Cadwell – Snetterton Endurance

Cadwell… What an insane little track that is! The harder you attack it the slower you seem to go… well at least that’s how it worked out for me!

The test day was good fun! lovely weather and we pitched up with our good friends at Renown Racing. Luckily for us they happily let us squeeze into their awning and run off their generator too! ( What friendly chaps 😀 ). Took quite a while to gel with the track it’s so narrow compared to most other tracks and took quite a while to gel with the track, it’s so narrow compared to most other tracks and turn one is one of those corners where your heads screaming to shut off the throttle but you have to just keep it pinned and throw it in. The camber and climb up the hill scrubs off all the speed you need to lose, A lot easier said than done!

Race one was pretty uneventful although we did come very close to coming together with Tom Benstead at the chicane, Trying to get up the inside into the chicane ended up into a bit of a block pass and caused tom to run on and skip it all together, unfortunately for tom that wasn’t to be our only incident together.

Race two we caused a bit of controversy with Carl from renown racing, after them following us for a lap or so and getting very close and almost taking us out Carl found a gap going into the first corner. However, there was a yellow flag out and Mike had let off the throttle so as Carl come passed he completely missed the yellow flag as it was hidden behind Mike and ended up getting a penalty putting him back behind Mike in the end result.

Race 3 was a struggle, mike was feeling tired and struggling to find a decent flow. After getting frustrated and going slower he admittedly “gave up pushing” and settled into just bringing the bike home. Surprisingly though this was where he set his best time! From lapping most of the weekend at around 1m43s most of the weekend he pulled a 1m41s from nowhere. Cadwell is definitely a track that rewards a nice flowing ride!

Race 4 was a good battle with Tom again he managed to get past us a few laps in and Mike locked onto his back wheel refusing to let him pull away. After following tom for a few laps there was only one place that Mike was noticeably quicker, unfortunately it wasn’t an easy place to overtake. Mike did, however, manage to ride around the outside of tom on Chris’s curve and into the gooseneck. According to Tom, he did come into contact although the adrenaline was following for Mike and he didn’t even notice. Luckily it wasn’t enough contact to cause either riders to come off but Mike did pull a comfortable lead within the next lap.

We also got our first taste of endurance racing when we were asked to step in and support bob + 1 with timing and rider changes

Snetterton

At Snetterton, we got our second taste of endurance racing as we were asked to be the third rider for GRS Racing. Endurance racing is a different experience altogether, you get a ten minute qualifying session in the morning then wait around till 3 pm for you race to start. It’s a lot more relaxed this way and there’s virtually no rushing around first thing in the morning like you do with sprints.

Mike managed to set the fastest lap out of the three of them during qualifying but it wasn’t a great time. Think it was about 2m12 where the aim was for a little closer to 2m10 but thats what you get for not doing the test day :). We were also disqualified from quali as Karl was running illegal tyres so this didnt really matter. The team didn’t mind as this was just a race for fun rather than chasing positions. Both Karl and Glen were coming back from crashes and were looking to just get a feel for it again.

The endurance start is mental, they run le man style starts where the riders have to run across from one side of the track to the other jump on their bikes and race off. its completely chaotic and mad but so much fun! The guys let mike do the start as it was his first go at endurance… and guess what he fluffed it haha :D. The excuse was “My bike has a button to override the clutch switch and in my excitement to get going I completely forgot about it!” It only slowed us down by a few seconds but it was enough.

The first stint was a hard slog, mike was lapping around 2m12 still and couldn’t make much progress. he also struggled to get onto anyone’s back wheel to drag him along, Most of the field is made up of 1000cc machines so although he could follow them through a couple of corners but as soon as it came to one of snetts straights they were gone and there wasn’t much he could do.

After what felt like 30 minutes into my stint he was really starting to fade and each time he came around you could see he was scanning the pit wall for the ‘in’ sign but no luck. He did get a small rest bite in the form of a red flag. There was a nasty crash going into bomb hole between to riders and a lot of oil spilt so the track was closed while they cleaned up the track. The Team informed Mike had only been out for 20 minutes. Determined to complete the agreed 30 minute stint he stayed with the bike in pit lane and waited patiently to go back out. After the restart, Mike managed about another 3 or 4 laps before the fuel light came on and I had to be pulled in.

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Pictures above by https://www.facebook.com/bryan.lancaster

The second stint was much the same although in mikes own words “I did almost come off the bike. Pushing the front too hard through nelsons it gave way, I fell to the side and all my weight fell to my knee. Luckily after the bike had shook my weight free it caught grip again and picked itself up dragging me along with it. Then it was just a case of shuffling back onto the seat thanking my guardian angel and try to find my confidence again.” If anyone can verify that we would love to hear… till then we’re not so sure thats how it went down.

The third stint was relatively tame just exhausting, Mike had reached his limit and was out of energy and making silly mistakes which were costing him time and you could see he was getting more frustrated the longer he stayed out. Luckily the bike called quits though when the fuel light came on and finally relieved mike from his final stint. Karl Smith bought the race to an end for the team.

But again we were disqualified as Karl was still running illegal tyres. Cant slip anything past those scruteneers!

We enjoyed dipping my toe in endurance but Mike definitely prefer sprints. “During the endurance its hard to tell who you racing against. Sometimes you let someone go as they are on a thousand and arent in your class but I don’t like that I want to fight for every position. I also wasn’t so good a reserving energy and just treated each stint like a sprint race” Massive thanks to GRS for having us as part of their team for the weekend. Great bunch and really friendly!

Unfortunately, that concludes our racing for 2017 and as of yet we don’t have any firm plans for 2018 although we hope to get at least a few race weekends but maybe not a full season

Anglesey / Sold the CBR / Bought 675 /…

Right so lots to update, this could be a longish blog post..

First off Anglesey;

Again no practice day for us so we had 10 minutes to learn the track and set a blisteringly fast hot lap that would put us at the front of the grid… yeah… this didn’t happen :D. However, we weren’t stone dead last either 😀 albeit not far from;

The racing was hard going as conditions were pretty poor. The bike was going strong but it just wasn’t quick enough. In the second race, we had a very hard fought battle against No666 Daniel Blake on a 675. Several times showing him a wheel but the torque of the 675 just drove him out of corners quicker than the cbr could manage. Eventually we made a pass about 2 laps before the end of the race and then just focused on riding as defensively as possible to keep the place.

The 2 races on Sunday were extremely windy and again hard going, if the wind caught you it could easily send you across the other side of the track. We had some good battles with James Roberts, him winning the 1st, us winning the 2nd.

On the whole, we had a good weekend, the weather was against us but the track is awesome and we hope to get back there soon.

Shortly after Anglesey and the frustration of not having enough grunt we decided to part company with the CBR, putting it up for sale on FB. Although we were very sad to see it go we were equally excited to at what was to replace it

Our very own 675! Was a long trip to Hull and back to collect it then a week later off to Oulton park to give it a test.

For the Oulton round, we booked the test day. New bike, new track and only one day’s racing wasn’t going to work.

Practice Day:

After the first session, I was excited but also a little concerned. The track was amazing! Great fun to ride whilst also being a huge challenge. However, I couldn’t get the bike to turn properly. It seemed to be resisting my inputs most of time and then it would suddenly plonk down on its side in a corner. It wasn’t a very enjoyable bike to ride, it was almost as if the bike was too stable.

I returned to the pits and widened the bars right out to give myself more leverage when turning. This helped a little but not enough,  also the quick shifter was distracting me a fair bit and took some getting used to.

After the second session I took the bike to James @ no limits race support to ask for some help. He took one look around the bike and said I bet it won’t turn and it’s super stable on the brakes. At this point I thought he has over heard my complaints in the garage. Turns out the previous owner had wound the preload right up so as to get the right sag settings for a heavier rider. James made a few tweaks, wound the forks pre load off and a few clicks on the rebound on the shock and sent me on my way.

The difference it made was phenomenal, the bike changed direction effortlessly, floated into a corner and tracked like a dream never coming off line. I wish I knew more about setting up the suspension because it can completely transform a bike

Later in the afternoon we were waiting going out for a session but we were held in pit lane due to a clean up from a mishap in the previous group and my check engine light came on. I went out and done a single lap to see if it would clear itself but no luck. I came into the pits and switched it on and off again still no luck. I walked up and down the paddock asking if anyone had a way of getting the error codes of a 675 and some luck! One of the other new comers had a laptop and an odb2 cable but he couldn’t look at it till after practice as he understandably had his own bits to do.

We skipped the next session as we weren’t sure what to do with the bike. Instead of skipping the last session though we took the decision to just to risk it… the bike was behaving, as usual, wasn’t in limp mode and we had checked the oil and couldn’t see anything in it so what the hell.

It was a pretty good session and I just set about trying to learn the lines and tie that into the various youtube videos I had watched in anticipation of the round. My speed was slowly improving but I still had a long way to go but I was out of time all sessions were over for the day.

Eventually, I took my bike over to James Willams, who hooked my bike up to his laptop and tried to pull down the error codes. Unfortunately down to either an issue with his laptop or my bike the two wouldn’t communicate. So James lent me his cable so I could try installing the software on my laptop and try again, but by the time I got the bike back to the garage the light had gone out! hoorah! I decided if the bike was now happy then so was I and returned the cable without investigating any further.

Race Day:

We woke up to a very fine rain not enough to wet the track but enough to play on your mind. The decision was made to run slicks regardless of the rain, we were pretty sure we could get enough heat in the tyres and as the ground was dry there wouldn’t be any rain to dissipate, so wet tyres wouldn’t be needed. However 10 minutes before quali it decided to rain properly. This resulted in us not qualifying and having to sit the session out. The misty rain returned shortly after but having learned our lesson we switched to wets ready for my first race from the very back of the grid.

Starting 37th probably wasn’t the worst thing to happen, It allowed us to make progress through the pack and not have to worry too much about riding defensively. It was meant to be a wet race but was more mildly damp, if we were allowed to run intermediate tyres and we had a set they would have been ideal. The first few laps were carnage, I managed to gain a few positions off the line but it was yellow flags galore after that! Mike counted 4 bikes crashed at one corner. It ended up being red flagged as there were too many crashed bikes on the circuit. we managed to finish 24th but that was largely down to the 6 DNF’s.

The second race was nice and dry and we started 25th but finished 26th, we struggled with lack of experience with the track. Mike often second guessing himself around the blind corners (of which there are a fair few) and not getting on the throttle anywhere near hard enough. Also as our speed slowly increased our lines had to change to accommodate the extra speed. Constantly changing turn in markers, brake markers, and gear change markers.

During the third and final race, it started to click. we were finding areas to could steal a bit more speed, pushing a little wider for one corner but then setting up perfectly for the next. Oulton Park has a lot of late Apex’s and you need to sacrifice some corners to get the better drive out of the next and on to the straights. In the final race, we started 26th and finished 21st also taking our best lap time from 1:57.338 to 1:55.526. We still have loads of room to improve and know plenty of areas we can work on when we next visit.

Oulton has now got to be my favourite track though and I hope to get back there many more times…

Now to get ready for Cadwell next month!

Donington 20th & 21st May No Limits Racing Round…

Well, Donington didn’t quite go to plan…

Qualifying was the first time I had been out on track at Donington and despite numerous laps on the Xbox I wasn’t prepared for quite how much the elevation changes around the track. A few times I thought I had it down and ended up almost running on.

I ended up qualifying 33rd out of 37 so right at the back with the fastest lap of 1:54.188. best I could manage with less than 10 minutes of track time.

The first race on Saturday was just after a down pour, lovely … wet tyres were definitely in order. Within a lap of the race starting the safety car was out and a few riders down. A slow 4 laps followed where I just spent my time trying to pick out some reference points so I could try and get going as soon as the green flag was shown.

Once the green was finally shown I got dropped pretty quickly by the guys in front, Frustrated with myself I was really struggling to get to grips with the track. Luckily for me (not someone else), there was another set of yellows followed by a safety car and I used this opportunity to get back up with the pack in front again.

Once the green flag was shown and racing commenced again I was determined to not to get dropped and actually found myself gaining on the rider in front.  however when the green flag was shown so was the last lap flag.

In a manic dash to the finish line, I was determined to try and take the rider in front. I could catch him little by little in the braking zones.  As I closed in on him in the 3rd sector of the track he made and overtake so I had 2 riders to take. I managed to dive up the inside of the new rider and got back behind my original target. I was on his back wheel right up until the last hair pin but could make a move. I tried to get better drive out of the final hair pin but despite gaining on him quite quickly I didn’t make it past him till after the line. Ended the race in 25th

The Sunday’s qualifying was much nicer and after several slow laps the day before I managed to qualify 28th beating the rider I had been chasing the day before. Qualifying lap was 1:50.520 so managed to shave off 4 seconds over night and felt I had plenty more to save.

The bike how ever had other ideas and called it a day 2 laps into the first race and that was, unfortunately, the end of my weekend.

** update **

The bike is running once again ( Thanks to Glen Rixon from GRS racing) and once again we will be going into a race event without having turned a tyre there before our qualifying session( No point in making things easy for ourselves ). We will be giving it everything at the next event and aim to finish in the points!

Brands Hatch 21st – 23rd NoLimitsRacing

So my brands hatch weekend started on Friday morning, I didn’t have a practise place booked but the friendly staff at NLR managed to squeeze me in ( big thanks to Toni! ) and let me get some good set up time in before the race weekend really began.

I spent most of the practise just trying out a few different lines and different gearing for a few corners. Also slowly building up confidence in the front end, dropping into Surtees without really braking always has my heart in my throat :D. I also switched from dropping into paddock hill in 3rd gear into 4th. My corner entry speed wasn’t much faster but with less engine breaking through the corner and being able to get back on the throttle earlier I was coming out the other side much faster and drive the bike right out to the edge of the track on the exit. It also gave me less to do in preparation for the corner which is always nice.

Saturday morning wasn’t a great start, it had started to rain and due to budget restraints I didn’t have a set of wets with me. So I had to skip qualifying and watch everyone else poodle around the track. It may well have been a blessing in disguise as it was a bit of a crash fest.

When it came to my race I was starting at the back of the grid, 31st out of 36th. The track was still a little damp but I was confident there was a dry line I could stick too, so my slicks wouldn’t be a problem. The race itself seemed to fly by, I made a good start and jumped alot of places within the first couple of corners. After this I just tried to settled down, find a rhythm and made sure I bought the bike home. After a few more laps and a couple more overtakes (mostly around paddock  hill after my new way of attacking it) . Then I saw the yellow flag with a black cross through, one last lap was all I had to do and there wasn’t a chance I was going to let anyone get a place back from me. Despite feeling pretty exhausted I set my fastest lap of the race, managed to get my official best lap time down from 57 seconds to 55 on a drying track. I ended up finishing 14th overall so was very happy with my progress.

After the race I could relax for the rest of the day, kick back and enjoy the endurance race.

Sunday I had 3 races and knew I was going to be exhausted by the end of play. First things first I went and got some new slicks fitted to the bike as the ones I was running were the same I had bought for testing in cartegena and used at silverstone!

Race 2 I was to start in 21st, the race start was a fairly scrappy and ended up being red flagged after just a few laps. A collision on druids required some medical attention, so we were held at the start line whilst that was dealt with.

The race would be restarted and reduced down to 12 laps from 17, I was pretty grateful as I wasn’t sure I would be able to hang on that long anyway :D.  Unfortunately after a few laps I lost touch with the riders in front so couldn’t grab a tow from anyone and had a pretty lonely race, I ended up finishing in 18th and got my best lap down to 54.200. I was also the fastest honda out there in that race but that’s because the front runner had crashed out.

Race 2 was my favourite of the weekend. I started in 21st and didn’t get a great start, I’m not sure if I went backwards or forwards in grid position but I just got my head down and focused on the rider ahead.

The rider in front was on a very similar honda and I could see myself closing the gap each lap. Then when I was close enough, I tried to ride around the outside on Surtees and squirt up the inside into clearways. Unfortunately the rider in front wasn’t to keen on this idea and didn’t leave me any real room, So instead I ran up the curb… I  instantly knew this was a bad idea and did not realise how bumpy they were till I was sat on top of my tank hammering on the brakes to make sure I I didn’t just run straight off to the medical bay, I managed to just get it stopped in time then threw it hard into the right and tried and recover the mess I had made of clearways. I didn’t loose a position in this mess but I had lost a far bit of ground to the rider in front. I managed to close the gap up again within 2 laps and on the exit of clearways the blue flag was waving. The rider in front must have hit the brakes upon seeing it as I went sailing past them, then as I moved over to let the leader come past Adam Parker on another Honda CBR came riding around the outside into paddock.

It was a great overtake and I even remember saying out loud in my helmet well done as I then dropped into paddock myself. I latched onto the back of him and started chasing him down. On the drive up to paddock Adam grabbed the inside line, I tried to hold the outside line as I knew I could get better drive out the corner. (After talking to him after the race I was pretty much leaning on his bike around paddock) he managed to push me wide and stop me getting on the throttle. I tucked in behind him and followed where I could. I was definitely faster though druids and graham hill and I think it was pretty even through Surtees but he had clearways and paddock so an overtake was going to be difficult.

Unfortunately for me the front of the pack had started lapping us and someone stuffed me up the inside into druids and caused me to run on. I managed to get it stopped before ending in the gravel but I had lost touch with Adams bike and couldn’t pull the gap back. I ended the race in 21st still but set a new best lap time of 53.9.. was buzzing after that race and grinning from ear to ear.. Hope to battle with Adam again soon!

Also in the course of race 3 I destroyed me knee slider…. I remember clipping a kerb through Surtees but had no idea how hard I must have hit it. Here’s a pic of the aftermath

I was always considering skipping Race 4 on the Sunday, It was scheduled for 5:50pm on the Sunday and did not sound very appealing. However after the fun I had been having during the day and as NLR were somehow running 45 minutes early I decided to give it a go. I started 24th and didn’t make a great start I was tired and I could really feel it. I decided I would try and just smooth out my riding move around on the bike less and just use it as practise. I didn’t have any real great battles although I’m sure I made a couple of over takes.

I did make a few adjustments to my riding which allowed me to save alot more energy whilst racing. I ended that race in 19th setting a best lap of 54.6 but it was a very comfortable 54.6 and I was just happy to bring the bike home without any incident

Overall the weekend was fantastic, I had great fun and would like to thank everyone that came to visit, the marshall that make it happen and the NLR staff!

**Feature Picture by Alex James Photography and inline picture by Rob Morgan

Bike Update

So after a pretty unsuccessful round at silverstone, it was time to show the bike a little bit of tlc.

The bike is a 2004 Honda CBR 600 rr, It’s a little long in the tooth but its reliable and relatively forgiving.

It’s running a Maxton rear shock and fork internals, accossato master cylinder with bendix pads, Ses rear sets, quick action throttle and a power commander 3. Putting out only 108 bhp its probably one of the slowest bikes out on the grid but this just means to have to push more in corner entry and exit to make up for it.

So after Silverstone we had to find out the cause for the bike thinking it was a triple.

The bike must have lost some fluid during the crash in qualifying as the rad was under half filled. This would have been the cause of the running hot.

The hot running was making the fan work over time to make, the crash must have also shaken the loom loose as this now rested on the back of the fan.

So the fan chewed through the loom to the coil tube stopping one of the cylinders getting any spark.

Just £15 later for a new loom, some cable ties to tuck it out the way and some water for the rad and now ready to fight again.

We also added some graphics to make it stand out a little more.

Lets us know what you think and hopefully we will see you at Brands Hatch!

Silverstone Round Up

Silverstone was definitely not our weekend!

So I missed the test day due to previous commitments which meant going out onto the track for qualifying and learning the track, getting used to the bike (which hadn’t been used since Spain) and set a decent lap.. Easy ..

Qualifying

The intention was to sit behind a slower rider for a few laps, work out the tracks lay out, its bumps and areas where you could steal a few seconds. However, I rolled out on the track and the rider I followed out was a lot slower than expected and I wasn’t learning anything. so a quick dive up the inside and I was away. Unfortunately, there was no one else in front to follow so I just wobbled for 3 laps. On the third lap feeling quietly confident that I had the layout down, I cracked open the throttle… 3 corners later I had gone into the village a bit hot… Not a problem plenty of run off, a quick look over my shoulder to check I can rejoin without getting in anyone’s way and as I turn my head back around the bike hits the floor..

I had failed to notice the patch of grass before rejoining and with the morning dew, it was like a sheet of ice. The bike has slide straight on the apex of the corner ( taking the company name a bit too literal ). I jumped up off the floor and picked up the bike as quick as possible and began to wheel it straight off to the side of the track. As I started the slow push to the Armco the 2 marshals come rushing over to help me out. I asked to rejoin but wasn’t allowed. so that was qualifying done..

Race 1

I started from the back of the grid which wasn’t surprising but with a good started i managed to claw back a few places straight away, I tried to get my head down and find someone to get a tow off as I had still only completed 3 laps of the circuit and still didnt know it well enough. The first lap is always mayhem 30 something riders all fighting for the same space of tarmac.

The second lap, the first corner, its pretty fast you don’t need to brake just let off the throttle. Unfortunately, someone must have straight lined the corner because as I tipped in I felt a massive whack and the bike instantly sat up running me off the track. Someone had hit my tail unit pretty hard but I managed to stay on the bike, although that was purely down to the huge run offs at Silverstone. by the time I rejoined the track I was half a lap down to the person in second to last. Last place was not how I wanted to start my season but that’s racing

I decided to use the time to just learn the track and get a feel for the bike

Race 2

After race one, I felt the bike was too slow to change directions and the chicanes were really sapping my energy. I dropped the bike 5mm through the forks and opened the handle bars right out to give myself more leverage.

The changes felt a lot better and I wasn’t getting as tired riding the bike but they took a little getting used to as the front felt a little more unstable but not in a bad way just different.

Lap times weren’t great although a second a lap quicker than race one. Just needed to build the confidence to push on.

Race 3

Race 3 felt good I had gained a few places with in the start and had latched on to the rider in front and although not catching them they weren’t getting away either.. Then I lost a place but again I latched onto the new rider and he dragged me up to the previous rider and a good 3 way battle was lining up but just as all 3 of us caught up together the red flags were out. A nasty crash ahead had called a brief pause to the fun.

We slowly rode back to the grid and lined up in our original places… as we were waiting for the restart I noticed my bike was running alot hotter than usual… even after the race had restarted I couldn’t seem to get the temperature back down then 2 laps into the restart the bike dropped to 3 cylinders and I had to limp back to the pits and retire..

I decided to call it a day skip race 4 and head home where I could strip the bike down properly and find out the issue

Updates on the health of the bike to follow…

Winter Testing

We had a cracking few day days out in Spain setting the bike up making a few adjustments and trying out new rubber!

The first day of three was mostly about learning the track and blowing out the cobwebs. Took about half a day to get properly back into the swing of things and with a little instruction from one of the no limits instructors we found our lines.

The second day we set out with the bike exactly the same as the first and spent the first session just making sure we had everything settled. After this, we switched over to some new Metzler slicks. The difference to the bikes handling and feedback was immense there was no fidgeting mid corners or corner exit. The bike felt extremely planted and very confidence inspiring to ride

There was a little bit of traffic in the inters group but was managed to pick our way through without having to carve anyone up.

The third day started out much the same we started making little changes to the bike to get it turn in a little quicker and improve ground clearance. All was going quite well and lap times were dropping quite quickly till after mid day when as small mistake caused the bike to end up flipping into the gravel on a left hander. which brought an end to our track time.

So now we have 4 weeks to get the bike back into fighting shape before Silverstone. Wish us luck!!

2017 Season

Hi Guys,

This year we have signed up to take part in the 600 Rookie cup with No Limits racing. We’re committed to the full season already so can’t wait to get out there and start shredding up the tyres and leaving some fat skids all over the UK circuits.

Will be running my battle scarred 2004 CBR 600 rr with Maxton suspension, accossato master cylinder, Akrapovic full system and power commander. Last time on the dyno she pulled 109 at the wheel so not the fastest on the grid but still plenty fast enough to have some epic battles!

We managed to get to a few bemsee events towards the end of the season to get a feel for it and have a trip to Spain in Feb to get the bike all set up and ready to start racing in March

We’d also like to thank opie oils who will also be sponsoring us during the 2017 season!

Hopefully see you guys out there

Thanks #21