ACU Supermono Championship:
Rounds 1 & 2 - Brands Hatch Indy Circuit - April 2005

In the days leading up to the long drive down to Brands I was very busy finishing all sorts of jobs…From servicing, cleaning and loading the Van & Caravan to going over the Race bike with a fine tooth comb after the run out at Oulton, which included making and fitting a new gear change lever and linkages and machining new foot rests.

I decided to take the Friday off work to travel down leisurely and get a good spot in the paddock. Having never competed at brands before I didn’t want to travel all evening after a day at work and still be setting up awnings etc at 1 in the morning. Charlene and I finally left at 11am having loaded in the last few things, I’d made arrangements with Andy March from S&S Tuning to collect some slick tyres on my way up the A50 to the M1. Andy kindly drove down from Nottingham to meet me at the motorway junction to pass on the new tyres. We eventually got to the track at just after 3:30pm having been fleeced at the Dartford crossing for towing a caravan…I’m sure it cost me more than for a truck!!! Fortunately that was also our only queue of the whole journey, but it still took over 4 ½ hours to do 200 Miles!

I parked up near to where the Supermono marquee was to be set up and abandoned the caravan!! We decided to go and find somewhere to eat before putting the awning on the van, which would mean we had no transport. After tea I began unloading and setting everything up, including the fairly big awning which goes on the van and is usually a 2 man job, I just got the last piece in as Brian Wyles arrived at about 9:30 pm. I did get the bike scruitineered though which meant I wouldn’t have to queue up in the morning!! It was great to see everyone again and have a look at the new bikes and the changes others had made since last season.

I signed on Saturday morning and decided to stay on the old slicks that were fitted to the bike from Oulton, I didn’t want to scrub in new tyres when the track was so cold, even though it was dry. I took it steady in the first practice whilst learning the circuit, but the small twisty track is a far cry from Oulton’s long sweeping circuit and I struggled getting used to the place.

I fitted the new slicks before qualifying, but didn’t have time to get them fully warm before going out so I was cautious to ensure they were up to temperature before really pushing them. Consequently my qualifying time was awful!!! 26th place on the grid, with a best lap of 59.09 seconds.
Even though I wasn’t going all that quick, the brand new slicks had become shredded on the right hand side, which I couldn’t understand because the suspension had worked brilliantly at Oulton the weekend before where in hot conditions the old Dunlop tyres come in perfectly clean. I made some adjustments to the suspension.

I took up my 26th place on the grid for the race. I made a few places off the start but soon got trapped in traffic and stuck behind a bike with so much straight line speed it was difficult to get past, I’d pull a fantastic passing manoeuvre out of the bag only to be overtaken down the main straight!!! It was frustrating because all the while the pack was getting further away, eventually I got passed and he never came by which was a great relief!!! My lap times immediately dropped and I put my fastest lap of the race in 2 laps before the end, which was 55.98 seconds. Over 3 seconds quicker than my qualifying time, I still wasn’t happy finishing 16th though!!!

The tyres were even worse than before but it occurred that it might be down to cold tear…The tyres were up to working temperature but the track was very cold causing the tyre to fight for grip which tears at the rubber. No amount of suspension fiddling would rectify the problem, so I turned the tyre round on the rim so the right hand side was back to good rubber.

I decided to change the rear sprocket before Sundays race because I wasn’t using all of top gear and some extra drive out of the corners would be a big help. I fitted a smaller rear sprocket. Also the Temperature gauge had packed up so I made a bracket to mount a new one.

On Sunday morning we had a warm up session in the morning but no qualifying so my awful position on the grid had to stand for the race!!!
The track temperature had improved from the previous day and the tyres had cleaned up lovely during the warm up session.

In the race I couldn’t believe it but I got stuck behind the same bike as in the previous race. Once again I did my fastest lap just before the end of the race whilst chasing someone down just before the flag, I knocked over another second off my time to 54.87 seconds, but I still finished in 16th place. Hopefully next time I go back to Brands I’ll shape a bit better having ridden the track now it won’t be so unfamiliar when I go back.