Shocked by Nitron

For this year I am pleased to say we will be supported by Nitron Racing Shocks. We contacted Nitron after seeing the quality of their shocks and thought this would offer us improvements over our existing suspension. The shock pictured is for our ZX4-RR GP2 machine, this is their top of the range race shock and offers both low and high speed compression adjustment as well as rebound. I am sure you will agree this really does look a top piece of kit, I can't wait to get out there and test it. Please have a look at their website http://www.nitron.co.uk/ so see the vast range of bike and car shocks they have to offer.
After seeing the quality on offer Leigh is just about to order a Nitron shock for his SV650, so there you go proof in itself.
Thanks again go to Nitron Racing Shocks for their support.

On The Sponsorship Hunt

It is the time of year when all bike racers have to get their begging bowls out and go on the hunt for sponsorship to try and cover some of the costs associated with the running of the bikes and team over a season. I am currently looking at cometing in the GP2 class (formely Junior Powerbike) and the Supermono class if enough funds can be raised to compete in both. As I am sure you will appreciate all forms of motorsport are very expensive and therefore we need help to cover some of the major expenses. To this end we have teamed up with Trevor Flock of Head Start (www.head-start.eu) to help in our search. Trevor has produced a sponsorship proposal, posters, postcards, you name it he can do it. The feedback we have so far received for the presentation has been very positive with all commenting on how professional it is. Please check out his website to see if he can help you as well.

I will post a link shortly to our presentation to allow all to see what we can and have to offer.

If you would like to sponsor us or be involved in some way then please get in touch. As the American propaganda posters use to say 'We need you!'.

250's Axed From North West 200

It is sad that I have to report the 250 race has been axed from the race programme for the 2010 North West 200 in Northern Ireland. We were due to ride Sean Kelly's beautiful 2007 model Honda RS250 (pictured left) that we rode at the Scarborough Gold Cup last year but unfortunately this will now not happen. The text below is taken from the NW200 website as to the reasons why the race has been cancelled. We will try to secure a bike to compete in one of the othe races and wil kepp you up to dat on how we progress.
North West 200 Revs Up for 2010 Race 09/12/2009
International North West 200 organisers Coleraine & District Motor Club Ltd will next year promote a six race programme following a decision to remove the 250cc race category. The revised programme will comprise a 125cc and Superstock race, two 600cc Supersport and two Superbike races.
Speaking on behalf of the new management team, Race Director Mervyn Whyte MBE said, “Having considered this option for the past couple of years we now believe the time is right to discontinue the 250cc category. Two stroke bikes no longer feature in Grand Prix or British Superbike race programmes and as a result manufacturers have reduced the number of models and ranges produced each year.”
“We therefore don’t have the same number of teams nor individual competitors wanting to enter this particular class and having taken all these factors into consideration, felt it was appropriate to promote a strong six race event in 2010.”
The NW200 management team have also proposed significant changes to the Thursday practice session. “In response to competitor and team feedback, the Coleraine Club is examining opportunities to hold our traditional Thursday Practice Race during the day as opposed to later in the evening. We would anticipate roads closing on Thursday morning at 9.30am and re-opening at 3pm and believe it would cause less disruption to residents and the business community as well as providing important additional machine set up and practice time for riders and in particular event newcomers.”
Coleraine & District Motor Club is currently consulting with key organisations and business people as well as local residents. Tuesday evening practice and Saturday Race Day timings are set to remain the same.

Rock(ingham) and Roll

Well we rolled up to Rockingham for the final meeting of the year and on the approach it is an impressive site. The circuit was built in 2001 on the old steel works grounds and is situated right in the centre of an industrial estate in Corby. Rockingham is dominated by the banked oval circuit that has hosted Indy Car races and has a lap record of over 242mph! Unfortunate we were not due to use this circuit but the National Circuit that is situated on the infield of the oval and is 1.7 miles long. As this was the first time that bikes had raced there for more than 5 year both Leigh and I chose to do the practice day to learn our way around.

My aim for the weekend was to get Birdy’s new ZX-4RR up to speed and Leigh was in with a slim chance of taking 2nd in the championship and so had his eye on that. As I had to learn a new circuit we decided to use the forks off the old bike as we would not have enough time to set the new ones up plus we had to make sure everything else on the bike was working correctly.

The first session out on track was very slightly damp, I was out on slicks and Leigh was on dry tyres, not ideal and the track was very slippery but not wet enough for wet tyres, or so we thought. We didn’t even manage to get around the first corner before we saw Leigh’s teammate Chris Boland sliding on his arse across the track! Ooops. Leigh lasted a few more laps before a very slow tip off at the hairpin which saw him up and picking the bike up within half a second of tipping off; most people commented that they have never seen him move so fast. By the second session of the day it had dried out so we were able to get our heads down and learn which way the circuit went. I have to say Rockingham is not my favourite circuit as it is a bit soulless and the track itself does not flow very well, I am not in a rush to get back there. This was the feeling amongst many of the riders and from a spectators point of view it was terrible, not very good for all the people that have come along to help. We had some fuelling issues with the ZX-4RR and it had a flat spot around 12000rpm-13000rpm, due to it running a bit lean. We lifted the needles in the carbs and adjusted the air screw correctors that did make an improvement but didn’t eradicate it totally. This is one improvement we will be able to make over the winter.

Race day came and it was straight out into qualifying, the weather although very cold was dry and this was something to be thankful of as the track had proved very tricky in damp/wet conditions. I managed to qualify in 2nd place on the grid just missing out on pole position to Steve Tomes (an ex British Champion) who was having another one off ride, Leigh qualified in 12th position overall and 4th Minitwin.

Race one came and as the lights went out I managed a cracking start and hit the first corner in the lead, after my usual starts on the 400 this year I was a little surprised and not sure what to do with myself with no other bikes to chase. I put my head down and lead the race for 5 laps when Steve came past, I held onto him for the remainder of the race but could not manage a pass, 2nd place it was to be then. Leigh’s chances of gaining 2nd in the Minitwin championship took a big step forward when one of his main challengers Clive White crashed out on the second lap of the race. Leigh managed to be the 4th Minitwin securing a good haul of points.

Race two on Saturday saw me make a complete pigs ear of the start as I wheelied off the line and wondered whether someone had put kangaroo juice in the tank. I came out of the first corner in 9th place which was not good at all. It was then that I realised that Rockingham is not he easiest of circuits to overtake, and it took me 3 or 4 laps to work my way up in to 2nd place, by this time Tomes had built up a 5 second lead and this was way too much for us to close down so 2nd place it was to be once again. Leigh’s race was similar to the first, taking fifth. After nearly being taken out of the first race by another bike’s rear wheel at the hairpin, bringing it home safely seemed more important than any heroics.

Sunday came and once again although very cold it was dry and we were looking forward to the races. Race one saw me 3rd into the first corner just behind Rob Elsmere (this years Junior Powerbike Champion) and Steve Tomes. It took me a couple of laps to find my way past Rob and then I set off after Steve. By lap 5 I was closing in on Steve and the gap had come down to just over a second, unfortunately it was at this point that the clutch started to slip, this did not help at all and I was concerned it would not last the race. Therefore I had to nurse the bike home and was once again the bridesmaid in 2nd place. Leigh only had to get a 4th and a 5th place in the Minitwin class in the two races today to secure 2nd place in the championship. He got a cracking start and was up to 2nd place immediately, which he held onto for a few laps until Jamie Morris managed to sneak past. Still getting third place meant all Leigh needed to do was finish in the last race for 2nd in the championship.

The last race of the year started at 3pm, as the lights went out I managed another cracking start, this bike certainly flies off the line when you get it right. I held on to the lead for 4 laps when Tomes tried overtaking at the hairpin and clipped my handlebar. Luckily we both stayed on, but ran wide. A lap later and Steve squeezed past on the fast right and he manage to pull out a couple of seconds lead over the remaining 4 laps. So that was me again, coming home in 2nd place. 3rd place in all the races over the weekend was over 10 seconds behind me so we had a good cushion in hand. Despite missing 3 rounds of the series which equates to 10 races and a possible 250 points we only just missed out on 2nd place in the championship by 3 points! In this last race Leigh only had to come home in 6th place or above to get 2nd in the championship. His race started much as the previous with a blinding start. He held onto 2nd place a little longer but again settled for third realising the championship runner up spot was in the bag.

Mick Smith (Sister) did us proud all weekend with his culinary skills on the BBQ, cheers Mick.

Thanks to everyone for their help and support this year, to our sponsors for their continued help, it is greatly appreciated. Lastly a quick thanks to ThundersportGB & the marshalls for a very well run and organised series.

Remember:- You can catch the race action from Rockingham on Motors TV on the 2nd November 2009 from 7pm

Leigh has now sold his bike in an attempt to pay off his debts that he has accumulated throughout the season and is hoping to build a ‘budget’ version, but hopefully just as quick ready for next year.

As for myself I hope to be riding Birdy’s ZX-4RR next year, Sean Kelly has already intimated we can use his Honda RS250 again for selected events and who knows what the Smith Sisters may come up with. Updates will be provided over coming months as things progress.

Check out http://www.racing-lines-photography.com/ for some fantastic photos.

Birdy's New ZX-4RR

Well as you can see Birdy has got the new bike ready for the last round at Rockingham. Nicknamed the Kawasaki ZX-4RR, if it goes as well as it looks it is going to be awesome. Roger Middleton of RMKD has again built a top spec engine for the bike and Clive White of Rapier Paintwork in Hull finished off the bike in the outstanding paint scheme you see hear. We are using Rockingham as a shakedown test for the bike so we will see what she can do !

Great Photo's from the Gold Cup at Scarborough

Thought I would share some great photos with you all that I have been sent by Simon at http://www.simonsracepics.co.uk/ that he took at the Gold Cup this year. Check out his website and photos, there is loads to see. As you can see we had a struggle keeping the front wheel down on Sean's Honda RS250 and I hope Birdy can see how much we get tooked in on the 400 !

Rockingham - Preview

Well both mine and Leigh's final outing of the year will be at Rockingham on the 16th & 17th October.

I will be concentrating on getting Birdy's 440cc Junior Powerbike up to speed and Leigh will hopefully be out to get a top three position in his championship. Neither of us have raced there before so we are attending the practice day on the friday to get dialled in.

Fingers crossed for a good end to the season.

Check out this link http://www.rockingham.co.uk/events/eventdetails.asp?id=403 to the Rockingham website and you will see I have managed to get my photo on to add to our PR exposure !!!!!

SCARBOROUGH GOLD CUP

The Gold Cup at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough certainly proved to be an eventful weekend. I was riding the MotoSP Kawasaki ZXR that we have been contesting the ThundersportGB rounds on this year and I was also riding Sean Kelly’s 2007 Honda RS250, a lovely bit of kit. I hadn’t even sat on the RS250 before so it was due to be a bit of a learning weekend. We arrived on Friday afternoon and fettled the bikes, making some adjustments to the suspension on the 250 (No.71 in between Lougher and Dunlop on the photo left) and generally getting things to fit. Saturday morning came and into free practice and qualifying. This went really well when I managed to qualify the ZXR in 2nd place on the grid, just behind Dan Frear and in front of Ryan Farquar. I qualified the 250 in 4th place in front of none other than John McGuiness on the Padgetts Honda. Sean appeared to be very happy at this.
I was out on the ZXR first and as usual my start was a little poor. Trying to make up ground as quick as possible unfortunately on the 2nd lap turning in to Quarry bend I clipped the rear wheel of Ivan Linton who was going much slower than me in the middle of the corner. This caused the bike to sit up and send me heading straight for the fence and hedge at about 80mph. I quickly laid the bike down and prepared for impact. I bounced back off the fence and to my surprise was not injured; I looked across at the bike to see it upside down in the hedge. Not a great start to the weekends races. If you know the Oliver’s Mount circuit at all you will know it is not the place you want to crash at, I have to thank my lucky stars on that one.
The 250 race later that day went a lot better and although I was taking it a bit steadier after the crash earlier that day I managed to come home in 5th place just behind McGuiness this time (although I do have him behind me in the photo left). The race was won by Ian Lougher from William Dunlop so at least I was in very good company.
We got the ZXR back after the final race of the day and Birdy set about repairing it. Leigh took the bodywork home to repair as there were a few cracks and we had to beg, steal and borrow a few other parts to make it track worthy again.
Sunday was a lot better and again I was out on the ZXR first, although it was looking a little second-hand being held together with duct tape. This time I managed to keep it upright and although I couldn’t match my qualifying times from the day before we still came home on the podium in 3rd place. I guess I was still a bit cautious from the previous day’s events.
Our last race of the weekend was again back on the 250 and my confidence in the bike had been growing all weekend. A great race saw me hanging on to the shirt tails of Vernon and McGuiness in 3rd and 4th place respectively but couldn’t quite mount a challenge. We therefore secured another 5th place but took comfort in the fact we had taken 2 seconds off our lap time from the previous day. If anyone wants they can ask about my rodeo riding on the warm up lap but for now I think we will leave that for another day.
All in all a pretty good weekend apart from a little mishap.

LEIGH'S ANGLESEY ANGUISH

What a beautiful track Anglesey is! Perched right on top of the coastline, the track overlooks the sea and has direct access to the beach. Having never been before, it was a nice surprise to see such a picturesque circuit.

That was probably the only highlight of the weekend!! Don’t get me wrong, the track itself is excellent being reminiscent of Laguna Seca with it’s own corkscrew. Again it was me that was the problem.

Friday practice went ok, learning the track and gradually getting quicker but Saturday came and things started to go downhill. For some reason I was sweating profusely……… standing still! Then I could not breathe through my nose. Oh no, it’s manflu.
Anyway I went out for qualifying and had to pull in after 10mins because I couldn’t see where I was going. Between the heat and sweat I was generating even a pinlock visor and fog city mouthguard wouldn’t prevent my visor completely steaming up. I was having to lift the visor at different intervals around the track to see where I was going! Long story short, I qualified 12th. Doesn’t sound too bad until you realize my team mate Chris had qualified 7th, Tim jones 6th and Clive White was on the front row in 4th. All my main championship contenders were going at least 2 seconds a lap faster. Great!
Things didn’t get any better all weekend. Every time I took my gloves off, water poured out of them. You’d think I had jumped in the bloody sea! On Sunday, I didn’t even go out for morning practice and stayed in bed until 30mins before the first race……………………….at 2pm. Spent 15 mins on the bike in the race , got off and went for another lie down before the next race.

Well although I felt like crap, over the weekend I managed 4th and 3 X 5th place. Should have been 2 X 4th but after nearly highsiding on shagged tyres in the last race another bike got past me, buggar!! Clive”the whinger” White and Chris had successful weekends though. Clive managed 2 wins and 2 seconds and Chris got a 2nd and 3 thirds, knocking me down to third in the championship. It all hangs in the balance at Rockingham, I need to secure podium positions in each race to secure 2nd in the championship. Does anyone know a diet where you can lose 3 stone in 3 weeks?

On The List

Have a quick look at the link below. I have just found out that I am on the list for the most wins in a meeting at the Olivers Mount circuit in Scarborough.

You will have to scroll down to the bottom, but at least I made the list.

As you will see there are some big names on there !!!!!

http://www.oliversmount.com/?f=Mostwins_meeting&id=41

Scarborough Gold Cup

I am competing at the Scarborough Gold Cup on the 19-20 September. It promises to be a top event so if you can get yourselves there and find us in the paddock I am sure we muster up a cup of tea. I am competing in the 250 and 400 races so two chances to catch us on both days. Plus the fish and chips are good !

Where's My Bike Gone

This was Leigh at Druids corner at Brands in the first race. He seems to have misplaced his bike.

He travels to Anglesey in Wales this weekend for the penultimate round of the ThundersportGB series.

Watch this space for the next installment.

Get It Over

Another fantastic photo from Racing Lines Photography, check out their website. This just goes to show how far you can get the little ZXR banked over. If I had tried just a little harder I reckon my elbow would have been down as well.

Lucky Boy

Here I am lapping No.10 in one of the races at Brands Hatch last weekend. As you can see I was rather lucky not to get taken out. I just merrily went on my way, totally oblivious !

Brands the Beautiful

Hello people, Alex here, well it was down to Brands Hatch in Kent for the next round of the Thundersport GB championship on the 1.2 mile Indy Circuit. Leigh had decided to do the practice day to get his eye in but I was giving it a miss a) to save money b) we didn’t have the new bike quite finished to test and c) I know my way around Brands Hatch pretty well already. Leigh managed to do the lap times he was after on the test day and so missed the last session in readiness for qualifying the next day.

Birdy turned up later on that evening with our usual race bike and also the new ZXR440 as you can see in the picture. This bike has the new 440cc motor that has been built by Roger of RMKD. We put in a few more hours to make the bike track worthy the next day. The plan of attack was I would go out in qualifying on the old bike, put in a good lap time then come in and change over to the new bike to take it out for a test. This is quite a lot to do in a 20 minute qualifying session.

The morning came and out I went into qualifying on our old bike, after 7 or 8 laps I was holding pole position and so decided to pit to take the new bike out, unfortunately as the bike had only just been finished and not yet been set up it wasn’t quite how we wanted. The fuelling was some way out as was the suspension; therefore after a couple of laps I realised we would not be able to improve on the old bike so returned to the pits. Unfortunately we lost pole position and dropped to 2nd place in the last two minutes of the session whilst we were stood in the pit garage.

We opted to use the old bike for the races as we new this was tried and tested. This proved to be the right decision as we managed to win the first race of the weekend by a clear 5 seconds from Rob Elsmere on his Aprilia in 2nd place. In the second race of the day I had just managed to take the lead on lap 9 out of 10 when the red flags came out. This worked against us as the race was declared and the results taken from the previous lap leaving us in 3rd place. Bugger. I knew this was probably going to be the case on my ride back into the pits and had a few choice words in my helmet.

On Monday the weather was baking and in morning warm up we again tried the new bike after a few suspension changes but were still not confident enough to use it in the races. This again wasn’t too much of a disadvantage as we managed to secure 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the days two races.

All in all not a bad weekend.

The next time I will be out will be at Oliver Mount, Scarborough on the 19th/20th September, Leigh will be out at Anglesey on the 12th/13th September.

All the excitement was not confined to just the track though, as on our journey home one of the tyres on the van decided to shed its tread with an almighty bang. After pulling over to the hard shoulder we change the wheel but the tread had wrapped itself around the axle, damaging the brake pipe and the handbrake cable along with it. After a few steady miles up the A1 I realised the brake pedal was going straight to the floor and not actually slowing the van down. Not wanting to let a small thing like having no brakes get in the way we carried on and travelled the remaining 100 miles back home. The van seats now have a distinct shape due to the 2 hours of buttock clenching it took to get home.

Now Leigh’s bit.
Unfortunately, my weekend was not as fruitful as Alex’s. In the first race I managed to make it to Druids ( the 2nd corner ) on the first lap before leaving company with my bike. After a poor start, I thought I would pull my favourite trick and shoot the bike up the inside of all the other riders late on the brakes. All was going to plan until I reached the turning point and found another bike crossing my path. A quick trip to the gravel trap followed rather quickly! After landing, I managed to pick myself up and watched as Alex came round another 9 bloody times in 1st place.

Upon getting the bike back from scrutineering, the damage wasn’t as bad as expected. A new gear lever, straighten the handlebars and loads of gaffa tape (see pictures left for before and after) meant the bike was good to go. I was slightly worse for wear though. As well as bruised swelling to my legs and elbow plus generally sore , the heat was killing me! Rather than try any heroics, I decided to race knowing I would struggle and grab a few points. By this time I had already dropped to 2nd place in the championship and really needed some damage limitation. Unable to sling the bike around properly, I came home in 6th and 7th place.

No pressure now, just need to win every race at Anglesey!! Oh! And Alex forgot to mention that after we changed the tyre on the van after the blow out, we thought it a good idea to make sure it was correctly inflated at the next services....18 mile away. We made it and put the compressor lead onto the wheel. It was a little bit down but not a lot so put a bit of air in. That’s what we thought anyway, the air lead didn’t work properly and was letting the tyre down. So could we make it to the next services 15 miles down the road? Obviously we did, but it makes you wonder if the excitement on the track actually matches that off track!! Don’t you just love it!

Two-Stroke of Luck

Our friend Sean Kelly has come up trumps for the Gold Cup at Olivers Mount, Scarborough on the 19th & 20th September by offering us the use of his 2007 Honda RS 250. He is currently fine tuning the bike ready for its outing. As you can see from the picture, the bike is on the dyno being checked out. Having previously raced 250 GP bikes from 1997 to 2001 in the British Championship I relish any chance I get of jumping on one these days, you can’t beat that two-stroke rush. As well as the 250 we will have Birdy’s ZXR so this will give us 4 races per day over the weekend. Happy times.

And the MotoGP Winner is…. Rossi? Stoner? …. No, its bloody Leigh !!!!!

What can you say, Leigh has not won a race before and was beginning to think it would never happen but what a place to do it, at the MotoGP at Donington Park. Now before you all get carried away he didn’t actually win the MotoGP race beating the likes of Rossi, Stoner, Pedrosa et al but the Minitwin support race with an equally impressive line up of Boland, White and Jones etc.
Leigh managed to qualify 4th quickest Minitwin just half a second down on Boland and White with Jones on Pole. Qualifying was held in dry conditions but come the race it was lashing down. This seemed to suit Leigh down to the ground and after a flying start pulled out a gap of 10 seconds over the next Minitwin rider which he held onto the finish.
He appeared to be in a state of shock when he returned to the paddock and was informed of the good news.

The funny thing for me was I nearly won the Junior Powerbike race only losing out by 0.005s after coming from 3-4 seconds back, but the first thing Birdy had to say to me when I returned back to the paddock was ‘your kid had a blinder of a race’. Thanks John ?

Still the day was Leigh’s and he proved the saying to be true ‘That Winners are Grinners’.

Podiums A Plenty At Snetterton

Well after what seems like an absolute age it was great to be back racing a bike again at Snetterton. We were back on Birdy’s Kawasaki racing in the Junior Powerbike class with the ThundersportGB club. We did some testing on the Friday to ensure things were all tic-a-tee-boo and after a few suspensions modifications to help the bike hold a line better, as it was running wide on the power exiting corners, we were confident we had a good set up for the weekend.

This proved to be the case straight away when we managed to secure pole position in qualifying by 0.009s from young Sam Coventry on the 800cc Ducati with Rob Elsmere on his Aprilia SXV550 in third on the grid only another 0.1s further back. This looked like ensuring some close races were to follow.

The first race was exactly like this, after a good start for our bike, which meant I only dropped to 5th or 6th place I was soon up behind Sam and Rob. Once passed Sam, Rob and I passed each other 2 or 3 times every lap which made for a fun exciting race. Rob’s Aprilia was a little quicker than our bike and he could pull around 5 bike lengths on us out of the slower corners. Unfortunately this was to be our downfall as I led out of the last corner but Rob with the extra drive of his bike and my slipstream meant he crossed the line in front of me by 0.043s, bugger, but a bloody close race.

In the remaining three races of the weekend we were hampered by very poor starts, we knew this would be a problem with our bike as it has a close ratio gearbox which means it has a very high first gear, this coupled with the peaky power delivery of a 400 makes it very difficult to get off the line when compared to the bigger V-twins. This meant that I dropped to around 6th or 7th place off the start and by the time I had made my way through the traffic into second the gap that Rob had opened up was too big to close down. In each race I managed to get the gap down to a little over 2s, but I just ran out of time in each race. So four 2nd places was not too bad a weekend and I did however manage to set the fastest lap of the weekend for our class, so some consolation. I have moved up to joint second place overall in the championship but quite a lot of points behind first.

Leigh had an average weekend (his words not mine), managing 5th in the Mini-Twin class in all four races. Again the heat and his fitness levels were a large contributory factor i.e. it was too bloody hot and it’s time to stop smoking! Unfortunately Tim Jones now leads the championship but only by 4 points. One highlight of the weekend however was being the leading Hutchinson for half a lap. Managing to jump from 11th to 5th from a blinding start, overtaking whoever was in pole position. Oh, that’s right. It was me. The picture left was taken during Sunday morning warm up when I followed Leigh for a few laps then showed him the way around to try and give him some tips.
We enjoyed a few beers in the clubhouse on Saturday evening and the one thing we found strange was that my dad had managed to get his photo up above the bar as you can see in the photo on the left. Actually it is some Formula 3 racing driving but the resemblance had us in hysterics.

This was closely followed when one of our friends, Clive White (a MiniTwin racer that can be seen in the picture with me to the left) raised his glass during a charity auction and unknowingly managed to put a bid in for a set of leathers for £420 !! The panic on his face when he realised what he had done was a picture.

A quick well done to ThundersportGB for another extremely well run meeting, if you get the chance to get to one of these it will be well worth it.

Our next outing is on Thursday 23rd July at Donington Park MotoGP. The day is organised for the charity ‘Riders for Health’ and therefore a great cause. Hopefully we will see you there.

OULTON OVERHEAT.

Well, Oulton park last weekend was a disaster! After finally getting the bike fixed, it's bloody me that breaks down!

Went out for practice on Friday morning and was quite happy with my lap times coming down after each session but by dinner the severe heat was getting to me. This was not good as qualifying was in the afternoon. Drinking loads of isotonic lucozade wasn't helping either, as soon as it went in, it had to come out almost immediately! Feeling a little faint, I went out for qualifying and managed to go 2 seconds slower than I had in the morning. Still 17th on the grid out of 36, just have to do better on Sunday.

Sunday came and I felt worse, kept having to have a lie down rather than fall down. Got up to 15th from the start in the first race but got slower after each lap, finishing 19th. I was shaking like a sh*tting dog, could hardly breath and about to fall over at any given point.

I really wasn't looking forward to the second race and unfortunately only managed 22nd after going increasingly slower again. Actually thought I was going to fill my helmet with sick at one point.... before I had taken it off. Chris, the young and fit chap he is, managed to do better, taking 10th in the 1st race and 12th in the second. Smiled and congratulated him as is only proper, then covered his bike with sarcastic notes and giggled like a kid when he said his gearbox is fooked! Mind you, I know how that poor old gearbox felt after being thrown around the garage by Alex trying to peel my leathers off me. Cheers Al. As you can see from the picture, Alex was very impressed with my lack of performance and that's him in a good mood!

Misfire Mystery

After going through Leigh's bike with a fine tooth comb it looks as though we may have finally cured the misfire. Rob re-ground the valves as we had a bit of blow back, hopefully this cured the bike running lean but did not sort the misfire. We then changed just about every sensor on the bike as we were sure it was electrical but this did not sort it. We were just about at our wits ends and finally decided to try a new wiring loom even though we had stripped and check the original one. This appears to have cured the misfire and we can only assume it was breaking down somewhere. The bike will be back on the dyno this week for final checks prior to Leigh racing at Oulton again in a weeks time.

Snetterton BSB Last Year

I pinched these couple of photos of my mate Aria Lane. He took them at the Snetterton BSB meeting last year. This was the Tigcraft KTM's first outing and the bike had only just been finished the night before the meeting. Partly due to a bit of luck with the weather (it rained for the race) we managed to bring it home in 2nd place on its debut in a European race. Not a bad result at all. Dave Pearce the one with the beard on the left it the man responsible for building the bike. This goes ot show with all the improvements over the winter its a pity we didn't manage to get to race it this year. You can see John McGuiness behind me taking a keen interest in the bikes.

Oulton Park....Swimwear Optional!!

Well, unlike Alex, unfortunately I arrived, knowing I had problems to contend with.

Firstly, my broken thumb was still in plaster but only for a short while. Upon arriving at Oulton, some expertise with a stanley knife meant my hand was free but my thumb was not going to bend anytime soon. Break out the painkillers, worry about that later.

After Rob, my step dad, had spent a week rebuilding the engine, checking sensors and other components, the bike was still misfiring. No-one could fathom out the problem or where it lie, so after disconnecting one sensor we managed to get it running without a misfire, however we didn't know what effect this had on the performance until the first session where I managed 1 lap before pulling in!

After trying numerous suggestions, we still couldn't get it running properly but I had to learn the track so decided to ride it anyway. Dinner came and the lap top came out to try different power commander settings and maps. It was only guesswork but it made the bike run a little better and by the end of the practice day, I had just managed to reach Chris' ( my team mate ) lap times.

Race day came and so did the rain. I had my reservations but was quite happy with the rain, it meant everybody would be going slower. I managed to get 4th place in the first race, which I thought was a bloody miracle! My thumb was seriously hurting, I couldn't feel the rest of my fingers in cold wet gloves and I couldn't see where I was going because my helmet had fogged up! Needless to say, that race felt like an eternity. Chris, however, was a different story. Lucky barsteward managed 1st place and did it quite easily by all accounts. Not a bad homecoming present after fighting Yeti's in Alaska!! Well, I think that's where he's been, it never really got mentioned.

The second race was cut to 5 laps (thank God!) and I managed 5th place. Chris managed to get another win - bloody showing off now, Cookie! No, seriously; well done,bud. Ok, so I didn't get a podium this weekend but all things considering I think it went rather well and believe it or not I've extended my championship lead to 49 points.

Just got to sort out this mystery problem with the bike now. Hopefully I'll get it sorted before Snetterton and let Chris make do with 2nd place!

Big thanks to Rob for all your time and patience, it is much appreciated, ya little bald, fat f****r!

Alex's 'Orrible Oulton

In life we all have things that we find frustrating, I think I have finally reached that point with motorcycles. I am not sure what it is but something, somebody, somewhere is not too keen on me doing much racing this year. With the issues that have already arose this year you would think a little good fortune would not be too much to ask, but alas it was not to be.

Birdy had rebuilt the Kwacker ready for the Oulton Park Round and although we were not too confident in the forks we had borrowed I was sure I could adjust them to somewhere near what I needed. The first practice session on the Friday started well and the bike was feeling ok apart from the forks being too stiff and not having enough rebound damping on them. This session was red flagged after 3 or 4 laps due to a crash out on the circuit.

Out on circuit for the 2nd practice session and I was circulating with Mike Edwards as we started to push the pace a bit and the lap times started to tumble. Unfortunately or fortunately the session was also red flagged due to yet another crash, I pulled into the pit lane and set about adjusting the forks again when I noticed water being sprayed on to my glove. The radiator had been rubbing against the front tyre and had worn through. End of session.

A quick phone call to Birdy and he had another radiator that he could leave at Ian ‘now not so’ Popularwell’s house for his Mrs to bring on the evening. Disappointing to miss the rest of the practice day but at least I knew we would have the bike ready for race day. There was obviously an error in communication as the radiator had been left on their kitchen table, about 150 miles from where it needed to be. At least the table wouldn’t overheat! With this disastrous news I attempted to repair the radiator but alas this was all in vain as we could not get the thing to seal.

Race day came and after a long bout of sulking came round to do Leigh’s pit board for him. What made things even worse was that Rob Elsmere who was leading the championship had two DNF’s so this could have been our chance to close right back up on him.

So there you go, circa £270 for the practice and race entry fee to do a total of 8 laps. £33.75 per lap. Not too good eh ?

I’ll let Leigh tell you his Oulton Park story shortly.

Leigh's Pembrey Pumelling

You can see Leigh's tumble from Pembrey on this video. At least between us we keep doing it in front of the cameras for your viewing pleasure !

Leigh's Gone Potty

Well as you know Leigh had a 'little' off in the first race on Sunday at Pembrey and being the concerning person that I am promptly sent him out in the second race despite him complaining of a bit of pain. I quickly dismissed this as just a bit of bruising and advised him to 'just get on with it'. I think you will now agree that I don't have a future in front of me as a doctor, as Leigh decided a visit to the hospital was necessary on Tuesday as he was still in some pain, this showed he had broken his thumb and fractured his ankle. Oops. I still think my diagnosis was correct but I may be should had added 'severe bruising'. Hopefully he will be fit for Oulton Park at the beginning of June.

Its All Gone Pete Tong

Alex here, as you will all know I was due to ride the Tigcraft KTM (pictured left) this weekend at Cadwell Park in the first round of the British Supermono Championship. Unfortunately this is now not going to happened as I have been informed at the 11th hour that the budget is not there to run the bike. As you will appreciate I am extremely disappointed as I had centered my whole season around this championship. I had previously decided to miss the North West 200 due to a clash of dates with Cadwell and missed the Pembrey round of the Junior Powerbike Championship to allow my own funds to stretch to the supermono rounds. Now this has happened it has managed to not only cock up the Supermono championship but also the Junior Powerbikes as I was leading the championship prior to missing Pembrey and also the chance of a good result at the NW200. I guess that's life sometimes but I am not a happy camper at the moment. The next time I will be out on a bike will be at Oulton Park on the 6th & 7th June back on Birdy's MotoSP Kawasaki.

Into The Valleys Of Wales Rode The 650

Well, ok, Pembrey actually, and "death" sounded a bit grim. It's not easy being this amusing!

Anyway, first time at Pembrey and a bloody long drive it is too. Took about 6 hours to get there without a pit stop ( yes, I said pit! ) but the weather was ok and I was actually looking forward to it, having never been before.

Practice day came and I was out on track for the first time. Ian "Popularwell" Popplewell, a man with GENERATIONS of experience had obviously raced there before, so Clive White ( Rapier Paintwork ) and myself thought it a good idea to follow him around........ right across the motocross track!! Completely missing a fast left hand turn and managing to get another 3/4 riders to follow us! This caused Alex much entertainment for a number of hours. Still, I eventually managed to learn the track in time for race day.

Saturday's first race was a good one, after getting boxed in at the hairpin off the start, I managed to catch up to 3rd and 4th place. Now was my chance, my intentions was to outbrake them back at the hairpin and dive underneath. All was going to plan until I hit a false neutral coming out of the hairpin and lost all the ground I had made up. Bummer!! Still managed to grab 4th though.

The second race wasn't my best performance and I really struggled to get by slower riders only managing 5th. This poor performance was confirmed by Alex's hand gestures from the pitwall, suggesting something like "Tanker!".

Sunday came and I was ready for a better result. First 3 laps and I was riding the best I had all weekend! Then on the 4th lap, I lost the front end cranked over in a fast left hander ( no sniggers at the wording please, it's race jargon not rude ). I left the bike and seemed to barrel roll on my own for an eternity. After eventually stopping, it took me a couple of seconds to get to my feet with pain flooding in from various parts of the body.

After seeing the doctor on track, I limped back to the paddock where Alex said he could repair the bike for the next race if I was up to it. Luckily, Gary Smith ( one of the Smith Sisters )had come to watch and was on hand to give Alex some much needed help in repairing the bike without a moment's hesitation. Cheers Gary, you're a star!

I could feel my left ankle getting bigger by the second in my boot and my right thumb wasn't going to come out of my glove in a hurry, so I left my leathers on and went out for another go.

I managed to limp home in 6th but it wasn't one of my better ideas, I was in bloody agony! Dripping in sweat and a little light headed either from the pain or the painkillers I had managed to hold onto the championship lead.

Once again, thanks to Gary for the help, it was much appreciated.

On The Up

Here are a couple of top pictures taken by PLJ Photos at Cadwell Park cresting the 'Mountain'.

Cadwell Crash

This is the moment when I lost the front at the Gooseneck at Cadwell Park and Birdy's poor bike got a cosmetic redesign. Sorry.

On another note Leigh is now ready for Pembrey next weekend, I am giving it a miss due to me racing the Tigcraft KTM at Cadwell the following weekend and funds are too scarce to allow us to do all the meetings we would like.

Show Them How Its Done

I had a good day doing a bit of instructing down at the race school at Donington park yesterday. The weather was great all day, plenty of bikes to ride, as you can see. What more could you ask for ?

BIKESPORT NEWS AGAIN!!

Here's this weeks article from Bikesport News covering the rounds at Cadwell, Easter weekend. As usual, Alex gets most the limelight but I still get a mention, even if they did get it wrong! I had 4 podiums and not 3, if you don't mind Mr Editor! Still quite happy with having the fastest lap in a couple of the races though. It's a definite improvement over Mallory.

Two, Yes Two Championship Leaders

After an up and down weekend for myself (strange as it’s usually Leigh) both Leigh and I have found ourselves leading our respective championships in ThundersportGB (see www.thundersportgb.com). Leigh has an 11 point lead in the Minitwin class over Richard Wilshire and I have a 10 point lead over Rob Elsmere in the Junior Powerbike class.

Leigh decided to do the practice day on Saturday to check how the bike was running after all the work that had been put in to it over the preceding week and although the day was a

washout and he only went out in a couple of sessions, this was enough for him to declare ‘its pulling like a train’. I took this to be a good thing!
On Sunday Roger of RMKD and his ‘new apprentice’ had come to watch and kindly brought his bike as a back up, just in case! But unfortunately this was not the day that we were to need it, more on this later!

Sunday came and I qualified fastest in my class, but the clutch was starting to slip between 13,500rpm and 15,500rpm. Therefore a quick strip down was required (the bike, not me) and a new clutch fitted in double quick time thanks to Roger’s new apprentice (see picture) ! The races seem to go a little too easy for us and we managed to bag two wins from two races. I did have some fun on the way as our class had been mixed in with the Supertwins (up to 1000cc V-Twins i.e. Ducati 1098’s, KTM 1190 etc) and I crossed the line 4th and 5th overall embarrassing a lot of the bigger bikes on the way who have up to 180hp as opposed to our 72hp.

Leigh came away from the two races with a 2nd and a 3rd in the Minitwins setting his own personal best fastest lap around the Cadwell circuit along the way. His main rival in the championship had fried his clutch and had to retire from the race allowing Leigh to claw bike a load of points. John King of JK Tuning had come down to watch and declared ‘that seems to be going alright’, which again we took to be a good thing.

On Monday I came crashing down to earth with a bang, literally, when in the first race I lost the front through the Gooseneck on the first lap at approximately 80mph, right in front of the TV camera. Luckily I just slid along the grass but the bike didn’t fare as well as it grabbed in the dirt and flipped over several times doing a fair amount of damage as you can see from the picture. If only Roger had brought his bike on the Monday instead of the Sunday. Simon Hubbard from Strypz had come to watch and unfortunately one of the first things he and his young son, Oliver, saw was my bike cart wheeling through the air, I hope he could see his stickers as it spun round! Apologies to Birdy (happy in his winners hat the day before on the photo) for this one but I believe it was down to the tyres going cold due to the length of time we were held in the collecting area.

After stripping down the bike we realised it was too badly damaged as you can see on the picture and we thought we would have to give the last race a miss, but a big thank you to Kingsley Ruddy and his father who came to the rescue and loaned us their spare bike. We changed the wheels and the brakes over from our bike and had the bike scrutineered ready for the last race. As soon as the race started I knew the bike was not running too well as it was very low on power, and I limped home in 7th place in class. My suspicions were proved right when I was surrounded by steam as I pulled in to parc ferme, this was traced to a blown head gasket. At this rate I will be getting a reputation as a bike breaker. The main thing was we managed to salvage some points and this has kept us at the top of the championship, so again thank you to Kingsley and his dad.

Leigh had another good day bagging two 2nd places in his class and with Richard Wilsher having another DNF this gave Leigh the overall championship lead, I think this even surprised him a bit.

A funny point was that Leigh’s boss, Stuart Norris had taken a ride down to Cadwell on his Triumph and brought along his camcorder, he finally realised it worked a lot better when you pressed the record button but only after he had spent most of the first race pointing it at the race but recording nothing.

You can see these races (and probably my crash) on Motors TV 27th April at 7pm.