27th June

Fresh from the short break since out last adventure at Brand Hatch, RWL Racing made their way back to Snetterton for a 2 day event that was originally supposed to a 24 hour race. Unfortunately the 24 hour had been cancelled at the last minute leaving a number of teams who had invested in the event and the equipment to compete rather fed up. Neil, had made a number of phone calls to suppliers and managed to send equipment back and negotiate refunds. It did leave us with a rather embarrassing discussion with RWL Print, our sponsors, but Scotty agreed with them that we'd keep the sponsorship cash but that we'd pay for the entertainment and accommodation for the corporate guests. So all systems go then.

To cut a long story short the bike has been re-clothed in sponsors colours. For those that don't know, RWL Print's corporate colour is ... errr... fusia. Yes I did say fusia ... not pink. Oh, and I should mention Ambient Graphics who turned around the graphics overnight - highly recommended for all your graphical needs.

I finished the bike on Wednesday, mailed the photos to the team, and waited with baited breath, expecting a deluge of "Oh my God that's pink", but instead, first impressions were very positive, and I have to say, I have grown rather accustomed to the colour scheme now, and rank myself as a fan.

Fizzy arrived Friday late, and we loaded the van. Temperature had been through the roof earlier in the week, but we discussed the possibility of torrential rain on Saturday (which never materialised), and crashed early as we were expected in Snetterton for 7:30 scruiting, tho8ugh it has to be said we elected to stay in bed a little longer, and aim for around 8:30am. Wish we'd stayed longer, as there was absolutely nothing to do until midday when KRC decided to finally allowed us to scruit, and sign on. Prior to this th Ducati Sporting club had some track time booked. Practice opened at 1pm, and we had 4 20min sessions organised. One untimed, and three timed qualifying sessions, one for each rider.

Neil headed out first followed by myself and then Scotty. All three of us reported horrendous handling, bottoming out the suspension through the bomb hole. We've learned to only change suspension when we've all conflabbed, and it was pretty obvious that we were never going to get the compression damping we needed. Looked like qualifying was going to be interesting. I was actually thinking at this point that the bike was feeling rather scary ... with Snetterton showing up the weakness of the shock far more that at Brands Hatch.

Comm4Less racing were next door, and after a quick discussion they pointed us the way of a rather amusing straight talking Dutch chap who also happened to be at Snetterton with a full Ohlins workshop :o) He took one look at the shock, asked us what was happening, and twiddled a few clicks here and there. He wasn't very happy with the shock, and suggested we get it rebuilt in his van, with him promising that it would make a difference. We decided with the time constraints that we'd run qualifying on the settings he'd dialed in, and we'd take the shock out after that. Qualifying is a relaxed affair, and we are getting quite used to qualifying at the back of the grid any way. No point in binning the bike trying to qualify well, when you've got 8 hours of racing to make up a 100 yard deficit.

We did just that, as the bike was a more of a pogo stick, than a race bike during qualifying, but strangely we managed to qualify 33rd from 35, with UKRM in their customary place one position up the pecking order.

Zweister's mobile unit is cleaner than my kitchen, and his dry sense of humour and straight talking diagnosed a rather sorry looking set of shim stacks.

"Vot eez dis pees ov zhit?", "mi got, all zis vill do is dompen your enthusiasm"

He carefully put it all back together with new parts, using appropriate shim stacks (exiting one was a comedy of errors), turned the bushing the right way round, turned the shim stack retaining washer the right way round also, added a collar that was missing, commented that the spring would be coil bound 5mm before end of full shock travel, and showed why. Replaced oil, replaced large internal circlip, and re-gassed the shock to the right pressure (although it wasn't too far out).

We left 90 quid lighter with Zweisters words echoing in our ear .. "Ven you use zis in the morning you vill theenk I am God" - On bolting the shock in we did notice that the preload already dialed into the spring was a little high, leaving us showing 2 mm of static sag. Something we'd half expected as our Dutch nutter and explained he had to guess the appropriate preload to add at the shock was a bitsa, and he had to make an educated guess. We quickly discussed it with him, and with 27mm sag with me sitting on the bike it was agreed that rather than take the shock out again, we should try it as is, and worry about it further in the morning in untimed practice.

We retired to the barbie ... staying true to our word not to over indulge in beer, but no one said anything about how much meat we could consume :o)

Sunday morning arrived and I felt rather spritely considering I'd just slept in a tent. Neil was already de-camping, and I had to laugh when I saw one of our guests asleep on an airbed in the open air. Matt obviously preferred it al fresco to sharing a tent with Pask (now known as the Thunder God).

A quick slurp of apple juice for brekkie, and we were into the garage looking forward to trying out the new improved bike. The bike was fueled up, and got ready to go. We had a 15 minute untimed practice this morning, and Neil volunteered Scotty and myself to check the suspension. Conscious of the little time we had, I went straight to the task. Scotty had suggested I do 3 laps plus the warm up lap, and we'd change over. I came in after two with the engine spluttering. The temperature gauge was reading low. So we added more tape. I came in again on the next lap, and Scotty was sent out with us warning him to keep an eye on the temperature.

Neil remembered that when the water level drops the bike reads low, so we furiously waved the in board at Scotty, who, with his head down, sailed past. This was not good .. as the bike was obviously running very hot and not cold.

When Scotty came in the bike was venting steam from the overflow ... we now had a bike that handled, that was obvious, but would we have an engine :o( Neil and mark let the bike cool a little and we added water, sure enough the water level had dropped.

We elected Neil to take the start, Scotty to head second and me, hopefully positioned to take the flag. Neil lined up on the grid for the Le Mans style start, sponsors on the wall, and me holding the bike. The next thing I know, while in mid conversation with one of the RWL partners, I hear a "ooooooo" from the crowd. Neil's bladder was obviously feeling the effects of the adrenalin with him having a quick waz on the armco on the far sid of the circuit. He wasn't the only one.

With them finally away after what seemed like an age, I joined Wiz on the pit wall and watched as Neil settled in to low 1:20s, then low 1:19s, then a couple of low 1:18s. Then, on lap 36, at around 50 mins into his session, he went missing. Our hearts dropped as we waited, and waited, and waited. We dispatched peeps to all corners of the globe in search for the missing rider and bike. He came from the back of garage eventually, and a quick glance over the bike as he rode in suggested that it hadn't been a crash.

Scotty went out, while Neil , Fizzy and I had conflab. It transpires we only lost about 10 mins, but it seemed longer! We decided that we'd forgotten to top up the tank after morning practice, and that we'd run out of fuel at the 50 min mark. It seemed to make sense. These things happen, but Fizzy seemed a little pissed as he blamed himself for the fueling error.

I went to the pit wall, and chatted with Wiz and Emma (Mark's wife) in between the scream of bike hammering past the pit lane. Scotty was doing 1:21s consistently, and Wiz disappeared for a waz and a fag, and I took over duties for a few laps. Scotty lit a candle under his ass and suddenly started rattling low 1:19s - he obviously found some time and I was just thinking how the new set up must be giving him some confidence when Wiz came back. 45 minutes into Scotty's session, he went missing. The same thing had happened again. He'd run on at the esses when the engine died as he braked. he arrived back at the pits with a spluttering bike, and shouted "fuel" We fueled up to the brim, and changed the rear tyre. Looking at the timing sheets today, we only lost 7 mins to that venture. But we looked like we were going to have a 40 min pit strategy. At this point we thought it might be the tank air locking as the tank we'd had sprayed up did not have the external vent fitted like on the old tank. I decided that if I had the same problem, I'd pull off at the Esses and try opening the tank and closing again to see if it helped.

I settled down in to low 1:17s with the occasional foray into the 16s. On about my 10th lap the bike died under braking into the Esses. I stopped opened the cap and continued, a lap later my pit board showed a 1:26. Bloody Hell I didn't loose much time to that venture really!

At the 30 min mark, the bike died again. This time after opening the tank, I pitted, and the gang set to drilling the breather hole bigger when we discovered some fuel remaining. They topped me up and sent me straight back out for another 30 mins or so. I watched the board and was pleased to see regular 1:16s.

To cut a long story short, we ended up helping the fuel last a little longer, but discovered that the new tank was smaller, and with the gearing we were running we were using more fuel as it was placing us perfectly in the power to exit all of the main drive points. We had enough fuel we worked out for a 50 minute session at the most.

Neil and Scotty completed their 50 min sessions with perfect consistency. Neil doing his high 1:18s low 1:19s and Scotty only a second slower. Fuel stops were precision engineered, and the tyre change for my next session was beautifully executed. I seem to have had the luck with the new tyres this weekend ;o) Once again I pushed hard and found regular 1:16 and 1:17s shown on my board, and pitted a little early because the fuel spluttering returned earlier than the expected 50 mins. Running the bike harder was having a detrimental effect on the consumption, and I told Wiz I'd run a second slower for the final session to make sure I could keep to our new schedule.

In my last session, I did just that. Short shifting early where I could, being a little less forceful out of Corams, and I settled in a 1:17-1:18 rythmn. The front was complaining a little, it was 7 hour old now, and I was brought in on schedule for the first time that day. Neil jumped on as I warned him about the front. Our last stop meant Neil had exactly 50 mins to ride. Looking at the timing sheets, it transpired that the 50 mins came to pass on the penultimate lap, and in an amazing show of careful riding and judicious throttle use, he nursed her home with the bike spluttering and farting over the line to take the flag. We met him in parc ferme and he elected to remain seated on the bike - in some pain. "Thank God it wasn't a 24 hour race" he winced holding an obviously painful wrist. We helped him forget all about the aches as Wiz arrived with an armful of beer which he passed around the team.

So there you have it 3 finishes in three races, and a 20th place to boot. Not bad at all. There's so much I've missed out from the report ... here's a few postscripts

• Thanks to UKRM for the loaner front stand and to Adie for bringing the one I forgot to the circuit on Saturday
• Thanks to Emma (Mrs Mark) and Toni (Soon to be Mrs Wiz) for their stirling support on time keeping and food runs.
• ISTR Scotty having a coming to on the track, but didn't get the details. Though the rubber left on the exhaust suggests it was a good one.
• The stupid efforts to overheat the engine in the practice session leavses me in awe of the tsrength of the motor.
• Thanks to Cherie for those 'wonder hands' - that really did help! (Ed: A massage stupid - what were you thinking?)
• Neil and Champ (UKRM) admitting to talking to the bike - and I thought I was the only one who thinks of the bike as a memeber of the team, with her own character. "Her"? - well of course she's a she!
• A hooooge round of applause has to o to Team Coy-Otei who killed a gearbox in their bike inb practice, used a replacement R6 for the race, killed it's engine, replaced it entirely, and managed to finsh the rcae. Amazing guts!

As always, thanks to everyone, especially to our team for getting stuck in and bashing our heads together to solve the fueling issue on top of all your normal efforts. We'll have the bigger tank sprayed up for the next round so that we can run our 1 hour strategy. Commiserations to UKRM who went out to a burst radiator and a boiled engine. I do hope it doesn't prevent you from entering Pembrey. Oh ... and thanks to RWL Print, I hope you enjoyed your day at the races.