Season over

And what a season it's been.

This year we've been campaigning a Triumph Daytoina 675 bought from
Flitwick Motorcycles. Its the bike that Olie Linsdell rode in the
Triumph Triple Challenge and the same one Danny rode at Silverstone at
last year's televised BSB meet.

We've only done about 1/2 to 2/3 of the meetings, but managed to get a
trophy or two at each one[1]. The bike has stayed upright in every race
and only been down the track on its side once, in practice at
Cadwell[2] a few weeks ago.

This weekend saw us at Brands Hatch for the Champion of Brands meet. On
Saturday, after qualifying in 5th place, Danny went out and held his
place earning himself another 3rd in class. I missed that race cos I
fell asleep in my car due to only having 4 hours sleep every night for
the last couple of weeks, and no-one could find me when I was needed -
whoops. Luckily we had a supporter there who stepped in and helped out
in my absence. Today saw him get another 5th place in the second
Superstock 600 race with a lap time of 49.2 sec on a shagged rear
Metzeler Racetech that just about held itself together for the 14 laps.

Next race was the Centenary Champion of Brands race, which was over 18
laps, not a distance we're used to racing for - 12 laps maximum is
normal. For this race we borrowed a used 190 rear tyre from Flitwick
Mcs and I changed the gearing, going up a tooth on the back to
compensate for the increased diameter dropping the revs. We usually run
a 180 rear and earlier in the weekend I'd dropped the yokes down the
forks slightly to help the bike hold a tighter line through Clearways,
which had worked to an extent. Apparently fitting a 190 really helped
it to hold a tight line and gave more grip on the power out of tight
corners like Druids due to having a wider footprint.

Danny got a great start to the race with Olie Linsdell on his 2009
model 'long-bang' R1 trying desperately to catch up[3]. Olie eventually
went past around lap 6 or 7, and Danny managed to pull a 5 second lead
over the next man back. I pit board as well and stopped giving him the
+4 sign to show how far in front he was from next man back as it was
too long for me to worry about - over 4 seconds behind is too far to
bother him. He held that position for the rest of the race and finished
10th, the fastest 600[4] in the race and way ahead of a load of R1s,
Gixers etc.

We left Brands tonight tired but extremely happy, and looking forward
to doing even better in 2010. As a thank you, Danny and Jamie Cooper
have loaned me their 675 and a TZR250 to do a trackday they've paid for
me to do at Rockingham next weekend. Thanks lads


[1] I have a great collection of red 'podium place' caps from all the
MSV circuits now.
[2] They crash extremely well, just a front brake lever required and a
footrest hanger bending back straight after a 50mph drop.
[3] Olie is still recovering from a huge crash in June at the TT, where
he smashed his left leg to bits after hitting a stone wall at 155mph
and has a femoral rod in place.
[4] Technically a 675cc, but runs in 600cc races due to being a triple
cylinder.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Lozzo

As you should. Bloody well done.

How's Ollie doing, by the way?

 

Olie's doing ok considering, but he was limping like an old man after
18 laps of the Indie circuit. His left leg is healing well, he just
needs to get his head round going fast again, which is the trickiest
thing. He's still what I'd call super-fucking-quick, but when you see
Danny holding with him on a 675 you realise he's lost a bit of bottle,
but it'll come back again.

I forgot to say, Danny finished the MRO Stocksport 600 Championship in
5th place, the highest placed Triumph, and ahead of a huge field of
mainly R6s that have at least 8bhp more than our paltry 113bhp. Not bad
when you take into account we didn't do anywhere near all the meetings,
but were still 27 points clear of Del Pickett, our closest rival.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Lozzo

Given where he was in June, I'd call that pretty bloody good.

 

He's got more guts than I could ever have. I dare say I'd have given up
riding altogether had I been involved in the kind of smash he had.

155mph into a stone wall with your leathers shredding off you as you go
is not a nice situation to be in

 

Well done to all of you.