounded Chessons drift and after what seemed like an eternity Monkey Boy appeared followed by Pat's red machine and then the blue thing of Mike. The grandstand erupted.

A collective audible intake of breath followed as the trio raced into the notorious devils elbow. Surely Mike would come straight back as he had before at this corner?

Pat was having none of it, braking as late and as hard as he dared into the very slippery bend. Mike could do nothing except match his opponents every brave move.

Up the hill into the hairpin where Mike had come unstuck the day before the trio charged. Dave taking the opportunity to have a long look over his shoulder, almost doing a double take as Herron's always determined, but this time-glaring-out-on-stalks eyes bored into his. This was a man on a mission who knew that he had but one chance to finally clinch the series.

Brakes were squeezed hard, very hard as the three raced into the penultimate corner of the year. Pat's bike dipped fractionally later than Dave's whilst Mike closed up behind them.

There was a gap at the apex of that bend, it was one bike wide and Herron filled it to perfection.

Scrabbling for grip on the exit the Watford man tucked in as Hallet got the better drive on the exit. Down the hill they went to tackle the final corner of the year. Herron slightly ahead on the wider line, the youngster half a bike back looking for the inside, Smithy was a couple of lengths back and looking dangerous. Second would be enough the title but Pat wanted to settle this in style. He'd just ridden the lap of his life and no-one was taking this away from him. Hallet thought about it and admitted later that if he was shooting for the championship he'd have gone for the pass and to hell with outcome. He wisely backed off and let Pat head for line to claim the win and the fastest lap of the race. Mike was making the most of the squabble ahead and for a brief moment it looked like he could pass both of them. It wasn't to be and just .66 of a second covered the three of them as the flag finally fell and the sound of the bikes got drowned out by the vocal crowd.

Smith and Herron collected 1096 points between them this season. Herron collected 6 more than Smith.

As I walked back to base camp top female racer Sarah Jordan asked what the hell the excitement was about as she'd never heard a noise like it at a club meeting. I just smiled and said she should have watched it.

Jubilation abounded as hugs of joy were handed out. For Herron it had been the perfect year, he'd won both the memorial trophies and both the championships

Like Nori Haga a week before Mike was left pondering what might have been as his body language spoke volumes.

I've been hanging around race tracks for over thirty years and I've never experienced a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows such as I felt at this meeting.


RIP Roy.


Report Rangi
(aka Keith Roissetter)

Pix by 2onT Ace Eric O'Brien

All at 2onT sends deepest sympathies to the Parbury family