swingarm bushes from Vance & Hines in the United States of America. The original bushes are made from a thin metal plate bonded to rubber; the new bushes are manufactured from solid nylon. The idea behind this is that we would be removing some of the flex between the frame and the swingarm and this would hopefully cure the issues we were seeing as we believed this flexing was the root cause of the problem. It was not a difficult job to change these over and as you have to take a good number of parts off the bike it is a good opportunity to give the bike a really good clean, so she was looking ‘spic n’ span’ for the weekend ahead. Another rider aid we fitted was a remote brake adjuster supplied by the guys at TWM Special Components in San Marino, very good quality gear at a good price, have a look at their website http://www.twm-sc.com/ . This little gizmo allows me to adjust the lever span on the front brakes whilst on the move during a race, very handy when you are trying to stop 250kg of Harley. So with the new bushes fitted, new oil, filter, spark plugs and brake adjuster we were ready for Brands Hatch. And for this weekend I would have my trusty mechanic back in the shape of Rob, my stepfather, who has been helping since we started way back in the ‘year of our lord’ 1993. A quick thanks to Rob as he had to change a hospital appointment that was booked for the Friday to be able to come.
You will all be pleased to know that we had no issues getting into the circuit this weekend so no ranting and raving from me this time!
Free Practice - Friday
Brands Hatch was set to be a rather strange meeting as the Friday qualifying and race were to be run over the 1.2 mile Indy circui
t with the Saturday session and Sunday race to be run over the 2.4 mile GP Circuit. Now whilst I have ridden the Indy circuit several times over the years it has been around 10 years since I last rode the GP circuit so I was a little concerned about relearning the track in one 20 minutes session prior to the Sunday race. Anyway more of that later as I have plenty of other issues to tell you about first.
We took to the Indy Circuit early on Friday morning for our free practice session, I was quite confident about our chances as I have had a number of successes over recent years at Brands Hatch on the Indy track. I circulated for most of the session with Torquil Paterson who has been on the podium this year, so I thought he would be a good gauge speed wise. About 15 minutes into the session the rear tyre was starting to slide around and this was getting progressively worse. My idea was to pit around this time anyway to adjust the rear shocks but as I stopped in the pit lane we noticed that oil had sprayed all over the back of the bike. Not wanting to risk anything we retired to the Harley tent to investigate further. Once there we soon found the cause of the oil leak and this was no more than the oil filler working its way loose. That was a relief so we cleaned the bike up; secured the filler with some additional lock wiring and we were ready for our qualifying session. On a positive side the bike appeared to be behaving itself in the handling stakes so it looked as if the bushes that had been fitted were working as we had hoped.
Qualifying
Out into qualifying and I had a
good feel for the bike now that we didn’t have any oil on the rear tyre. As I have had a limited amount of dry track time this year I decided I would stay out for the full session and just enjoy riding the bike and pushing for a lap time. I saw Rob put out a lap of 52.9s on my pit board which I was pretty pleased with but my Achilles heel appeared to be the left hander of Graham Hill bend and I knew we were losing a little time here. Still we managed to qualify only 0.7s off pole position but were in 7th position on the grid. The unfortunate thing was I couldn’t interrogate our sector times as the transponder that is carried on the bike and send a signal to the timing beacons had somehow come adrift and made a bid for freedom. We were very lucky in that the marshal’s had seen it come off at the bottom of Paddock Hill and returned it to us an hour or so later. That was a bit lucky as they are around £250 to purchase.
Race 1
On to the grid we went for our first race of the weekend, as the lights went out I released the clutch. My initial thoughts were, ‘this should be a good start’ that was until the front wheel got higher and higher until I was looking at the beautiful blue sky. As the front wheel came back down with a bang I realised I had made a complete hash or that start as nearly all the grid piled past. I entered the first corner of Paddock Hill bend virtually dead last! Oh dear I was going to have my work cut out here. Trying to make up too much ground too quickly
I locked the front wheel on the brakes entering Clearways but managed to recover and not loose too much time. By lap two I was not as comfortable on the bike as I normally am and it was then I noticed the seat foam had come adrift. Not only that but it was now stuck to my leg. This resulted in what must have looked very strange as every time I got to a straight I was shaking my leg to try and get rid of the sticky backed foam. I think it did eventually come off by about lap 3, but the residual glue that was left on the seat made it very hard to hang off the bike for the corners, still at least it made it entertaining. Over the nest few laps I managed to barge my way past 10 or so riders and into 6th place. Unfortunately 5th place was around 5 seconds in front of me but I still had 10 laps to close him down. I got embroiled in a tussle with Doug Cowie for a few laps which whilst it was fun did slow my progress towards 5th place. I managed to get within 1 second of 5th when the chequered flag came out, so had to settle for 6th place. It was a pity I made such a mess of the start as 5th place would have been achievable if not further. The main thing was though that we did have a lot of fun out there and you can’t ask for more than that!
Free Practice – Saturday
Free practice on Saturday was my chance to get back out on the Brands Hatch GP circuit, as I have said previously it is a good number of years since I had ridden around here but I have to say it is one of the best tracks in the UK. It combines the best parts of the shorter Indy circuit with some proper old school corners than twist through the woodland. It really is a ball to ride and I was thoroughly enjoying myself. I stayed out for the full 20 minute session as this would be the best way to get myself reacquainted with the track. I have to admit my times didn’t set the world on fire but I was confident that come the race on Sunday we would be ok
.
Race 2
We had a very long wait for our race on Sunday as we were scheduled to be the last of the day. There had been a few stoppages and therefore we didn’t make it on to the track until nearly 6pm. Not wanting to make the same mistake as in Fridays race I dialled in a few less revs for the start and as the lights changed I got a …………………average start! As the race settled down I tried to hang on to the leaders but with lack of track knowledge at this point I knew this would be an unattainable task. I did end up in a 4 way scrap for 6th place and we changed position nearly every corner. Doug Cowie eventually succumbed to the pressure and crashed out at Druids corner. I was very lucky to avoid him but lost two places in the process. I quickly made my way back into 6th place and got my head down setting my fastest lap of the race on the last lap showing that we were still learning our way around the circuit. Again another race I thoroughly enjoyed so I left the circuit happy with our weekends rides.
On our drive home from the circuit we received a call to say we had been awarded ‘man of the meeting’ for our efforts in the tw
o races. It’s a good feeling knowing that there are people taking notice of what we are doing!
For further info check out the series website at http://xr1200trophy.harley-davidson.co.uk/
The next meeting is at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire on the 27th-29th August, so if you can make it, please come along and offer your support, if not you can catch the races live on Eurosport or check the live timing at TSL Timing (http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=major&season=2011&series=BSB&event=races)
Lastly a big thanks to all our sponsors that enable us to be out there competing.
