Castle Racing's 2001Season Round Up

The 2001 season was a great success for the Castle Racing team. After an exciting debut in 2000 using a standard Yamaha FZR 400 to take on the might of the New Era and ACU Star championships, in which team rider Mark Castle, finished 14th and 3rd consecutively, as well as attaining his National ACU licence in only his first full season of racing. Mark and the team set their sights on the 2001 Manx Grand Prix, and what better machine to use than Martin Sharpe's 1999 double Manx G P winning Honda RVF 400.

2001 began as a massive learning curve for the team, the sudden realization that on his new race bike Mark has what it takes to run with the top riders of the New Era and Darley moor club championships came as a very welcome surprise. As well as preparation for the Manx G P, the main goal at the start of the season was to finish in the top five of the New Era championship, and by the 7th round at Pembrey in May, Mark was in 4th place overall. Darley Moor was simply a local playground with no designs on the championship because the team could not attend every round. Castle Racing also attended the Auto 66 club meeting at Carnaby two near Hull, where Mark had two race wins and a second place at the first ever race meeting to be held at the circuit, as well as his first ever prize money cheque, to the sum of £40.

At the end of June, with the Manx Grand Prix getting ever closer even with the impending cancellation, the ever optimistic team sent the race bike back to RLR Motorsports for a pre-Manx engine rebuild and a number of improvements including a forced air box instead of open carbs and a Fox rear shock to replace the standard road shock. By mid July the Manx Grand Prix had been officially cancelled, so sights were set on the Darley moor championship where the shake down run of the newly modified bike took place. This is where we learned that changing to many things at once is a major mistake. The bike was now flying and even faster than before, but the rear shock was far to hard for Mark's 9 stone wet through frame and combined with modifications to the front forks and a pair of old tyres made the bike almost unrideable.

So onto New Era at Mallory in August and a new set of tyres did not solve the handling problem, causing Castle racing to have their worst race meeting of the year so far on the 400. However on a borrowed Supermono Mark had two race wins in the singles class even though he had never ridden the bike before.
The standard shock was put back on the 400 and some phone calls to Fox Shocks were made. Off to Darley again and by now the engine timing pickup was disintegrating and it took the whole day to locate the problem, but it was not until it was taken off at home that we realized that it had moved and the timing was over 10 degrees out. It is amazing how the bike ran at all.

Racing at Darley Moor in September with the bike back in perfect form, the meeting was going brilliantly until a 'racing incident' with another rider who ran wide at the hairpin and cut across in front of Mark who was on the racing line, causing him to highside. The bike and rider were flung into the air to land face down on the tarmac. To top it all off the collection van was full and Mark had to push the bike back to the paddock to find that his next race was already waiting on the grid ! The bike was put back together and Mark's wrist was bandaged up (by the championship leader - "Thanks Steve"). Determined to regain some points Mark came from 27th on the grid to finish 3rd. An evening in casualty made up for by a glimmer of hope for the championship win.

With Mark still pretty banged up from the previous weekend the team went to the New Era meeting at Oulton park, armed with a new rear spring from Fox that was suited to mark's weight, which in practice proved to be perfect. It turned out to be a fantastic meeting at Castle Racing's local circuit including a 2nd and a 1st on the Supermono machine.

The long drive to New Era's Snetterton meeting in October proved to be a wasted journey. In the 2nd 400 race on Saturday Mark lost the front end on a wet track and fell heavily. Another bike hit the RVF which punctured the sump, blew both fork seals, ripped off the front brake master cylinder, the new kit radiator, and most of the fairings, as well as the usual consumables such as foot pegs, rear sets, handle grips etc.  Not the result the team wanted, so it was an early trip home and many late nights getting the bike ready for the following weekend at Cadwell Park.

The race bike was finished in time and a fantastic meeting secured 7th overall in the New Era Formula 400 championship, but there is potential for so much more.

The final round at Darley Moor and Mark was the only rider who had a chance to score equal points with the championship leader. In persistent rain and still a little wary from Snetterton, Mark finished 2nd in the 400 race securing the fastest lap, but the meeting was cancelled because of the terrible weather, so Mark never had his last chance to fight for the top spot and had to settle for 2nd overall in the Darley Moor Formula 400 Championship.