MRO Championship Round 4 - Snetterton 22 April 2001

Pre-Meeting 
During the race at Oulton Park in Round 3 I knew there had been some detonation as a finely tuned ear can hear very fine pinking when this occurs. It was mainly on the needle at partial throttle, rather than on the main jet (ie. between 25% and 75% of throttle opening).
A quick strip down confirmed my fears. The rear cylinder looked rich and the front piston was very detonated. Thanks to the bronze anti-detonation rings the head and cylinder were perfect, but the piston was junk. This would explain why the lap times were getting slower and slower towards the end of the race as detonation costs power. I am just glad I made it to the line.

The second thing that came to mind (Doh!) was the fact that I had put old rings in to help the pistons bed in, but forgot to change them for new rings after practice so they had already completed two practice days and two race days......Ooooppps. It's not surprising the bike felt flat and many bikes appeared much faster than mine at Oulton. It was basically my fault for not replacing them. On unleaded fuel the rings appear to wear quicker than if we were running avgas, so you must replace them as often as your wallet will allow. Top BSB teams will replace them for ever session on the bike as they are that crucial to having a crisp power delivery and only cost 20/pair.

I also have a quick apology to make. In four years of writing these Race Reports I received a few e-mails last week in connection with the original Oulton Park report. I would just like to say that I wrote the report as fast as I could as we were out again in a week and where I normally read them a few times over before sending them to the server, I confess I just sent it there without checking and as a result there were some sentences which could have been worded better and could be read very differently than what I intended to convey. I try to write some humour into these reports, but the last one went a little pair shaped and if anyone out there was offended, please accept my sincere apologies as it's certainly not my style to rubbish others. We are all in this sport together and are doing it because we love it.

On with the business.

Due to lack of finances we decided not to arrive at Snetterton until Saturday afternoon and miss the practice day on Friday. I knew this would cost me as far as track time was concerned, but I would rather practice at a circuit I enjoy and Snetterton has never been favourite due to the fact that fast bikes will have an advantage down the long straights which is very hard to make up through the few twisty bits this circuit has to offer.

When we arrived (Steve and I in the van and Penny in the back up vehicle - VW Polo) at around 3.30pm I was amazed at how many riders were there competing in the BEMSEE club races held on Saturday. The paddock was so full that it overflowed down the approach road. It just goes to show how successful the BEMSEE club has become over the last four years.

Penny got the gas on and cooked a fantastic breakfast which set us up for the afternoon.

We later tried to park up, but were suddenly confronted with a dead end. This was a horrible feeling as there was no way I would reverse the van and caravan without taking half a dozen bikes and awnings with me. 

One chap said, "Don't you just hate it when that happens." I felt very embarrassed, however Steve saved the day by managing to negotiate the Emergency Service access to be opened which allowed us safe passage to the outer paddock. We parked up here and went to watch the racing and say hello to a few old friends.

I was especially interested in the 250GP races as Laurence Hopper, Jeremy Goodall, Frank Swain plus a few more MRO riders had entered the club races for practice. These turned out to be real blinders and both races were pretty hot at the front between Laurence and Jeremy. Laurence managed to take both wins, but they were good races to watch. I felt a little worried that these guys would now have some serious dry race miles under their belts (at race pace) for tomorrow and I would be a severe disadvantage before the first session even started.

Saturday Free Practice - 10 Minutes
I now had new pistons and rings to run in and took the first laps very steady to give them a chance of bedding in. It was amazing how crisp the motor felt compared with Oulton Park.

After four laps I started to raise the pace, but I struggled to find my old BSB braking points, peel in points etc and I felt very rusty. A few looks at my lap timer confirmed I was way off the pace and the main contenders were annihilating me in a big fashion. It was time to get out the humble pie and take a few bites.

The session ended fairly quickly and I waltzed back to the awning seriously questioning my chances of getting a good result here. Was the wind really that strong that the bike could not get into 6th?

The bike was stripped and we decided to jet up both cylinders as there were some tiny pin pricks on the pistons which was signs of very minor detonation. Better to be safe than sorry. Although the weather appeared bright the temperature was still only 7 degrees in the shade.

 Saturday Qualifying - 20 Minutes
By now I was full up and feeling bloated of humble pie (no, I don't always look like that) and started the desert of my hat with some helpings of embarrassed cheeks thrown in.

This meeting was almost like a BSB meeting with Mike Hertzberg, Stephen Thompson, Kenny Tibble joining in the party, so competition was tough. It was great to be reunited with some of the BSB boys as they are great friends and rivals, especially Stephen who is now looking like a 'dead ringer' for Ronan  Keating with the new hair style. Very nice.

As I am on 'scrooge' mode I decided to turn the rear tyre round and use it again for qualifying. Snetterton appears to be very mild on tyres, especially the left hand side which never gets any chance to get heat in it and exiting Russells onto the start/finish straight claimed many a scalp who gave the throttle just one twist too far and experienced the highside. Owwch! 

The more laps I completed the faster I was getting, however I never used 6th gear once. Although the wind was very strong along Revett Straight (the one you can read a book from cover to cover before having to get on the brakes) I just could not get the bike to get near pulling 6th.

As I circulated, every man and his dog were out dragging me down this section. Not just the fast boys, but the entire field. As we have so little time I had to stay out and just try as hard as I could to make time up in the corners and on the brakes.

I tried so hard on one lap to exit Sear's as fast as possible the front was starting to slide and I drifted onto the concrete edge of the circuit. With the throttle now nailed hard to keep the speed up (essential for a fast lap) I rejoined the circuit only to experience a huge tank slapper as the surface changed levels like a curb stone. Getting this under control was difficult (more luck than judgement) and in the leg waving panic I slapped the quickshifter with my foot and um.........broke it.........Ooooppps!

I now had to try and get my head back into the old throttle off to change up type of gear change and this was costing me valuable tenths.

My next lap was a little messy. I went to pass two guys going into Russell's (I think one of them was Neil Ronketti), however as I nipped past the second rider just before turning left onto the start/finish straight I noticed his front wheel looked very upright. I figured he had been startled and I decided to run wide and allow him additional braking room, rather than cause any further distress.

Fortunately the chequered flag was waved and I circulated to do a plug chop. This was fine, until I exited the circuit and realised how far I had to push the beast back to the awning. One marathon walk and seventy blisters later I arrived back at the awning and rushed to get out of my leathers to try and find why the bike was so slow.

We checked everything. Again and again and again, but it all looked fine. The quickshifter was damaged beyond repair which was a disaster as far as the 18 lap race was concerned as these little devices save you valuable thought time as it's one less thing to concentrate on and free's up your time to concentrate on braking etc..

After much head scratching (that's not a thumb print on my head by the way) I decided to tour the garages and ask what final gearing everyone else was running and judge if I was running the correct set-up. Bearing in mind this was selected after checking last years selection detailed by my nearest and dearest and I did a 1:12.2s lap then, so it must be pretty good.

Imagine my surprise to find we had geared the bike with a 16 tooth front and 37 tooth rear (240km/hr), rather than last years 15 front and 37 rear (225km/hr). That's a huge difference (no wonder it would not get near 6th gear) and I was not the happiest bunny in the meadow. I must say thank's to Penny and Steve for not pouring a bucket of cold water over me during the 10 minutes of verbal stress relief I undertook in the awning while changing the sprockets.

Once the blue mist had disappeared we set about getting the bike back together. Incidentally we chose a 15 front and 36 rear (232km/hr) for the race as I figured it would be the best compromise of the two evils, bearing in mind we were not at all sure what the correct gearing ought to be considering the wind factor etc. Bit of a mess on the organisation front really.

Once all was done I went on walkabout to get the times etc and prepare myself for bad news. Wow! Not as bad as I thought, 13th out of 42 with a time of 1:15.08s, although that was 2.71s off pole set by Lee Dickenson and way off my personal best.

A couple of riders had an early bath as there were more qualifiers than places on the grid.

During the break between qualifying and race Penny appeared from nowhere (always wondered how she did that) asking me to rush round to Laurence Hopper's truck as soon as I could. This I did and he frantically pointed with furrowed brow at the water pump seal. "You had one go at Oulton Park, but it's been so long since I had to replace one I can't remember how to do it."

Bearing in mind Loz qualified 4th and was riding very well this weekend I looked at the problem and an evil Devil popped up on my shoulder saying, "Tell him you know nothing!". Then the angel (get the picture?) popped up on the opposite shoulder and said, "Don't be bad, he helped you at Oulton with the vital water pump seal that got you out in the race."

Being a true sportsman and a mate of Loz's I pushed up my sleeves, removed the old seal and put the new seal in for him. "There you go mate, good as new".

While we are talking about being nice, the most true sporting gesture I heard of during the race weekend was that of Roger Ford. His ankle had been playing up from a previous crash and as Rick Ballerini's TZ250 had some problems, Rog offered his 2000TZ for Rick to ride as he was in a Championship point scoring position. That's true sportsmanship as lending a race bike to someone else is a very tricky situation as you may never see it in one piece again, not to mention the cost of running etc.

Race - 18 Laps - 1.952 miles/lap
This was a daunting proposition. I knew there was no way my bike would match the speed of Dickenson, Hertzberg, Tibble and Thompsons TZ's, but I was hoping for a top 5 finish just to secure some reasonable points and try to remain at least 2nd in the Championship.

We formed up on the grid and patiently waited for the warm-up lap to start. This went without drama and I think everyone made it round safely.

The red flag was waved and our attention was directed towards the lights. Red......Red......Green!

I had a reasonable start for me and entering Riches I had made up one or two places. I managed to pass another rider on lap 1 entering the neutorious 'Bomb Hole' and I almost felt a bit of contact at the rear half way through this section. A quick look behind confirmed it was my imagination.

Around Coram Curve we passed Stephen Thompson who was suffering from mechanical gremlins. Then as we came around Russells for the first time I could see Loz had gone down from being highsided exiting Russells, but he looked to be OK.

I was now chasing Lea Gorlay on the Aprilia. This took a few laps to reel in and I had to be patient along the straights as the Aprilia's are pretty quick when they get going. Then, a TZ (It was either Lee, Kenny of Mike - It shot past with such speed that I was startled and did not see the number) flew past both of us along Revett Straight as if we were standing still and even powered past a rider five bike lengths in front of Gorlay. Who say's that these TZ's are not fast? 

I could see the leaders slowly pulling away and needed to get past Lea. I knew my corner speed around Coram Curve was pretty good and decided to just hold the throttle flat going in. Just as Lea was turning in I shot underneath him and just kept it nailed to Russells with a little rear end drift before hitting the brakes.

Then I had to reel in Ricardo Ballerini on Roger's TZ. This took a few laps but again I managed to get past at Coram. We had agreed (base upon our qualifying positions) that if we get stuck together in the race we would help each other to go fast as two bikes together go faster than one. I expected him to stay in my wake, but a quick look around after a few laps confirmed I was lapping faster and there was a pretty big gap. 

I was now in 5th spot and trying to reel in the front group. I admit this was like the bridge too far as the gap was pretty big and unless something major happened up front this is where I was going to finish.

After a few laps I was awoken by a blue bike just showing the front wheel going into The Esses. I was not too sure who it was but it was the wake up call I needed and I tried to get away.

After a few laps Andrew Sawford blasted past me on the Revett Straight on his 2001 Honda. Oh bugger I thought. I desperately tried to get him back but the gap appeared to remain constant and I could not close it.

Every lap to the flag he would take a quick look back on Revett Straight to see where I was. All I thought was, "Yep, still here and trying really hard to get back on terms."

The flag came out and I ended up 6th. Andrew was delighted with his finish, punching the air as if he had won it. Not sure if it was because he was 5th or because he kicked my arse, but either way I pulled alongside and congratulated him. When we parked up in Park Ferme we had a good laugh about the race with Andrew and Rick.

Lee Dickenson took the win, followed home by Mike Hertzberg and Jeremy Goodall. Shaun Brown was 4th which was a surprise as he had been doing the Aprilia 250 Challenge in BSB for a few years and had not been seen out on a 250GP bike for some time, so he must have been pleased with that.

I am still 2nd in the Championship behind Lee Dickenson, but Jeremy Goodall is snapping at my heels just two points behind in 3rd (Gulp!). The 4th place man, Derek Welch is on 38 points which is a comfortable gap.

We stayed on to watch my mate, Darren Jones in the Aprilia RSV Mille Challenge which was quite good from the pit wall as I have never experienced the speed and noise before so close to the action. He managed to get a well earnt 8th place at the flag.

All in all I was pleased to come away with some good points and thoroughly enjoyed the day. We are out on 19th May at Castle Coombe which is a circuit I have not even seen in a magazine so it ought to be an eventful day. Apparently there are no test days between now and the race day which makes life even more awkward as I will have to learn the circuit very quickly and get the gearing right.

Don't miss it!