| Author | Message | ||
     Trojan |
Team Adrenalin-Moto (Trojan-Horse) Race Report Brands Hatch 29/30 July 2006 Round 6 of the BEMSEE/MRO UK Thunderbike championship returned to the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, South East England over the weekend of 29 & 30 July 2006. After weeks of constant sunshine and record temperatures in the South of England, the forecast for this weekend was actually for rain! As it turned out, apart from a brief shower on Saturday night, the weather made fools of us again and the skies stayed blue all weekend with temperatures again into the high 20's Celsius (80's F). Having missed the last round at Cadwell Park due to Phil's pre-booked commitments, we'd had plenty of time to fiddle with the bike and had made a few changes since Snetterton. The most major change was to send the Rapidbike ECU and wiring loom back to Rapidbike in Italy for some upgraded software and a new loom in an effort to solve the strange misfire and cutting out that we had suffered at the last round. We had also fitted slightly smaller diameter exhaust header pipes from Hot Performance that we thought would suit our engine characteristics better. Ronnie from suspension company AST was also coming to the event with a group of Dutch Buell riders, and was bringing a new and updated rear shock for us to run. This featured the reservoir mounted next to the lower shock mount, with the shock effectively turned upside down. This would enable the reservoir to run in the airflow rather than under the seat exposed to the extreme heat of the engine. Our previous visit to the Brands Hatch circuit had been fraught with problems. With just one race finish from four starts, and that in a lowly 16th place and out of the points, we were hoping for an improved run of luck this time out. First thing Saturday morning we had the new shock fitted and set up with the same settings as the previous version, and also had a new set of Pirelli Diablo Superbike Slicks fitted in time for first practice, so Phil was fired up and ready to go  Practice went well, with Phil setting the second fastest time at 54.212 seconds, and although almost 2 seconds behind championship leader Rob Wittey on 52.268, it was nearly a second quicker than our best time of the weekend from the earlier Brands Hatch round. A couple of the series front runners missed first practice on Saturday due to the change in running order for this meeting, which meant that although we practiced early, our first race wouldn't be until after the lunch break. We were however pretty happy with the bike for first practice and the only problem seemed to be a lack of grip, particularly at the front end. This caused the bike to understeer quite badly at the steep Paddock Hill Bend and was pushing Phil wide mid corner. We felt that with a few adjustments to the new shock we could improve things though so were pretty happy for the first race. The good news was that the bike no longer misfires, although for some reason had developed a small flat spot just off idle. Race 1 (Saturday) Our first race was eventually called at 3.30pm after a day punctuated by race stoppages due to numerous crashes and oil on the track, so it was a relief to actually get out there at last. The wait had seemed even longer because, for a change, we had no repairs to keep us busy all day. Grid positions for race one were calculated from championship positions, and although we had missed the last round we had kept our 12th position in the series, so that's where we started on the grid. As the lights went out Phil got what for him was a mediocre start when the front wheel lofted, and entered the scarily steep Paddock Hill Bend in heavy traffic and around 15th spot. By the time they had reached the bottom of the hill though Phil had overtaken a couple of bikes to put himself back into 13th place going into Druids hairpin. By the end of the lap he had managed to peg back another rider and crossed the line in 11th place, hot on the heels of the Alto Laverda of Peter Whitelegg. Into Paddock Bend for the second time Phil took the inside line and passed the Laverda, leaving Whitelegg no room to get back at him up the hill into Druids. For the next 3 laps he got his head down and started to reel in the three riders ahead of him, until on lap 5 he was able to pass Adam Palfreman's SV650 on the run into Druids. The Buell looked quicker than the two bikes ahead of him, particularly up through Paddock and into Druids every lap, and it looked like Phil would be able to pick off at least one of the riders in front for 6th at the flag. As they went into the final lap Phil was poised in 7th position right behind the SV650 of Ian Mayhew and lining him up for a pass into Druids. As Phil took the inside line and looked set to out brake and pass Mayhew, Neil Bustin on his ZXR400 came from around 15 yards behind in a moment of extreme brain fade and attempted what can only be described as a kamikaze manoeuvre to try and get up the inside of both riders. Even from the grandstand at Paddock Hill it was obvious that he had left his braking far too late, and the result was that he T-boned the Buell as it turned into Druids hairpin. Phil managed to regain control of the bike, but had lost momentum, which allowed Gary Budgen to sneak through and grab 7th place. Bustin meanwhile managed to wobble around the corner only to hit another rider at the very next turn and crash into the bales himself. At the chequered flag it was 8th place for us and a best lap of 53.64. After the race Phil was left with bruising to his lower back and the bike had a new red stripe and a cracked tail unit to show for the incident. Phil was reasonably happy with the bike, but lack of grip still seemed to be a big problem that we needed to try and dial out somehow. The rear tyre was wearing quite badly on one side, almost as if it was 'cold tearing', so between races we decided to lower the tyre pressure slightly to try and get a bit more heat into the tyres. We also dialled in a little more rebound damping to try and help the tyres out a bit. Race 2 (Saturday) By the time race 2 came around it was 6.40pm and almost time to bolt on some headlights! With an 8th place finish in race one Phil was now on the second row of the grid for the start of race 2. A good start saw him hold onto his position into the first corner, and Phil then got into a tight scrabble for the 6th to 9th place battle for the first 4 laps. On lap 5 he dived inside the fast starting Eugene Chartrell's CBR600 at Paddock Hill to take 6th spot, and then began a scrap with Ian Mayhew that saw them swap positions 2 or 3 times over the next 3 laps. By lap 7 though the lack of grip was starting to really show, with Phil having a couple of lurid slides at the bottom of the circuit and into Clearways onto the fast start/finish straight. This allowed Mayhew to edge ahead and at the flag Phil crossed the line in a great 7th place and with yet another improved lap time of 53.09. As the first day ended we just had a few issues to deal with and some head scratching to do over the handling problems. Not something that we have had any problems with so far this season and very frustrating. However a look at the belly pan of the bike did suggest that maybe the rear shock was still a little soft, as the right side was heavily scraped (or maybe Phil is just getting more confident on the bike). Sunday Morning Warm Up Over night, and with the help of Ronnie Kreeft from AST suspension, we made some adjustments to the rear shock that we hoped would improve the grip levels and also get rid of the understeer to help the bike turn in better. We had also noticed that the engine was running slightly erratically and still had a big flat spot at the bottom of the rev range, so decided to get the TPS and AFV reset just in case. Luckily Maz from Team Begger had his scantool with him and was kind enough to do the reset for us first thing Sunday morning, despite nursing a massive hangover from Saturday night excesses J We somehow managed to miss our warm up session due to a last minute adjustment to the clutch, so Phil sneaked out with the Forza Extreme class runners and their R1 Yamahas and GSXR 1000 Suzukis etc. It was interesting to see just how fast these bikes were in a straight line compared to our Buell, but also just how slow they were through the turns in comparison. After the 10 minute session Phil came in and was still not happy with the grip levels, but though it may have been a little better than Saturday. Tyre wear looked a little better but still not anywhere near the levels we would normally expect. We had set the idle speed slightly higher during the reset to try and stop the bike cutting out at low revs. Unfortunately this had resulted in the bike 'pushing' into corners on a closed throttle with no engine braking, so we reduced this in time for race one. Race 1 (Sunday) Race one had to be stopped almost as soon as it had started, when Chris Cheverall had a spectacular crash into the gravel trap at the top of Paddock Hill at the start of lap 2. This brought out the red flags and the ambulance. Luckily it appears that Chris was not seriously injured, and after a delay of 20 minutes the race was re-started with a shortened distance of 7 laps. It was clear right from the start of race one that the handling of the bike just wasn't right, and that Phil was struggling for grip right from the lights. A couple of big moments during the early laps saw Phil drop from the 7th place grid position down to 10th in the early laps. By lap 2 we were treated to the sight of our Buell battling with the Buell S1 of Ronnie Moore for 10th and 11th places, and the sound of the two big cc twins was stirring to say the least. On lap 3 Ronnie made the pass at Paddock Hill and made it stick up the run to Druids hairpin. By lap 4 Phil had got back in front and, determined not to be beaten by another Buell, got his head down to open up enough of a gap to stay in front to the flag. 10th place was disappointing but still a good points scoring position, although we knew we had to do something for race 2 to try and improve things. Phil's times had dropped to a best of 53.31 in that race, still miles better than our last visit to the circuit but down on the previous race. We were sure that if we could get the handling and grip levels improved then we would be into the 52 second bracket along with the top 5 runners. Between races we made the decision to re-fit the original rear shock, and to turn the rear tyre on the rim to even out the very unusual wear that we were experiencing. Race 2 (Sunday). Yet again an incident packed day meant that our race didn't line up until around 6.30pm on Sunday, when half of the paddock had already packed up and gone home. On the warm up lap the pole sitter Rob Wittey noticed that there was oil deposited all around the circuit by the previous sidecar race, and when he brought this to the attention of the starter the race had to be delayed by around 20 minutes to allow the marshals to cleanup the track. There had obviously been a major blow up, because the oil was spread pretty much throughout the bottom half of the circuit from Druids right round to Bottom bend and the pit lane. Even with the best efforts of the corner marshals on duty there was still a large amount of concrete dust spread around the circuit when the race started again. As the lights went out everyone took the first lap pretty gingerly, and it was obvious that the circuit was still very slippery with oil still lying under the layer of concrete dust. Phil though was determined to get a good result and on lap one picked up3 places to end the first lap in 7th place. By lap 2 he had picked off the Suzuki SV700 of Sarah Jordan by taking a wide line around the outside of the oil slick at Druids. A lap later he did the same thing to 5th place man Gary Budgen and was closing rapidly on the two riders battling ahead of him for 3rd and 4th place. On lap 4 however a massive front end slide at Druids slowed Phil's pace, and it was only his skill, which stopped the bike ending in the bales. I later spoke to the following rider Peter Whitelegg, who was convinced the Buell was going to crash and had already started to take avoiding action! Another big moment at Surtees bend on the worst of the concrete dust let Sarah Jordan nip back past on lap 5, but Phil hung in there and at the flag finished a very creditable 7th for some more well earned point. Lap times in the last race were much slower by all the riders with even the race winner running at the 53 second mark. Overall it was a very successful weekend for us, with 4 solid points scoring finishes for the first time this season and no mechanical dramas. We now move up to 10th in the series (not bad when we have effectively missed 1 round and failed to score at 2 others). We move on next month to Pembrey in South Wales, a circuit that we have not visited before. Hopefully by then we can sort out the chronic lack of grip that we suffered all weekend at Brands Hatch, and that will enable us to move closer to the leading riders in the championship. Looking at the rear tyre it may have even been a problem with the tyre itself that caused the issues although it is very hard to tell. Special thanks for Brands Hatch go to Ronnie Kreeft of AST suspension for bringing us the new shock and for his assistance with set up. Also to the other members of the Dutch Buell posse who made the journey over to support us, I am sure that we can work on the settings before the next round to do the shock justice. Thanks as always goes to our sponsors, without whom we wouldn't be out there racing at all: Free Spirits, Hal's Harley-Davidson, Hot Performance Exhausts, Reactive Suspension, AST Shock Absorbers, Airow-Safe, Ilmberger Carbon Parts, Nimbus Motorsport and Torco Oil, R&R Customizing, Motogadget, Paint my Ride, Reality Motor Works, Bell Helmets (Fowlers of Bristol), John Warrington Motorcycles (Rapid Bike ECU)   | ||
| 12r |
Nice report Matt, and good to see your bike in this month's PB. You mentioned CBRs, ZXRs and SVs - what else are you racing against or do these bikes make up most of the field ? | ||
| Trojan |
The UK Thunderbike field is much more varied than the US version, even though we use the same rules. The majority are SV Suzukis, both in original 650 guise and big bore 700. We also have a couple of very quick Kawasaki ZXR400's that are the subject of some argument regarding eligibility at present, as well as some Laverda SF750's, Buell S1, Honda CBR600 (steel frame), BMW R1100S and at the latest round a very nice Ducati Paul Smart replica Sport Classic. There was even a guy on an Aprilia 450 Supermoto at the weekend | ||
| Diablobrian |
Great report Matt! Glad to see a weekend go your way with no mechanicals. Keep on flying the Buell flag like you are and there will be more XBs on the track. It's too bad UK Buell doesn't do contingencies the way they do here for thunderbike. | ||
| Glitch |
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| Trojan |
Glitch you have way too much time on your hands Mind if I use that?  | ||
| Firebolteric_ma |
EXCELLENT REPORT MATT!!!!! Nice to see you guys are making head way. also saw your write up in PB! looks like you are getting some good publicity now! sounds like the tracks are pretty tough over there. they must put a toll on the bike and driver with them courses. glad to hear you didn't have ant catastrophic problems. keep up the great work and we cant wait till the next report!!! GOOD LUCK!!! | ||
| Glitch |
Glitch you have way too much time on your hands So I've been told! Mind if I use that? Of course not! It's all your's (Message edited by glitch on August 01, 2006) | ||
| Glitch |
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| Firebolteric_ma |
man that bike flies there matt!!!  | ||
| S1_lightning_nl |
Nice report, Matt! We had a good week end at Brands Hatch, thanks again! Greetings from The Netherlands, Piet. | ||
| Elff |
Great Writeup Matt | ||
| Surveyor |
Great report as usual Matt. Do you have a round in Anglesey this season? | ||
| Trojan |
Do you have a round in Anglesey this season? No round at Anglesey this year, but we do have the next one down in South Wales so will be bound to get our fair share of rain Personally I rather perversely hopeit does rain for a couple of reasons: 1. Phil is VERY GOOD in the wet and scored our only podium this year with a third place at Mallory Park in the rain on dry tyres. 2. Wet weather is a great leveller of machinery, so it comes down to rider ability much more. 3. I've got a brand new set of wet wheels/brakes/tyres that I want to use at least once!!  | ||
| Glitch |
#4) You're a Bad Weather Biker! |
