Oulton Park round 1

So the 2016 season starts at last! With a long and cold winter, now behind or us, only a couple of riders managed to get away and test in some warmer climes. Apart from our ‘secret test facility’ most of the riders needed some time on their steeds.

Test day for round 1 was on a Wednesday due to Jesus’ most eventful weekend, and race day was scheduled for Friday. The test day was a good way to set the bikes up but for what looked like a similar condition race day….but for work reasons and the ‘odd’ test date, meant that many of the lads couldn’t get away from work!!! Something that will be rectified for the rest of the season.

So…first session of the test day saw 3 red flags in the first 10 mins…with most damage being caused by the BSB team Morello Services who’s BSB stock 1000 rider fell on the start finish straight…at about 150mph… Which saw his week old 1 test day ZX10 snap and crack everything frame, swing arm and riders pride! So tricky conditions was the order of the day….cold and overcast.

Spence and Moggy had some good time on circuit with some respective times coming in. The rookies also had some good time on track….trying to work out who was going to be their fastest rider! LCpl Danny (Ritchie) Richardson taking this a bit too serious and decided to lob his freshly painted CBR 600 down the track in an attempt to be the ‘Man’.

So testing complete and a spare day between test and race day, meant there was some jobs to be done…. Thank heaven for the spare day! Spence had an unsurmountable job of preparing everyone’s vinyl nose cones and sticker packs (something he now wishes he hadn’t volunteered for), and some running repairs to radiator and bikes in preparation for scrutineering on Thursday night/Friday morning. It’s worth mentioning at this point that the scrutineers are being particularly detailed this year due to the British title and the fact that the series is being run under FIM rules for 2016. This means some attention to detail when it comes to bike preparation, something that we should be good at! So let’s now say we are at race day….and forget about some of the teams lack of admin prior to race day!

The team getting the pre race photo in….. As you never know what can happen in 3 hours on track! Thank you sunglasses for sport for our glasses.

Race day starts with 40 mins free practice and qualifying, where we set out to qualify in our best possible position and also give those that couldn’t make it sometime to work on the new track layout (island circuit) if they haven’t seen it before. So with some good times coming in, with Team 2s WO2 Wayne Morgan (Moggy) topping the bill for the team it was time for team 1 to send out its secret weapon! Maj Neil Watson has made the jump from sprints to endurance for 2016 due to work and brings with him loads of experience (his dad) which will help everyone over 2016 season. Neil went out and set the fastest Team lap by over a second….not bad for tipping up and jumping on the bike 20 mins before he went out.
So the qualifying went kind of to plan, with 49 teams on the grid these were the positions for the Army Endurance Race Team:
Team 1 = 18
Team 2 = 22
Team 3 = 28 ( Veterans)
Team 4 = 37
Team 5 = 43 ( Rookies)

So to the race…. This is often a tense affair…where the teams try to work out who is starting…who will take the flag….what position they want to finish and if and when are they coming in. This is known as race strategy….and again, this is something we should be good at…. We’ll leave it at that!

The race start is always the most exciting spectacle with a Le Man style start. This sees 49 teams all looking for the same piece of track and all trying to get on the throttle as soon as possible….. Let’s say that 49 teams became 47 after the first start…and we wish those teams a speedy recovery!

With the red flag shown and a bit of a delay whilst the track was cleared and the ambulance could get sorted, the teams had time to ponder on their decisions and strategy, again…we should be good at making changes to our plans on the back of enemy contact, but team 1 chose to do nothing and send Maj Watson out again…. In their defence…. They have a Maj and an LE Capt in their team…. And they simply wouldn’t listen To the SNCO that was screaming to change the starter (maybe we should listen next time Neil???).

So to Race start ‘Part Deux’, all teams got away fine (apart from team 1) which saw Maj Watson struggle to get his bike started in gear…which cost him around 12 positions from the start! Moggy on the other hand was flying….into about 13 position and holding some solid times. The rookies got away well along with team 4 and quickly got into racing…whilst the Veterans were showing the young lads how it was done, going from 28-22… Guess slow and steady really does win the race! With 3 hours to look forward to the teams get into race routine with riders relaxing whilst the rider on track tries to settle into a pace that they can sustain for their 40 minute session! After an hour or so we saw the first of many safety cars (conditions did not help). This one seemed quite a small incident…someone’s exhaust had simply fell off and was on circuit, but this meant everyone had to slow….which meant that tyres started to cool down….. Once the green flag was shown…..two riders went for the same peice of track and got caught up together (just in front of Pep), which threw them both into the wall on the Start/Finish straight seeing one of the riders from the Iron Maidens race team take a big hit. Immediately the red flag came out and the helicopter was called! get well soon Joanne…. We are all glad to hear you are talking and moving around…those bones will heal!

Quick change overs make a difference in endurance.

After around an hour and the darkness looming the teams formed up in pit lane in the order they came in NOT in position order as many thought they should be. Many of the teams had refuelled but rider change was not allowed….much to the majority of the riders on track, as they had just done around 30 mins and we’re looking forward to a break! This is what Endurance is about….making a plan….making another…and then re jigging that one…. Again…we should be good at this…we’ll leave it at that!

Rookie LCpl Danny’ Richardson. Getting to grips with the racing

So with some teams choosing to do the mandatory 2 laps and come in team 1 decided to flog their oldest horse and leave Pep out for another session….saving them a pit stop…. However this did not do Pep any favours!!!!! With Finish in sight the riders took to the track for their final stints, team 1 rider Spence immediately had a problem with his clutch and was basically riding around in 4th gear!!!!! Loz went out for the vets and put in the fastest laps for that team, which is no surprise to the riders, but for anyone that didn’t know….Loz took a bit of a hit at the final round last season, and now has some extra metal work in his left leg, which it would seem..is magnetic, which is fun when you waiting for your session (Pep found it funny anyway)

The end is in sight…. Both this write up and the race…. Bare with us…

With conditions now requiring dipped headlights the checkered flag was prepared…. This saw the teams finish in the following positions overall:
Team 1 = 10th
Team 2 = 16th
Team 3 = 32nd
Team 4 = 28th
Team 5 = 39th

Summary
The weekend was a tricky one with conditions and the understandable first meeting nerves. From the teams perspective it was a great success with all teams bringing back their newly (Supacat painted) prepared bikes in good order and all riders finishing as they started. Positions from the first race will help set the scene for improvements during the season and will give each team something to target.

The usual thanks goes to all of our sponsors, new and continued, with special mention to Donna at BTL for her continued support and head aches with our tyres, and Supacat for helping prepare the bikes and sponsorship for 2016 (also hope Jamie enjoyed his time on the airfield with the team). Good luck to all of our enemies this year….prepare yourselves… The race is on!