Mallory Mayhem

Well where do I begin? I will apologise now for the long write up, but a lot happened this weekend!
As far as starts to a season go this has to rank up as one of the most traumatic. We managed to have more ups and downs than a day out at Alton Towers. Leigh and I travelled to Mallory Park on Wednesday evening as Leigh had booked in for a practice day on the Thursday. This proved to be a good move on his part as I along with many others were booked in for the Friday practice, unfortunately this was spoiled by the fact if was raining all day long. If you have been keeping up to date with our developments, you will know that we had changed quite a few things on the GP2 bike and had planned to use the Friday practice to set the bike up ready for the weekends racing. This was also the first time we would be using Bridgestone tyres so there was a lot of new stuff to try. Due to the atrocious weather this basically put us on the back foot for the remainder of the weekend. We did manage a handful of laps on Friday and this did show up a problem with the new clutch that had been fitted (I won’t tell you the manufacturers name at the moment) in that it started slipping after only a couple of laps, this was subsequently changed back to the old clutch and things were hunky dory again. Birdy was not happy with the clutch supplier though. But that was to be the least of John’s worries over the weekend.

Saturday morning came and into qualifying, the track was drying but there were still damp patches covering the circuit. I got my head down but after only a couple of laps entering Edwina’s chicane (named after the old lady that use to own the circuit I believe) I clipped one of the damp parts and the front folded on me and sent me off the track and into the mud. The bike went front a pristine machine to one that looked like it had been ploughing a field in seconds. I was bloody mad with myself for such a silly error but there was no time to dwell on this as we need to get the bike repaired in time for the first race. Even though I had only managed a couple of laps in qualifying I knew we had some handling issues due to the lack of testing and we therefore decided to changed the forks back to the original ones to try and cure some of the problems we were experiencing.

Birdy and the Smith Sisters donned their overalls and got to work on the bike, and managed to get it finished just in time to get the bike re-scrutineered and ready for race one. The red lights went out to signal the start of our first race in 2010, from 6th on the grid I was up to 2nd position by the time we were half way round Gerrards, then exciting Gerrards I took the lead in the race and was ready to get the hammer down. The hammer did go down quickly followed by my elbow and arse as I tipped into the right hander at Edwina’s. I can only assume the front tyre was not quite up to temperature as it slid away so slowly, I tried in vain to save it on my knee but just couldn’t manage it. Birdy who was stood on the corner did say it was ‘nearly’ the save of the century.

The guys once again did a sterling job and managed to get the bike up and running for the 2nd race, we also had the front slick cut to try and get it working a bit more and generate some heat. This time I took things a bit steadier and slowly worked my way up into the lead. I held this for most of the race but we were still suffering from some an ill handling bike and this allowed young Alex Heaton on the Ducati to pass me and take the win. Still 2nd place was a lot better than the first race but we still had things to sort out.

Overnight we took the decision to change the rear shock back to the old one due not having the time to sort the new one out, and also we upped the pressure in the rear tyre by another 3psi.
This appeared to work as the first race on Sunday saw me take the lead by the end of the 2nd lap. I managed to pull a gap of just over a second over the next few laps but about 3 laps from the end the exhaust came away from the collector and started making a very loud noise. Not sure what was wrong with the bike I slowed the pace a little but this again allowed Heaton on the Ducati to come by and take the win. I think the exhaust coming loose may just have been a backlash from the crash the day earlier; no-one’s fault just one of them things. But another 2nd place it was.

The exhaust reattached and it was now time for the last race of the weekend. As people who know us will agree we are not ones for giving up without a fight. This was our last chance to taste victory and it was one that I was not willing to take lying down. I lead the race for nearly every lap but as the circuit commentator was heard to say as we started the final 2 laps, “if you haven’t watched any racing all day then put down your spanners and get to track side, cos' this is going to be a thriller”. And that it was too, I thought I had it in the bag entering the hairpin for the final time when up the inside came Will Hodgson on his Aprilia going about 30mph faster and he had no chance of stopping in time. His actions though took me wide on the corner and Alex Heaton on the Ducati managed to squeeze past. I was having none of this though and as we excited the Devils Elbow I nailed the throttle as early as I dare. With the bike squirming beneath me we picked up the slipstream from Alex’s bike and managed to slipped past just as we crossed the line, taking the win by 0.150s. That was bloody close but just reward for all the hard work everyone had put in over the weekend.

The Bridgestone Tyres had now completed three full races and had worn very well; I think we are now starting to get to grips with them. Once we get settled on the tyre pressures that work for the bike then we can start to look at dialling in the new suspension to work with them also.

I guess if we can manage to get through a weekend like this and still come up trumps then the rest of the season should be a breeze. After the couple of crashes I was riding well within myself to make sure I brought the bike home, so hopefully at Pembrey we will be back on full song. Also with some more track time we may be able to reintroduce the new shock and forks and get them dialled in to reap the benefits they should have.

I apologise to our sponsors who logos were standing proud on a lovely turned out bike when we arrived at Mallory but didn’t quite last that way, we will have the bike back in tip top condition for Pembrey so don’t worry.

A big thanks to Birdy who amazed us all by grafting hard all weekend to get the bike up and running each time ready for the races. Although he still disappeared when it came to packing up!!!
The one thing that didn’t miss a beat was the motor that Roger Middleton had built for us, this was flying all weekend, and plenty of people commented on how well it sounded on full chat, cheers Roger.

A quick thank you to Chris Parry of Parrisprint (http://www.parrisprint.co.uk/) who managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat and get our new team clothing to us on the Friday, delivered straight to the circuit, thanks Chris, much appreciated. As you can see in the photo we all look dandy in our new clobber, this is also the biggest addition to Mick Smith’s wardrobe in several years, Mick is the pretty one in the middle.

I will let Leigh give you an update on his weekend events shortly!

Don’t forget the Sunday races will be shown on MotorsTV in the next couple of weeks.