So round 2? Slightly different to round one where we were a little smug. All finishing without much incident and the right way up. Bleating that this is the way endurance is done. Round 2 was more a case of how to do it the SAS style, Make it as hard as possible but still get results!
Metzelers ready to roll! all 29 of them.
We were a team down as T3 were on hols and also a big change in Rubber as Metzeler are now our tyre of choice. So what do we think of them? Better longevity, quicker to warm up, easier to keep the heat in and most importantly better feeling of grip and confidence. It’s a big OOOOOH YEAH!
So the crash bang wallops you are going to read about had nothing to do with the tyres, they can definitely be put down to the riders.
Most rucked up thus afternoon/evening and our first poor call was to relocate from a hard standing pitch to a larger grassed area. Big mistake as the rain settled in on Thursday and lasted pretty much until Sunday. Our lovely grassed pit area became a bog. WW1 trench warfare conditions. I know what some will say, Army, trenches, sandbags, etc…. no it was not intentional, not a tough training regime for the rookies just a poor call and not checking Sir Michael of the Fishes weather predictions.
Pretty wet most of the weekend
So to test day. We were all eager to try out the new Metzelers which are very very good and most of T4 were eager to learn the track. (Rookie boys!) Paul had the best day, a few fuelling issues but he has been there before so cured it straight away. Leon (with a little help from Aaron) spent most of it building a chain out of £5 a time master links. A new long enough one was about £120 so to save a bit he got a short version then spent £200 on master links to make it long enough! And Andy had the first spill of the weekend going down in hall bends with a missed gear/ possible linkage failure. Not much mechanical damage but as a rookie, at Cadwell, not good. It’s a technical and difficult track in the dry and dry it was not? It’s the damage you can’t see that’s the problem, the confidence drain, the nightmares, the sweating, the bursting into tears for no apparent reason, the bulging eyed frightened look when a firework goes off, it’s why we support charities that concentrate on PTSD. Even Spence needed a bit of a shoulder to lean on when his gear/quick shift combination issues returned. Another sleepless night! Loz did the usual rain light dance, work, don’t work, and dance around. Go to Halfords and buy a new one. So it was not the most successful test day an omen for the racing? The Pit crew were busy again.
Andys R6 the first of 5 to suck mud!
Race day, dank and wet. That’s 2 out of 2 after Brands Hatch. We decided to move
The pit crew had a busy weekend
everything down to the lower pits and qualify and race from there, which has its problems. Self-inflicted as they may be. Loz found out that if you crash in qualifying, A). Regardless of Hottrax saying you can re mount, you can’t. B). Regardless of Hottrax saying you can get your transponder back to the pits, you can’t C). Your bike is returned in the “van of shame” to the upper paddock, while all your stands, tools, spares and pit crew are infield in the lower pits! So don’t crash in qualifying is the simple solution. Plus it is a lengthy affair getting medicals, repairing the bike and scrutineering again, so the Pit crew were busy.
Spence is quite pleased with this pic, gone viral he would have you know!
Spence and the unflappable Moggie qualified fuss free in a very respectful 15th. Their tyre choice could have been better but they were happy with this position. T4 did well on their first outing to qualify 29th but for T1 as Loz had not completed qualifying and was languishing in the café T1 were demoted to DNQ and sent to the back of the grid. Pep was not impressed. So the pit crew were kept busy.
At last the rain stopped just before a fairly late race at 3pm and the famous Le Mans start. This is how the various teams races went, starting with a very eventful time for Team 1. Pep is awesome at the Le Mans and leapt half the grid in the first sprint down to Coppice. He had a blistering first 7 laps regaining 10th in the race from stone cold last. Then he fell off!
Pep preparing for Le mans see his awesome start here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Army-Endurance-Racing/258082037541168
So T1 had an unscheduled stop and Loz went out to regain lost places, which he did, then his chain fell off! So T1 had an unscheduled stop and Pep went out to regain lost places, which he did and he handed over to Loz. Loz went out to regain lost places which he did, then his gear linkage fell off. So T1 had an unscheduled stop and Pep went out to regain lost places, which he did and then the safety car came out. So Loz went out to regain lost places, which he did. Just as T1 had climbed all the way back to P10 in the race and thinking nothing else could go wrong they had to make another unscheduled stop to ensure Loz had completed his share of the race. This demoted them 2 places to 12th in the race but importantly P3 in class. We made 8 pit stops and spent 4 or 5 laps recovering back to the pits or losing time in the pits due to unexpected stops. So can’t complain with P3. The pit crew were a tad busy during all this too.
T2 were steady away and consolidated a good qualifying. Moggy went first and was uber consistent steadily climbing places to P11. They got their rhythm as Spence took over moving up to P10 and 4th in class. Then we had a Blue on Blue incident and Spence took out T4s Leon (and another guy) at the esses. The riders fought over the tangle of bikes to unjam themselves and get back to the pits a SAP! This demoted T2 to 13th and Moggy recuperated while the pit crew were busy with Spence’s bike. The rest of their race was steady and due to their consistency and pace they climbed back to a very respectful P8 in the race and most importantly P2 in class.
T4 lined up and ready to go
T4 started with Andy on board still trying to learn the track, he was also still suffering a bit of PMT from his off on test day and a mishap in time keeping cost them their first penalty. A stop go which was served on their next session for overriding their 30 min. So it was left to Paul to drag T4 back up the charts with a couple of blistering 1.53 laps towards the end of the race. Leon was also a bit battle scared from the Blue on Blue incident and wary of any NATO bikes around him. They finished the race as top 600cc clubman rookies and 27th in the race so had climbed 2 places overall. They left Cadwell with another haul of silver.
Paul has found something interesting
First ever National Trophy
T2 have achieved an Army first at National Endurance racing. A podium in the 600cc National Championship, littered with names like Gary Johnson, Richard Spencer Fleet and Wayne Morgan they finished 2nd 600cc Nationals. T1 were happy with their damage limitation exercise to get 3rd in class and acquire some important championship points. At least they did achieve the fastest Clubman 1000 lap. So what looked like a disaster at times turned out not too bad at all, 3 teams entered 3 podiums, great new tyres and did I mention the pit crew were quite busy at times.
Ex iPad
Moggys Genny popped smoke
To top our bad luck we also lost Moggys generator, it popped smoke early, and Robyn’s iPad went for a stroll on the start finish straight. And of the 7 bikes at this weekends race, 5 of them crashed, only Moggy the invincible and Paul the (is he really a rookie) kept sunny side up. And I almost forgot but the pit crew have resigned. (Only kidding but they were busy).
Loz on his walk of shame
Army Endurance Motorcycle Race Team 