The team, Season start 2015 from left to right. Bobby pit crew, Lee T3, Paul T4, Moggy T2, Darryl T3, Aaron pit crew, Pep T1, Andy T4, Spence T2, Leon T4, Loz T1, Biz pit crew.
Pep hanging courtesy Simon James Photography
Darryl hanging SJ photos
At last the first race of 2015 in the Hottrax Endurance series arrived. With 4 teams competing across various levels and classes. Team Army have a huge presence at the meetings and we made it even bigger by setting up the Hospitality trailer, flags, awnings and marching band fanfare right outside the back of our double pit garage.
Friday was a test day and a chance to iron out any last minute bike, rider or admin issues. It’s surprising after long winter months of preparation just how many “issues” appeared. Even admin things like, armbands, transponder brackets, correct info on Dog tags etc…So while some were still fitting rain lights, race numbers and sponsor logos, others had more worrying issues.
Bikes steadily coming together and the Mess Display area to the rear
Those were bike related! Lozier GSXR1000 fork seal went, strangely leaking upwards? Was not fixable at Brands so had to build a bridge, get over it! Then his clocks went blank, (fuse) wouldn’t even start first thing test morning! Spencer’s Triumph675 quick shifter stopped working missed half the test day stripping and trying to find the fault. In the end raced without it. Paul’s Gixxer600 wasn’t playing at all above10,000 Rpm. That turned out to be a secondary fueling fault; the butterfly controller was jamming up. Took all day and first few hours of race Morning to fix that! Thank you to our new Pit crew who sorted all this out and got all the bikes to the start and end of the race. Well done lads.
Not everyone had issues on the test day! Maybe they have issues all the time so never really noticed!
The test day started very tricky damp and very cold so tip toe round the track to begin with. The afternoon brightened and warmed dramatically so it allowed most of us to get nearer race pace and learn or refresh the track. Scrutineering was Friday late afternoon but only T1 and T3 got thru, T2 and T4 were still either fixing things or completing last minute race preps, lock wiring, numbers etc… So they had a very early start on race day. First few tellings off for Paul, he did not stop when black flagged, pushed his bike the wrong way up the pits when it broke down, so watch out for the biggie.
After signing on and getting the race program, shock horror to see our media savvy Team 2 have done it again. Michelin were using them to promote their tyres on a full cover spread on the back of the 300 programs that all sold out.
You know you are doing well when Michelin use you as poster boys!
A few beers Friday evening, then an early night ready for Saturday’s race day and a new earlier race schedule. The endurance would be the first race of the day from now on.
Tucked up nice and early for the race
Yuk! not looking the best out there race day morning.
A grey, damp, freezing dawn greeted us. Our qualifying was first out at 9 am and it was still struggling to get above Zero degrees Kelvin! That’s -273 degrees C for those without science GCSEs. Bloody cold! It was a very greasy qualifying but improved steadily towards the end of the session. Some poor souls did not make it that far and there were a number of bikes up against the tyre walls at all the tricky points of the circuit. We all survived the qualifying except Paul’s bike had still not made it so he borrowed T4s leader, Andy days R6 and posted a faster time. This spurred Andy out again and they qualified 20th as complete first ever race rookies. With a 37 bike grid to beat 17 other teams was a real confidence boost for their race. T3 were 18th and T1 11th. By far the best were T2 who qualified a remarkable 6th. Beating many well known riders and teams. In such conditions, all our qualifying positions were excellent. It was a very strong field of 37 teams with 9 national1000s and 6 national 600s, that’s over 40 % of the grid national level! (Ok a guess so if you have got GCSE maths work it out yourself)Then straight after our qualifying the circuit closed so we could experience the eclipse. It was supposed to go dark but as it was such a dull, cloudy, grey sky we never noticed.
Will have to wait another 20 years now, darn!!!!
Race start and it was the usual Hokey Cokey with tyre choice slicks in, inters out, wets all about? Tyre choice was hard enough but getting temperature into them and maintaining it was even harder. This proved one of the keys to the race. Most races are full of incident but few have so much before they even start. As the grid formed the misty drizzle turned to proper rain. Then as the Riders crossed the track and crouched to sprint back Le Mans style the race was red flagged. 2 riders were declared unfit to race, something to do with offs in qualifying and not getting cleared by the med centre. So there was a pause while the tyres cooled even more, then it was announced there were to be 3 more warm up laps and reform the grid. During this 2 bikes crashed out probably due to the tyres cooling off so much, one being championship favourites, team RST2 with Hudson kennaugh (2013 Brit super stock champ) and Gary Johnson(TT winner). Gary has a suspected broken collar bone. Better get that sorted before the TT in June!
Finally away the first race of the season is off and we all got good starts, especially T1 with Pep on board. He was about P4 into the first corner. We also incurred our first penalty, a jump start, as T4s bike holding man, Paul, started the bike before the rider sprinted across to it. We put it down to a nervous premature! And another 3rd and final trip to race control, who are all on first name terms with him now. The first session was lethal with a damp drying track and half the grid on slicks. For those that were on them the first few laps had to be taken very easy but the track began to come to them as it dried, The inters shod bikes were the best option, full wets were OTT and began ripping up within 10 mins. Lots of unscheduled stops in that first session as teams tried to find the right tyre. With our less than flattering budget we pretty much stuck with what we had and it paid off. Just as it began to rain heavy again and changes were considered absolutely necessary the safety car came out. So all our teams could stay on track on reduced pace regardless of tyres and reached our planned 30 min changeovers. The race settled down a bit in session 2 even though the mixed conditions continued, everyone had sussed their tyre choices by then.
Lee hunting them down S J photos
Loz getting hunted down!!!! S J photos
Waiting for a changeover, Lee and son.
With such good starts 30 mins into the race T2 were 4th and T1 7th a bit out of place with all the pre start drama but we take what the almighty gives! Even T4 our greener than green rookies were in P14. A great first ride by Andy day. The hour mark after the first set of rider changes saw a marked change around, T1 were still well placed in 6th, Loz had made a correct tyre choice for once in his life, T2 had slipped a tad to 10th and T3 had the best second session improving up the field to 12th, a good ride by Lee. Our races in general went very well, changeovers were slick, except one of T4s where Paul read the wrong pit board and came in unannounced. We must make them a bit more identifiable next race. The weather was changeable until the final hour when it seemed to settle into dull but cold and dry. So the final hour was all about staying aboard, staying on the pace and keeping an eye on what teams were around us in our respective classes. True endurance racing management.
Changeovers went well even time for a chat!
Into the final 30 mins of the race and we were all still in it, T1 and T2 latched on to each other and did some formation drill even T4 joined us for a lap. The chequered flag beckoned and the race was over as we formed up in parc ferme. We realised just how well we had all done not only in the overall race but in our respective classes. These were the final finish positions, T1 second in Clubman 1000, T2 4th in National 600, T3 7th in Clubman 1000 and T4 our 600 rookie team 4th Clubman 600 and 1st 600 rookie team.
Parc ferme. The most important bit is we all made it to the end the first rule of endurance!
So we had a jolly good evening and collected our various trophies in the Kentagon bar that evening. Darryl from T3 did a couple of sprint races in the afternoon and guess what? He won them. Well done young fella! So our trophy haul to date is, 6 (T1x2, T4x3, cos 3 riders and Darryl x1) roll on Cadwell just two weeks away over the Easter weekend
Thanks to all our sponsors for their help in making this happen, BAMA, Army sports lottery, Hill for leathers, Hampshire Motorcycles, Direct Distribution, Team 1 Epaton next gen storage, 2Wheelskool. Team 2 Purple construction, Breaking point Motorcycles, knee down.co.uk. Team 3 4see consultants and Team 4 Andy Leon and Paul. If anyone is missed shout us or if you want to be involved defo shout us 🙂
After race post. It was announced on Monday that the team that came first in Clubman 1000 had a national licence holder racing for them, breaking Clubman rules so they were removed from that class. This has promoted T1 to race winners Clubman1000 and T3 to P6. That’s Team 1s first Hottrax race win! What a result.
Army Endurance Motorcycle Race Team 