Testing Times At Mallory

Here I am at Mallory Park with my team mate Chris "Sideshow" Boland. After fitting new front suspension, quick action throttle and different gearing, the day was all about making sure the bike and myself went ok. First session started at 0900hrs, I managed 2 laps and had to pull in because my footpeg had come loose, Chris seemed to be ok though. 2nd session went a lot better for me but Chris had to stop the bike at the hairpin because HIS footpeg had come loose!! 3rd session worked out great for both of us, however our lap times where within 0.01 seconds of each other! 4th session showed us going a bit quicker but no real margin was showing between us. By the time dinner came, I had knackered the new back tyre and my knee (Tyre was probably the wrong compound but my knee was just old age). I went out for one more session after dinner and had to call it day but guess what? Surprise, surprise, Chris' knee was playing up, so he'd have to stop. All in all, it was a good day. The bike went well and I didn't fall off (nearly but not quite)! So it's off to Brands Hatch for our first race next Saturday and Sunday.

All Time Greats At Mallory Park

While we were waiting to get into the paddock at Mallory Park on Thursday night, Leigh and I thought we would try and emulate some of the all time greats from motorsport history that are cast in bronze just outside the circuit. The first one is me with Colin Chapman, the man responsible for starting and building Lotus into the success story that it was, the second is Leigh with Mike 'the Bike' Hailwood, one of the greatest racers of all time ....................oh the fun we have!

Tigcraft KTM Development

I had a good chat with Dave Pearce (Mr Tigcraft) this morning and it looks like we have plenty of development in the pipeline for the Tigraft KTM Supermono (as pictured left with me on it at Oulton Park last year). In the next couple of weeks we should have a new swing arm that is being made by Brad Evans, this guy is meant to be a genius fabricator, so we are expecting good things. In addition Dave is making a new air box, new exhaust system, fitting a 44mm Keihin carburettor and also looking at putting some Dymag Carbon Fibre wheels on the bike (in an attempt to reduce the bikes current weight of 102kg as the class has a minimum weight limit of 95kg). During this time the 653cc KTM engine will be receiving some updates as well in an effort to increase the current 72hp the bike is pushing out. It also looks like I am to have a new guy looking after the bike for me whilst at the circuits called Hugh Freeman (I hope I got this right, its the language difference between the North and South you know), Dave mentioned he has previously worked in Formula 1 of all things ! Anyway as you can see there is still a lot to do before its first outing of the year at Cadwell in the middle of April when we hope to get the Ohlins forks and shock set up. I will hopefully post some photos as and when the updates are fitted, as long as Dave can work out how to use these new fangled digital cameras !!!!

Dynotopia

Well, after some harassment from Alex, complaining that I'd added nothing to the blog, here I am.
Booked the SV into J K Tuning last weekend for 1030am on the Saturday, however, Lady Luck had other plans! Used Rob's (stepdad) van to take the bike but half way to Lincoln it decided to throw off the fan belt. After finding an Iveco dealer in Lincoln, we got to J K about 1130am.
Anyway, after scratching my newly painted fairings we got the bike on the dyno. Guess what? The battery had decided to give up the ghost, so the bike wouldn't start. By this time I'm ready to go home!
John ( J K ) managed to use the dyno to bump start the bike but unfortunately with no juice in the battery, it couldn't give accurate readings. The general consensus by this time was to leave the bike with J K, get a new battery and come back the following weekend.
John, in the meantime had charged the existing battery during the week and given the bike a couple of runs. The results were, 71.2bhp and 45.4lb/ft of torque but the SV was running a bit rich. After trying a few other things we couldn't remedy this, as the bike believed it was running colder than it actually was.
With our heads in our hands, we brought the bloody thing home! After another strip down and a test light put to everything remotely electrical, Rob noticed a pipe off one of the airbox sensors. It's always something bloody simple! New battery fitted, it's onwards to mallory on friday for some testing. Still got some gremlins to iron out but hopefully we're nearly there.
Thanks to John at J K and Rob for their patience and time, if it wasn't for them I'd have attacked the SV with an angle grinder!!

Races To Be Shown On TV

Great news is that the ThundersportGB races this year are to be shown on MotorsTV, this can be found on Sky Channnel 413 or Virgin Channel 545. You will be able to see Leigh racing in the Minitwin Championship and me in the Junior Powerbike Championship (on the bike shown left) that are held at these events. So switch on and get watching !!!!!!
The following are the times for the FIRST showings of the “THUNDERSPORTGB CHAMPIONSHIP” programme on Motors TV in 2009. This is a stand alone programme of 2 hours duration and covers all classes contesting the ThundersportGB Championship. Each programme is repeated at various times through the following week up to 7 times, giving an incredible 126 hours of coverage for the championship.

EVENT VENUE & DATE FIRST SHOWING ON MOTORS TV
Round 1 Mallory Park (15th March) Monday 30th March @ 7pm
Round 2 Cadwell Park (13th April) Monday 27th April @ 7pm
Round 3 Pembrey (10th May) Monday 25th May @ 7pm
Round 4 Oulton Park (6th June) Monday 22nd June @ 7pm
Round 5 Snetterton (12th July) Monday 27th July @ 7pm
Round 7 Brands Hatch (31st August) Monday 14th September @ 7pm
Round 8 Anglesey (13th September) Monday 28th September @ 7pm
Round 9 Rockingham (18th October) Monday 2nd November @ 7pm
R1 – R9 Season Review Monday 16th November @ 7pm

For futher information go to http://www.thundersportgb.com/ or http://www.motorstv.com/bike

New Minitwins Website

Leigh's profile has now been added to the new Minitwins website, you can find it at http://www.minitwinracing.co.uk/. You will find his profile under /series/bemsee/riders. Have a good look around this website as it gives you all the information you will ever need to know about this class. But to give you the basics the series is for any twin cylinder for stroke up to 650cc watercooled or 800cc air-cooled with a maximum class limit of 72hp at the rear wheel.

Bad News & Good News

The bad news is that it looks like the Smith Sisters have sold their bike, the Simoto Honda 450 pictured left with me on it at Oliver's Mount, Scarborough setting the class lap record. This means that currently we will now be riding the 400 only at Mallory and then Cadwell we should have the Tigcraft out as well for a test prior to the first round of the British Supermono Championship.
The good news is that they can now look into the possibility of building a new bike whatever it may be. Watch this space and I will let you know as soon as !

Vantastic !!

We have just got the van back from having the graphics applied and I think you'll agree its looking bloody great. Thanks to Simon, Jason and the team at Strypz along with Brendan of Peach Designs for a fantastic job on the van !

Pre-Season Testing ???

Unfortunately it looks like I am going to be unable to do any testing before the first round at Mallory Park due to breaking my 'Cubiod Bone' in my foot during a 5-a-side football match last week. I get the pot off on the 2nd March so this gives me around 10 days to get my foot mobile prior to racing at Mallory Park. Sometimes this keep fit lark doesn't quite work out as planned.

Leigh has booked a test day at Mallory Park on Friday 27th February to get himself aquainted with the track as he has never ridden there before with this being only his second season. Hopefully the weather will have warmed up a little by then !

The Coming Season

For this season I will be competing in the British Supermono Championship for Tigcraft on a KTM690 engined machine, in addition to this I will be riding the Smith Sisters Simoto 450 Honda (as shown in the picture at Cadwell Park) in the Sound of Thunder class at various ThundersportGB meetings along with a Kawasaki ZXR400 for MotoSP in the Junior Powerbike class. There will be a few road races thrown in as well with two meetings at Oliver's Mount, Scarborough and Aberdare Park in South Wales. Unfortunately I am having to miss the North West 200 in Ireland this year due to a clash of dates.

Leigh will be competing again this year aboard his Suzuki SV650 in the Minitwin class in both the ThunderpsortGB and Bemsee championships.

You can see the calendar for the year on the right of your screen.

Hears looking to a safe and successful year.

Getting The Bike Ready For The Season

We have now just about finished our kids SV650 ready for the coming season. Although when he finished last season there didn't seem an awful lot to do, a full strip down followed. Then powder coating the frame, swingarm and wheels, making captive spacers (thanks to Jim Smith) for the wheels, modifying the wiring loom to remove the ignition plus loads more stuff. Reactive Suspension in York have modified the forks. The bike is on the dyno at JK Tuning this coming Saturday and then he is ready for his first test. As you can see he has also been busy painting the fairings too.

I think on the photo I am trying to fit my head into the exhaust.