Non starter @ Cadwell

It was with great sadness that I had to cancel my entry for the Cadwell meeting, especially as it is my favourite circuit. The week leading up to the meeting has been torture and now it has passed I find myself wondering what may have been.
A couple of weeks ago,I had contacted the editors of Classic Racer and Classic Mechanics magazines and invited them to Cadwell to have a look at our series. Myself and Ben Shaughnessy of The Alto Performance team and also the head of our series, are both keen to promote the awareness of the series and in an effort to do so , I decided to try the magazines to help with exposure. I hear they did turn up at Cadwell but have yet to hear what they thought or what they had to say. I was really sad to have not been able to go along and meet them. I will be calling Ben in the morning!

So without me, Phil took the van, loaded with his Laverda and also with the FZ as a backup in case the Lav played up. He took the FZ for just one outing on the Friday practice day.
I was keen to hear how he got on with the beast and made a phone call on Friday evening.
With the exhaust can re-packed in an attempt to get the sound down to pass the noise test, I was eager to find out how the bike revved in the top range, if it was better without the added baffle that I had run at Snetterton. The outcome was a bit vague so I will have to wait and find out for myself I guess.
It was interesting to hear how the bike behaved in the handling. Phil reported the same issues in the mountain as I had last time I rode at Cadwell with everything decking out and the front end wanting to take you for a trip through the gravel....interesting. The rest of the lap was just as I had felt too. Phil was generally impressed with the bike and stated that it has loads of potential.
It needs Steve Spencer to breathe his magic on the engine and a new front end!

The circumstances leading to me not going to the meeting have receded but not gone away completely yet, but I am hopeful of getting out for at least one meeting before the end of the season. Next up is another trip to Snetterton and two weeks after that is Brands Hatch.
I think it will be Brands for me, giving me more time to recover myself and be ready. The bike is ready to go having just been run once this weekend, so I just have myself to get ready.

Once I have spoke to Ben, I will post my findings here.

Steve went to watch this weekend and has promised to take loads of photos, so I hope to have some eye candy to post in the next few days.... watch this space!

Faster, faster,faster!....intoxicating!

I convinced myself that Snetterton was going to be a disaster. The weather was going to be shit, the bike was going to run like shit and probably break and I had even been wincing at the possibility that I may even fall off.
Well I couldn't have been more wrong.
I guess an attitude like that comes from usually getting dealt a bum hand in life and also helps to really enjoy things when they do finally go right. A big bonus when you expect to step in a pile of crap.
Snetterton was a resounding success!

Myself and Phil decided to go for the Friday practice. Seven sessions out on track with about 40 minutes between each providing enough time to get my head under the tank and try to get the bikes' fuelling right and learn the track after 4 years away from the place.
Phil wanted to finish getting his bike built after many nights in his workshop till way past 2 in the morning. He spent the morning getting the bike finished and managed to get out in the afternoon to finish bedding in his newly built motor.

I had taken along a selection of main jets and was prepared to spend the whole day devoted to getting it right. The time between sessions proved just enough to get re-fuelled and throw in an ever decreasing jet size until early afternoon I had it as good as I could get it. The bike revved cleanly now, once running on the main jets at the top of the rev range. The mid range was still sluggish and a couple of changes to needle height soon had the thing blasting out of corners while revving in the mid-range, very nicely indeed. Job done!
I had also got my head around the circuit and was feeling really confident of a good two days of racing.

It was such a relief to get the bike sorted. Now I was able to concentrate on my riding and put into practice all the stuff I had learnt from Jeremy at Brands a couple of weeks ago. I was looking forward to seeing him again over the weekend and getting some more feedback from him. I was also able to get some diet and nutrition advice from his good lady, Tina. She is setup at most meetings to help people in this area and promote her Herbalife products business.
I have been using these products for a few months now and have found a huge benefit from them, not just on the race track but in every day life also.
So with some good advice on getting my body to perform from Tina and mental and practical advice from Jeremy, I was feeling really up for the racing and looking forward to progressing my skills.

I'm not too fat according to Mrs.Hill!..... well maybe just a little!

The Thunderbikes grid was the biggest so far this year, with 30 bikes taking the start. It was good to see some new machines on the grid, adding to the varied mix that has become Thunderbikes and attracting an ever increasing number of people becoming interested in the series.
I have been getting quite a few e-mails from people interested in what's going on and finding out about our series.
My self and a few fellow Thunderbikes riders were featured in the August issue of Performance Bikes Magazine. I am getting used to people saying " aren't you that guy that's in PB mag?"
It's great to see the series becoming more and more popular.
It's inspiring people to get the old piles of rust out of the back of their sheds and dust 'em off and race 'em!

It has become the norm, for Myself, Phil, Gyles and Chris to camp out together at the circuits this year with the Alto Laverda team joining us too. We all get on great and have a real laugh together.I really enjoy our time in the paddock. So it's a magnified shame when things within our little circle of bikes go wrong, and it always seems like its one or the other of us!
It was a shame to see the Alto Laverda team suffer a suspected blown engine in 1st practice, Saturday morning. Brothers, Ben and Aaron, of Alto, decided to pack up the bike and make the 4 hour or more, round trip home to sort the motor and get back to the circuit as quick as they could to continue to compete. You have to admire their commitment and determination to race. It seems nothing will stop Ben from getting that bike over the finish line 1st before the end of the season.

Ben at the back, (not where he likes to be) Aaron and Phill astride the Alto Laverda.

Phill Read jnr. the Alto team rider,stayed at the track while the boys ran home, leaving him time to chill and take in some racing. I know from experience that it's kind of nice to not race as it enables you to see things in a different light. No pressure, time to chill. It was great having Phill around in our camp, having a laugh, and chatting with us all and happy to give advice too! great guy!

Gyles' Guzzi seems to be cursed at Snetterton. Although for the practice day the bike runs fine, come race day the bike starts to play up.The thing game him a load of trouble at our last visit here and decided to repeat it's trick at this visit keeping him busy under the tank between races. Last time here, he suffered 3 non finishes. This weekend, he finished all the races and finished really strong with a 10th place, a 12th place and two 11th places...good points for him. He was flying!


For race 1, I was placed 16th for the start grid and hoping to keep my record of good starts. I was not disappointed and got the usual flyer and moving well up the order and passing the start line at the end of lap 1 in 9th place. I rode as hard as possible and was going really well with only Steve Joy getting past on his Ducati 748 when on lap 5, I ran into the sears corner with the bike jumping out of gear forcing me to run very wide. By the time I had sorted the gears out and pointed it down the straight, 5 guys had got by me. Damn!.

entering Russles chicane after the super fast Corums

I couldn't get the gap back to the guys who had passed me and on the final lap I was passed at the end of the Revvets straight by Phil Polden on his Cagiva 650 raptor.
There was just 6 seconds between myself and all those guys at the end of the race which forced me to wonder what might have been if I hadn't have run wide on lap 5. Certainly better points than the single one I got for my final position of 15th. My fastest lap was 1m20.609. My target was to drop below 1m20 by the end of the weekend.


It was a similar story for race 2. The same great start and I was again 9th by the end of lap 1 from 15th at the start.By the end of lap 2, I had dropped back to 14th with a terrible lap full of missed gears. The gear box just kept slipping into neutral, worrying!
A couple of the new riders to Thunderbikes, and fast riders at that!, had spent the first race improving their start positions for the next grid and were quite out of place starting from the back. This added to my troubles . I had been passed earlier in the race by Will Jobbins, aboard his Suzuki GSXR837 which had been smoking heavily, evidently the engine was leaking oil all over the exhausts, causing the smoke. It was also spraying the back of the bike and his rear tyre. As I reeled him back in, it was spraying me too! As we came out of the left hand flick of the final corner, I was right on his back wheel as he lost the rear and slid out of the race. It was quite a close miss for me as I had to get out of the throttle momentarily, to avoid him. I heard in the paddock after the race that he was ok but he was not to race again this weekend. Bad luck Will. Glad he was ok!







Just a sore hand for Will after this spill!

Throughout the race I had a close fight with Dan Willmott on his 400 and Adam Palfreman on his Sv. Myself and Adam had passed each other a couple of time with Adam finally finishing ahead of me and a final corner attack from Tim "chunky" Churchill saw him take another place from me. Nice move from Tim! Although I had gone faster in race 2, with a fastest lap of 1m20.435,I couldn't match my first race finish position and came in 18th.
I was very happy though, with the outcome of the day and was hopeful that the next day would be as good.The bike had run and performed really well, and I had experienced some enthralling racing. I could feel my race craft improving all the time.

On it! Through Corums

Over night, I changed the engine oil and decided to up, the grade of fork oil to a heavier 15 weight in an attempt to settle the front and help get through the very long and fast, Corums curve. The front of the bike felt like it was trying to run wide and I figured trying to cure this would add some speed and a better feeling through this part of the circuit. It's also not a a good place to be loosing the front as it is so fast and has a bit of a reputation for spitting bikes into the air as they take to the run off.
Once all the work to the bike was done, and Ben and Aaron returned with a rebuilt motor (amazing!), we all walked up to the top of the paddock where a bar-b-q was being hosted by a load of Thunderbikes riders. time for a good chin wag and a bottle of beer...just the one though!

The weather had been really kind to us so far this weekend and Sunday turned out to be no exception. The temperature was hot!
Gyles' Guzzi continued to misbehave, and with moments to go before the first race, phil spent a few short minutes fiddling with it and miraculously managed to fix the bike and get it running ok. We all stood back amazed for a moment. Not even Phil could explain what he had done to sort the thing!

I took to the grid with the usual crazy feeling in my stomach, something that always seems to get me until the lights go out. I got my usual good start but going into the 1st turn I found myself having to get out of the throttle with a huge traffic jamb and nowhere to go and getting stuck on the apex while what seemed like the whole grid ran past around the outside. I'm sure I had my nose chopped by someone, ah well, that's racing I guess!
Crossing the start at the end of lap 1, I was placed 14th and with Just Steve Joy, Adam and Dan getting by throughout the rest of the race, it was reasonably quiet out there. With a bit of a look behind down the long straight, I could see that it was to be a case of get my head down and ride as hard as I could to keep a distant pack behind. With 8 seconds covering the 7 guys in front (including me) by the end, I was reasonably happy.I just missed the points with a 16th place.
Again I had gone faster, just missing the 1m19's mark. The bike was noticeably better through Corums but the compromise was that the bike was having a harder time exiting the double apex right handed first turn, with the front chattering over the bumps out of the corner, making hard acceleration, hard work to hold on. I coped with it though.
fastest lap for me; 1m20.073.

With the heat of the day, shit sleep ( as always before racing!), a late arrival on Thursday night (thanks to an hour road block detour.. bugger!) and some hard racing, I was really feeling tired by the last race.
Another good start but another hold up in turn one for me and I was back to 19th by the end of lap 1.By this stage of the weekend, the grids tend to become relative to every ones speed, and we are all less mixed up. I managed to get past Paul Martin #76 and Daniel King #9 in this race.



Other than that it was again just a head down ride hard, but not too hard, race. I wanted to go home in one piece. It's too easy to go mad at the end of a weekend. Just like a lot of track day off's happen at the end of the day when people are tired and just want to go that little bit faster. I decided to take it smooth. I remember the front feeling vague. I had picked up a wrong front tyre when I left home and ended up having to run a really worn front all weekend. It was probably ok, but a lot of stuff in racing is all in the head. Just because I was wary of the fact I knew the tyre had done a lot of track time and was getting old, probably affected the way i rode and interpreted the feeling of the front. If some one had told me it was new, I probably would have ridden faster!
I managed a 17th place for this race and went fractionally faster and got my target sub 1m19...just! ... 1m19.937


So with another excellent weekend in the bag, this racing lark just gets more and more under my skin. It's highly addictive, especially when all goes so well..... and actually, even when it doesn't it's still intoxicating. I just wish I could win the lottery so I can do it every weekend..... dream on eh!

Back to Cadwell park next. My favourite and that of a majority of the riders I should imagine.
This may be my last race this year, due to financial restraints. I hope not, but it's a distinct possibility.

Positivity. A great day at Brands Hatch!

It has been fantastic to get back out on track, and exceptionally great weather for the whole day made it even better.

Having arrived the previous evening and spending the night in our exclusive choice of pit garage, all set up early, we had time to relax and ease into the day. I do like to get to the track as early as possible and give time to prepare mentally and be sure all the kit and machines are ready to go leaving plenty of time to get all the signing on and noise test etc done in good time.

Jeremy Hill arrived nice and early and was on hand to run through what ever I wanted to look at during the day. We decided to check my lines for the first session and in particular, the parts of the Indy circuit that we run on in Thunderbikes.It was my first time on the full GP circuit so it was good to have him run through that part of the circuit with me. I got a handle on it quite early and with just a few tweeks to how I was riding it, I found it no problem and really enjoyed riding it after spending years watching all my heros there.

I was not that confident that the bike was going to run right and had the spare set of carbs ready to swap back to the settings I had at Cadwell, just in case. Sure enough, after 8000 rpm and above , the bike wouldn't pull well at all. I therefore spent the first session, nursing the bike round and just concentrated on being smooth and taking the correct lines.
Once back in the garage, I set about the carbs but with not enough time to get out for the next session, I was forced to take Steve's FZR 400. This turned out to be great fun and I was very quickly finding the limit of the machine. It's a great handling bike and is fantastic at carrying high corner speed as it is small and light but lacks any serious power. Still immense fun!
I soon had the carbs fitted and the bike fired into life and reved well into the high rev range. This was encouraging for the next session.

Relief! finally... the bike reved well and was 98% better. Now I was able to concentrate on learning from Jeremy and working on my riding.

We continued to work on different aspects of my riding throughout the rest of the day and the feed back from Jeremy was positive. I was glad to hear his opinion of my style, which he described as smooth and a pleasure to watch and having good potential.
All the advise he had for me made perfect sense. It is good to have someone confirm that I am heading in the right direction with my riding both in a physical way and mentally too. we worked on some great energy saving things such as different use of holding gears for longer.Also some body position and movement tips, aimed at not upsetting the bike by making my riding smoother and with less effort with the result of going faster, for longer and with less energy sapping effort both on myself and the machine.
It was a very positive day and has helped me a great deal. I came away with plenty to think about and to work on.

I now look forward to the fastest circuit in the country, Snetterton at the end of the first week in July.
With more improvement needed to come from the carbs and no sign of a new set on the horizon, I may just head back to the dyno and see if things can be improved upon. If niether happens, then I will just have to suck it and see next time out!

Big thanks to Jeremy Hill for his time and effort.It is always a pleasure, a privilege and very much appreciated and welcome.
Also a big thanks to Jez's mate Richard for the baffles that helped bring down my noise test failing exhaust from 110db to 105db. It still failed until further tampering got it down to below the 101db limit... PHEW!

Carb-o-shite

The bike is back from the dyno shop and running better than it was. It's not perfect and never will be, as Adie, the guy who runs Motohedz bike shop and dynapro dyno, has found both sets of carbs are excessively worn and recommends a new set.
He has toiled for hours with the thing and will probably be dreaming of stripping FZ carbs for the next few nights.
I really have to give a big thanks to him for his efforts. He has given me an extra special level of service.
Also, thanks for the oil! He has given me some new high performance rock oil to try out at the next meeting so I can come back to him with my findings. It is supposed to give a 5% increase in power so I will be running my regular oil for one session and then will change to the rock oil in the next session and see if I can detect a difference. It will be interesting to see the results.

Well, I hope the bike behaves for the trip to Brands. I will be setting up the spare set of carbs as a back up option, should I have any trouble with the current set. I know where I am with the spare set. They give excellent performance high up but are a complete nightmare down low making all the slow stuff a real problem....no good on the start line!

With only tomorrow (Sunday) to get ready for the off, I have quite a bit to do. At least there is no added pressure of a race weekend and just being away for one day makes things a lot simpler.
I'm really looking forward to riding the full GP circuit and finally getting out for a good blast.
It feels like months since the last ride!

Dyno-might ! ?

After being away from home for over a week now, the FZ will hopefully be coming home from the dyno shop in the next couple of days. Early signs are promising although no news on a final bhp figure.
It seems we were miles away on jet size and have dropped from 142.5 down to low 20's or even late teens, which really surprised me. I will be very relieved to see the beast finally sorted on the fueling and happy to get her home in time to do some work over the weekend, before we leave for Brands.
Time will tell...as they say!

I need my drugs!

It seems like months since I last turned a wheel on track rather than 2 weeks. I am starting to get serious withdrawal. as I said before, we decided to give Pembrey a miss.My next fix is approaching though, when we head to Brands Hatch on the 19th of June to a trackday around the full GP circuit. I can't wait! Just over 3 weeks to go!
I got a ride on Steve's new FZR400 the other evening! It was a great little thing to ride, so nimble and light compared to the FZ750. I was really impressed...great fun! It did remind me of why I stopped riding on public roads though. I just can't help myself sometimes and as I get older, the more it doesn't feel comfortable out there. I'd much rather fall off on the race track.

Phil has returned home from Steve spencer's with his new motor and has no skin left on his palms from lapping in the valves. Bet he's glad it's just a twin cylinder!
I've been doing a few bits on the FZ, nothing too involved.
Water proofing the coils, sorting out a better front number board and getting the rev counter, idiot lights and temperature gauge mounted on a decent dash.
Phil has sorted out a replacement front wheel spacer so we don't have to keep robbing the standard speedo drive item out of his road YZF every time we want to go racing.the only other job that needs doing is to source some new dogbones for the rear suspension.

Ah!... I almost forgot... I'm booked into the new local dyno on next Tuesday to get the carbs set up properly. I will also get a bhp reading and then will go off to the nearest m.o.t station and try and blag a free weigh-in. I can then see how far off the power to weight ratio the bike is. Looking forward to that!

I'll keep any progress posted up as and when!

Do I look like a bloody duck?!

I was doubtful of getting a race at Brands because of the entry mess up. I was also doubtful the bike would have enough ground clearance particularly at the bottom of paddock hill where there is high compression as you enter the big dip. I had ordered a new ride height adjuster to help jack up the rear of the bike, but there was only a couple of millimetres gained by this.... bugger, there was no way I would run the bike if it was going to start decking out.
Steve has just bought himself a Yamaha FZR400sp. While messing about in the work shop earlier in the week, he had noted that the shock linkages ( or dog bones as they are sometimes called) were slightly shorter than on my bike. " you could always use those if your ride height adjuster doesn't turn up" he said.
As it turned out, they saved the day. The shorter items would jack the rear of the bike no problem.
With not much time to get the ferry on Friday, the ride height adjuster had turned up in the post rather late in the day and after a half hour of stripping the bike in the back of the van, I realised the thing was not going to do the job. I dashed over to Steve's and stripped the dogbones out of his FZR and legged it to the ferry, meeting Phil along the way. We fitted them to my bike in the paddock, in the rain, that evening ready for the next mornings practice.


I was rather relieved to find a half decent day on Saturday morning. I was not looking forward to the forecast rain for the weekend having never really ridden properly in the rain on full wets before.
I went out in the practice session to find the bike wouldn't rev past 8000 rpm. We had swapped the carbs back to my items earlier in the week to try to cure the bad running low down. This had worked but now it was rough as hell up in the high rev range. As it turned out , I didn't get out in the first race so with time until the next race, we swapped them back, preferring a rough low end. At least the thing would go when asked.

I was released out for race 2! woohoo!
A back of the grid start. 38th! I got the now usual, great start but it was to be short lived as the red flag came out before the end of lap 1.


The next start was great too but with so many bikes on the grid the 1st corner was a nightmare. I had to hit the brakes twice, really hard, to avoid a collision. Once through turn 1, I was on the gas hard down paddock hill with the back tyre protesting big time, spinning and slipping heavily. I really don't remember too much about the race other than it was mad! so many bikes to get by. I was held up everywhere and with a reduced race distance because of the 1st lap red flag. By the last lap flag, I could see one of my own class ahead. It had taken me the whole race to get through all the 400 bikes and get to see a Thunderbiker. Again, on that last lap I was held up, stopping me from getting to the Thunderbike, who I was visibly catching fast. I didn't manage to catch him but came in 23rd over all and 14th in my class... not bad and 2 more points.I was rather happy with that considering.

The next day was wet. Jeremy Hill had stopped by to see me and advised against using the wet tyres I had and to go get some new ones. He very kindly, sponsored some of the cost of the new items, and i have to say a very BIG THANKS to him for that.
I have not really ridden in the wet before on wet tyres. Last wet race was back at Lydden hill when I went out on supercorsas, which at the time was the wrong choice. I wasn't looking forward to it and very carefully bimbled round on the new wets in practice. coming into the paddock complaining " do I look like a bloody duck?!" and feeling not very confident. Phil relishes the wet and assured me it was all in the mind and that there was nothing to worry about. I resolved to get over the mental block I had and drummed it into my brain to go out and go for it!


Race 1 arrived and still raining I was gridded 14th. The start was good as usual, and I got the jump on a few guys and as I went through turns 1 and 2, I was amazed at the level of grip, leaning right over as if it were dry. That was it! I knew then that there was no problem and that it was just me. I carried on gunning it until out along the start straight the bike started to cough and splutter. I could hear the thing arcing and realised the wet was getting to the electrics. Then I just went backwards. I was swallowed by almost everyone. I finnished last of the Thunderbikes and no points.


Being camped out next to the Laverda guys was great. Not only had their help been invaluable, but their awning being up next to our, help shelter us from those nasty elements!....Cheers guys, it really was a pleasure!

Between races, Phil and the Alto Laverda guys helped me to work out what was going on with the bike and we spent the whole time messing about with it trying to figure out what the problem was. It was a good education for me, working with people who know what the hell they are doing and I learnt an immense amount in that couple of hours.


I really have to thank them all for their help. It was fantastic and I really enjoyed the time we spent.
The same thing happened though in race 2, so I just decided to use the track time to get into riding on the wet tyres and concentrate on being smooth. I enjoyed it and really got into the swing of it and can now safely say that I would not be troubled again by wet riding.
It was amazing!


I finished 14th again and with only 15 Thunderbikes on the grid this time, all i had to do was finish to get at least 1 point. As it turned out, one bike had dropped out and I was gifted an extra place and came away with another 2 points. So with 4 points and 3 races, I was reasonably happy with the weekend. It could have been better but also a lot worse!
The best thing was learning to cope in the wet and equally the amount in general that I had learnt over the weekend was great.



It was a bit strange to not have Phil out riding along side me. Equally, Gyles and his Guzzi were absent, strange not being camped out with us and no big Chris either. I really look forward to us all being there together at Snetterton in early July.
Myself and Phil have decided not to go to the next round at Pembrey, in Wales. Phil has a new motor, which he would rather run in at a track day than at a race meeting. Sensible I reckon!
Also, the frequency of he meetings so far this season are starting to take their toll on finances for all of us I think. Every two weeks it just too much.For the rest of the season, the events are much more spaced out... Phew!
We have booked a track day at Brands Hatch for the 19th of June, which puts us about half way between the last round and Snetterton. Phil gets to run in his motor and I get to spent some time with my mentor, Jeremy Hill, on track for some tuition. There are a few spots on the circuit that I am having trouble getting my head around. I am hoping Jeremy will help me with these and many other issues with my riding. Basically, I would like him to take a good look at my style and see where we can improve it.
We will be running around on the full Brands GP circuit, which is something I, and Phil have always wanted to do. I am really looking forward to it!

Meanwhile, back in the shed, I am fitting a temperature gauge, sorting out the carbs, protecting the coils from the wet, making some sort of box to stop the wet getting into the carbs and generally messing about. I will write the results and on-going progress over the next couple of weeks. I'm sure we'll find other stuff to mess about with too!..

A near miss!

I nearly didn't go to Brands....
When Bemsee, the Racing club, have to submit all their paperwork to the ACU and their insurers, they had next to no entry forms from the Thunderbike racers. I submitted mine just after the Cadwell races but they did not reach the club before the deadline.All of a sudden, everyone submitted their entries at the last minute, by which time, Bemsee had decided to combine both the clubman and rookie 400 classes, in with the Thunderbikes class, to get a full grid. This meant that a few guys, the last to submit their entries, got put on the reserve list and were therefore not guaranteed to get out and race. I was one of them.

In the light of this and the awful weather forecast, I was in two minds about going at all.
I decided to gamble and make the effort.
I did manage to get 3 out of the 4 available races and both practice sessions too. The gamble paid off!

I will now be submitting all my entry forms for the rest of the season, to be certain of not getting put on the reserve list in future. It's not nice being unsure of getting out to race.

It was quite an eventful weekend for me with all kinds of mechanical woes and my first time out on full wets too, which was a great experience.
As it is quite late at night as I write, I am going to cut short my post for now and write more later when I am more awake.
For now I will post a few pictures that Jules, one of the Alto performance Laverda team pit crew, kindly gave me at the weekend that he snapped at the last meeting at Cadwell Park.
Thanks Jules, and I hope I have spelt your name correctly!
Some great shots, modestly put down as "not too bad " by the photographer!



Right in the mix.... excellent!


what a great shot! Over the mountain can be spectacular.


Some of the variety of machines that make Thunderbikes so interesting.


I had a fantastic battle with these guys!


Into the bottom of the Mountain.


I recently realised, that if you click on the photos they will enlarge! d'oh...

Some real racing at last!

Cadwell Park has to be my favourite of all the circuits I have been to so far.
The setting is superb and well worth the long drive we have to endure to get there.


The awesome 1st turn, Coppice corner. Not for the feint hearted!

We left home at 6.30am and got to Steve Spencer's place for about 10am to find a nice clean engine sitting on the bench ready to go in the frame. All went well until we fired it up at about 12 noon, to find it running really rough low down in the rev range and struggling to not cut out. Higher revs seemed ok. We spent the rest of the day until 6pm trying to get the thing sorted and with some improvement, and all of us starting to get tired, we decided to take our chances and make a run for the circuit.
I really have to hand it to Steve for his efforts. It was a long day and most perplexing for him as he was convinced all should have been sweet.

We finally arrived at Cadwell at about 10pm and met Chris who had been waiting for us to give him a bed for the night. Gyles and his Guzzi were to arrive the next morning after he had spent the day trying desperately to get his bike fixed ready for the weekend. All with the Italian giant for was to be ok Gyles for the weekend.


So, Saturday morning I got up really early to get myself and the bike sorted and ready for first practice at 9am. Thunderbikes were to be the first out on track for this weekend, leaving no time to mess about in the morning but plenty of time in the afternoon once we were finished racing. I managed to get myself and the FZ organised well, and in good time for both scrutinising and signing on, leaving me ample time to get myself fed and watered and psyched for first practice at 9am.
It was a bit chilly and misty this morning but not enough to dent my confidence in putting the new motor and its host chassis, through its paces. Having been to Cadwell for a couple of trackdays last year, I was already familiar with the circuit, so could go at it early. I made full advantage of practice and quickly got the hang of the track layout and was feeling confident for the coming races.
The only bug was the bad tick over and likely hood of the bike cutting out, and with no starter motor, the thought of stalling on the line was worrying.


Sure enough, it did stall on the line at the start of the first race. I quickly raised my hand and began to push start the thing myself before any officials could get to me. She fired in a very short few metres and as I started to push backwards to my grid slot, I was confused to find a lady official insisting I pulled to the side of the track. I tried to argue I had time to take the start but she was having none of it, pointing to my bike I realised the reason was the overflow pipe from the cooling expansion bottle was flapping about. I was absolutely furious, Max Biagi? you ain't seen nothing! I can, in hindsight, see why she "blacked" me but at the time she was the devil himself.
I spent the race by the start line in the biggest sulky paddy I've had since I was a little kid. One official came over and asked if there was a problem.
"I'm just having a kiddie tantrum mate" I said.
"well you know it could have been something more serious wrong with your bike" the guy said, as I complained that it was a trivial thing that could have been sorted with a quick tug to remove the offending article.
Well it's all part of racing and the general learning curve of it all I guess. A hard lesson but one well learnt!

The next race of the day almost completely made up for it.I got a brilliant start and had my first real race of the season.Instead of going backwards from my good start, I went forwards through the field getting by quite a few riders on the first 2 or 3 laps and spent the rest of the race trying to work out how to get past Gyles and the big guzzler who was slowing me down quite a bit. He was still learning the circuit and I knew it so had that fact as an advantage.I eventually managed to get by and finished the race in 13th from the back of the grid where I had started in 23rd.

Hunting down the Guzzler!

What a great result for me.The bike ran strong,revving right out and being far more powerful than it was before.Steve has done a great job to give the level of power it has for just a standard engine. The handling was better too. The newly re-worked forks now have a little more adjustment and I was able, over the course of the weekend, to dial out the low speed problems I had at Lydden and progressively got faster as the weekend went on.


Sunday I woke from an excellent nights sleep to a very murky morning.After a short foggy practice, the damp air that shrouded Cadwell Park held us in the Holding area, waiting for our race, for what seemed like hours while we waited for the marshalls to decide if it was safe to race. Each marshall post needs to be able to see the next for safety, and once this was established, we were cleared to race. This was to be another storming race for me. Another good start for me from my 13th place, I was up to 8th by the end of the first lap. I had no idea at the time, where in the order I was. I was soon passed by Steve Joy on his Ducati 748. I found I could stay reasonably close to him and spent the next 4 laps looking for a way to pass when suddenly, his hand went up, and he pulled out.


On the next lap I was passed again, this time by Craig Ashall, who I just couldn't hold off and was running a good half a second a lap faster than me. That's where I stayed.. in 9th.
When I returned to the paddock and realised I had finished 9th, I was thrilled. I had not expected to see the top 10 this early in the year, if at all this season.

Starting from 9th for the last race of the weekend was awesome. I was totally unsure of what was to come, would I get swallowed up at the start or be able to hold my position and if so, for how long?.... I resolved to just go with the flow and see what happened and do my best.
I was feeling rather fatigued after the 1st race of the day in which I had ridden really hard and as well as I felt I could.

By the the mountain on the first lap I was told I was in 7th, but this was not to last as by the start line to begin lap 2, I had dropped to 11th. Then I fell to 12th which I managed to maintain for a few laps until the last couple of laps. I was getting very tired and messed up by out braking myself into the silly chicane and let a couple of guys get by. I held my position and managed to finish in 14th.
I was disappointed with my fitness, but I was very happy with myself for 3 races and 3 points finishes.I was also happy with the bike for the weekend as I had not had a lot of hope of things going as well as they had. I had anticipated all kinds of trouble from the bike.

Still, the engine has a real bad problem at low revs while at a standstill. I suspect sticky carb slides to be the problem as the revs take a while to settle after blipping the throttle. There's also a flat spot at around 8 or 9000 revs, the transition from needles to mains so we reckon on upping the jet size a little to cure this.

Another problem is turn in and ground clearance. Although better now, it still needs more.The rear ride height is at it's max, so some shorter linkages in the rear shock and/or a longer ride height adjuster are needed to raise the ride height and then in turn, this should help the bike to steer quicker and turn in to the corners better.It will also stop the grounding out of the exhaust and catchtray that has been happening,even though we are now running Steve Spencer items, which are a vast improvement.
There is still loads of development to come from the bike, both in handling and the suspension, the engine with more power to come and also from my self, both performance wise and through fitness. By lap 5 of the 7 lap races at Cadwell, I was getting tired and after the first race of Sunday, I couldn't get myself off the bike, I was so sapped of strength.


During the last race, on the last lap, Phil was taken out by another rider as they entered the fast first turn at Coppice. As I came past I could see he was hurt.
It was very worrying, waiting for ages for him to be let out of the medical centre. Thankfully, apart from being badly bruised in many places, he was ok, no broken bones or long term worries. The bike was a bit of a mess and once home, Phil found out that apart from a few bolt on bits that are no problem to replace and a smashed up fairing, that the gear box had been damaged. This is to put him out of the next race at Brands Hatch while we wait for his other engine to come back from the tuner....... BUGGER! to say the least.

Coppice is bloody fast!....

It was a massive relief to find he was ok but it really sucks that the next race will be a miss for him.

There was also an accident in the paddock, in the Guzzi camp. Young Chris. chief pit crew and general muscle man, couldn't hold his drink or his bike and ended up looking a bit silly!
He made us all piss our pants though!

I know ..... looks very suspicious eh?

Makes you wonder what they get up to in East Anglia!

Top bloke is Chris!
He can certainly get through some beer, and some food! but he comes in very handy when things need lifting. Who needs paddock stands when this guy is around!
I must say a big thanks to Chris for bump starting me all weekend. Cheers big guy!!

Gyles and his Guzzi came away with 4 finishes and 5 points, a relief I am sure after 3 non finishes at Snetterton.
Phil came off worse, just missing out on points and the big crash mentioned earlier.

I feel luckiest for a change, especially after arriving at Cadwell with no confidence in the bike even making it to the start. So with 12 points on the card (points at last! hoorah!) and 3 excellent races, in terms of excitement for me, I had a great weekend.
Can't wait to come back to Cadwell in August!

If I can get all the jobs done in time for Brands, I will be hopeful of some similar results next time out. Maybe a bit optimistic, but I feel I need to aim high and keep pushing to go forward.
A real shame to not have Phil there with me on track. Here's looking forward to his new engine!

Watching from the side lines

Snetterton, round 3,

It seemed like I had travelled back in time, to last year! when I spent the whole year watching,apart from the occasional trackday.
Watching from the side lines isn't so bad....... oh hell!, who am I trying to kid? It sucks!
I'd rather be out there, in the mix.
Actually, I really enjoyed myself. It was just the uncertainty of when I would be riding next. With my engines in pieces, everything is a maybe. Anyway, I'll get to that later....

On the way to Snetterton, we dropped off Phil's engine components at Steve Spencer's and had a good chat about what we were exactly going to do to the FZ motor. Then, off we went to get to the circuit before dark.
We got there to find Gyles and Chris had bagged the spot we had recommended from last year's experience. A good vantage point to be able to see the exit of Corums and the whole of Russle's chicane and onto the start straight...excellent.



Without going into loads of detail, Gyles's Guzzler had nothing but problems, but when it did go ok, he was absolutly flying! It seems Snetterton's fast straights suited the Guzzi well.
I know he had a great time and managed to bag some good points too!
The guys from Alto Performance came to the rescue of the guzzler.
It finished 1 out of the 4 races and went home with more problems than it arrived with. :-(




Gyles chases down John Hall on his aprilia "dirt bike"

Phil chases Dave Shannon on his FZR 750. We may not see Dave on the FZR anymore. He's decided to take his 400 out for the rest of the season. I think he is selling FZR, so we may at least see it in the hands of some one else. I hope so!

Phil enjoyed himself very much and managed some points as well to open his account.
Seems I've got some catching up to do.
Well I may just be able to do just that!......


After talking myself into, and then out of, riding my RSV in the Forza Extreme class at the next round at Cadwell, I decided to give Steve Spencer a call to see what the chances of getting one of the motors sorted, in what ever state of tune, to get me out in time for the next race.
I had spent the journey home from Snetterton, trying to work out some way of racing and not having to miss any more track action. Steve agreed to have a look and call me later in the week with the diagnosis.
Wednesday came.I was expecting a call but my patience got the better of me and I decided to call him........ good news! He had found a good block, some new rings, skimming of the head as it was warped, some new valve seals and a good clean up and valve seat grinding. He has found me a pipe to borrow, and some velocity stacks. A session in the dyno room and tweeking of the carbs should see her in good shape. Anything has to be a vast improvment on what I had before.

So an early departure up to Steve's, where upon his insistance, we will put the motor in at his workshop, rather that at the track as I had suggested. Good idea I guess. His experience is not to be sniffed at and I would take his advice over anything I could come up with.


Phil at Cadwell last summer, entering Hall Bends.....



and climbing up the Mountain.

So I have Cadwell Park to look forward to!
I really didn't want to miss this round. Cadwell is an amazing circuit set in excellent surroundings. A real circuit!



KIDNAPPED.......!
One titanium fork, one titanim spoon or knife....I can't remember which, plus two plastic tubs and a pack of bacon!
I was planning on melting down the titanium stuff but gas is so expensive these days. Shame, they would have made some nice light weight fittings for my bike. Phil talked me into giving them back..... Gyles and Chris are such nice guys, I guess they deserve them returned!
See you at Cadwell guys, I'll cook something nice, and I'll use our own cutlery....promise.
We did eat the bacon though, It would have gone off anyway!....nice.