21st May

As usual preparations started well before the race day with the bike getting some TLC. New tyres fitted, quick action throttle added, new oil and filter, 4 pot calpers to replace the 6 potters, a heavier spring on the rear shock, and a new set of coils. Not to mention the hours cleaning and checking the bike over.

Someone always seems to step up to the mark to help us out before each race, and this time thanks have to go to Cambridge Motorcycles, who lent us their van to ferry the bike and equipment for the weekend. Cheers chaps, it is very much appreciated.

So ... as you can imagine, the team were rather excited about this one. Brands Hatch has something! It just oozes history. It's palpable! I defy anyone to stand on the Brands pit lane early in the morning, and not hear race engines from by-gone eras echoing off the grandstand. I love going to Brands, and this race day was made more special by the opportunity to race for 6 hours on the GP circuit.

With my colleague set to join us to experience racing, he turned up the night before and after eating, the night was spent chatting and drinking. Probably one too many units of wine and grappa were consumed. Actually, there's no probably in that last sentence, and my sore head was only out done by my garlic laden breath at 5:30am the next morning. Why don't I learn! Neil had joined us late, and the three off use tiptoed round the house grabbing the last minute things I'd forgotten to pack.

With the sun already shining, and the van on turbo boost, my head pounding was quickly forgotten and we fair breezed the journey from Cambridge to Kent in just over an hour. Arriving at Brands we were surprised to see the paddock so full. I guess that there was a large number of riders out on Friday at the hottrax trackday getting their eye in! Oh well ... So much for being on an even playing field with the GP circuit being changed - Westfield
had new tarmac, and has been made slightly tighter with more run off.

With the bike unloaded, breakfast consumed, and signing on and scruitineering completed we headed back to the garage to check on a few things. Wiz (Timekeeping), Mark P (Mechanic), Fizzy (Fuel Rig) arrived fairly quickly after getting back to the garage. Mark W (mechanic) had called to let us know he couldn't come - full of flu poor sod. So we were only waiting on Mike (Marshall) to arrive.

I was elected to head out for untimed practise, and while I was getting ready Neil came round with the bad news. Mike wasn't going to make it - sending a text at the last minute. The regs make it clear that you can't expect to ride without a marshal. So Neil headed off to the paddock office to check out the situation with KRC. He returned 15 mins later with a smile on his face and everything squared with the chief marshal.

Untimed practise was only to be used to bed in the brake pads, and with the new pads finally starting to grip, I had just started to pick up the pace a bit when the bike cut out and re-fired on the drive through paddock. It nearly ended the day there and then. A couple more stutters onto the back straight and that gloomy feeling started to come over me - the coil were supposed to have fixed this problem. session was closed. On the positive side, the session had given me an opportunity to check out the new section of track at Westfield - the best way to describe it is probably just to say "Sheeeeit that's slippy". Some of that was undoubtedly due to the suspension being well off. We'd put a new spring in the rear shock, and it's heavier weight was not being kept in check by either the rebound or the compression damping. The resultant bounce and wallow though Westfield was alarming - strange that the bike felt pretty good everywhere else. All of that said, suspension means jack without the bike running! So with the session over I headed back in thinking about what might have caused the misfire.

Timed practise was looming as we discussed the misfire and suspension set up. About 4 clicks to the compression and 3 to the rebound were dialled in as we continued discussing the misfire. I'd noticed the temperature was down on the bike, and with some more tape on the rad, we hoped that the misfire had been a temporary glitch and Neil headed out for session one of time practise - he made it into Druids before the misfire chimed in again - obviously not temp related then!

Neil returned to the pits before completing one lap, and he and I quickly discussed options while Mark descended on the bike in a flurry of activity. Neil and Mark went to work checking the coils and changing out the plugs, and I got myself ready for session 2. Neil later told me that he'd found a wire open ended, it was that that was likely shorting on the frame, so they had high hopes the misfire was going to be cured. Meanwhile the weather was turning, and while Neil and mark were putting the air box on we swapped for full wets. As the bike was going back together session 1 came in and session 2 went out. With the bike together I went out and prayed that the ignition was sorted.

I managed 3 laps, and was just getting the tyres warm when the flag came out. Bugger! I hadn't even managed to get even close to a respectable pace! At least there was no misfire, and the suspension changes were heading in the right direction. It did seem that the tyres were well past there best however.

Back into the garage and Session 3 was called quickly. Scotty was sent out with one click off the rebound. Being fresh to the bike and the track, he struggled to get the bike up to speed, and we did not improve our qualifying time. We qualified ... But being 33rd on the grid was well below our expectation. We did have one consolation though - Team UKRM were only one
place above us and presumably had had their own qualifying nightmare.

With plenty of time left before race start, we did our normal procrastination about running order, and given that I'd put in the fastest
(relatively) time, I was nominated to choose. So being the fair guy I am, I gave Neil the start and Scotty the flag.

Scotty was despatched to find some full wets at the Pirelli stand - and we played comedy guess the tyres ... Rains being wets, the other rains being like inters, wets being inters and slicks, well being slicks!

The line up was relaxed, with banter between Team UKRM. We'll forget about the fact that Neil actually did his 2 warm up laps prior to the line up. Then of course got two more prior to the start. Obviously wanted at least some view of the track.

As the flag eventually dropped, a couple of thumbed starters and a crunch into gear (see I told you to leave it in first Neil) and Neil was away pretty much in our starting position. With little time on the bike during practise, he started slowly and lost about a 1/3rd of a lap to UKRM in the first 10 mins before settling into a rythmn and good consistent times.

At the end of his session it started to rain, and he came in saying that I really should not even think about heading out on slicks. Everyone was for going to wets, but while Fizzy filled the bike I decided inters .. And the team quickly changed front and rear (ignoring the fact that Neil was sticking the calliper back onto the left hand side of the front while I was removing the right hand side!! Adrenalin .. Plays havoc with even the most brainy brains in a team ;o))

I was instantly comfortable on the bike, and set a steady 2.02 in the fully wet conditions. The back end of the circuit was a nightmare still. I had a couple of scary moments trying to push up the times through Westfield where confidence seemed low, and I could obviously go quicker ... But even the slightest increase in pace through there had me clenching my arse with the bike stepping out over the yumps. So I opted to be sensible and play safe. The times still came down, and it was great having a board on the pit lane and seeing the times come down during the session as the track dried, eventually seeing 1:45 showing on the board with a dry line on the back end of the circuit, and dry everywhere else.

During that session I passed UKRM a couple of laps in, and had just passed them for a second time when the Pace car came out. Imagine my pleasure when I circulated to the back of the pace car queue, and discovered the pace car had split us up, and I could see them about 10 or so places up the field behind the car. I managed to slip past again just before I came in a little early. The rear inter was definitely struggling in the conditions, and Wiz had got a bit confused when I signalled the rear was a little ill. I'd meant for them only to be aware of the tyres might needing changing, and Wiz gave me the "fuel in" - so I came in! We decided in future to use "in" for out of schedule stops in and reserve the "fuel in" for scheduled stops. Either way, in hind sight I should not have signalled, and could of easily kept going physically another 1/2 hour before being forced to come in for fuel. Still every race is a learning experience. Either way ... Putting inters on gained us 3 laps over UKRM (I choose them only because, well because we're such similar capability) ... But lost us 5 laps changing them in the first place
- perhaps putting them on was a mistake :o(

Scotty went out on the inters I think ... And promptly came back in after 20 mins complaining about the rear sliding. Slicks were put on, and off he went, surviving the full hour with no trauma, and no arm pump! His knew super spray is obviously working ... And we are currently engaged in sponsorship discussions for the 24 hours :o)

Neil's next session was metronomic, but once again the end of his session signalled rain for mine ... This time I said sod it and went out on the same slicks, which were now 2.5 hours old and showing no physical deterioration. A relief after the tyre shredding at Snetterton, but still I had a wet session to deal with. Some 2:00 laps before the pace car came out again briefly, and with the condition of the track I'm not surprised! Jeesh, riding slicks in the wet is an interesting exercise! As the pace car disappeared I latched onto Ben Brewerton on his ZX6RR - an old rival in the 250 days! He was running third in class, and had qualified the ZX6RR third. I like Ben, he's a fair rider, and having past me as I spun the bike up on the white line on the exit of Druids, he gave me a wave on Cooper straight. I passed him again a couple of laps later, and held him off for a few more, before he eventually found speed through the dreaded Westfield that I couldn't match (I tried trust me), and I just had to watch as he pulled 100 yards through there each lap and I gained 90 back through the rest of the lap. Our times came down to consistent 1:46, with a 1:45.85 best showing in the results. I'm dead pleased with that on a damp track on a 3+ hour old slick :o) Especially given my personal best of 1:41.07 back from my SS600 days. Maybe this endurance racing suits me - I can easily see myself doing 1:40 round there given a dry track on slicks ... But I have to say that the idea of a 1:33.52 done on lap 178 by GBMoto is plain scary - BTW this stands as
the new lap record for now.

I handed over to Scotty, sad to come in ... The team gave him a new slick (not that he absolutely needed it) and he took us to the flag on the final hour stint with no stop, and a full hour in the seat to boot. A fantastic effort given his obvious arm pump challenges. It was rather amusing to welcome him into Parc Ferme and watch him smiling in pain as he waited patiently for the stand before attempting to get off the bike. Great John Wayne impression mate!

I'm still doing the bouncy bouncy thing ... 20th place, 4th in class, and 1st place Pirelli finisher in class (worth 350 quid of tyres :o). I even had my picture taken ... I am a tyre manufacturer's whore :o)

Thanks once again to the regulars ... You know who you are ... The riding is as always only half the battle ... And the pit crew once again showed their metal. A thoroughly spiffing weekend all in all.

Oh ... 24 hours at Snetterton next ... Gawd help us!

27th May

They've only gone and postponed the 24 hour event util next year! Can you believe it! One month before the day they decide it's not viable. What about sponsors, and the money spent by teams preparing lighting for race bikes, and tackling the 98Db limit for the event? Not least the efoort rallying friends and relatives to do pit duties, working out logistics. Bloody marvelous.

The 24hour race is to be replaced by a two day event apparently - Saturday, Ducati race and practise and qualifying for the main event on Sunday. Sunday has an 8 hour race! I'm pleased we are still racing, but gutted .... the hours I've spent getting fit and eating well, and fettling bikes ... unbelievable!