EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Army Motorcycle Road Race Team – Endurance (AMRRT-E) consists of full-time, reserve and veteran soldiers. All serving members are operationally deployable and can be called to operations at any time. The whole of the team maintain their full-time military or civilian careers, the team fund their racing independently of the Army along with much-needed help from all the team supporters.
NO LIMITS RACING ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP
The AMCRRT-E compete in the No Limits Racing National Endurance Series in teams of 2-4 riders. The series takes place across 9 rounds in 2019 of between 3 and 6 hours. There is no higher classified endurance series within the UK.
RIDER INFORMATION
Team 2 Clubman 1000cc
WO1 (ASM) ‘Andy’ Day Kawasaki ZX10R
Veteran Darryl Hodder Kawasaki ZX10R
Team 3 Clubman 1000cc
Capt ‘Monners’ Monaghan BMW S1000RR
Cpl ‘Biz’ Bizeray Suzuki GSXR1000
Veteran Matt Flower Yamaha YZF-R1
Team 4 Clubman 600cc
SSgt ‘Daz’ Williams Yamaha YZF-R6
Cpl ‘Robbo’ Roberts Yamaha YZF-R6
Team 5 All Rookie
Sgt ‘Sweeney’ McSweeney Kawasaki ZX6R
LCpl ‘Celv’ Heaver Yamaha YZF-R6
Camipix Photography
WHY SUPPORT THE TEAM?
Your company will be promoted nationwide during all race meets and track days.
Free tickets to any race meet, we will host you in the paddock and offer close race action.
Post-race reports including great race moments and proven effectiveness of your product.
Multiple social media updates.
Logo placement on all motorcycles, clearly displayed on fairings.
Round One – Donington Park National Circuit
21-24 March 2019
The teams came together for the first race with high hopes of strong performances and for many putting their new steeds to the test. With winter testing carried out in Cartagena at the end of February we felt good for the first round at Donington Park Circuit.
Test Day
With almost all the team using the a standard trackday on the Thursday as a test day we delighted to meet up with many of our 2018 adversaries in what is quite possibly the friendliest race paddock in the UK. The team manager gave a quick brief about how it was still cold early on in the season despite the sun shining so to take it easy for the first two sessions.
Apparently everyone listened to these words of wisdom, everyone that is apart from the team manager himself. Upon completing 3 sighting laps behind the instructor and a little know Isle of Mann TT racer called Ian Hutchinson, Team 2 followed each other at a steady pace to get the feel of the bikes and learn the conditions. No problems there until the chequered flag was waved to signal the end of the session where having caught a train of traffic Andy backed off to around 80% pace. Casually cruising down the infamous Craner Curves the front tucked at aver 100mph and his ZX10R slid onto the grass where it proceeded to do a somersault. Andy was mostly fine with his pride and his wallet hurting more than anything else.
Team 4’s Robbo got straight into groove using last year’s settings on his R6 and was running fast with no issues, however Daz had to dial his new R6 in but was ahead of his PB’s from last year on the old ZX6R on only the 2nd session. They tested out the Metzeller M7RR’s in afternoon as the track cooled down, which Bike Tyres Leeds had provided them with, and were pleased with how they performed.
For the remainder of the team the test day was a steady build up of pace, some setting changes and absorption of race craft.
Team 2
WO1 Andy Day – Camipix Photography
The support crew worked tirelessly throughout Thursday and Friday to rebuild Andy’s bike and it passed scrutineering first time with no issues but in order to ensure the bike was fine he took the lions share of the qualifying period where he identified that a the replacement clutch lever was pulling too tight on the clutch plate causing some slip, this was easily rectified with adjustment at the clutch end of the cable but unfortunately unknown damage had been done to the plates that would not be identified until the race. Darryl was his usual consistent self and set a solid qualifying time for the team.
Andy started and launched from 20th to 10th overall by the first corner but only 2 laps in the clutch began to slip again leaving little choice but to change riders at a far too early point in the race. Whilst Darryl did a solid 50 minute stint on the bike TrackTech set to work on changing the clutch. Just as the remaining fairings were being put on the bike Darryl signalled he was out of fuel, precious few seconds were lost in the transponder change as Lee calmly changed transponder before Andy rode out of the pitlane for his stint.
Army Veteran Darryl Hodder – Camipix Photography
45 minute flew past but with the rider starting to feel the knocks from Thursdays crash his pace wasn’t as consistent or quick as it should have been but with the fuel light glowing another rushed transponder change took place. Only 15 minutes into his stint, Darryl knew there was something not right with his bike, the rear tyre was moving more that it should have been. He signalled to come in and Andy donned his helmet for the final 45 minutes, warning the crew that it would be very tight on fuel for him to finish the race.
P3 Clubman 1000 – Campix Photography
Throughout the race T2 had battled closely for 3rd place in the Clubman 1000cc category and as the clock ticked down to the 3hr mark they were sat in 3rd but then Andy’s fuel warning light made it’s second appearance of the race and as he gave the signal to the pit wall he noticed a 5 minute warning on another teams pit board (thanks) and decided to try to risk the last 4-5 laps whilst Darryl sat sweating in the garage. The team came home on petrol fumes in 3rd place in the C1000 class just 13 seconds in front of 4th but several laps behind 2nd. A solid start to the season but improvements need to be made to move up the podium steps.
Team 3
David Monaghan, Martin Bizeray and Matt Flower make up Army Team 3 for 2019. They come into the season with a new R1 for Matt and a new S1000RR for Dave who is stepping up to the big bikes this year. They didn’t have the best start with Monners having a shock malfunction and only qualifying 36th on the grid having all opted for the Metzeller M7RR tyre, a road based sports tyre designed to work better at the lower temperatures the March race weekend had.
The race start when much better with Biz making a lightning start they were immediately further up the pecking order where they fought hard for the 3 hours of the race. Showing the calm and steady way an endurance race should be run, they finished very happily in 24th overall and 7th in class.
Cpl Martin ‘Biz’ Bizerary (Left) Capt Dave ‘Monners’ Monaghan (Centre) Army Veteran Matt Flower (Right)
Team 4
SSgt Darren ‘Daz’ Williams – Camipix Photography
Qualifying; Robbo went out first and became the second of the Army team members to join the infamous ‘Craner Club’, unfortunately this was before he got fully up to speed. The crew tested their fitness and managed to get the transponder back to the pits in time for Daz to go out and set a steady time with the emphasis being on staying upright, they couldn’t afford to lose both bikes before the race had even started.
T4 had qualified in a respectable 30th overall and 7th in Clubman 600 class but Robbo’s bike was beyond repair on the day leaving him unable to race. In stepped guest rider Adam Treacher in his rookie year on a CBR600RR. Daz did his first Le Mans start and got stuck in with elbows wide and he was straight into the groove. Team 5 stuck to back of T4 and chased but as the track temperature rose, so did the tyre temperature which became too much to the more road biased M7RR’s, resulting in back end slides when on the power. Daz found his pace was picking up and the extra forces generated caused the back-end to start weaving under brakes. Adam went out and put in a strong session for his 1st ever race; again the M7RR’s couldn’t handle the pace on the unusually warm March day, they would have been fine in the colder temperature usually associated with the time of month. The M7RR’s however proved consistent and predictable as the evening drew in and many other riders fell. With race tyres they’d have been faster but the compromise of bleeding a little time for guaranteed grip in the cold was worth it. On one occasion they pushed the fuel limit a touch to far and as Adam was on his in lap his bike ran out of fuel, luckily it was on the back straight so he didn’t have too far to push bike back in. The Pit Crew ran to end of pit lane and got transponder as quick as possible, then Daz was back out to run to the chequered flag. Although a lot of places were lost through the fuel incident, Daz and Adam finished happily 8th in class and 27th position overall.
SSgt Darren ‘Daz’ Williams (left) Cpl James ‘Robbo’ Roberts (missing bike, centre) Army Guest Rider Adam Treacher (Right) – Camipix Photography
Team 5
Team 5 is the development team of the AMCRRT-E which allows soldiers to get their introduction to the race track regardless of motorbike capacity (within rules). The first race of 2019 saw two support crew members of 3 years, Sgt Andy McSweeney (REME) and LCpl Celvin Heaver (REME), finally put down the tools and pick up their leathers.
Sgt Andy ‘Sweeney’ McSweeney – Camipix Photography
The trackday was familiar ground to these riders, but qualifying was an eye opener into their first ever race experience and they qualified 31st overall and 8th in class, just behind T4. Sweeney started the race for T5, and made a blistering dash across the track beating many riders to the bikes. This quick start propelled them straight into the firing line and overwhelmed the rookie rider, but after dropping a few of the places they had gained they settled into a good pace for the long race. At 45 minutes, Sweeney was called in and Celv took over. Celv had made a bold choice to run Pirelli Slick tyres for the race, a risky move with temperatures so low this early in the season, but it paid off for the team as he broke his PB lap after lap.
LCpl Celvin ‘Celv’ Heaver – Camipix Photography
At the half way mark for the rider change over, T5 were sitting 4th in class, 40 seconds behind P3 and the podium. Spurred on by this, Sweeney went out for his second stint and managed to beat his own PBs and got within 3 seconds of P3. Unfortunately the team ahead had seen us closing the gap and sent their faster rider out, and the gap opened further and further over the stint. Rider fatigue and inexperience showed towards the end of the race with laptimes slowing but the T5 managed to finish P6 in class and P20 overall, commendable for their first race.
Round by round T5 will be classed in relation to the specific bikes within the team that weekend but they will all be Rookie licence holders and eligible for the ‘All Rookie Championship’.
Sgt Andy ‘Sweeney’ McSweeney (Left) LCpl Celvin ‘Celv’ Heaver (Right)
Results
T2 P3 Clubman 1000 P15 Overall
T3 P7 Clubman 1000 P24 Overall
T4 P8 Clubman 600 P27 Overall
T5 P6 Clubman 600 P20 Overall
Thanks
ARMY Motorcycle Road Race Team
Army Sports Lottery
Metzeller Tyres
Bike Tyres Leeds
EBC Brakes
GBRacing Premier Motorcycle Protection
Rst-moto
Direct Distribution Services
Racebikebitz Samco Distribution
Pipe Werx motorcycle exhausts
No Limits Racing
Eazi-Grip UK
TrackTech
Army Endurance Motorcycle Race Team 