2019 Endurance Round 2 – Cadwell Park

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 10 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 Clubman 600cc
Sgt ‘Sweeney’ McSweeney Kawasaki ZX6RR
LCpl ‘Celv’ Heaver Yamaha YZF-R6
Veteran Adam Treacher Honda CBR600-RR

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 Two – Cadwell Park 12 – 14 April 2019

After solid performances at Round One, the riders had had a firm base on which to develop and progress.  Coming to Cadwell podium places were hoped for by several of the teams.

Test Day

With temperatures not reaching double figures the test day would prove difficult to find pace and set up.  With the Rookie’s never having been to Cadwell before they took the wise decision to attend the trackday with T1’s Darryl the day before test day.  They shared track time with ex-Moto GP rider and BSB newcomer Scott Redding and apparently the Ducati V4 sounds amazing coming past at full chat.  Darryl took the ZX10R out whilst his stock-twin was having it’s engine, wiring loom and ECU replaced in the paddock.

They were joined by the rest of the team for the test day but with the temperatures still being under 10 Degrees Celsius the team took it steady whilst many other riders suffered crashes due to the cold conditions, many at the Gooseneck where there is a wicked bump right on the apex that often leads to total destruction.  T2’s Andy struggled with pace and was still feeling some of the aches and pains from his big crash at Donington but a sports massage from 1nspireFitness’s Becky at lunch helped his mobility and laptimes started to fall steadily but were still several seconds off his PB from the year before. Darryl had a good run on the ZX10R before switching to test the ER6 out in the last session and play with the rookies; until he hit a pheasant, he went back at the end of the day to try and collect it for his dinner but we think the marshals may have had a well earned feast that night.  

Team 2

WO1 (ASM) Andy Day – Camipix Photography

Qualification was a little below average, with Darryl going out first and setting the time to put T2 22nd on the grid.  Andy had a fuel problem that asserted itself with a full tank so came in after 3 laps.  The tank was quickly off and the issue rectified by Tracktech with time for him to get out again to check it was fixed.

Darryl took part in his Stock-twins race before lunch, having to sprint from the bottom pits to the top paddock to make the start he was a little flustered and had poor start, the start lights changed so quick he missed it, made a few wheelies and lost about 6 places into the first corner.  Making these up eventually he managed 11th overall and 5th in class.

Veteran Darryl Hodder – Camipix Photography

In the 3 hour endurance Andy had found his mojo that was severely missing on the test day and made an awesome start with laptimes only a second off his PB as he made progress through the field and settled into 4th in class with a short stint in 3rd before running to the fuel light and dropping back to 4th in the pit stop.  The race was shorted to 2.5hrs due to the effect eh falling snow had had on the timetable earlier in the day.  This worked out good for us as Darryl went out and had a few battles whilst holding 4th in class.  Once he’d found his groove the laptimes dropped down but then the cold and the hideous bump caused the front to tuck at the top of the Gooseneck!  The resulting crash was huge and caused the race to be stopped so the medics & doctor could take the correct precautions.  This allowed the nice medics to take him to a nice warm medical centre for a check up and more importantly to defrost.  Just a little battered and bruised he stayed in the warm whilst Andy took the restart from the back of the grid due to the team causing the red flag.  With over an hour of the race left to run there was no way his 45min fuel tank would last so a fuel splash & dash would be required and did an awesome job of making back some of the lost places after over two lost laps due the crash and fuel stop to finish with one exhausted rider and one broken rider in a respectable 5th in Clubman 1000cc class.

 

Team 3

Veteran Matt Flower – Camipix Photography

Team 3 arrived at Cadwell Park ready for the test day with all 3 riders being steady away due to the cold conditions but pace slowly picked up over the day with the times slowly falling as they worked together to develop each others weaker areas.

Qualifying started with Matt leading the way and setting a good time. Dave followed suite and with a quicker time which was good news leaving Biz the remaining time to push hard and get the team up the grid a bit further. After the flag had dropped T3 had qualified 28th on the grid and 12th in Clubman 1000cc class – the most competitive class.

Capt ‘Monners’ Monaghan – Camipix Photography

The team were set and ready to go with Dave taking the Le Mans style start.  Dave left the pits and started his formation lap when he noticed a pinch bolt missing out of his top yoke.  The decision was made to on the grid to do one lap and pit to swap riders to Biz.  The flag dropped and as Dave ran to his bike, Biz ran faster to the garage.  Dave came into the pits with a repair on stand by but with no success, so the transponder was changed and Biz fired out of pit lane on one wheel on a mission.  The Team were now outright last with a mountain to climb as Biz settled into his stint.  After 30 mins of pushing the Team had taken 13 places and climbed up to 23rd.  A slick pit stop and Dave set off at a quick pace and proceeded to  get quicker.  RED FLAG and time to gather our team and plan the last stages of the race.  Dave went out for the restart and continued improving his pace but his time was now up; Matt was ready to go he went out for the final stint and pushed hard on his R1.  Matt’s times were consistent and he kept going to take the Chequered Flag in 8th in class and 23rd overall.

Cpl Martin ‘Biz’ Bizeray – Camipix Photography

Team 4

Cpl James ‘Robbo’ Roberts – Camipix Photography

On the test day Daz was happy with the bike and just made some minor tweaks throughout the day to fully dial it in.  Robbo only managed 2 dry sessions due to turning up to circuit with a replacement shock that he’d collected on the way before fitting it and setting up his suspension on the fully rebuilt R6 after his big Donington crash.  Throughout qualifying Robbo and Daz were on similar pace placing T4 30th on grid and 6th in Clubman 600 class.

SSgt Darren ‘Daz’ Williams – Camipix Photography

Robbo started the race but within 20 mins had a clutch issue but managed to make it back to the pits for Daz to take over.  Robbo was struggling in the cold with his not quite right setup, being 4 seconds off his PB.  It was obvious he was struggling to get the bike to work for him and to gain the confidence lost from his last crash.  Daz was happy with the bike and was knocking away at his times to also get a 1.48, being generally happy with the setup of the r6.  A steady race for T4, finishing 25th overall 5th in class.

 

Team 5

LCpl Celv Heaver – Camipix Photography

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), however this years Rookies continue to excide expectations.  The team didn’t get off to the greatest start on the weekend, during testing Celvs clutch started slipping and Sweeney’s bike was leaking fuel from somewhere.  Celvs clutch was easily diagnosed by Tracktech but obtaining the parts to repair was time consuming.  Sweeney’s fuel system had to be completely stripped 4 times to ultimately confirm where the leak was coming from but the pair managed to get a few full sessions in and get some quality track time.

Sgt Andy ‘Sweeney’ McSweeney – Camipix Photography

Saturday’s qualifying saw the two regular serving members joined by Army Veteran Rider Adam Treacher, who had rode for Team 4 in the last round.  With Celv being the faster rider of the 3 on the day, it was decided he would qualify last as this would give him the best chance at a slightly warmer track to set a good time.  Sweeney went out first, followed by Adam and T5 were sitting 29th overall and 5th in the Clubman 600 class.  The plan back fired when Celv was taken out by another rider on his out-lap but with no real damage done to rider and bike he was good for the race.

L to R – Sgt McSweeney, Cfn Couzens, Cfn Ashby, Veteran Adam Treacher, Becci Byers, LCpl Heaver, Gdsm Walpole

Starting 29th for the race was a solid position but Becci Byers had plans for efficiency.  She studied data from qualifying and testing to come up with the best plan for the race.  With riders and crew briefed they saw pit stop times drop to half of some of the other teams in the race.  Time to execute the plan. Celv went out first and he went off like a missile; smashing his previous PB by 4 seconds and was comfortably putting in 1.42 laps.  Sweeney took the second stint and was able to just about hold T5 in contention for a Clubman 600 podium finish.  Sweeney’s stint was cut short after the race was red flagged so we took the decision to change rider early and send Adam out.  Adam is a fast rider, but his bike was set up to firm  for the undulations of Cadwell.  He had to fight the bike round the twisty circuit but managed to hold T5 in 3rd in class and 1st all rookie.  Celv took the final stint but as the track temperature dropped and on worn tyres; the bike started to slide and this really knocked his confidence and he couldn’t find the pace of his previous stint.  With 3 minutes of the race remaining T5 were passed by the next team in class and finished the race 4th Clubman 600 but impressively just 4 seconds behind 3rd place.  While taking 3rd place would have been incredible, it’s not the primary target this weekend.  T5’s main effort is to take home the All Rookie 1st place and that’s exactly what they did finishing 1st All Rookie Team, managing to take home their first piece of silver-wear from their second ever race while still scoring highly in the clubman championship.

Top of the podium! LCpl Celv Heaver, Veteran Adam Treacher, Sgt Andy McSweeney. Winners of the All Rookie Cup.

 

Results

Team 2
P5 Clubman 1000, P19 Overall

Team 3
P8 Clubman 1000, P23 Overall

Team 4
P5 Clubman 600, P25 Overall

Team 5
P1 All Rookie Team, P4 Clubman, 600 P18 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

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