Taking The Knocks at Knockhill

Knockhill BSB 18-19 June
Our next meeting came and this time it was a chance to travel to Scotland and the race circuit of Knockhill. For this meeting I had my brother Leigh along to give a helping hand and he was keen to see what the Scottish circuit was like. We took a leisurely ride up on the Friday as we were not out on the bike until Saturday. Once we arrived at the circuit the bike was unloaded into the Harley Davidson awning and our caravan set up for the weekend. This truly is the glitz and glamour of bike racing as we had upgraded from the back of the van accommodation we had at Thruxton!

Free Practice
As with Thruxton it was 10 years since I last raced at Knockhill so was keen to get some laps in around the circuit to learn which way it went after such a long break. Unfortunately for us and is quite of the case with Knockhill the weather as rather inclement and we headed out on to the track in torrential rain. After a few laps of ‘wobbling’ around I soon reacquainted myself with the turns and undulations of the track. The Warr’s XR1200 was handling very well, a lot different from the issues we had at Thruxton and I gained in confidence with each passing lap. He grip from the Dunlops wet tyres was fantastic and this helped us to get faster and faster. We finished the session in 7th place only one second off the fastest time but confident we could go quicker come qualifying.

Qualifying
2:10pm and out we went for our qualifying session. The track was still wet but it was not raining quite as hard so the conditions were a little better than they had been for free practice. I got my head down straight away and after only a few laps was pushing the bike quite hard. I came across the line to see P3 on my pitboard so I knew things were going pretty well. I kept plugging away but then the red flags came out which brought a halt to the session, this was not good timing as I was just starting to go for the last push. Some oil had been spilt on the track so we had to wait for this to be cleaned up. We did go out for the last five minutes once the cleanup had been done but because of the slippery surface it was difficult to know how fast to go. So we had to settle for the time we had done which meant we qualified in 5th position but only half a second off pole. We were all pretty happy with this as we only just missed being on the front row by 1/10th of a second. Looking at the data from the session showed we were also getting good drive out of the turns as we were 2nd and 4th quickest through the speed traps, things were looking good for the races on Sunday.

Warm Up
Sunday morning came and after a good day on the Saturday I was looking forward to getting out on the bike as I was really enjoying riding the Harley around the twists and turns of the Knockhill circuit. The track was damp but starting to dry a little so we opted to keep the wet tyres on for this session. The idea was just to have a steady ride around and get ourselves into gear ready for the races. Well, that was the idea, until whilst starting my second lap I hit the brakes for the first corner which immediately locked the front wheel, I quickly released the brake which brought the bike back into line and I grabbed another handful of brake. But by now I was running out of tarmac so released the brakes again as I took to the mud! This is where our problems got somewhat worse. As it had been raining a lot the mud was very soft and as soon as the bike hit this it dug in and flipped me off the bike. The Harley then decided it wanted to join the Scottish gymnastic team a performed a double back flip with half twist. I ran back to the bike to ensure the engine was turned off and realised it sustained quite a lot of damage. It did take three marshals to get the bike picked up, and they have now been doing weight training to get ready for the next round for the championship. It was a bit of a strange crash as in nineteen years of racing I have only locked the front wheel in a straight line once before so was not something I was expecting to happen. In my defence your honour, a lot of people had taken a tumble there over the course of the weekend so I was not on my own.

Race
As the bike was beyond repair from the morning ‘Warm Up’ crash we were unable to compete in the races. As this was a double header with two races this was a real blow and we left Knockhill severely disappointed as to what could have been.

Unfortunately this has now ruined our championship aspirations so from this point on we will just have to go out and get the best results we can.

For further info check out the series website at http://xr1200trophy.harley-davidson.co.uk/

The next meeting is at Snetterton in Norfolk on the 2nd/3rd July, due to not being able to get the bike repaired in time it looks as if we will have to miss this meeting but we should be back in action at Oulton Park on the 16th/17th July. 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.

Thrusting Harley at Thruxton

We arrived at Thruxton on Friday afternoon and proceeded to the communal awning that is set up by Harley Davidson for all the competitors to house their bikes and gear in. The placed looked great and is set up in a very professional manner as you would expect from such a prestige company. We unloaded the van, set up our area in the awning and settled down with a cup of tea. We didn’t have the luxury of the caravan this weekend as my brother Leigh was racing at the ThundersportGB meeting at Cadwell Park so myself and Rob had to make do with the next best thing to a caravan, ‘back o’van’. We did have separate camp beds though so all was good; this truly is living life at the high end! We did have the pleasure of the Smith Sisters, Mick and Gary coming to help us for the weekend and you could hear the paddock rejoicing! They have worked on a lot of bikes and their help was greatly appreciated.

Free Practice
It was 10 years since I last raced at Thruxton and that was on a Yamaha TZ250 GP bike, so a little different from the XR1200 we would be on. As this was the case I was keen to get out in free practice and re-learn the circuit and understand how the bike handled around the fastest circuit in the UK. I left pit lane alongside Jeremy McWilliams, (ex MotoGP rider and Warr’s Championship winning rider from last year!) only to notice his front mudguard was rubbing on his front tyre creating a lot of white smoke. I pulled alongside Jezza and pointed at his bike, he must have noticed as he returned to the pits on the very next lap. Unfortunately for me the marshals must have thought the smoke was coming from my bike as they displayed the black flag with an orange circle on along with my race number which means, leave the circuit immediately. I pulled of the track and alongside the marshal’s post, I knew exactly what the problem was, they had mine and Jezza’s bike mixed up. After what seemed like an age they finally got authorisation from race control to let me proceed with the session. Not the best way to start the weekend, but I got my head down and finished the session in 8th place but not entirely happy with the handling of the bike.

Qualifying
For the qualifying session we made some minor adjustments to the suspension to make the bike ride the bumpy Thruxton circuit a little better but even after only a handful of laps I knew it hadn’t improved the bike at all. As qualifying is only a 20 minute session there isn’t enough time to come into the pits and make any comprehensive adjustments so I decided to stay out for the full session, do the best I could and make sure I had learnt the circuit as much as possible. The bike was proving to be a real handful around the fast bumpy corners of ‘village and church’ and this was losing us the majority of our time and did give me more than the occasional heart in mouth moment, which necessitated a change of underpants once back at the van. We still managed to place ourselves 7th on the grid but felt it could have been much better without the issues we were having.

Warm Up
For the Monday morning ‘Warm Up’ session we decided to try something different with the rear shocks and fitted stiffer springs in an effort to cure our handling woes. The session was dry so it gave us a good chance to try the different setting. After only a handful of laps I knew this was not an improvement and so it was back to the drawing board for the race.
I did try a practice start at the end of the ‘warm up’ as I had not done a racing start on this bike before. Anyway my approach was as with any other bike, lots of revs and slip the clutch. The moment I did this on the Harley the front wheel was pointing towards the sky and I realised this was probably not the best way to launched the bike off the line! My second attempt was a lot more successful so I was happy for the race start.

Race
Mid morning and the heavens opened and down came the rain. This was set in for the day so we knew it was to be a wet race. We changed the suspension back to how it was the previous day as although we knew it was not great it was still the lesser of two evils. The wet tyres were fitted into the bike and we headed off to the grid ready for the race. This would be the first time the Harley Davidson XR1200’s had been raced on full wet tyres in the UK so we were all a little apprehensive. We all collected on the grid after 2 warm up laps and waited for the lights to go out. I thought I had made a reasonable start but then seemed to get a little boxed in around the first couple of corners and lost a few places in the process. I settled down and started to pick off a few riders over the next couple of laps and once clear of these I settled into 5th place with 3rd and 4th only a stones throw in front of us. At this point I thought brilliant, a great chance to get a podium in our first race on the bike. But over the next few laps our handling problems were still evident and if you managed to see the footage on Eurosport you will know that I certainly had my work cut out to hold onto the bike. I therefore knew that I wouldn’t be able to catch the guys in front and tried to safeguard the position I was in. After a good tussle with Wardy he just managed to pip me to the line and we came home in 6th place, not too shabby but a little frustrating as without our problems we could have been higher up.
As Jezza was a guest rider he wasn’t eligible to score points so we now sit 5th in the championship table after the first round. For further info check out the series website at http://xr1200trophy.harley-davidson.co.uk/

The next meeting is at Knockhill in Scotland on the 18th/19th June, 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.