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. All members 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 3 Clubman 1000cc
Captain ‘Monners’ Monaghan BMW S1000RR
Cpl ‘Biz’ Bizeray Suzuki GSXR1000
Veteran Matt Flower Yamaha YZF-R1
Guest Scott Halliday Suzuki GSXR1000
Team 4 Clubman 600cc
SSgt ‘Daz’ Williams Yamaha YZF-R6
Cpl ‘Robbo’ Roberts Yamaha YZF-R6
Guest Lindsay Judge Yamaha YZF-R6
Team 5 All Rookie Clubman 600cc
Capt Ryan Ingram Suzuki GSXR600
Sgt ‘Sweeney’ McSweeney Kawasaki ZX6R
Guest Wayne Morris Kawasaki ZX6R
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 Eight – Donington Park 6 Hour – 31st August 2019
Team 3
The race weekend started at Donnington with Team 3 eager to get going. Monners had used the Thursday track day as a test day and matched his personal best lap time and wanted to improve. Matt was feeling confident after a successful last round at Cadwell Park and Biz was business as usual but also wanting to push his lap times after Cadwell. Scott Halliday joined the team for the testing 6 hours of racing from his usual sprints to see if he could hold out his fast lap times for the long Endurance stints!
Qualifying
Monners put in five qualifying laps and quickly handed over to the others to get some track time. Scott put his sprint pace to good use getting the team’s top time of 1’41” improving Monners time by half a second and giving them a 19th of 38 teams position for qualifying.
Race
The team agreed Monners would do the Le Mans style start. The sunshine had already turned to clouds as the 38 teams did last minute prep for the race and just as the riders were about to leave the heavens opened. The team had made the tactical error of not having a bike ready on wets for the second time after Cadwell Park in an attempt to keep things simple during the race. This time they were punished hard with Monners being one of only two bikes on the grid on slicks in the torrential rain. Monners wobbled around the track in the rain whilst the pit crew did overtime getting Matts bike onto wets. As soon as Monners got the signal he boxed, and Matt took over having lost five places to 24th position.
Matt put in a solid twenty laps keeping a good pace comparable to the leaders in the heavy rain conditions until his fuel level necessitated passing the baton to Biz. Biz job was to continue on wets until the racing line was dry enough to send Monners out on slicks. Biz put in ten strong laps in the 1’50”s on the wets to keep the team in a good position until the dry line was wide enough to risk slicks.
Monners went out keen to expend some of the adrenelin after the race start problems but soon realised conditions were not safe to push. His traction control lights were like a disco as the rear wheel spun up out of the corners and even on the straights. There was multiple crashes as riders started trying to push in the visually dry track that was still holding dangerous moisture from the heavy rain on top of the weekends accumulated rubber. As if to confirm this situation the safety car then came out for five laps as the medical teams dealt with a hard crash out of Schwantz corner.
After 27 laps Monners handed over to Scott. Scott’s goal for the team was to get down to 1’41”; a few seconds slower than his fast short sprints pace in order to last the longer endurance times. As it turned out the team need not have worried as Scott put in nearly twenty laps with three of the them hitting the target 1’41”s and lifting the team up to 20th.
Matt went for his second stint and continued the strong performance hitting and improving on his 1’50” goal by another two seconds to get 1’48.5” and a swift hand over to Biz.
Biz went out glad to be on slicks in good conditions but got held up by traffic for a while. Once he had a cleared track he got down to his previous best lap time of 1’44” and after 25 strong laps he knocked another second off to set a new personal best.
Monners had fitted lighter springs along with a new rear tyre and the combination paid off handsomely allowing him to consistently lap in the 1’40” and achieve the teams fastest time of 1’39.4” and a personal best he had been trying to achieve for over a year. Scott again did a strong session in the 1’41”s and Matt battled a setting sun and cooler conditions to take the chequered flag.
The team placed a happy 18th position; in the top 50% overall and 8 valuable points for the championship and only four points behind Lucking Fast in fourth place.
Team 4
Testing
Unfortunately only Robbo attended the test day. Though it was well needed track time due to it being the first time back at the track since his crash, at the beginning of the season. Happy with his progression and overcoming his Craner curves fears. Still 4 seconds off his PB there but was feeling more confident come the race day.
Qualifying
Robbo set out the first stint to scrub his tyres leaving as much time as possible for Daz and guest rider, Lindsay Judge, to get some track time due to missing out on the test day. Daz went out second and put in the second fastest lap of a 1.48.466. Lindsay had issues on his outlap where his front brake was locking on, but shortly after he put in the fastest lap for us with a 1.48 flat setting us on the grid in 34 overall and 6th in class.
Race
Weather conditions were looking iffy. Last minute decision was to get a bike set on wets just incase. As the siren went for the race starters to line up, Robbo set out. Before hitting the first corner the rain came down hard. He managed to wobble round to the grid realising the rain was just to heavy for dry tyres. They sacrificed their start position to swap riders. Daz was ready on the wets went out starting at the back of the grid, whilst a few other teams remained on drys. Daz continued first stint putting in some great times in the wet with a wet PB of 2.01 moving us back through the grid taking 5 plus bikes on the start straight. Daz continued on pace maintaining 4th in Clubman but was unfortunate to loose the back end and high side when exiting turn one, he pulled the bike out the gravel and got straight back on the bike and back to pits. Thankfully rider ok and bike still together ready to go on his next stint after being scrutinised and a quick trip to the medical centre to be cleared to carry on. Robbo set out for a 45 mins stint with the track conditions drying out. Robbo staying out till almost dry as the guest rider had never ridden wets before. Lindsay took out for his first stint. Daz went out on his next stint after cleaning up the bike and reverting to drys. Unfortunately his stint was only about 15 mins long to a mechanical issue resulting in a emergency pit robbo was then forced to go out again after a quick refuel. All riders had a total of 4 stints with steady progression as well as some new PBs.
Finished 31st overall and 6th in class
Team 5
Test day
Due to commitments with the British Army, Sweeney was unable to attend the test day. Something which he will later come to regret. His bike was completely tested after his off at Cadwell, and what looked to be only cosmetic issues were infact hiding mechanical issues they had not anticipated. Ryan had managed to make it to testing however and was performing strong! latching onto the back of some of the quicker boys in the paddock and holding onto them.
Qualifying
Ryan went out first. Hed spend all day here previously and just needed to punch in a quick time, and get off track to send the rest of the guys out for a look at the track. Guest rider Wayne Morris went out second for qualifying but unfortunately ran on at the first bend on his outlap. Sweeney went out 3rd and this is where the team discovered all the mechanical issues. The bike turned like the titanic. The slightest touch of the throttle stood the bike upright and on the straights the bike was down on power and going into limp mode at 11k rpm. A busy lunch break for the rookie rider and pitcrew to get it fixed. The team started P25.
Race
After some huge changes to the setup and electronics on Sweeneys bike, it was decided he would start the race. But, like a lot of teams they had been caught off guard with the weather and he found himself lining up on the soaking wet grid on slicks. The decision was made to pull him in, send out our wet rider and start from the pitlane.
Heres where the rookie team showed their orange bib colours. Due to a mis-communication, the team thought Ryans bike had wets on it. it didn’t. We had 5 minutes to change his wheels and send him out, after 5 minutes youre no longer allowed to start the race and are disqualified. The team barely made it with more than a few seconds to spare, but we were into the race. Stone dead last and 4 laps behind but we were in the race.
Ryan had never ridden on wets before. Being as we were so far behind, he was given clear instructions to do a few slow laps to get used to them, his breaking, how the bike moves around on the wet rubber etc. As he finished his stint a dry ish line was appearing and Sweeney was sent out in cut tyres. His bike was a lot better, but still down on power. He was putting in 1.50 laptimes, okay for a rookie on a broken bike but 6 seconds down on where we needed to be to be competitive. He finished his stint collecting data to come back to the pitcrew with to make changes for his next stint. Finally Wayne could head out, and with an almost completely dry track we could put the hammer down. The boy done good.
Halfway through the race, the boys had managed to make up the lost 4 laps, and climb 9 places on the grid, sitting 5th in the Clubman 600 championship. Over the next 3 hours the boys kept pushing and chasing, not out of the race and within sight of a podium finish, despite their start. 40 minutes to go however it fell apart. Wayne was on track. Hed been signalled to come into pitlane next lap for a rider change. Ryan was lining up in the pits ready to go. As Wayne came into the pitlane, the safety car was deployed. Disaster. Ryan sat at the end of the pitlane for 3 laps. Once we were finally released onto track all chances of a podium had gone. The boys finished 29th overall, 5th in class and 3rd all rookie team. Not a bad effort considering the lost laps.
Results
T3 P8 Clubman 1000 P18 Overall
T4 P6 Clubman 600 P31 Overall
T5 P5 Clubman 600 P29 Overall P3 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 
Oh dear, I guess whoever is tasked with writing the report on the teams’ efforts is having a bad day. This is really quite insulting to all the supporters who follow the racing season with keen interest, just the facts would do if you really can’t be bothered to give the teams the acknowledgements they deserve. Please try a little harder next time. What about a mention for T6, what did they do to be completely ignored?
Hi Jill, Monners from the team here. Apologies for the slow update, we really do appreciate your support. Unfortunately the team as a whole had a bit of a bad week trying to get the race reports prepared before the next weekends BSB races took over the headlines. We dont have a Team 6; are you thinking of one of the other teams? I’ve just added out content from Team 3 which was missing earlier along with some photographs of the teams.