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This reminds me of my first season of racing at a very wet Brands Hatch. I was on a Bonneville Triton with a 4 speed RRT2 Gold Star gearbox which was a close ratio box (less than 1000rpm between 2 and third and about 500 revs difference between 3rd and top). I was dicing with this bloke on an 8 valve Metisse and he kept coming steaming past me along the top straight.
About the 7th lap, of ten, he steams by and moves directly in front of me causing me to sit up. I forgot to change into top as we crossed the start finish line but a little bit of red mist got to me as I was determined to get past him on the way out of Paddock Hill Bend.
As usual I changed down twice (into first). When I dropped the clutch for the second time, all hell broke loose, the rev counter went about 2000 RPM over what it should do and the back end was snaking all over the place. I did manage to stay on and get past him at Druids and as the rain came down more heavily I pulled away from him as he was wheelspinning everywhere and my Triumph just did not have that much power.
Next lap at Paddock there was that tell-tale rainbow on the road (oil) and at every corner for the next lap, right on my line, all round the circuit.
I finished somewhere midfield and the bike, when I got back to the pits, was red hot and the oil catch tank was overflowing, changing down too many gears had broken the oil rings. Unfortunately I think a couple of people fell off on my oil and a few more in later races.
A gear position indicator was not even thought of then and I almost certainly would not have had time to look at it anyway.
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