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 Three – Anglesey Circuit 9 – 12 May 2019
After solid performances at Round 1 and 2, with the team taking home silverware at both, we arrived at Anglesey anxious to get back on that podium.
Team 3
Cpl Martin Bizeray – Camipix Photography
Army Team 3 arrived at Anglesey ready for business. After ticking the ‘stay shiny side up’ box and surviving the first two unusually cold rounds the team was keen to finally find a strong base setup for the bikes and put down some rubber working on lap times.
Everyone was keeping an eager eye on the weather forecast which was showing rain only a week before. Every day the forecast improved and eventually the stunning Anglesey coastline was bathed in sun for the whole weekend producing easily the best weekends racing so far this year.
The riders arrived to the Friday test day with bikes prepared for the fast flowing Anglesey track and excited to ride what is probably the most grippy surface of the seasons. In perfect conditions the team immediately got into a groove familiarising themselves with the circuit. The fast turn one leads into The Banking; a hairpin that allows heroic amounts of lean angle for the photographers, it then feeds into the uber fast Church corner and the steep uphill braking of Rocket section . This section requires high confidence as you go full throttle with the team seeing 45 degrees of lean angle at 150mph before throwing out the anchors for hard braking into the Rocket. The next section is much more technical ending in the roller coaster of the cork screw that leads to the tricky long last corner onto the start / finish straight.
The team headed out onto track and Cpl Martin Bizeray quickly got up to speed. His famous consistency just requiring one click of the ignition key to tune the setup on his beloved and ever reliable ‘Pig’ to prepare for terrorising the more expensive newer bikes on the grid.
Captain David Monaghan – Camipix Photography
After taking a couple of sessions to become comfortable with the conditions Biz moved onto assisting Matt Flower on his MyDuctwork Ltd supported Yamaha R1. Matt has been working hard at finding a setup to increase confidence on his bike and wanted to consolidate improvements made during a recent test day at Brands Hatch. Getting a tow from Biz to help with lines, speeds and braking points helped to explore the setting changes and work towards the elusive and moving target sweet spot all riders look for. Matt was able to work through his planned setup changes to a positive point looking forward to the next days Endurance race. Capt David Monaghan switched from his trusty Yamaha R6 last season to the BMW S1000RR and has also been working hard finding a base setting. The BMW is naturally fast out of the box but notoriously tricky to find it’s best working window and the poor weather at the first rounds since finishing the build had made it extra hard for Monners to find confidence. Fortunately the investment in extensive data logging and help from Mupo Race Suspension had enabled quick progress and the new race maps from RS2E.de were the icing on the cake to finally get the German rocket working at its best. A couple sessions to explore the new traction control options and a few suspension adjustments to suit the fast flowing track put an immediate smile on Monners face and knocked several seconds off his personal best at the track.
Race day came with more perfect sunny weather producing happy soldiers all round. A quick team talk settled on Biz getting some strong qualifying laps down and Monners then looking to set a fast lap for the team after a bit of extra practice in the morning sprint race. Matt would then go out for the remaining time to get in plenty of seat time. The approach worked well and the team qualified a satisfying sixth of thirteen in class and 16th on the grid with a best lap of 1’15.6’’.
Monners did the first stint of the 3 hr Endurance race with a good shove from Biz helping to get over a gear slip during the Le Mans style start. Knowing that bike fitness was likely to be a factor early in the season Monners pushed hard and managed to set the teams best lap time of 1’15.5” and gain a place in the standings. After 45 minutes he pitted and a slick change from Paul and the strong pit crew Matt got out to continue the teams work.
Matt put in a consistent stint knocking more off of his lap times against some hard charging teams coming up the standings. The suspension changes during testing paid off well with Matt handing over to Biz happy with the positive work done and progress made.
Army Veteran Matt Flower – Camipix Photography
Biz headed out and immediately started putting down strong consistent lap times as the track temperature rose. Rear end grip problems made The Pig tiring to ride but Biz continued to push until a near high side ten laps in gave a clear warning shot that he would have to slow slightly to retain his Mr Fast & Consistent reputation. Despite this his fighting spirit and stubbornness meant that he still approached his best race time ten laps later before another warning knocked the conditions home.
A refreshed Monners went back out for the last thirty minute session managing the deteriorating tyres and gaining a place to finish 8th in class and 20th on the grid of twenty eight teams.
All in all a good finish for the team and the identification of their likely main competitors for the rest of the season in Lucking Fast, Barbuto Da Corsa, Alltorque Racing and CT Racing 2 who all have similar lap times.
The team is looking forward to Oulton Park next month with the goal of further progression and fun times at another one of the best tracks in the UK.
Team 4
Testing went well for the Clubman pair. Having both been to Anglesey before they quickly got back into the swing of things and knuckled down to work on lap times. The last time Daz was here he was on his ZX6R so it took him a few sessions to get used to his new R6 and get it set up properly. Robbo spent most of the morning setting up his new Mupo rear shock and by the end of the day both riders posted new personal best laptimes of 1’17’’.
Qualifying did not go as well as the test day. Daz went out first to limber up and Robbo would go second to post their fast time but an issue with his steering damper had taken 2 seconds off his lap time, so they started the race 26th on the grid and 8th in class.
SSgt Daz Williams – Camipix Photography
Daz lined up to start the race. Unfortunately a crash on the warm up lap meant that the riders were stood waiting whilst the track was cleaned up. When Daz was finally released from the grid to return to the pits his tyres were stone cold. The pair took the decision for Robbo to start the race as his tyres were already up to temperature. The pair had opted for a four stint / three stop race strategy. Robbo did his first stint and with a quick change Daz was off for his 45 minutes. Their race was going to plan and 45 minutes later Daz pitted and sent Robbo out for his second stint. Another textbook 45 minutes riding from Robbo and he was signalled to pit.
Cpl James Robberts – Camipix Photography
Daz wheeled his bike into position in the pit lane and the pit crew got ready for the change over. Then disaster struck. Daz’s bike would not start. He turned the key and everything lit up, but when pressed the starter button there was nothing. Robbo had already been signalled to come in. A few seconds later he appeared in the pit lane and was frantically waved on to go back out by Daz. the pit crew got the bike in and immediately started diagnosing the fault. Robbo didn’t have enough fuel to last the race so they had to get Dazs bike fixed. After a quick check of the starter system a blown fuse was the culprit. An easy but time costly fix! Robbo was signalled to change again and Daz finally went out for his stint.
The pair finished the race 7th in class; not their best finish but also not their easiest race. They are looking forward to redemption at Oulton Park!
Team 5
Team 5 is the development team of the AMRRT-E which allows soldiers to get their introduction to the race track regardless of motorbike capacity (within rules), however this years Rookies continue to exceed expectations. Team 5 arrived at the track late on Thursday evening and with none of the trio having been to Anglesey before they spent most of the evening setting their bikes up and desperately trying to take in information from Team 2s WO1 Andy Day.
LCpl Celvin Heaver – Camipix Photography
Test day: the trio set out in the Newcomer 600 class to test. The lack of experience showed instantly as Sweeney ran off track on the first lap. After the next few sessions the team still was not happy. Adam was continuing to fight with his bike. He couldn’t get the suspension set up properly and as a result he didn’t have the confidence to push on. All the while Sweeney and Celv couldn’t find trust in their tyres. At lunch the team had a rethink. Adam butted heads with Team 3s Monners over his suspension and increased his rear preload to stop the bike going wide on Anglesey’s fast flowing corners. Celv and Sweeney decided they’d swap tyres to the new 2019 Metzeler CompK RR slicks from Bike Tyres Leeds.
The afternoon was a completely different experience for the team; Adams bike now handled like it was supposed to and the new rubber truly stuck to the Welsh tarmac. The changes took 2 seconds off their lap times! The extra confidence allowed the team to push harder and harder and the laps times continued to improve. That was until Celv asked for a little too much lean angle from the Metzeler tyres and he went down at Peel bend. Bike and rider were both fine but the timing meant the test day was over.
Army Veteran Adam Treacher – Camipix Photography
Qualifying; Adam was the fastest of the trio here so he would qualify last for best chance of a warmer track. Sweeney went first breaking his PB from the day before by over a second. Celv went second but with the spill from testing in his mind, he couldn’t find his mojo and was quite a way off his earlier pace. Adam however smashed it. Stripping almost three seconds off his time and achieving 19th on the grid. Our best ever starting position.
The race: the plan was simple. four stints and three pitstops. Adam was fastest so would take stint two and four. Celv had to make a sharp exit post race for the NW200 in Northern Ireland so he took the first stint. Leaving Sweeney the third stint. Our perfect plan! As with all great plans it wasn’t to survive contact with the enemy! On the warm up lap for the race start another team took a spill coming out of the corkscrew and the race was delayed by 35 minutes. The race strategy had to change accordingly. Our crew manager Becci Byers was straight on the numbers to come up with a new plan, what times we would change rider and what order we would go in; three stints, two pit stops.
Celv started the race. It took him some time to get back to his pace but once he was he was pushing well. He came in from his stint and a textbook pitstop sent Sweeney out for his stint. Sweeneys bike wasn’t happy. His bike was down on power and a few laps in his bike started to jerk and splutter when getting on the power. He couldn’t continue his stint so signalled the pit crew he was coming in.
Sgt Andy McSweeney – Camipix Photography
Adam was called into action half an hour earlier than he expected with only 2 minutes notice. Adam took over the reins for the team and absolutely flew posting a string of 1’14’s and a best of 1’14.36”! Him and his bike were finally working in unison together after two rounds fighting the bike. The pit crew worked desperately to fix Sweeneys bike. Adams fuel tank wouldn’t last the rest of the race so they had to do another pitstop and send Sweeney back out. After a quick diagnosis from the pit crew, the fuel tank was stripped and the fuel filter was full of muck. An easy fix but it had cost the team an extra pitstop. Adam was called in and in the second quickest pitstop of any team through the entire race, Sweeney was sent out to finish the race.
The team finished 2nd all rookie, 6th clubman and 16th overall. We’re gutted about missing the rookie Cup but 16th overall is a best finish to date so some great takeaway points.
Results
T3 P8 Clubman 1000 P20 Overall
T4 P7 Clubman 600 P23 Overall
T5 P6 Clubman 600 P16 Overall P2 All Rookie Team
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
1nspireFitness
Army Endurance Motorcycle Race Team 