Brands Indy 10th July 2004

Prologue

Andrew had family commitments so he couldn’t make this round. We had never really intended to do the French round that was after Brands, namely ‘Croix’ and the round after that was Cadwell. However Cadders was in August, late August at that, bearing in mind that Brands GP was back at the end of May, that is pretty much 3 months between rounds. That was far to long for me (Nick), so I decided to attend this Brands round alone. Hired a van locally and away I went. Luckily my spanner man Matt was still available to help and my friend from work ‘Andy’ was coming too, although not really into racing, he is really into his photography and fancied coming along and taking some shots.

Travelled up with Andy the camera man on the Friday to try and get organised and set up with some paddock space. We made good time and set up camp in the paddock where Andrew (Miers) and I usually do and got the bike scrutineered. Just wandering back to the scuteneering bay to get my ‘gear’ scrutinised too, and I bumped into our racing mate Paul Mullen, who was lined up getting his bike scruteneered. He said to me that he had a pit garage and that there was room for me too if I fancied. Having a garage is much better as you are much nearer the collecting area and having a hard roof over you head has to always be better than a tent/awning. So I took Paul up on his offer and Andy and I moved camp.

Having a proper pit garage, I felt like a proper racer now :o)

Morning practice

Well last time I was on the racebike was 6 weeks prior. With having to hire a van and everything, I was kinda time (well lets face it money) limited so hadn’t gone for the official Friday practice. Having nearly crashed at Brands GP, from what presumably was down to lack of ground clearance (exhaust scraping the floor, lifting the rear slightly) and consulting with spanner man Matt, I had decided to do something about this, namely raising the bike. This is done by dropping the forks thought the yokes, lifting the front and changing the rear shock length via the special adjusting nuts. I know it doesn’t sound a lot, but we made quite a drastic change of about 10mm.

Went out for practice, I know it had been a while since I had ridden it, but the bike felt like it was a ‘chopper’. Maybe some of this was psychological I don’t know, but the front end just felt all wrong ‘harder’ than usual, and just not ‘tracking’ very well, and the bike just wasn’t ‘turning in’ the same. I just didn’t have any confidence in the front end, which was the strongpoint of my bike I thought. If I don’t have confidence in the front, I am not going to be as quick. That said, I was putting in 53s, which is only about a second off my fastest (recorded) time there and bearing in mind my layoff, was quite pleasing.

When the session ended and I got back to the pits, I explained to Matt that I wasn’t happy and we decided to put the bike back down 5mm as a compromise.

Race 1 Supersport 600 qualifier.

Started 19^th Finished 12^th.

Lined up on the grid for the warmup lap, there was little delay and we set off. Instantly I felt more at home with the bike, more confident in the front.

Got away from the line cleanly and actually made a place or two on the drag to the first corner. I had backed off and on my line for turn one (Paddock hill bend) and then I felt a ‘tap’ from behind, … ahhh … wasn’t really sure why as it was not like I had done anything unpredictable … not good, luckily things didn’t get too out of shape as where every one is so bunched up and jostling for position first turn crashes can be nasty, managed to make the turn without much loss. It did cross my mind if the bloke that nudged me got away with it though, again uncharacteristically held my own into turn two (Druids). Came out of there and hooked up well lining someone up for Graham hill bend, then was greeted with a red flag … ahhh that must have got messy at Paddock I though. Backed off, then up ahead I say 3 bikes go down at Surtees there was no reason for this as it had been red flagged, but obviously somone hadn’t realised and rammed another who had backed off. The upside to this however is that some of the front guys would evidently not make the restart, hence I would presumably inherit places that I would not normally get.

It took a long while to scrape up the carnage, and the tyres would have been cold by now. Luckily they gave us 2 warmup laps, so a reasonable chance to get heat back in the tyres.

Looking back there were about 14 people less on the grid now than were in the program, wither some didn’t make the first start of a great number had gone down on that first lap. Consequently found out there were 3 separate incidents on the opening 4 turns!!

Didn’t get as god a start on the restart, but ok. As the race went on and I got settled in then I started to make my way forward. It was all over far to quickly and I crossed the line in 12^th, not a bad result for SS6.

Fastest lap 52.63, which is pretty close to my personal lap record 52.33. That’s a good start, lets see how the day pans out.

Got back to the pits and told my pit crew that I had been nudged into turn 1 and that it could well have been that bloke that it went horribly wrong for and caused the red flag. A few minuites later and Matt had had a look at my bike and he found a black tyre mark about a foot long on the INSIDE of my exhaust, yes inside, i.e. the blokes front tyre must have been wedged between my can and my rear tyre!! Blime!!

Race 2 Powerbikes.

Start 11^th end 12th

As I had missed the Pembrey round and not had that great a point finishes at the Brands GP rounds, I had slipped back to 15^th form 10^th in the Powerbike championship. I was gridded 11^th however, so evidently some of the top 15 weren’t there.

Got away from the line ok and generally felt I was riding ok, but nothing spectacular. I then spotted one of the blokes who was sharing our pit garage with us about 3 bikes in front. He was on a 04 GSXR1000, so I was out biked and his mate/mechanic had been a bit of a knob mouthing off in the paddock, taking the piddle out of me when matt asked what pressures I wanted to run and I was giving them to the last 0.5 PSI. So I had a point to prove. This would help me dig in deep.

Tracked him own, disposing of the bikes in between, then I got on his tail. Followed him for about 2 or 3 laps until I was in a position to try and make a pass, his bike was quick down the straights, but he wasn’t very quick round the corners and on the brakes. This is when competing in the powerbikes Is really frustrating, I felt I was riding better than him, but I was always playing ‘catch-up’ where he would blast off down the straights, but then he probably has anther 50odd horsepower more than me.

I had closed on him before but just couldn’t get passed, so I decided my best chance was to hang back a bit and carry the speed round Druids, hooking up early and making a block pass into Graham hill as it was only a short straight between the tow and he wouldn’t be able to use his power advantage to much effect. Didn’t get enough of a run on attempt one, so had to bail out, but managed to finally execute a pass into Graham hill on the next lap.

He then came alongside on the power down the next short Cooper straight thinking he might do this I moved slightly left to ‘squeeze’ him off line, it was then a game of chicken on the brakes, but I had the better line. Managed to hold him off, I then rode defensively for the rest of the lap, making sure I made myself as wide as possible. I then dug in and attempted to put some hot laps in now I had a clear road ahead.

There was no challenge for the next couple of laps, so I presumed I had made the break. There was no one in catchable distance in front, so I knocked it back a bit to make sure I’d finish, it wouldn’t be very cool to crash and this bloke to beet me that way.

Got blasted on the last lap by a black GIXER thou, but it wasn’t the same bloke, so I just let it be. My main objective here was to beet that bloke from my garage.

Crossed the line in what was 12^th, I’ve had better, but not a bad result, the most important thing is that I crossed the line in front of Mr GIXER thou and therefore his gobby mate!!! … I made sure that on my return to the pits I shouted loudly to Matt, “Wow mat them pressures were spot on mate” … purposely so that gobby bloke would over hear!!! … hehe, I had beaten his bloke even though I was totally out biked … sweeet!!! ;o)

I had also beaten my personal lap record, with a 51.66 Bonus!!

Race 3 Supersport 600PM final

Start 23^rd, finish 12^th

Even though I had finished 12^th in the AM race, where the two AM ‘qualifying’ grids are merged for the PM, I was gridded 23^rd.

It had rained heavily over lunch, but stopped again, the track was drying fast, so I was going to stick with my drys. The about 10 mins before my race was due to be called, it started drizzling again, it was hard to tell if it would set in or not, so I kinda left it. It continued to drizzle, but it wasn’t enough to go full wets. After some scratching of heads, I decided to go for the wet front, dry rear combo. This is never going to be the best combo, but at least it would mean I could race be it dry or wet (grip from the front being most important).

In the collecting area it seems as if 2/3 of people had gone for full wet front and rear, the rest full dry. Humm.

On the warmup lap it was evident that full drys would have been the tyres of choice as it was in actual fact predominately dry now. But I had to run with what I had, I was glad I still had the dry rear in as the wet rear would have overheated in no time in these conditions.

Didn’t really get away from the line particularly hot as I didn’t want to spin the back up in the still damp bits. Got totally mugged into turn 1 and forced onto the damp rear, with my dry rear, this wasn’t good, so I couldn’t hook up, thus getting mugged even more, putting me off line again, Long story short after the first 2 turns I was in last place.

Obviously things were a little calmer here :o/ and I managed to get momentum again. Although a bit of a disaster, I was in the knowledge that anyone on full wets would be in trouble in the latter stages of the race. It was damage limitation now.

To my pleasure as the race indeed progressed, I was making my way forward aided by the fact that some whom were on full wets retired. Others just couldn’t get the power down as the rears would have been like liquorice by now, so I was blasting them out of the turns. I couldn’t go at full chat myself into the turns as my front wet was going to be struggling too, but I was still moving forward all the time. In the last 2-3 laps my front was deffo a bit worse for wear as I could feel it pushing slightly round paddock, druids and Clearways. But I felt I could just knock it off a bit and make the finish. Due to al the retirements and my having the dry rear I managed to cross the line in 12^th, which bearing in mind I had been right at the back after the first two laps (~38 competitors) was pretty good.

Race 4 Powerbike PM race.

Gridded 12 here, fully dry conditions now, so had the dry front in again. It was a little weird on the opening laps as the front felt totally different to the overheated wet I had just ridden on and it took a little bit to recalibrate for this and that I could again go full chat into corners.

Unfortunately you can’t get away with not being fully on it front he start, that said I soon got into the swing of things again and got my head down. Ended up not really having anyone directly to chase and just kinda held my own. Felt I was doing ok, realising I was probably in the top 12 or so. Passed the last lap flag thinking that I would finish comfortably there, just to get mugged by two people on the last lap!!! Doh, but there you go. The day was over and I was still in one piece.

Summery

A pretty good days racing all in all , definitely varied!! It is now just the long long wait until Cadders on the 21^st of August!!! Hopefully Andrew and I can fit a trackday or something between now and then (another 6 weeks!!!).

Roll on Cadders!!!