TT1 4 Hour Endurance racing

Well done.
You're standing next to the Belgian Harris. You may have chatted with Italo Ricci who has quite a bit of Laverda experience, and who's an excellent rider.
Paul
 
Paul Marx said:
Well done.
You're standing next to the Belgian Harris. You may have chatted with Italo Ricci who has quite a bit of Laverda experience, and who's an excellent rider.
Paul
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Thanks Paul for the good spot. Sad to say that life as a pit crew member gave little opportunity to mingle with other teams, apart from those in the same pit box.

A red flag after the first 15 minutes threw most teams into confusion - would the clock stop on the 3 hour race? Would it count towards the mandatory 4 stops? How would the restart happen....? And of course some recalculation for refuelling 🤔

I did exchange greetings with Dirk Brand, former rider for team Van Dijk in the paddock. Think my orange Moto Laverda tee-shirt may have helped his memory!

Full results are here. Some bloody quick bikes out there!
 
If I’m not mistaken, all they needed to do is finish to win the classics class? How this competition has changed..

Marnix
 
I see Henk Van den Mark failed to finish again, the Laverda team must be a jinx on his team..
However, Peter Linden did finish this time.
 
MarnixSFC said:
If I’m not mistaken, all they needed to do is finish to win the classics class? How this competition has changed..

Marnix
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Correct, Marnix. However the 'just finish' very nearly didn't happen. A dislodged gear change lever saw the bike stop on the Cooper straight. Poor Tony knew a finish was needed so heroically pushed the stricken bike back to the pits and pretty much collapsed! Fantastic effort.

Winners.jpg
 
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Well done guys, credit to the whole team

4th gear, check your cam chain tensioner blade has not broken in half
Every time we lose gears that is the reason, broken half of the blade gets into the gearbox area and lodges itself into the shift drum
Happened about 6 times now to our bikes

Look forward to your report
 
REPORT!

Arrived at Brands late afternoon on the 27th, compared to Paul Ricard it was an easy journey. Was informed we couldn’t go to the garages till 2000! Met up with some of the crew, Paul Creasy and Lorraine & Nick Alcock.

After unloading the bike, headed off to a hotel, and to find somewhere to eat.

Friday dawned, back at circuit for 0700 to sign on 0730,to find Tony my co rider already there. Had to attend a riders briefing , spoke with Danny Webb and asked him what side of the track , out the back, was best to pull off to get recovery. From Surtees to Stirlings he advised right. Wished him well in his BSB exploits.

First 20 min session , had to ride behind a marshal for the first 2 laps, once done we were allowed to over take etc. Passed the start/finish line after the 2nd to be followed by a RED flag half way into my 3rd lap. Session cancelled! 1 hour later Tony managed to ride round for 20 mins. Our third session in morning and I was out again, again RED flagged after only 2 laps!!

In the afternoon we had three 15 min sessions scheduled, well yes it happened again when I went out , I managed I’d say 10mins on track before the RED flag came out!!! Final session was Tony’s, but he came in early to try and give me a few more laps. Problem was Tony had to use my Back Protector ,he’d forgotten his, and he couldn’t get it till Race day. So after losing time swapping over I managed an out lap before end of session. The positives were we had a rough idea how much petrol she was using, and we both improved our lap times each time we went out.

Race day dawned , qualifying session started at 1050 for 45 mins. Tony started, and basically our position was going to be decided on the fasts time out of both of us. Well he went without the transponder on, so he had to be called in!!!! After this qualifying went OK, and it became apparent that we wouldn’t be starting last on the grid.

Race started at 1510 (approx.) , ‘Le Man’ type start. Race Control were concerned about the speed differential between us and the Modern rocket ships and therefore we had to wear a yellow jacket over our leathers. The race was not a pure ‘EEC’ riders only event, because the event was organised by ‘NO LIMITS’ their normal endurance teams were taking part. These teams use modern ‘rocket ‘ ships.

Twenty mins into the race , you guessed it, RED flag. I believe Guy Martin had gone down badly at Surtees. After approx. 15 mins the race was restarted behind the race car, in the order we finished. I went out in something like P40 out of 52.

Everything was going to plan, which was Tony and my self would each do 50 min sessions initially, to get pass half distance, score points at half distance! In Tony’s session we had a visit from a NO LIMITS official that marshals in two different posts had seen smoke coming from engine. A third reported sighting would result in a BLACK flag. When he did come in we checked for oil leaks nothing, no smoke coming exhaust either. Had I put a touch too much oil in sump. After the bike went out afterwards no more reports.

Tony came in slightly early due to the gear lever going loose, actually it had come off its bearing and the lever had moved in wards. Moved bike into garage and managed to pull lever back onto its bearing. I jump on, but after approx. 15mins of my 35 min session it went again, stuck in 4th, then it started raining, only lightly. Stayed out with just 4th to play with, actually lap times only suffered by 2 to 3 seconds. Every time I went pass the pits I pointed down to the left side of the bike. Hoping the team would realise the gear lever had come loose again, and would have the tools ready to put the lever back on. Came in, and no they didn’t. Any way gave me time to tell Tony to just ease it in to 4th and leave it there.

Well something like 20 mins in , we had a report that bike 30 had broken down on the Cooper straight. Tony did a fantastic job of pushing in , he couldn’t receive outside help either. If you know Brands it is not flat. He’d some how pushed the lever , and somehow the gearbox moved into a false neutral with no way of selection.

Back in the garage , pulled lever onto bearing, and off I went. Slowly , gently went up to 4th and left it there. Interestingly our quickest lap time was done while we only had the one gear!!! We took the chequered flag. Yes we’d done it.

We should now have scored some points which should give us a chance of winning the Classic Championship – final round is now to be held at Donnington race circuit with No Limits, confirmed 7/8th October.

Finally it’s a shame the gearlever played up because I reckon we lost 17 or 18 laps, which would have put us in around 30th place.

Lovely to see Simon Yates and Nick Davies on race day.
 
Well done plowing through the challenges and finishing, it is rarely easy and often some little item like your gear lever mucking you around. There are worse ways to end race meetings. Onwards and upwards.
 
Great to pop along, Brands is only a few miles away, with Simon on his 750. So much work involved by the Team..logistics seem a nightmare. Loved the activity in the pit lane and garages we could wander through or near. As mentioned, not much Classic about a lot of the bikes...where are the GS thou, CB900s, Z1 ?? Maybe too precious to race these days?
 
nick7 said:
Great to pop along, Brands is only a few miles away, with Simon on his 750. So much work involved by the Team..logistics seem a nightmare. Loved the activity in the pit lane and garages we could wander through or near. As mentioned, not much Classic about a lot of the bikes...where are the GS thou, CB900s, Z1 ?? Maybe too precious to race these days?
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More likely not competitive today. I never knew racers to be put off by expense! Look at the tire budget for a full weekend.
 
Andy J said:
Endurance racing is more a continental sport and I dare say a lot of European teams were put off coming by Brexit and insurance issues.
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Likely, though a lot of the top teams are British.
In view of the bikes in this championship, tyre budgets are probably as important as tea budgets. There is unfortunately a lot of money in there. Always the same problem, as soon as an interesting semi amateur formula comes along, people with money pushes smaller people out.
At the start of the classic endurance series, 10 or more years ago, I was with a friend and his son who campaigned a Seeley Norton at Francorchamps. They were already then 20 seconds a lap down on the fastest, but they finished. And no mean riders, both are multi French classic racing champions. They wouldn't even qualify today. As the years go by, campaigning a Laverda triple will be like running a Seeley Norton. There were Laverda twins at the beginning of the series, soon pushed out.

Paul
 
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It happens, they made a road race series here called Bucket Racing that was supposed to be cheap and fun using a 100cc 4-stroke limit. 5 minutes later people were using HRC, Honda factory racing bits that cost a bomb and cheap became expensive really fast.
 
same as formula 2 sidecars, in the beggining was cheap with 350 two stroke twins and 1000 four stroke twins being the only engines permitted, and using recycled chassis kits (mostly) now they are almost exclusively 600 four stroke fours and the "cheapness" has gone, the Chris Mayhew engines can cost 30 grand and without them you aint going no where, great shame, My old now deceased pal Gary Golder (he of Norton rotary sidecar fame) was instigational in formula two the father of which realy was Fred Brindley, the father of Derek and Barry, (sidecar stars all of them) and when it was "going wrong" Gary attempted to start a single cylinders only sidecar class, he didnt get much support but his outfit showed great ptential and beat a few of the normal ones!
CLEM
 
For me endurance racing is about taking the chequered flag. There will also be people with deeper pockets , with the latest, newest , best thing since slice bread on track. Endurance racing is about TEAM work , working with people who are prepared to put others first. For instance Tony's push in from the Cooper straight, back to the pit garage; with me telling people not to help must have pissed him off. But like he said afterwards we need to pass the chequered flag. Andy Peacock staying on the pit wall at Nagaro , with it pouring with rain, me out on circuit running on Pirelli Supercoras SC1 and SC2 compound with no rain tyres to put on. He stayed the only person out of all teams, mind you at times I appeared to be the only bike on circuit. Wingman. Watching Paul Creasy and Rob Bradbury working on the TT1 after Tony pushed in, to sort the gearlever, no questions. Nick and Lorraine Alcock for their un flinching positivity . Money christ you can spend a small fortune, spare bike, spare wheels that can be fiited in minutes, light weight frame etc etc. Cost ruined a pair of brand new racing boots at Brands, will need new ones for Donington, entry fee 1430 euros per round, new tyres, new chains etc. Its only money. My advice to anyone who is thinking about going racing , then do it, very relaxing and put a smile on yer face. Like I say there will always be someone who as more money, what ever the sport.
 
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