Race Reports


	Race Reports- Snetterton 1 April 2002
31/3/02	Getting Ready As usual the months over the winter when you planned to do all those things have gone and it is now days before the first meeting. The week before we are in a panic - we are booked in for a trackday at Snett to run the bikes in, but we still don't have a bike running. I also have a major panic at work as we are putting a bid together for Thursday so I am having to work through the night at work and then during the day on the bikes. Annoying as I had taken the week off to get the bikes ready. Saturday down to Graham's to pick up my engine - what started as a simple strip down and re-build just to make sure it was reliable turned into a major re-work of the crankcases. They are now filled and re-shaped, should improve power a bit on last year. By Monday my bike is together and running, Tuesday we have Mr P's running but run out of time to get Chris's running. So for the trackday only two bikes. Up at 5:00 when Rock phones, her in doors not to happy, but then is she ever? think I have only managed 7 hours sleep in the last 4 days - running on adrenelin. Loopy has gone over to Paul's with Chris to give a him a hand with the caravan. They are on the road about 1/2 an hour ahead. Drive up to Snett with Rock catching up with Paul on the way. Not a lot to report from the trackday except road riders brake really early. Rode very slowly and managed a best of 1' 27" and am very slow through the Bomb Hole and Corams. Paul Mumby-Croft was lapping at 1' 23". Not sure I learn't a lot as still very slow round the track and I don't like the Bomb Hole. Not too worried as I know come race time I can go much faster. Bike flew down the straights but lost out to Mr P coming out of the corners. Had a long chat with Graham on the way back and we both concurred that it must be mid-range carburation - the needle. Couldn't get hold of Allen's so resort to lifting the needle one clip - it is now on the bottom clip. New engine tune seems to have leaned off the bike a bit, i.e. I am running smaller mains so am having to compensate mid-range with the needle. Mr P swopped from stock pipes to Gibsons and reported the bike went much better - jetting seems to have come right as well as he was rich on stock pipes (142 Mains). Weather on the day was about 1030mB 50% humidity and 13 degrees bit of a guess as left weather station at home. Have Thursday off work - should have had the whole week. Thursday work ring up can you help... Finally get Chris's bike started Saturday. Mean time Rock has sprayed all the body work. Sunday still finishing the bikes. Over to Sainsburys to get some food - nope they are shut, down to the local shop then. Rick and Paul go over to Nuneaton to help Mr P load up and try and track down some charcoal. Take girls up to meet Mr P at M6 at Rugby as I am coming up later with Rock and two bikes. With the bikes in the back of the car I can't carry passengers. Fish toodles over late afternoon with the barby stuff - cracking ribs well recommended. Bleed the brakes - more to change the fluid as I still have spongy brakes afterwards. Just can't seem to get them solid. Load mine and Chris's bikes into the back of the bus plus any remaining kit. Will have to finish bikes at the track. Head off at 6 getting to the track at 8:30. We are in Garage No 10 at least we got grid positions and garages organised this year if nothing else. Dave Weller is in with us. Unload bike then give the girls a hand starting the barby. Charcoal is of the non lighting variety. Best part of 4 pints of fuel later it finally burns. Couple of Fish's racks of ribs, sausage, burgers + girls salad later feel quite good. Mean time been busy finishing bikes. Get up the bar about 10:30 stock up with beer before closing and chill out. Spend a very uncomfortable night kipping in the front seat of the bus and wake up with a head ache.
1/4/02	. Practice Not really in the mood for this - been getting stressed out by the others, it is difficult having to look after three bikes. Mr P fails scrutineering - tyre the wrong way round and the scrut didn't like the plastic screws holding the Sharkfin. Put some steel bolts in the fin and go back up to scrutineering. Bike goes straight through without any problems? The others are helping Chris and Mr P so I try and concentrate on me and my bike. Our plan of getting Chris out for two practices fail and he and Paul go out in seesion 2 and I am out in 4. Chris circulates slowly running the bike in. Paul is riding slowly trying to show Chris the way round but half a lap ahead? Light blue KR screams past the pit wall on carrying number 12. Didn't recognise the bike but compared to the other KRs in the session and most of the other F400 stuff it was flying - Umm... looks like there might be competition which is not good. Consult the programme and find the bike belongs to Colin Sleigh, aka Mr X so those HP claims look true. Out in session 4 circulate slowly - probably slowest thing out as after a few laps I am lapped. Bike feels flat down the back straight and won't rev beyond 11,500. Umm and ahh about changing jets then decide to go down one size to 135. Temp is 13 degrees, humidity is 75% and air pressure is 1010mB. Last season I would have been on 138 mains and needle on 4th clip from top (2nd from bottom) . Other than riding around and getting the jetting sorted didn't achieve much in practice. Chris is on 140 mains, Mr P on 142 same as Wednesday. I don't have enough jets to go round. Couldn't get hold of Allens to order any. As engine didn't go above 50 degrees decide to put a couple of strips of tape on the rad. Colin Sleigh was having problems with blowing base gaskets - so gave him some Honda liquid gasket it is HRC stuff at £27 a tube. It is evil black stuff but seals everything. Race 1 GP250 - Row 1 start, get a good launch and lead the pack round through top corner upto the bend before the backstraight. Pete Lodge darts up on the inside tips it in on the power and looks like he lost the rear end. Have to lift up a bit to avoid him and get blitzed by a couple of bikes on the straight. Bike is revving right through now and gear changes are at 12,000 each time - quite addictive as it is flying through the gears and all I have to do is just punch it through the box. Except for top where it is geared a bit short on the back straight and I am having to over rev to a bit over 12,000. Rode a fairly sedate race until Dave Chandler came past on the start finish straight on his TZ. Followed him round onto the back straight and just about manged to get past him on top speed before we started braking at the end of the straight. Dave eventually got past and clear and I settled for a lonely 5th. Lap times were poor at 1'27" - bike is quick just I am not attacking the bends. Also the brakes are not as sharp as normal - I had ordered some new pads so I could bed them in on the track day but they never arrived so running on last years brakes. Race 2 F400 - Row 1 start looks good four KR's on the front row, Me, Chris, Mr P and Colin Sleigh. Get a good launch but Colin is quicker, run kneck and kneck with Colin Sleigh through the first couple of corners. On the exit on to the back straight Colin is a bit slow out of the corner and as I pass him on the right we both get blitzed by Richard Welsh coming round on the left. Suprised at the speed of Richard's Yam but the KR can live with him. In no great hurry so just follow him round. Can't remember which lap it was on or if it was after Dan Williams came past on his RVF but mug Richard going into Russells along with Tom Warner, Stu Bedford and I think it might have been Phil Bedford. Must have been after the RVF passed as I followed that for a lap before getting passed by Tom Warner at the end of the straight on the brakes, there were waved yellows so I eased up a little earlier than usual and took it steady under the bridge. Flags were for Dave Weller who had highside coming out of . Tom made the most of his move and buggered off - not very sporting like. Should have put a complaint in later but couldn't be bothered. Tom's view was it was a racing incident. Next lap Stuart Bedford came past as I braked for the corner before the back straight (must learn the names of these corners but can't find my programme at the mo') then sat up half-way down the straight and put his hand up. So I did the same thinking the reds were out - looked around no reds so carried on. Stuart's throttle cable had snapped. This had given Tom a fairly big lead on me so looked back could see Phil and Richard were miles back so I eased up by 2 seconds a lap. On last lap saw they were getting a bit close so put a bit of speed back on. Not unhappy as came in 3rd thinking that would be upgraded to a 2nd when Tom was done for the yellow flag business. Never happened and I didn't complain so will probably kick myself at the end of the season. Lots of people off or didn't finish this race - apart from Stuart Bedford and Dave Weller, Dave Marsh, Chris Pullen, Michelle Bassett, Mr P and Mr P's mate Chris Smith. Mr P launched then the bike went on to one cylinder so he coasted round then came in. Laps not brilliant but doing steady 1'23", i.e. about 5 seconds of a serious pace. Race 3 GP250 - Second row start get a brilliant launch with the front hovering in first, second and third, beaten to the first corner by an RG500 which then disappears. End up in a scrap between two RS250 hondas and Paul Mumby-Croft. The first Honda ridden by Simon Bodison eventually pulls away. Leaving myself, Steve Austin and Paul Mumby-Croft fighting it out. Steve's RS is a bit quicker than me down the straights, and we both blitz Paul, but he keeps coming back round at Corams. Each lap he rides round the outside of me and tries to do the RS on the brakes in to Russels, each lap the RS pulls away from Paul coming out of Russells and I nuke Paul on the straight. Some times he dives under me before the back straight but to no avail as the KR must have 10 to 15 mph on him in top speed - he can't even stay in the slipstream. I am getting lazy as I know I can blitz Paul on any straight bit so I don't really go for it. Panic a bit on the 6th lap as I mess up the exit coming out of Russells and Paul beats me to the line, thankfully it wasn't the last lap. At the start of the last lap Steve Austin slows down, must have thought the last lap flag was the chequered flag! Both Paul and myself jump him and before he realises what is going on we have disappeared. Paul gets caught in traffic so I get to the line first to get second in the GP250 class at Snett? I think it is more an indication of the level of competition rather than anything great about my riding. Lap times were again pitifully slow at 1'24" Race 4 F400 - Front row start make a real mess of this, front lifts then the bike bogs end up back in eigth. Not much of a problem as get up to fifth halfway down the back straight, the KR easily dispatching, Phil Bedfords and Dave Marshes ZXRs (There is no substitue for straight line speed). On the start finish straight dispense with Lee Robbins CBR400. Then start closing the gap on the leading three who have made about 50 yards after a couple of laps I am making no impression on the leaders those behind aren't catching up so I ease off and come in a safe 4th. Not a good result but it gets Snett which should be my worst circuit out of the way. Saying that my lap time of 1'22.1 was only 0.1 off the quickest lap and is 2 or 3 seconds slower than what I think I can do. I made the wrong choice on tyres not that I pushed them - fitted hard compound tyres which barely got warm let alone hot. Paul Mumby-Croft ran soft compound and they were really working. It wouldn't have made any difference as I rode so slowly but is a lesson worth learning. The Bedford brothers woes continued with this time Phil breaking down because of a lose battery connection.
	Overall Summary - Mixed feelings I am angry with myself as I know I could have ridden a lot better. I didn't attack any corners and relied on the bikes straight line speed to give me a good result. This is emphasised by Paul Mumby-Crofts ride in the second 250 race where he went round me every time and I just blitzed him on the straights. I know I can corner as quickly as he can so if I added that corner speed to my (the bikes) straight line speed I could easily have won the F400 races. As it is it is another case of well if only. As I have said racing is all about the head. Mr P had a crap meeting but was stoically philosophical about it. Chris struggled to get on with the close ratio 5/6 in the gear box which lifts 1st along way. He was running 16/42 to our 15/42. KR Cup - Pete Lodge is definitely the man to beat and now heads the table - (next time will have to fix the rules in my favour). Colin Sleigh has a very fast KR just wasn't very comfortable at Snett as he has had a few big offs in the past. Team T3 were a bit down. Mark Brown swopping between a TZ250 and the KR, though his KR showed well on the dyno it didn't seem to perform on the day. John's bike ran better but again he appeared off the pace - especially after the reports back from practice at Oulton. Michelle Bassett came a cropper in the first race but was out in race two and going well, her BDK tuned bike sounding crisp. Stuart Proctar suffered a puncture in the first race then didn't get mentioned in the results for the second - though we he has been included in the KR results. Richard Saunders KR is turning into something special. His father has fitted a CBR rear wheel for which he machined a complete new sprocket carrier from an alloy Billet. The bike has an electric water pump and a charging system you can switch in and out. Dave Weller took a tumble in the first leg but ran well in race 2. Mr P who followed him in practice has christened him Dangerous Dave because of his aggresive cornering style.
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This document maintained by mark@teamsparrow.fsnet.co.uk. Material Copyright © 2002 Mark Jordan