Back from the MotoGP

It’s always nice to take part in a big event and in terms of motorcycling in the UK they don’t come much bigger than the MotoGP. Unfortunately I am not writing to inform you that I got a call to from Yamaha to replace Rossi for the weekend, but that we had an entry for the ACU 250GP race that was to be a support class. Our good friend Sean Kelly had asked if we would like to take part in this event on his Honda RS250 and who can turn down the chance to ride at the MotoGP?
It is about 10 years since I last rode at Silverstone and that was on a different track layout as we would be using the full GP circuit this weekend, in addition I hadn’t ridden Sean’s bike since the Gold Cup at Scarborough last year so we knew we would have our work cut out for us.
As we arrived at the circuit it was great to see the full MotoGP paddock laid out in front of us, with all the fancy trucks and hospitality suites. The good old Iveco Daily van fitted in just nicely, thank you very much!
As you can see from the photo Sean’s Honda RS250 was beautifully turned out in the team colours, even when the weather was dull it looked like the sun was shining when it was out on the track. Looking at the programme showed that over 55 riders were entered for the 250GP race so we had plenty of people to try and beat.
On Friday we had a free practice session and were hoping for some good weather to help us learn the track. This did not quite happen as about an hour before the session was due to start the heavens opens and the rain came down. With the wet tyres slotted into the bike off we went to try the new circuit. I have to say the new Silverstone GP circuit is absolutely fantastic to ride, it is very quick and flowing, even the slow corners link up well. After feeling my way round the circuit for the full 25mins we were quite happy to find ourselves 14th quickest out of 51 riders that had ventured out. Speaking to a few of the other riders it was quite apparent that a few had done a test day a week earlier so already knew their way around, this made our position even more promising. A strip down of the engine showed that everything was working as it should and then it was off to watch the England game on the big screen!
Saturday came and the weather had improved, so in went the slicks and out for qualifying we went. It was great to be out on this fast circuit with near ideal weather conditions. As each lap passed we improved our times as I got more confident with the bike and the circuit. I got a good tow from Dan Jackson towards the close of the session but I got a little baulked by some slower riders towards the end of the lap, but the time was still good enough to promote us to 7th place on the timing sheets. With a couple of minutes remaining in the session a few riders posted a quicker time and we finished qualifying in 11th place which would put us on the 3rd row of the grid. Not too shabby at all. If we hadn’t been held up on our quickest lap I am sure we would have been on the 2nd row. Sean was over the moon with this, always a good thing to keep the bike owner happy! We checked the detonation counter and it showed that we were running a little bit lean on the carburetion so if the weather conditions were to be similar for the race on Sunday we would have to put in slightly larger main jets.
Race day came hoping to put a display equal to or better than the GP boys we lined up on the grid, it was at this point that I realised I had not done a practice start on the bike and was therefore a little unsure as to how it would go. Holding the revs at around 10,000rpm, the light lights went out and we were off. To my amazement I got a cracking start and was up in to around 8th place as we headed out of the first corner. After a couple of laps I found myself embroiled in a battle that went from 6th place to 12th. Everywhere you looked there were bikes trying to overtake and it was great to be part of. The bike was running well but it didn’t quite have the speed of the kitted Yamaha’s but we were not far off. On lap 4 the Dutch rider Henrik Voit crashed his Aprilia right in front of me at Luffield corner, this slowed me a little and I lost a couple of seconds. I found it quite easy to catch the group back up as our speed round the fast corners was very good. A couple of laps later I was exiting Woodcote corner right on the back of the rider in front trying to get a slipstream down the start and finish straight when to my surprise we both ended up running on to the grass. This was at approximately 130mph with the bike sliding and bouncing its way along, to add to this the bike in front kicked up some stones one of which hit me on my neck, the bruise from which you can see on the photo. I lost about three places due to this excursion and had to work very hard to make these back up. The race seemed to be over in a flash and we took the chequered flag in 9th place only a second down on 6th place. Considering our lack of track knowledge and limited time on the bike we were very happy with the result. A good weekend all round.

A big thank you to NG Road Racing Club for organising and running this race in a very slick and professional manner, a job well done.

As things are a little tight at the moment it is looking likely that we will have to miss the Cock o’ North at Scarborough and Aberdare meetings in July. This means our next meeting will be Cadwell Park on the 7th/8th August, but we may get a bit of testing done in the meantime.

Off to the MotoGP !

We are off to the MotoGP ! We will be heading down to Silverstone on Thursday evening ready fo the GP weekend where we will be competing in the 250 support class on Sean Kelly's Honda RS250 (both pictured right). Here's looking forward to a top weekend. If you are going to the GP, give us a cheer and pop in for a cuppa.

Cadwell Park on MotorsTV

Hi all, just to let you know that the races from Cadwell Park will be shown on MotorsTV from this week. You can see the screening times shown below. MotorsTV is available through both Sky and Virgin Media.

ThundersportGB GP2 Championship Leader

The Bank Holiday weekend saw us take the first of our two visits to Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. As this is our closest circuit it can be classed as our home round, the positive side of this is that we have a good following that come down to watch the races; the downside is that this tends to add a little more pressure to get a good result. We were still running our 400cc engine for this weekend as time had run a little short in trying to get the 440cc motor built. Hopefully this will be resolved by the next round, eh Roger?

Tony Young from Motorcycle Machining had popped down to watch for the first time this season so we were also keen to impress on that front. Got to keep those sponsors happy you know. Tony did chose a burger from one of the stands over our very well prepared buffet, so I am not sure if our hospitality unit is quite up to spec yet! With us not riding the Supermono at Cadwell this did give us the chance to concentrate on the GP2 races and this was a big help.

First qualifying was held in very wet conditions on Saturday afternoon, as this was my first outing of the weekend I took a steady approach but was still pleased to find myself 3rd quickest by the end of the session.

Second qualifying was a different affair and with a drying track I got my head down to put in some good times. Throughout this session I saw P1 on my pit board and was pleased to hear I had qualified in pole position by a massive 2.3s from 2nd place man Alan Percival on a similarly mounted machine. My main championship rivals Alex Heaton and Will Hodgson were further down the grid in 6th and 13th respectively.

Our first race of the day came and the weather was not being kind, a short shower prior to the race being called ensured all of us had scrambled to get wet tyres fitted. When we collected on the start line the track was actually half dry and half wet making for very difficult racing conditions. After a poor start I picked my way through the field and it came down to a battle between me and Will Hodgson on his Aprilia as we had pulled clear of the chasing pack. On lap 6 I had a slight altercation with a backmarker, locking handlebars and this lost me a couple of seconds to Will. There were still a few laps left to catch back up with Will but then the red flags were shown to stop the race due to a crashed rider and the result declared. 2nd position was not too bad a start to the weekend.

The second race of the day was once again hampered by the weather with everyone having to take a gamble on what tyres they should fit. We opted for a cut slick front tyre and a full slick rear tyre. As we headed out on the warm up lap I was confident we had made the correct choice as the track had a dry line all the way around. You can imagine my disappointment when we line up on the grid for the start and the heavens opened once more dumping a load of water onto the track. The lights went out and as you can imagine I was a little tentative for the first few laps as the slicks were not gripping at all on the damp track. By half race distance a dry line had appeared and I started to up my pace. With every lap we were getting quicker and passing riders who were out on wet tyres. It was a little too late though as I could only manage to get up to 4th place before the chequered flag came out. This was still a good result for the conditions.

Monday arrived and this time we were blessed with glorious sunshine, something that we have not seen too much of so far this year. After my performance in dry conditions in qualifying I was determined to get a good result. The race started and I found myself down in around 12th position into the first corner, but by the end of the first lap I had put in some very hard moves to pass 7 riders and cross the line in 4th place, that was a stonking 1st lap and I will apologise now if some of the overtaking manoeuvres were ‘a little close’! I got my head down and by the end of lap 3 had taken the lead. For the rest of the race I didn’t see anyone else but I know someone was close behind as each time I completed a lap my pit board told me I had +0s on the guy behind. It was only on the last lap when braking for the hairpin that I realised it was young Alex Heaton as he came flying past me sideways, totally missing the corner, ah the exuberance of youth. After a little chuckle to myself I turn the bike in and around the hairpin crossing the finish line to take the win by 2s. A good result and some very good lap times to boot.

We lined up on the grid for our last race of the weekend and after the win earlier in the day were confident of a repeat performance. As the lights went out we went backwards off the line and found myself in 7th place, I managed to pass five riders over the next two laps and was looking to take the lead from Alan Percival when the red flags came out due to a crashed rider. Oh well, we would just have to do it all over again. We had a bit of a panic for the restart when the bike would not fire, I must thank my dad and several others including Alan Knight the owner of the bike ridden by our main championship rival Alex Heaton who gave all their effort to push start the bike, eventually the motor sprang into life and I chased out of pit lane to catch the rest up on the warm up lap. The restart was to be run over a shortened distance and I actually got off the line pretty well and slotted in to 4th place by the first corner. Unfortunately as I headed down Park Straight I knew something was wrong with the bike as the clutch started to slip very badly. At this point I was very concerned that the bike would not make it to the end of the race. I had to adapt my riding to the slipping clutch and was riding around the corners in a gear higher in an effort to keep the revs down and to actually get some drive. We did make it to the chequered flag and managed to claim 5th place and not too far down on 3rd and 4th place, a good result for an ailing bike. Two starts in quick succession had obviously been too much for the clutch.

I had to do an interview for MotorsTV for being the winner of the first race of the day; the funny thing was, due to the logistics of Cadwell, with the start line at the bottom of the hill and the podium at the top, Steve Day the commentator could not be in two places at once. Therefore I had to do the interview for the first race straight after the second race, not confusing at all that is it? Therefore if I don’t quite come across as being totally on the ball this is the best excuse I have!

We left Cadwell leading the ThundersportGB GP2 Championship by 5 points from Alex Heaton in 2nd place, there is still a long way to go but at least we are in the mix.

Please remember that Monday’s races will be shown on Motors TV in the coming week so check the viewing times soon.

Our next outing is at the MotoGP at Silverstone on the 19th/20th June riding Sean Kelly’s Honda RS250 in a support race. This is something to look forward too as we get to ride the new GP circuit at Silverstone and it is always good fun to be riding at Britain’s premier motorcycling event. It will be a bit of an uphill struggle as we won’t have much time to learn the circuit and I have not ridden the 250 yet this year but we will see how it goes.

Leigh Getting A Bit Paranoid

I am not sure if Leigh was getting a little paranoid but he wanted to take a few photo's fo his bike looking in pristine condition before the start of racing at Cadwell, he didn't need to worry as it it came home as it went. And no he did race and we didn't just put it straight back in the van. I will let him update you later.

MCM Banner

As you can see we were trying to do our bit for Tony and Ann of Motorcycle Machining at Cadwell. I was struggling to find a fence big enough to take the banner. Good positioning though as everyone who came into the paddock got a good view.

Party In the Park

Its off to Cadwell Park this weekend for the next round of the Thundersport Championship. Both myself and Leigh will be racing this weekend so if you fancy a day out get yoursleves down on Sunday or Monday. We will have the kettle on so pop your heads in !

Wild, Windy and Wet at Snett

Hi all, before a racing weekend begins you often to come to wonder, if once the dust has settled and you are on your way home will I have enough to write about to fill a newsletter? Well so far this season this has definitely not been the case and once again I apologise in advance if this instalment is slightly longer than you anticipated but there is a lot to get in.

We headed off to Snetterton which is a circuit in Norfolk that was originally an airfield between 1943 and 1948, this means that it is quite flat and as such, does get its fair share of wind blowing across it. Match to this the fact that the circuit has some of the longest straights in the country and a very sketchy weather forecast and we were in for an entertaining weekend.

I wasn’t booked in for the Saturday morning practice as this is an additional cost that we can ill afford at the moment. For me then it was straight into qualifying on Saturday afternoon. This weekend we would once again be riding both Birdy’s GP2 bike and the Smith Sisters Supermono so there was plenty to do. Unfortunately Birdy could not make it this weekend as the ‘thumb’ he was under started to exert a considerable amount of pressure from which he could not escape!

Our first qualifying was out on the Kawasaki ZX-RR, as our best engine exploded at Pembrey we were still using the 400cc motor which was perhaps not the best suited as previously mentioned Snetterton is a very quick circuit and rewards ‘POWER’ as Jeremy Clarkson would say! Out on to circuit we went and I quickly made my way through to the front of the pack, after about 6 laps the pitboard was reading P2 and I decided that would be enough for a front row position on the grid. As I sat up and looked behind me I realised that I had been dragging a freight train of all my competitors around the circuit thus allowing them to all get a good lap time in as well.

It was then out on the Supermono, as I went to the collecting area the bike stalled and try as he might Gary could not kick the bike back into life. Mick James came to the rescue with his starter and this fired the bike back up. I rolled out onto the circuit and after only a couple of laps the team were displaying ‘IN’ on my pitboard. Not sure what the problem was, I rode steadily around the circuit and down pitlane. The reason that I had been called back in was due to the fact that we had not changed the transponder over from the GP2 bike to the Supermono bike and therefore our lap times would not have been recorded. The transponder is an electrical gizmo that transmits a signal to record the lap times as we pass the start/finish line but at around £300 each we cannot justify having two of these. Gary just shoved the transponder down my leathers and sent me back out on track. After only 3 laps the chequered flag came out and the session was over. Despite only completing a handful of laps we had managed to qualify the Supermono in 8th place on the grid. Bernie in the Thundersport office did comment later that the transponder should be fixed to the bike and not down my pants but sometimes needs must!

Sunday morning came and the weather had not been kind, due to the wet conditions I decided to sit out the second GP2 qualifying as there was no way anyone was going to improve on their lap times from the previous day. As we had not had much time on the Supermono we thought it would be a good idea to just get some laps in even if it was in the wet as we needed to bed some new brake discs in. This did not go to plan and coming up to the ‘Bombhole’ the front tyre just lost grip and put me straight on my bum and skidding across the grass. The bike was not too badly damaged but it was not what we needed. The Sisters were once again ‘spot on’ taking it all in their stride.

Our first race was the GP2 and we all assembled for the start on wet tyres, the lights went out and in the words of Murray Walker it was ‘Go, Go, Go’. I managed to pick off a few people and after 4 laps myself and Will Hodgson had managed to pull away from the chasing field. I was pretty confident at this point as Will was running wide on a lot of corners and looked as if he was riding on the ragged edge. My chance was not to come though as on lap 7 the red flags came out whilst I was leading due to Maria Costello crashing out at the Russell’s Chicane. The result was taken from the end of lap 6 and therefore Will won with us finishing in 2nd place. Not a bad start to the weekends’ races.

We missed the first Supermono Superpole race as the Sisters were still getting the bike back in one piece following the crash earlier in the day and also this would allow us to concentrate on the next GP2 race.

Out on track we went on the GP2 bike but this time the track was dry. I managed to get a pretty poor start and came out of the first corner in about 8th place. Over the next few laps myself and Alec Collinson managed to pull ourselves back up to the leaders and actually make a break out front of a couple of seconds. This nearly ended in disaster as the two Aprilia’s of Ben Gautrey and Will Hodgson came careering across the grass and heading straight for me and Alec forcing us to take avoiding action. Clear of the attacking Aprilia’s we had a last lap showdown, I managed to pass Alec going into the Esses and went through the Bombhole and Coram’s as fast as I could, we managed to cross the line in front by just over a second and set a new class lap record of 1m15.5s to boot on the last lap, not bad for a 400. Job done!

Monday morning came and it was clear the weather was going to be changeable throughout the day. As we all gathered in the collecting area for the first of the days GP2 race the heavens opened and a short shower came down. We were given 5 minutes to allow tyre changes but in this time the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. Based on this we took the decision to keep the slick tyres on our bike. As we lined up on the grid there was a dry line starting to appear on the track and I was quietly confident we had made the right decision. I looked around the grid to see that most of the other riders had elected to go out on full wet weather tyres. The lights went out and off we went. Things were looking good until after a couple of laps the heavens opened again and we were soaked by a torrential downpour. Obviously this was not ideal for me being out on slick tyres! The team put ‘IN’ on my pitboard for the second time this weekend but in my infinite wisdom I still thought there was a chance of getting some points. This proved to be the right choice as a few riders crashed out whilst others pulled in, this meant we managed to come home in 10th place and collect 6 championship points. It was worth staying out for but it felt like the longest race of my life with the bike sliding everywhere.

If you have never heard the grid set off for a Supermono race it is one ting you have to go and listen to. Full grids of singles with there deep booming sound make an incredible noise unlike any other in motorcycle racing. As I pulled onto the grid I was moved up to 7th place due to an earlier withdrawal and was set to improve on that. Off we set with a noise that would wake the dead, fabulous! I managed to get a good start and held 5th place for a couple of laps. The wind was very strong and our bike was being blown all over the track. A few times the front end had slid away from me and I felt our set up was not quite right. I lost 2 or 3 place over the course of the next few laps and then the bike started to lose a little power. This was later traced to a split in the exhaust. We took the chequered flag in 10th place, not the result we were after but I could not ride how I wanted.

In the last GP2 race of the weekend we were once again caught out by the weather. Just as we were called for the race it started to rain. A quick wheel changed ensued but we did not make it in time to take to the grid. This left me to start from pitlane. The grid roared off and I was given the all clear to start. Just as I had got rolling the bike cut out, not sure what was wrong with the bike I tried to bump start it but it just would not fire. I gave it one last go and it did finally come back to life. This though meant I was in last place by a hell of a long way. Not wanting to do anything rash I rode a steady race to eventually finish in 7th place. Not too bad a result from where we were.

In the GP2 class we are now only 4 points off the lead in second place from Alex Heaton who had a bit of a weekend to forget, but as people say ‘it is a long season’!

For the time being due to financial constraints it is my intention to concentrate on the GP2 class as we are in a very good position in the championship. Therefore at my request the Smith Sisters will be asking a couple of other riders to take the saddle of their Supermono for a few rounds. Don’t worry this is all totally amicable and you will still find us all in the same awning or garage at the meetings it is purely a reflection of current state of affairs.

Thanks to Glyn Richardson for the photo's.

Pembrey TV

The Thundersport GB 'two hour' TV show will be screened on Thursday 29th April at 21:15hrs on Motors TV (Channel 413). This will then be repeated a further six times over the course of the weekend up until Tuesday 4th May.


For more details on TV schedules see below,

Thundersport GB 2 hour show

29th April - 21:15hrs

30th April - 15:00hrs

1st May - 01:00hrs

2nd May - 18:00hrs

3rd May - 02:00hrs + 15:30hrs

4th May - 22:15hrs

MCM Big Bore

Tony and Ann at MCM have come up trumps for us again. After the disaster with our best engine at Pembrey we have been trying to piece together the parts we need to build a replacement. Tony got to work straight away and we have now got two sets of barrels bored out ready for the rebuild. In an effort to prevent the rods from letting go again we are currently having them shot peened and polished. We were hoping to have the engine built in time for Snetterton but unfortunately we are short of a piston as this was also damaged and unfortunately TTS didn't have one in stock but are expecting them in within the next 10 days. Therefore it looks like we will have to use the 400cc motor for Snetterton. With this in mind we are looking at getting the crank lightened and balanced but this will depend on the costs involved. It is something worth looking at though as it would help the engine to spin up quicker than a Tazmamian Devil.