Race Report - Round Five - Brands Hatch, 11th September 2005

Race Report - Round Five - Brands Hatch, 11th September 2005

The lead up to Brands Hatch round started in a similar way to Donington,
with a trackday just over a week before the race. However, this was a
charity track evening organised in memory of our good friend Dave Harris
who had died in a trackday incident earlier in the year. Focused Events
had invited the DD riders, and asked them to get sponsorship either on a
per-lap or overall basis to raise money for Riders for Health
(http://www.riders.org/) which was one of Dave's favourite charities.

Being a man of leisure in my newly unemployed capacity, I had plenty of
time to get the bike ready and organised for the trackday. Mark Bailey,
who had lent me the Keihin FCR flat-slide carbs for the bike, had become
my official pit bitch for the racing season and had been helping me get
the bike setup. He also had a data-logger which we were going to put on
the bike and get some data to help with making decisions on gearing and
the like. The data-logger has a built-in GPS unit to measure your
position on the track, along with an accelerometer and it also takes a
feed from the spark to measure the rpm.

The weather didn't look to good as we set out for Brands in the
afternoon, and it was chucking down by the time we got there. Not
wanting to waste some good practice time, and Brands could be wet on
raceday, Mark started to unload the bike into a spare garage as I went
to join the briefing session and do all the signing-on. The briefing was
already under way when I looked through the window so I slowly pulled
the door open and slid into the already packed room and luckily wasn't
noticed. The next couple of people who tried to do the same weren't so
lucky and they got hauled back outside to be given their own full briefing.

By the time the briefing was over and I had signed all the necessary
forms, I walked back to the garage in the still-falling rain. Most of
the DD riders were there along with some assorted DSC members but quite
a few people weren't going out in the rain which surprised me. Donington
had been mad in the rain, pushing the bike well beyond how I normally
ride in such conditions, so although it would make me wet I was actually
quite looking forward to riding in it again. See - racing does turn you
mad!

On of the local uk.rec.motorcycles newsgroup crew, Lozzo, had turned up
to say hello as he had been working in the area that day. We had a quick
chat and he had a look over the bike before I went out into the rain.
The sky was very dark and it was early evening but I still used my black
visor as I hardly ever use the clear one now, so I've become more used
to it. The rain was getting heavier and the track started to get quite a
few puddles in places, or water streaming across it in little rivers. As
usual I took the first couple of laps to warm myself up at a steady pace
to get used to the track as I hadn't been to Brands Hatch since before
the start of the season, and that was on the 748 rather than the racebike.

My visor soon started misting up and the rain started running down the
inside too. With the spray from other bikes reducing vision even
further, it was more like guiding the bike round the track by
remembering timings of the corners than actually looking for them. Keith
Code probably says you should always ride like this but this is my first
season! As the session ended I pulled into the pits and rode to the
garage. My leathers were a little damp but nothing too bad and I knew my
gloves were not waterproof at all so I'd end up with dyed hands by the
end of the night. Mark checked that the data-logger was doing it's job,
which it appeared to be, and we had a cuppa before the next session as
there were only two groups. Mark's timings from the pit wall indicated
around 1.10s laps which I wasn't too bothered about as I was only
getting warmed up.

The rain started getting heavier and the sky darker as the next session
started, but I was now comfortable with the track so it was time to go
out and up the pace. Coming round Paddock Hill off the start/finish
straight, the hill is quite steep and it makes for an exciting corner
when you're full on it. You then climb back up the hill into Druids
hairpin, and again this is quite steep as you head uphill. The only
problem is that at the bottom of the dip you get a river of water
running across the track into the infield, and it felt like the bike was
aquaplaning across there! The deepest part was on the outside, and my
natural line was somewhere in the middle of the track so I made sure I
didn't push it any wider into the deeper water.

As the laps went on I began to push the bike more and more, waiting for
the sliding feeling from the rear that I got at Donington, but no matter
how much I tried the bike staying firmly gripped to the track and it
didn't slip an inch. The contrast in grip between Brands and Donington
was amazing, even though the weather was much worse at Brands, so it
must be something about Donington which makes it slippery - maybe the
stories of the 'planes from the airport next door dumping fuel and
making it slippery are true?

Back in the garage at the end of the session and my times were down to
constant 1.08s and just dipping into a 1.07s which I was very pleased
with for a wet time. I had actually started to go past people and was
keeping up with both Mike Dawson and Clint DeTarnowsky, the second and
third placed riders in the championship, but something told me that it
wouldn't be like that in the race!

The next session out I caught up with NickB, #34, and sat behind him for
a couple of laps just to get a feel for how quick he was. He certainly
didn't look comfortable in the rain and in a couple of corners he did
look like he picked the bike up from a slide a couple of times. I don't
know if he had new tyres on which made it slippery, but whatever it was
he didn't look happy out there. Remembering that he had given me the
bird as he came past on the Donington trackday, the temptation was too
great so I got right up close as went dropped into Graham Hill bend from
Druids. I got on the power earlier and easily pulled up alongside him
along Cooper straight. Keeping just half a bike length in front I sat up
and looked at him, then did a wanker sign with my left hand. The look in
his eyes was beautiful - a mixture of pure horror and surprise - and the
payback was sweet. I slung the bike into Surtees before the long right
hander of Clarke Curve and off down the start/finish straight. Looking
back Nick had dropped right off my tail and was quite a way back in the
distance, so hopefully that would upset him for the race.

My leathers were starting to get proper wet now, and back in the garage
I could feel the water running down the gap at the back of my neck, down
my back and the crack of my arse. Lovely. It was certainly the wettest
weather I had ever ridden in, but I kept telling myself that it was all
good practice and I needed as much as I could get.

The final session was pretty much uneventful, and the times had stayed
just shy of a 1.06s lap which I was pleased about in the rain. I got my
leathers off and had remembered to bring a complete change of clothes,
so as everyone else went down to one of the garages for a prize raffle,
again to raise money for Riders, I got myself dried and changed into dry
clothes. The raffle was over by the time I got there, but I had a quick
chat with some people I knew and then everyone headed off to the nearby
pub for a drink and a chat, which we joined in with.

You can see some pictures from the track evening in this gallery.
http://horrible.demon.co.uk/050822_Brands/

Back at home and unloading the bike I noticed that the front right fork
had started to leak around the seal, so it would need stripping out and
the seal replacing before the race. Being a man of leisure this would
not be a problem as I would be able to strip it out and take it down to
TecMoto myself the next day to get it sorted. With the trailer back in
the garage and the car unloaded, Mark headed off home to look through
the Data-Logger results and I went to bed.

The next morning I got the trailer out and unloaded the bike. I put the
trailer back into the garage and there was enough room to get the bike
in as well. To lift the front end I threw a tie-down over the rafter
above the bike, then thread it round the frame and headstock. A couple
of tie-downs either side to help steady the bike and spread the weight,
and I hoisted the front just enough off the ground to get the wheel out.
The forks are only help in by a couple of bolts on the yokes, so in
under half an hour the fork was out of the bike and wrapped up in a
cloth to take it down to TecMoto. I took one of my spare forks just in
case they needed to rob any parts off it, like the seal. I couldn't swap
the spare fork in as not only did the spare one not have the second
caliper mount (the reason I had replaced the forks originally) but also
the "race" forks were running different oil, springs and air-gap to
standard.

Down at TecMoto I got chatting to Mitch and Chris, telling them the
latest news about Donington and how I got made redundant just after. I
think I spent the best part of a couple of hours down there, just
chatting away mostly about bikes and racing. Mitch said he would have
the fork sorted for me in a couple of days, so I could pop down and pick
it up at the weekend if I wanted. I had bought these forks off ebay in
Germany as they had caliper mounts on both fork legs, so I could convert
the bike to a twin disk setup. On arrival there was a patch where either
the chroming on the stanchion had worn away or it had been reground, and
so my guess was that this "rough" part of the fork was causing premature
wear of the seals. Talking to Mitch, he said it would be possible to
swap out the stanchion from one of the original forks, and make one good
set out of the two. This would have to wait until the end of the season
though.

With the bike still dangling from the ceiling there wasn't much I could
do until the fork was complete, so by the weekend I was itching to pick
the fork up and get it back into the bike. Before I started racing I
wouldn't dream of doing anything as "complex" as dropping a fork out of
the yokes but having stripped the bike down and put it back together,
then gone out and raced on it, I had no problem with doing these kinds
of things anymore. In fact, getting the bike stripped down and dropping
the fork out was now a half-hour job, and the fork went back in and I
had the bike back together within an hour.

Mark had gone through the data gathered from the data-logger, and done
some calculations on what gearing we should be using. The program that
came with the logger drew some nice maps of position of the bike out on
the track, and you could see the various parameters of the bike at any
of the positions in the software, which was pretty cool. How useful it
would be to a couple of numpties like us was debateable, but we had a
better toy than anyone else and that made us feel good.

Some data output from Brands (edited)
http://horrible.demon.co.uk/600ss/ses2.2Lap3.edited.jpg

In the week before the race, Mark had come over to help finish off the
bike and fit a bracket he had made up for the data-logger to sit on
underneath the seat, and also one for the small GPS sensor to be mounted
onto. This would tuck everything away out of sight and allow us to run
the logger at Brands in untimed practice. I didn't want to run it during
the race itself as that was expressly forbidden in the rules, but it
didn't say anything about during practice. As we were finding out,
unless something is expressly forbidden in the rules, most people were
putting in their own interpretation and it was always interpreted in
their own favour! With the brackets on the bike we made some link cables
to hard-wire in the pulse sensor on the low-tension side of one the cdi
boxes as a feed for the data-logger. This would save us using the bulky
clip-on lead which went onto one of the HT leads. With the cables all
tucked away and the bike given a check and a wipe over ("cleaning" would
not be the right word!) we put the bike back onto the trailer and stowed
it all away in the garage ready to leave early on the sunday morning. As
Brands is less than an hour away, and there would be plenty of room in
the paddock, there was no point in staying the night before.

On the raceday morning Mark arrived around 7am and we had the trailer
hitched up and were off to Brands shortly after. The drive to Brands was
fairly uneventful and we stopped off at the garage up the road from the
track to stock up with petrol and supplies for the day. As we got to the
paddock, it was pretty full but we found some space just down the hill
from the scrutineering bay and the office, and parked up. As we started
unloading, Andy Roberts, #99, arrived and got into the space next to us
at the end of the row. We had a quick chat with him and then unloaded
the bike. I got changed into my leathers as Mark did a quick once over
the bike to ensure everything was ready for scrutineering. I got all my
stuff together - lid, gloves, ACU card, scrutineering card, etc - and
then started to push the bike to the scrutineering bay. It was at this
point I realised why there was space at the bottom of the hill; it's an
arse to push a bike up a hill in full leathers! Luckily Mark was there
to give me a helping hand and we lined up for the bike to be checked over.

Just in front of us in the queue for scrutineering was Tim (#12) along
with Paul Payne (#68) so we said hello. While waiting in the queue, a
bike behind us, which I think was a Honda Hornet being held by a young
girl, fell over onto its side. The girl was quite young, only around 14
or so, and when a bike starts to go over there's no way she would be
able to hold it up - something that even I would struggle to do. It made
quite a loud thump as it hit the floor and everyone turned around. The
poor girl looked really embarassed and was probably really worried about
what her dad would say. Some guys went over to help her pick the bike up
and the chat in the bay started again. No less than a minute later there
was another loud thump. Everyone stopped talking and turned around to
see that this time the girl had dropped it on the other side. I couldn't
help chuckling to myself about how the paintwork would be nicely
scratched now, but you couldn't help feeling sorry for the poor girl. It
turned out that the bike's owner (or rider at least) had been standing
in the queue to get his kit scrutineered while all this was going on,
and he played it cool in front of everyone and didn't say anything at
the time.

In the mean time, Tim had pushed his bike forward to be scrutineered,
but it had failed on having loose head bearings. The scrutineer seemed
to have really gone over the bike quite a bit, and I was dreading that
he would do mine as he would probably find no end of problems. Luckily
the scrutineer walked off and one of the other guys started checking the
bikes instead. Paul went through in front and then I went through
without problems too. Mark held the bike and I went off to get my kit
checked, which passed without problem. Tim went past with some spanners
in his hand, obviously off to sort the bearings. With my kit checked I
went to the office to sign on and get the transponder for the bike, and
on my way out Tim walked past again as the bike had failed even after he
had tightened up the bearings. He was off to seek advice, so I left him
to it and rode the bike back down to our area.

With the bike all ready for practice there was nothing else left to do
except hang around and wait to be called, so we got a cuppa and had a
walk around to say hello to the other members of the club dotted around
the paddock. By this time my friend Chris arrived to come and watch, as
I'd bored him to death with talking about the race series, and a free
ticket for him had encouraged him to get out of bed early on a sunday
and come to Brands to watch. It looked like Andy had got most of his
family to come along and support, as there was a large crowd gathered in
his area next to us. Most of the entrants in the series would probably
name Brands as their "home" round, so there would obviously be quite a
lot of people supporting them at the track. While we were sitting around
a guy turned up with his young son and introduced himself as Ben. It
turned out that Ben had been reading my site and turned up to come and
say hello. So now I had my very own internet stalker as well! Cool!

With practice called over the tannoy, Mark started the datalogger and
refitted the seat, and I got kitted up to go out. The bike felt fine, so
I jumped on and pulled away as Mark and Chris walked off to the pit lane
to watch and also to take some laptimes to see how well I was doing.
Having been to a couple of trackdays at Brands, I was expecting the
bikes to go out through the pit-lane which was always the case, but on a
race day they open up a gate at the end of the inner pit road which
leads out onto the circuit just at Surtees which is rather odd! We all
got out onto the track and I was quite near the front, trying to hang on
to some of the faster riders for a bit of a tow. Nothing much eventful
happened but I do remember diving up the inside of a pack of riders
bunched together at Druids, one of them being fellow Essex boy and
comedy rival Dickie (#47), which pleased me no end as I took all three
of them in one move and then went off into the distance.

Back in the paddock after the practice Mark unhooked the datalogger and
took the memory card out to try and get some details out of it. I sat
about and had some choccy biscuits as we would be out for timed practice
shortly, so there was no point in changing out of my leathers. Although
it was overcast, it was still quite warm and it didn't look like it
would rain either. The track had been fine in practice and my trackday
in the wet the week before meant I would be happy out racing even if it
did rain later. Mark was struggling with the datalogger and couldn't get
any sensible readings out of it to see if we were running at full revs
or not. He said that, from the pit lane, it sounded like the bike was
misfiring down the straight. It didn't feel like the bike was missing,
and I'd got used to being passed by the 620 bikes by now, so hadn't
really noticed anything wrong. Mark was still struggling to get any
sense from the datalogger, and had downloaded the data from it a couple
of times but it still didn't make sense, so in the end we gave up and
had a cuppa instead. Even Kev Mooney (#44), who was just across the
paddock and was riding a standard monster 600, said that he was catching
up with me on the straights as my bike didn't seem to be running ok.

After another couple of tries, Mark finally managed to get some of the
data off, but it looked like the bike definitely wasn't running right.
According to the data it wouldn't even pull maximum revs on the gearing
we had, and was misfiring at the top end, which probably contributed to
the mess in the data. We had a discussion about what we could do to fix
it, given the time constraints and the fact that next time out was timed
practice and I didn't want to **** it up completely, and it came down to
two options: (a) rejet the Keihin carbs to give more fuel at the top end
to stop the misfire, or (b), change the gearing on the bike to use what
power we did have low down, and pray for a tail-wind. We couldn't change
the carbs back to standard as they were still at home in the garage.
Then we realised that the chances of anyone having jets for the carbs
would be quite low, especially as they were not the same as those for
the standard Mikunis. So the decision was made to change the gearing and
we went to the standard settings of 15/41, dropping the rear sprocket
from the 43 which we had been running with. This would probably
(hopefully!) be over geared, but it may give us a chance to use the
midrange power and get a decent result. At least swapping the rear
sprocket is an easy job, and it was made easier by the fact that I
already had the 41t rear on my spare sprocket carrier. I began to wonder
if the datalogger had contributed to the misfiring problem, as we were
now using an inline feed from the low tension side, rather than the
clip-on sensor over the HT leads. I made an executive decision to keep
the datalogger off the bike for timed practice, just in case.

Back out for practice and as we rolled round onto the track the bike let
out an almighty backfire. As I came round Clarke curve it felt horrible,
to the point where I was in two minds about pulling off the track and
down the pit lane, but it suddenly picked up again and so I set off to
put a good lap in. Just as I was working up to get some fast laps in,
the red flags came out round by Druids and so we eased the speed down
and took it easy round the track. This was only my second red flag in
racing, the first being at Snetterton, so I was still unsure of what to
do except to follow the instructions from the marshalls. As we rounded
into Clarke Curve, there was a bike laying in the gravel and a rider
laying by the side of the track. I couldn't really see who it was but it
looked like a nasty incident from the quick glimpse I'd seen before we
went down the pit road and into the pit lane. The accident must have
only just happened as about 6 of us rolled through the pitlane and
stopped at the end, much like a trackday. Looking around I could see the
remaining riders had stayed on the track and gone to the start/finish
line, so while the 6 of us sat in the pit lane, the others were all up
on the track. We waited ages until someone came round and said that it
was Tony (#12) who had managed to highside his bike coming out of
Clarke, and was being taken off to hospital.

My plan for trying to stick at the front of the group, and to get as
much clear track as possible, looked like it was all going wrong if the
marshalls let the riders at the start line go ahead of the rest of us
down in the pit lane. There was a flurry of activity by the marshalls
and all the bikes started up, then suddenly the bikes on the start line
all roared off in front of us. Once they had all gone the marshalls let
us go from the pit lane, so I did my best to pick someone out who I knew
was faster than me and stick with them. Coming round the track for the
first time, I crossed over a crack in the tarmac at Clarke Curve which
looked like it could have had water in it. The back wheel stepped out a
bit, but from all the practice I'd had in the rain both at Donington and
at the Brands trackday, it didn't worry me and I kept going. It did make
me wonder if this was the same spot where Tony had gone down.

With timed practice over and the bike back in the pits, the times didn't
seem great but we waited until the official sheet came out from the
office with the grid positions for our two races. Word came back that
Tony had a possible broken ankle, so he would be in hospital for the
rest of the day. Other than that he was ok, which was a relief, and it
also meant that I would shift one place up the standings as he wouldn't
be racing ;-) We also had a Ducati UK guest rider from Motorcycle Racer
magazine, Rob Hoyles. I love Motorcycle Racer mag as its one of the best
bike mags out there. While it is purely orientated towards the racing
scene, it still covers plenty of trackday and novice racing aspects too,
so if you're reading this and haven't done so already, please go out and
buy one and see if you like it. This also meant another place up the
results for points, and at this rate I needed all the help I could get.

We could only sit around until the race was called as we'd done
everything to the bike that we could - make sure it had petrol, did a
quick bolt check, make sure the chain was aligned - I'd even given it a
quick clean! We eventually went and got the grid positions from the
office, only to find out that I had qualified back in 27th place! WTF!
There was something seriously wrong with the bike if that was all I
could manage! This pissed me off no end, as it was my worst result so
far and its a long way to make up places when you start so far back up
the grid, no matter how good or bad the others are. I had been hoping
for a really good result at Brands, and here I was one row from the
back. I'd been going backwards since the start, but I felt like I should
be moving forward with the others as I was definitely getting quicker as
a rider. But, shit happens and I just had to get out there and do my best.

As we lined up on the grid for Race 1, I was thinking that I would have
to get a real flyer of a start to have any chance of getting an ok-ish
result. The lights went out and I did manage to slip a couple of places,
but it looked like chaos into the first corner of Paddock Hill Bend,
especially as it is such a nasty corner anyway, and people were all over
the track! We settled into our rythym round the first lap, and I started
to pick people off by braking later into the corners and getting
underneath them, or holding more corner speed through the corners to get
past them coming out. As we came over the start/finish line on the
fourth lap, there was a big cloud of smoke drifting across the line. I
didn't see any bikes parked up, so assumed that it was coming from the
pitlane. Maybe someone had started up the barbie?

Carnage at Druids, Brands Hatch
http://horrible.demon.co.uk/600ss/050911_brands_01.jpg

Dropping down from Druids into Graham Hill bend, I went past Antoine on
his 620SS. There had been a couple of yellow flags in the race, but I
swear that I didn't pass anyone under a yellow flag. This happened to me
in the first race and it had really pissed me off, so I knew that it
wouldn't be good to do it to anyone else as I felt it was akin to
cheating. Antoine had later posted on the DSC message board that someone
had gone past him on a yellow flag, and I had to think back about it at
the time. I posted that I was sure it wasn't me, and that if it had been
it certainly wasn't intentional. Antoine was kind enough to send me a
private message to say that it had been me, so I apologised again and
said it wasn't intentional, which I maintain. He was gracious enough to
comment that I would have got past him anyway, as once I was past he
couldn't keep up, so he wasn't that bothered about it.

Once past Antoine the next target was Michael Winter (#22). He was on a
620 Monster and he's not a slow rider, so I was desparately trying to
find a way past him, and to make it stick. A couple of times I had got
underneath him going through Graham Hill bend, but he had got back past
me on the short straight to Surtees. I managed to close right up on him
at Maclaren, and was getting the drive out on a tighter line and getting
a good couple of bike lengths past him out onto the straight, but each
time he could easily close the gap under the power of the 620 and be
back in front over the line and into Paddock Hill. This happened for the
remaining couple of laps - no matter how hard I tried and managed to get
past him, he just came back past me again on the next straight! I had no
idea where we were position wise, but I knew that I had gone past quite
a few riders and hopefully would have made it up the field.

Back in the paddock and Mark had said it was a good race, and that I was
placed around 20th, but he couldn't be sure as its hard to count the
bikes through once the back-markers start getting lapped. It turned out
that Ali's bike (#7) was the source of the smoke at the start of the
race, and he had retired with most of the contents of his 674 engine
sitting in the bottom of the catch tray. Oops! The official results
sheet had me placed in 21st place, which would be 20th for points once
the guest rider had been discounted. Michael had also crossed the line
just under a second in front of me, but I knew I was in front of him as
we came out of the last corner, so it shows how much more he was making
up down the straights with the 620. I was quite pleased to have made up
so many places from so far back, but obviously still disappointed to
have been so far back in the first place.

The bike felt to be running better and the first race felt like I had
just ridden the best I had done all season, so hopefully I could do just
as well, if not better, in the second race. Again there wasn't much to
do except give the bike a once over to check nuts and bolts, make sure
it had enough petrol in and then sit around waiting for the next race.
And have a cuppa and eat the remaining chocolate digestives, which were
fast becoming a race day must-have.

We discussed whether it would be a good idea to change the gearing
again, to try to give more speed in the midrange area, as the change to
standard gearing had obviously worked as we expected. However, the only
other combination I had was a 37t rear sprocket, and we felt that going
from a 15/41 to a 14/37, the next closest ratio, would be too much for
the bike and could make things worse than they were already. So we left
things as they were and again hoped for a tailwind to keep me going in
the right direction.

Lining up on the grid again, I knew that I could do better with the bike
this time, so I tried to concentrate and get myself into a better frame
of mind. This seemed to work to an extent, as I got a pretty good start
and had made up a few places going into the first corner. Coming across
the line for the first time I was in 23rd place, sitting right behind
Michael again. We battled with each other for a couple of laps, pushing
each other on, and caught up with a couple of bikes on lap 4. Michael
went past both Kevin (#44) and Antoine (#82) and I followed him through
as I really didn't want to lose him and get held up by the people in
between. Again we pushed each other and closed up on the next group of
riders, but as before I couldn't make any of my passes stick and Michael
would come back past me on the power. It was the same as the previous
race - I'd go past him into a corner and he'd just go straight back past
me on the next straight, and the finish line at Brands is right down the
other end of the straight! On the last lap I made a last ditch attempt
to get past him and hold him off to the line, but it was not to be and
he went over then line just half a second in front.

Back in the pits I was happy that I had made the best possible efforts
and again had ridden one of the best races of all year. It was just
disappointing that the bike wasn't running right otherwise the result
would have been a lot better. We got the bike onto the stand to let it
cool down, and I got changed out of my leathers. We loaded the car up
and left the bike off the trailer as it would still be hot and the
rider's meeting would be starting shortly at the Ducati hospitality
truck by the grandstand. We walked over to the truck and as we got
closer, Tony was coming the other way in Annette's car, having just been
discharged with a broken ankle. He looked quite upbeat, but maybe it was
just the effects of the painkillers they had administered!

The rider's meeting was a familiar affair, with Geoff walking off with
the two first place trophies and the Ducati London South boys walking
off with the other two places. Andy Johnson, riding Alan Knight's
machine he had built himself, had crashed the party and managed to bag
3rd place in race one, so he got the biggest round of applause. Geoff
also got an extra round of applause as his results had made him the
series champion, one round early. We were then to have the draw for the
tyres, but Michael had left the names in the van back in the paddock, so
it was agreed that the draw would be done at the next round at Cadwell
park instead. There goes my chance of a new set of tyres for the last
round! Tim Maccabbe, MD of Ducati UK, was also present to thank everyone
for coming and to say how pleased he was to be associated with such a
great race series organised by such a great club. Bless.

With all the back-slapping over, we said our goodbyes and went back to
the car to load the bike onto the trailer and make our way home. We
discussed the carbs at some length and concluded that we really should
have had them setup properly on a dyno before using the bike in anger.
Unfortunately time, or lack of it, was the biggest factor here, so it
has been a lesson learnt from my first season. We also agreed that going
back to the original carbs would be the best route for the last race of
the season at Cadwell in four weeks time. As I was still unemployed, I
could easily get this sorted and my friend Phill had also mentioned
doing a trackday together as he had a voucher from 100% Bikes. The
reason he mentioned it is because he no longer had a bike, having sold
his ZXR750, and I had two. I'd also said that he would be welcome to
borrow the racebike should he want to, so he was now about to call in
that offer. At least this would give me a chance to make sure the bike
was running properly before the last race.

Roll on Cadwell in four weeks and a trackday inbetween.

Current Standings

Qualifying: 27th. (unknown time)
Race 1: 21st (points for 20th). Best Lap 1:00.72s
Race 2: 21st (points for 20th). Best Lap 1:00.90s
18th in Championship on 72 points.
Link to Full Stats breakdown including lap times.
http://www.theresults.co.uk/New_Era_Results_11th_Sep_2005_Brands_Hatch.pdf
Link to PLJ Official Pictures.
http://www.pljphoto.com/photos.asp?...50911_Brands_Hatch&Rider=111_Antony_Espindola

Next (final) Round: Cadwell Park (full) - Sunday 9th October.

More racing stuff and write-ups here:
http://www.horrible.demon.co.uk/bikes/