2019 Endurance Round 9 – Croft

Posted on October 18, 2019 by teamarmyeracing

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
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
Guest Pete ‘Doogie’ Doogan 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 Nine – Croft 3 Hour – 12th October 2019

Team 3

Croft 2019 final round! Both Matt and Biz arrived to some nasty weather after both having lengthy journeys on Thursday to get there. Waking up to rain and damp track the plan was to let the test day weather ease and then go out later in the day. Biz happy to go out on his beloved ‘pig’and learn the track in the wet went out for a session to get the hang of the track as he had never ridden before. Shortly after this session a bike had deposited both fuel and oil on large areas of the track so the day was put on hold for quite a time before getting back under way mid afternoon. Biz went back out on wets and starting putting in some good times. With the track drying fairly quickly and only 2 or 3 damps areas Matt ventured out on his My Ductwork sponsored Yamaha R1 on cuts. To start with he was learning the track again after not being here since 2005. Despite some ongoing electronic issues and dealing with the dreaded Manflu Matt put in some good times and with the help of Andy of AGR Motorsport tweaked the suspension. Despite the lack of track time it was still a positive day.

Qualifying

Race day came, albeit a bit cold it was dry and the forecast was set for dry race. Qualifying took place and Biz set the pace with his 20 minute stint, after pitting Matt then took to the track on his My Ductwork sponsored Yamaha R1, he managed to set his best time of the weekend so far! Also had some more minor adjustments made by Andy and the bike was starting to feel better suited for the circuit! Qualified 21st out of 25 in what was one of the smallest endurance grids of the year.

Race

Race start and as usual Biz and ‘the pig’ got off to an absolute flier, making up 8 places and got to P3 in class within a couple of laps. Straight on the pace and after a few laps he started to reel in Lucking Fast who were in P2. Seeing the gap getting closer and closer, Biz took his opportunity and got a good drive out of the final corner and over took them down the start/finish straight. Close on his tail were C T Racing, who after some brilliant riding between the pair of them managed to get there nose in front as Biz entered the pits for the first change after running the tank dry.

Matt the took to the track, due to other teams managing to stay out for a couple of laps longer Team 3 were in P4 and Matt was settling into a good rhythm and slowly his lap times were coming down. During his first stint he was down to mid 38’s. Signalling to Paul on the pit wall Matt then came in after 40 mins completely exhausted and unable to see properly due to the exertions of the back while not being 100%.

Back out on ‘The Pig’ Biz was flying, Mr Consistent lap after lap between 1min 32 or 1min 34 laps. Then came the fastest lap of the race 1:30.8, so close to his own personal goal. End of the stint was coming and Biz was pushing and pushing and had an innocuous low side on the final corner. Managing to re mount and get back to pits, Matt had recovered enough to go out again.

Setting Matt a stint of 20 mins before our usual countdown he got his head down and smashed his time with a low 1:36 lap. Pushing and pushing and the low sun also now playing a part Matt continued to fight the manflu, but eventually Matt signalled again and then came in with 30mins to go.

Another good change over by Tom and Dean and Biz went out to complete the remaining laps, bringing us home in P17 overall and P5 in the Club 1000 class. Many congratulations to all the teams above us and well done to all the competitors this year.

The team have had a quality season. Team 3 are very happy as they got out target of top 5 after finishing 7th in 2018. A final farewell to Biz who is hanging up his leathers. Top man and good guy! See you all in 2020

Team 4

Testing

Test day – with only 3 sessions each due to a oil spill in the morning. The riders managed to get out in the afternoon. Damp conditions, so all remained on wets with pretty much a dry last session. This didnt give the team much chance to learn the circuit properly after its resurface and it was Doogies first time at the circuit.

Qualifying

All riders got out for qualifying and used it as a bit of last minute practice before the race. Robbo carried the team and qualified with a time of 1.39. 25th on the grid, 6th in class.

Race

Robbo started the race and within the 58 mins of his stint he had gained the team 4 positions. Doogie went out on a 30 min stint gaining his new PB of a 1:36.754 with this being his first ever time at Croft. Daz went out also for a 51 min stint, he’d ridden until he couldnt push anymore leaving only 35 minutes of the race remaining.

Robbo went back out again to finish the race. All managed to remain consistent. All looking forward to next season to getting back out again. Robbo finally regaining his confidence in the bike and gained a new PB of a 1:35 which is 2 seconds quicker than last year. Finished 21st overall and 6th in class. Croft fielded an exceptionally fast and small entry list, the team were happy with the result.

Results

Team 3 P5 Clubman 1000 P17 Overall

Team 4 P6 Clubman 600 P21 Overall

2019 Final Standings

Team 2 #12
12th of 36 Clubman 1000
28th of 47 National 1000
(7 rounds missed)

Team 3 #25
5th of 36 Clubman 1000
9th of 47 National 1000

Team 4 #88
4th of 22 Clubman 600
9th of 33 National 600

Team 5 #23
5th of 22 Clubman 600
8th of 33 National 600
(1 round missed)

Team 6 #26
19th of 22 Clubman 600
23rd of 33 National 600
(8 rounds missed)

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

2019 Endurance Round 8 – Donington Park 6 Hour

Posted on August 12, 2019 by teamarmyeracing

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

NO LIMITS RACING ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

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?

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

Robbo getting the power down on the back straight.

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

The team happy with the days work after 6 hours of racing!

Thanks

2019 Endurance Round 6 – Anglesey International

Posted on August 2, 2019 by teamarmyeracing

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

NO LIMITS RACING ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

RIDER INFORMATION

Team 3 Clubman 1000cc
Cpl ‘Biz’ Bizeray Suzuki GSXR1000
Veteran Lyndon Barton GSXR1000
Dean Lawes GSXR1000
Tom Giggs Yamaha YZF-R1

Team 4 Clubman 600cc
SSgt ‘Daz’ Williams Yamaha YZF-R6
Cpl ‘Robbo’ Roberts Yamaha YZF-R6
LCpl Danny Richardson Yamaha YXF-R6
Martyn Siviter Kawasaki ZX6R

Team 5 All Rookie Clubman 600cc
Capt Ryan Ingram Suzuki GSXR600
Sgt ‘Sweeney’ McSweeney Kawasaki ZX6R
LCpl Pete ‘Doogie’ Doogan Kawasaki ZX6R
LCpl Graham ‘Clowsey’ Clowse Kawasaki ZX6R

WHY SUPPORT THE TEAM?

Round Six – Anglesey International 27 July 2019

Team 3

Team 3 arrived at Anglesey ready to go. Well Biz did as Matt and Dave were on holiday! So, team 3 version 2.0 consisted of Biz, Veteran Lyndon Barton, Tom Giggs and Dean Lawes.

Test day was good since the new 10-hour team could see what each rider was capable of. Luckily it came to light everyone was about the same pace; perfect!

Qualifying

Biz, Tom and Dean all did the bare minimum to qualify. Lyndon had made some big changes to his bike overnight and needed as much track time as he could get to test them.

Race time!

Biz put in a great start taking the team from twenty-eighth to twenty-fourth and mid pack. The lap times started to fall as Biz got into the swing of it. Dean went out next and put in more of the same and settled into a good rhythm.

Tom went next and straight from the off he hit a strong pace which continued throughout his session. Lyndon went fourth and he was out to prove a point, getting his head down but time soon passed and the rotation started again. The race carried on with consistent times from all riders aware that they had a long ten hours to crack. Once the last couple of hours were in sight the second breath came to all riders and lap-times started to fall again. Dean pushed hard knowing it was his last session and Tom did the same. Lyndon wanted to improve and get a 1’38’’ which he did lap after lap until traffic interrupted his rhythm before pitting to let biz out for the final stint until the chequered flag. The time ticked down and the flag fell and the 10-hour race was over.

Team 4

Team 4’s Robbo and Daz also drafted in some guest riders for this monumental race; namely ex team member LCpl Danny Richardson and Double 2’s Martyn Siviter (who also joined the team at Oulton).

Testing

Martyn was instructing with No Limits helping out members of the team. Unfortunately Daz and Danny couldn’t attend due to commitments with the Armed Forces. Robbo was getting a feel of the track as it was a new layout. He had also fitted a longer chain so some work was required to optimise the suspension setup to take advantage of the longer wheelbase and improve handling in the long fast corners

Qualifying

Martyn went out on the first stint putting in a lap time of 1’35’’. This put us 19^th on the grid for the race and 5th in class. Robbo went out to set a time and put some laps on his new slicks leaving the rest of the time for Danny and Daz to get used to the new layout. Unfortunately, a few laps in Danny had a bike issue resulting in him having to come in early. This left Daz a little more time to try out his new suspension setup. He had changed to lighter springs early that morning; like Robbos longer wheelbase another modification to improve handling on Anglesey’s long fast corners.Last round it came to light his springs were too hard so bright and just hours before qualifying his bike was

Race

As the faster rider, we sent Martyn out to do the first 45-minute stint and get the team into a good position. Unfortunately, Danny missed his first stint due to still working on what turned out to be an electrical issue on his bike. The team decided to switch to 30-minute sessions and Danny made the second where he finally managed to work out the track and get some strong laps in. Daz put in a new personal best of 1’39’’ which was great. Half way through we all started to feel the pain of endurance racing and realised we were taking part in one hell of a race. Constantly moving up and down the grid in the C600 class. The last two stints were done by Martyn putting in 45 mins and then Danny running to the end with a 40-minute stint. All riders felt the aches and pains of the 10 hours especially the next day after a total of 349 laps!

Team 5

As with the other teams, Team 5 also drafted in extra riders for the longer race. Being the development team however, we used the opportunity to bring in some Military rookies to develop them hopefully to race next year. Sweeney was joined by Capt. Ryan Ingram, LCpl Pete Doogan and LCpl Graham Clowse. The 4 had never ridden together, and Graham had never raced, so a steep learning curve was to be had!

The test day was productive and necessary. All riders seemed to suffer with some sort of set up issue. Sweeney was hitting the limiter in 6th half way down the straights and sliding his rear tyre at most corners. Ryan couldn’t find any confidence from his suspension and Grahams tyres were not happy on the Welsh tarmac. The only happy one of us was Pete, but he’d been here over fifteen times on track days so knew what he was doing. After some big setup changes to our bikes, he set about teaching us the ropes.

Qualifying

Qualifying wasn’t great! A power issue in the garage meant Sweeney was out on stone cold, brand new tyres from Bike Tyres Leeds. After getting some heat and scrubbing them in, he was called in before he could do any fast laps. Graham was also on brand new tyres and on slicks for the first time. They are notoriously slippery without heat so he took a chilled ride for qualifying to bring it home. Ryan was way off his pace; his bike was not happy. He did the minimum he needed to qualify and came in to fight his suspension setup. Pete however, the teams dark horse, positioned them well with a fast flying lap.

Race

All of Pete’s hard work was however undone on the race start! The team decided he would start the race as he was the quickest, he could hold onto the pack the longest. He lined up on the circuit for the Le Mans start and made a rapid sprint across the track to mount his bike, hit the starter and nothing! not a thing!! Added to the confusion of hearing other bikes start he selected first gear to pull away. The bike doesn’t start in gear so when he realised he switched back into neutral to try starting again. Eventually he got away however the team went into the first bend stone dead last. Fortunately it was a long race and anything can happen!

The team elected for 45-minute stints and Pete managed to climb eight places during his stint before Sweeney took over. Sweeney managed to take the team another six places and held onto 6th in class. Graham went out on a mission and performed well while Ryan took a while to get to grips with his bike. The second round of stints was very much the same but with big improvements from all! Sweeney and Pete had dropped into the 1.39s, Ryan had sorted his suspension out and Graham was putting in his best lap times. Throughout the race the team bounced between 5th and 10^th; all doing very consistent times. Pete and Sweeney were lapping constantly within half a second of their best times even on their final stints! For a team that have never ridden together and participating in the longest race the UK has ever seen, they were extremely proud of themselves. An all novice team and placed 2nd in the Novice Cup in something to truly be proud of.

Results

T3 P14 Clubman 1000 P26 Overall

T4 P6 Clubman 600 P27 Overall

T5 P10 Clubman 600 P33 Overall P2 All Rookie Team

Thanks

2019 Endurance Round 5 – Snetterton Circuit

Posted on July 17, 2019 by teamarmyeracing

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

RIDER INFORMATION

Team 3 Clubman 1000cc
Cpl ‘Biz’ Bizeray Suzuki GSXR1000
Veteran Matt Flower Yamaha YZF-R1

Team 4 Clubman 600cc
SSgt ‘Daz’ Williams Yamaha YZF-R6
Capt Ryan Ingram Suzuki GSX-R600

Team 5 All Rookie Clubman 600cc
Sgt ‘Sweeney’ McSweeney Kawasaki ZX6R
LCpl Pete ‘Doogie’ Doogan Kawasaki ZX6R

WHY SUPPORT THE TEAM?

Round Five – Snetterton Circuit 11 – 14 July 2019

Team 3

Friday practice saw the same issues Matts been struggling with at previous rounds, with no trust or confidence in the handling of the bike and he found himself just face palming without a strategy to figure out what to do.

After the Friday’s testing it was decided to remove the forks, strip them down and see if there was any mechanical faults. After a few hours Andy returned with the news of a faulty part within the forks. As you can imagine matt was delighted that a fault had been found as he was starting to believe that he was at the end of the road with racing.

On Saturday morning and with no time for testing the new suspension, Matt set-out in qualifying and in only a few laps was beating his best time from the previous day before a Red Flag stopped play.

This was good for us, as that gave Andy and Matt another chance to discuss what was going on and make some changes before pit lane was re-opened. This proved to be beneficial as Matts lap times dropped again.

Race Time! Pit lane opened and Biz was to make the le mans style race start, which he did in true Biz style, making places from the start!

After a good first stint, Biz was forced to return to the pits before scheduled as he was running out of fuel. Que Matt rushing around, putting on his helmet and gloves before leaping onto the bike and setting off to start my first stint.

As it was so hot, it wasn’t long before Matts mouth was as dry, but with the bike feeling so good he didn’t even care. The laps we being ticked off and his lap-times were dropping significantly, even shocking the pit-crew Paul and Becky who weren’t sure if they could believe the tsl-timing app until he repeated the times.

A smooth pit-stop allowed Biz to start his second stint and push once again. Increasing his pace every lap and gaining places. Then count down started for the pit stop which was a welcomed sight.

Out Matt went after anther amazing pit-stop organised by our pit-crew Becky and Paul.

Again Matt was building and building and the lap times were dropping! But this is where the fairytale ends. Being a little excitable Matt ask for a little too much and the MyDuckwork Ltd Yamaha R1 bit back unexpectedly, causing him to jar his neck and back. At the time this was not a problem as the bike straightened up and he continued on his way.

After a few more laps it was noticeable that Matts left shoulder was collapsing under the pressure of braking and getting worse each lap there after. Matts lap-times were getting worse too.

When it got too much, Matt gave the signal to the pit crew that he needed to come in. Sure enough on the next lap they gave him the ‘box’ signal.

Biz zipped off with a little bit excitement for the remaining 30-mins and to see the race out to the chequered flag, but after a few laps the race was red-flagged and a result was called.

Team 4

Round 5 saw the arrival of a new rookie rider – Captain Ryan Ingram into the Endurance Team. He arrived having just purchased a GSX-R 600 from one of the Sprint riders. Cpl James Roberts was unavailable and SSgt Daz Williams returned having missed Oulton. Ryan and Daz teamed up together as Army Team 4.

Test Day:

Test day saw Ryan Ingram learning the track and the bike at the same time. A rookie rider on a new bike he initially set 2.44 but by the end of the day slashed over 20 seconds off his PB lap time and felt comfortable aboard the GSX-R.

Darren smashed last years PB at Snetterton on the first session, his times dropping throughout the day to 2.13. A back end sliding issue was identified as a rear spring that was too stiff.

Qualifying:

Ryan was first out on qualifying lap after lap reducing his times and finding himself amongst a fierce grid. His first time endurance riding he was quickly baptized in the speed differences between the 600 and 1000cc machines. A red flag incident cut short his qualifying and it began to rain. After the incident on track cleared Daz went out and put some steady laps in amongst the other riders whom were all gingerly dancing around the now greasy track. Team 4 qualified 2^ndto last on the grid, but pleased.

Race:

As a rookie sprint rider Ryan was elected to carry out the race start; the initial few laps of chasing the bike in front would emulate sprint racing and help build his confidence and speed. After a front-end slide on lap 2 Ryan began slashing his times and getting amongst the other bikes, chasing the machine in front. After a speedy change Daz was out and began catching some of the other teams, setting a new PB of 2.11. Ryan then went out on his 2^ndsession and set his PB of 2.16. Daz then went out and finished the race (which was cut short by 20min due to a red flag incident).

Summary Team 4 finished 8^thin class and overall very pleased. Ryan was ‘baptized’ into the world of Endurance racing and Daz smashed last years PBs.

Team 5

Round 5 saw a lot of changes to Team 5. Unfortunately due to a change in circumstances, it is likely that Celv will be unable to attend the remainder of the season. Add to this that Adams bike is still very much awaiting a new engine and other repairs after he failed to keep rubber on the floor at Oulton Park, Sweeney was left in the strange predicament of not having a team to ride with for the 5th round.

However, this was a fantastic opportunity to use Team 5 as it was intended and introduce new military riders into the world of Endurance Racing. Que the arrival of LCpl Pete ‘Doogie’ Doogan. Due to commitments to the Army, Doogie was unable to attend the test day. And having never raced before, he was in for a steep learning curve.

That said, Sweeney could attend the test day, got to work dialing his ZX6R in. He took the decision to skip the first session, as a brief morning shower had soaked the track. By the second session, the track was mostly dry and off he went with a few slow paced laps to get his eye into the layout and pace of the circuit. Snetterton is very flat with a mix of fast, off-camber bends, hairpins and late apexes. The third session he started pushing the pace and it became very quickly apparent that the bike setup was completely wrong. The suspension was set for bumpier circuits and was causing the bike to be very unstable through the slower turns and the rear wheel to constantly slide exiting bends and on heavy breaking. Ontop of this, he was hitting the engine limiter on 6th half way down the straights so some big changes were required.

After some big suspension changes both front and rear, and dropping 6 teeth off the rear sprocket, he went out again chasing his laptimes, testing lines and managed to drop his time to around the 2’15 mark after a few more suspension and setup changes. Not a race winning pace but atleast the bike was set up ready for Saturday.

Saturday morning saw the arrival of Doogie to the garage and he was quickly brought up to speed. Having never ridden Snetterton before it was decided Sweeney would go out first and do the bare minimum he needed to qualify, then Doogie would use all the remaining time to learn the circuit. Sweeney went out on a new set of Metzeller Racetec Slicks from Bike Tyres Leeds and set a new PB of 2’12. 3 laps into qualifying a it started to rain very slightly. It didn’t seem much on the riders visor, but a big slide coming out of turn 9 Nelson saw the rookie rider come into the pitlane. As he came in, another rider also had a big incident at the same place and qualifying was red flagged and the rain worsened. Team 5 took this as a chance to swap riders sending Doogie out but time commitments only allowed him 7 laps, managing a PB of 2’19, qualifying the pair 25th of 31 on the grid.

Race start, Sweeney started the race, and true to form made a fantastic sprint across the track being one of the first to the bikes and to pull away. He met a lot of traffic pulling out as he accelerated away but still managed to go into the first bend having made a few places up. He done his 45 minute stint and pitted to send Doogie out for his first ever racing stint. Doogie quickly found his groove and he for faster and faster every lap, finishing his 45 minute stint 6 seconds faster than when he started. Sweeney went out for his second stint on a mission. He smashed his previous times with a new PB of 2’09 and settled into his session, managing to lap a few of out competitors and hold us within the top 20 overall. Pete went out for his second and final session to finish the race but unfortunately only managed 7 laps before the race was red flagged and the results were called.

The team finished 6th in class and 3rd all rookie. A fantastic achievement! the pair got on so well that Doogie will also be joining Team 5 at Anglesey for the epic 10 hour race.

Results

T3 P10 Clubman 1000 P24 Overall

T4 P8 Clubman 600 P26 Overall

T5 P6 Clubman 600 P21 Overall P3 All Rookie Team

Thanks

2019 Endurance Round 3 – Anglesey Coastal

Posted on May 18, 2019 by teamarmyeracing

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

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?

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 16^th 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 8^th in class and 20^th 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

2019 Endurance Round 2 – Cadwell Park

Posted on April 21, 2019 by teamarmyeracing

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

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?

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 11^th 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 3^rd before running to the fuel light and dropping back to 4^th 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 4^th 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 5^th 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 12^th 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 23^rd. 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 6^th 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 1^st 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

2019 Endurance Round 1 – Donington National

Posted on April 6, 2019 by teamarmyeracing

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?

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 2^nd 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 20^th to 10^th 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 3^rd place in the Clubman 1000cc category and as the clock ticked down to the 3hr mark they were sat in 3^rd 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 3^rd place in the C1000 class just 13 seconds in front of 4^th but several laps behind 2^nd. 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 30^th 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

Cadwell Park Round 7

Posted on September 18, 2018 by teamarmyeracing

After the highs and lows of Oulton Park, the team returned to Cadwell Park for the second time this year. Missing members of the team were reunited and the gang geared up for the penultimate round.

For many Cadwell Park is a favourite track, its fast sweeping tight lines and rapid elevation changes, make for a roller coaster ride. The Gooseneck, Park, Mansfield are famous corners, but Cadwell’s technical nature has caught out many top-level racers. The start of this year saw some Army riders crashing, and others having close shaves, reminding them of the respect this track needs.

The long race weekend consisted of a track day, a test day, then qualifying and racing on the Saturday.

Track day

The track day saw some the pit crew take to the track; Sgt Andy McSweeney unleashed his ZX6R onto the track and set some impressive lap times, while Cpl Jeff Ward passed his ACU assessment (so watch this space for a future Army racer!). Team 2s riders Carl and Andy carried out some extra testing. Team 4s Robbo also took part in some evening testing.

Test Day

Team 1

Without Sam Cox or Tom Ward (guest rider for the meeting, BSB Superstock 1000), Pep tipped up with what can only be said as “holiday injury” not knowing if he could ride or not. Tom and Sam both rode there in BSB, so they would be sweet and fast enough anyway. Pep’s first stint was simply to find out if his shoulder could stick the grueling undulations of Cadwell Park. To his surprise, his injury didn’t affect his riding at all; if anything it forced him to use his legs more and it turns out that’s how you go fast!!! Who’d have known?!

The test day started well and by the second session Pep was into his PB area, banging in a decent lap around the 1:37 mark before lunch and then continued to ride around on scrubs, trying to feel the tyres more in the afternoon instead of just going fast. In all, a good solid test day.

Team 2

Following the track day Team 2 settled into the test day quickly, Andy and Carl dropped the hammer and found themselves setting new PBs and giving Pep a good run for his money. With a successful morning the Team enjoyed the afternoon playing cat and mouse with one another, while coaching Team 5 along.

Team 4

Robbo was fast throughout setting a new PB of 1:42. His time spent on open pit lane track days since the Team’s last to visit to Cadwell had paid dividends. During the second session Dave overtook Daz into the gooseneck and highsided at the exit of Mansfield, trapping his foot under the exhaust and almost being run over by Daz. He was shipped off to hospital with a suspected broken foot, returning with ligament damage. Morale stayed high in team 4; concerned for his teammate Daz joked to Dave (As Casey Stoner famously once told Rossi) ‘your ambition appears to have outweighed your talent’. Banter aside we wish Dave a speedy recovery.

Capt Dave Monaghan (Army Team 4) moments before highsiding

Team 5

Having completed his ACU at Cadwell Park earlier in the year, Biz was out of the gates and enjoying the familiar track. Sharing the same test group as the other 1000 Army teams, Biz and Matt were absorbing lines and tips; becoming quicker and quicker throughout the day.

Race Day – Qualifying

Team 1

Qualifying started with Pep just going out and scrubbing his tyres in for the race. The majority of qualifying was put aside for Sam and Tom, to re-familiarize themselves and light the timing screen up with some BSB times. Pep did 3 laps setting a 1:37.2. Tom went out next, straight into low 1:33s then down to low 1:32s. Sam was out last matching those blistering times. Team 1 qualified in pole position with 1:31.531.

Team 2

Carl was out of the pits as soon as qualifying begun, giving him a clean run round the track where he set a fast pace. Andy was next banging in consistent laps. Carl set the fastest lap at 1:37.098 with fresh rubber on, positioning them in 14^th place on the grid and 3^rd place in Clubman 1000 class.

WO1 (ASM) Andy Day (Team 2) battling it out amongst a fierce pack

Team 4

Robbo was first out and set the fastest qualifying time at 1.43, positioning the team 24^th on the grid and 3^rd place in Clubman 600.

Team 5

Biz set the fastest time in qualifying 1:45.274, positioning them 27^th on the grid and 10th place in Clubman 1000

Race

Team 1

Pre-race Pep was given a motivation chat by the BSB riders, “Pep… your times are gonna be important today… your gonna need to be quick”. On the Team’s last visit they missed out on the win by 30 seconds! Two BSB riders telling Pep that He needs to get a wiggle on definitely motivated him.

Tom carried out the start, the bike was left in gear and switched off (standard start), the flag dropped and he ran across the track jumped on the bike blissfully unaware he had just knocked the lever into neutral. The bike fired up and revved to its maximum RPM several times. After realizing his mistake and now in 18^th place he haired off round the track, a man on a mission. After the 1^st lap Tom was in 7^th, lap 2 3^rd, lap 3 1^st position. He took no prisoners as Team 2s Carl would testify. After 30 minutes and a quick pit stop Sam was out, maintaining 1^st position. Strategy meant Pep would need at least a 44 minute stint otherwise more unnecessary pit stops would have been required. 2^nd place was catching Pep, so he put the hammer down, setting a sub 1:37 lap and a new PB. He pushed on watching the thirsty R1 consume fuel and the lap times drop and drop, towards the end – 1:35.8.

With two stints left Pep pulled in and handed over to Tom, who left the pit lane in 2^nd place. By the end of his stint, the team was back in 1^st with a 100 second lead! Sam maintained the lead and finished the race with a wheelie across the finish line.

Army Team 1 and support crew celebrate 1^st place

Team 2

After a blistering race start at Cadwell earlier in the year, Carl was set for a repeat. The flag dropped and he leapt on the bike and was amongst the first away. In 6^th position into turn one, Carl was off to a good start. He maintained his position until a somewhat eager Team 1 rider (Tom Ward) dived up the inside of Carl on the hairpin. Carl had to take evasive action and run onto the grass. Where he could do little but watch the field pass until it was safe to rejoin the track. The red mist came down and he fought through the pack, battling into 3^rd place in class. All while taking another 1.8 seconds off his PB. Andy set another blistering stint, however whilst moving downhill into Mansfield corner amongst a pack of bikes, he was forced to run on and lost 30 seconds parked up on the grass.

As the race drew on Team 2 had a mechanical issue, luckily Andy was quick to react, jumped on his bike and went back out. Team 2 despite some misfortune finished 4^th in class, and a mere 70 seconds behind 2^nd place. Indicating a podium had been within their grasp. Luckily their championship rivals had tech issues and could only finish 3^rd in class, meaning the battle for the Clubman 1000cc championship was going into the final round!

Team 4

The team down to 2 men, decided to adopt a strategy of as little stops as possible, run until the fuel tank was empty then change. A difficult task on a physical track, but their main competition was using similar strategies. Robbo started the race slipping from 3rd to 5th in class due to being blocked at the start. This however didn’t deter him and he pursued them relentlessly. After 1 hour he had taken 3^rd place and was pushing hard having the best race of his life. Quickly realizing he had exhausted his fuel tank ages ago he signaled he needed to pit; procedure was he would be ‘told to pit’ via the board on the next lap and come in. Robbo was on fumes and couldn’t go any further and arrived into the pit lane expectantly. Daz threw his helmet on, and the changeover was carried out as fast as possible.

Daz ran for an hour before coming in on an empty tank, having survived going elbow to elbow with two 1000cc machines (either side of him) into the tight Gooseneck corner. Positioned 5^th in class, the battle had switched from Clubman 600 to beating old rivals Team 5.

The final hour was split in half, Robbo’s times dropped off slightly as fatigue took over , while tyres began sliding due to the high track temperatures. Daz took over to finish the race, again noticing the ZX6R was sliding around. In the final lap he caught sight of Team 5s Matt in the distance, diving into the Gooseneck. Daz chased hard but was beaten to the line by Matt’s ZX10 which was down on power. Team 4 finished 4^th in Class and 26^th overall. A good result given this was the first time Robbo and Daz had raced as a duo act, all while putting in some lengthy stints!

Team 5

Matt having rode at Cadwell Park earlier in the season knew the toughness of the track so the team, aided by Donna and Chris from Tracktech devised a 30 minute change over strategy, in order to minimize fatigue. With a good start Team 5 were out of the gates and Biz set a new PB of 1:44.2, excellent work whilst wearing his orange bib for the final time (Congratulations on now becoming an ACU Clubman racer!). His trusty somewhat older GSXR 1000 was complemented by the paddock, for having torque (drive) out of the corners that newer machines could not match – sometimes old school rules! In the later stints Matt felt his lap times were dropping off inexplicably on the new model ZX10R and to his surprise Team 4’s Robbo overtook him down the main straight on an R6! realizing the bike had issues he pulled in for investigation while Biz took over. Later TrackTech identified the bikes fuel pump filter had become clogged, strangling the engines peak power output. With Biz becoming fatigued Matt took over for the final stint and rode the hampered ZX10R to the finish line. The new school Ninja and old school Gixxer finished a respectable 24^th and 9^th in class.

Cpl Martin Bizeray (Biz) Team 5 sporting the bib for the last time

Look Forward

After an exciting weekend of racing, the Army walked away with one podium – National 1000cc 1^st place. With it Army Team 1s chances and hopes of winning the league are revitalized; currently sat in 3^rd place, but with only 9 points separating 1^st to 3^rd it really is all to fight for in the final round at Donington.

Despite some bad luck at Cadwell, Team 2 are 3^rd in the Clubman 1000cc championship, their competition (which are fierce) are not far behind on points! Donington Park will be a crucial round for Team 2.

Team 4 are positioned 5^th in the Clubman 600 league, exchanging 4^th place with their main competition (currently 3 points ahead) throughout the season, again this will go down to the final round, no championship trophy to play for just bragging rights.

The Army Team in its entirety would like to thank the pit crew, friends, family, sponsors, no limits team, marshals and anyone else we may have missed. Without them racing would not be possible, stand by for Round 8 – Donington Park and the season finale.

Oulton Park Round 6 – 2018

Posted on August 16, 2018 by teamarmyeracing

Oulton Park is known difficult circuit but the team didn’t expect the challenges we had to deal with this weekend. Many team supporters will remember us participating in ‘Brave the Shave’ almost exactly a year ago and then the pushing of a 4×4 with Race bike and Loz on the back around Donington Park in support of Team Founder, Army Veteran and paddock legend, Loz Williams and his battle against Cancer. The team were devastated on Saturday after the race when Loz delivered the news that he was losing the battle.

From his own FaceBook Page:

“I have some pretty wanky shitty manky crappy news.

I have struggled since my cancer operation back in January with weight loss.
I am below10 stone. So I have had a further CT scan and the results were given to me a few days ago. The Cancer has returned. Its in my abdomen wall and lining and is fairly aggressive. Its inoperable. Most secondary cancers are.

So its wait out for a consultation with a specialist oncologist for Chemo/Radiotherapy and pain relief offers. I will also get a likely expectancy, so as yet I have no idea how long. It will be palliative care. It’s terminal.

I am waiting on that to decide a few things but immediately I am going to get my affairs in order. I have just finished executing my Dads will (he died in May) and its a nightmare dealing with banks, financial institutions and various Government departments.

I have told my close family so now this is to inform my wider one. I cant answer any questions and I am not in any need of anything at the moment. I will update in a few weeks when I get my joining instructions!

So (hopefully) a long Adios my good old friends. There’s a lot of you out there and we have shared some great memories.”

The team are here for Loz and his family and we all have send him our love and thank him for giving us our race team family. one message really stood out from Team 3 Veteran Rider Lee: Heart-breaking news from Loz, I’ve known Loz since I was 17, served with Loz in some cool and hot places. Him and Pep started the team, he will always be one of the bravest men I’ve had the pleasure of calling a friend.

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AMCRRT – Endurance Founders at the scene of their first Endurance Win in August 2012 and this weekend August 2018.

Trackday & Test

Oulton is influenced heavily by local noise restrictions, primarily by the local Church so racing on a Sunday isn’t possible. This leads to the this round happening on a Friday and Saturday with no space for a fully fledged test day; therefor several riders utilised the standard trackday on the Wednesday for additional track time which paid dividends. A warm dry day allowed those who’d arrived early to dial in settings and learn the most technically difficult and highest average speed circuit on the calendar.

The test ‘day’ was only three sessions on the Friday morning with only the first of these being dry. Very heavy rain set in for the second session so most of the riders chose to sit it out before heading out in the third on a drying track. This meant that the majority of riders across the paddock had not got fully to grips with the circuit and this showed in the afternoon qualifying…

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Team Manager trying to keep the front down.

Qualifying

This did not go as well as hoped for all the Army teams. T1’s fastest rider, Sam Cox had blown his engine up at Thruxton BSB the week before and had to borrow a bike from Andy Carpenter. The differences between the two Yamaha R1’s were massive; different suspension, engine maps & brakes amongst other things made the bike feel alien and combined with not wanting to crash a borrowed bike on a circuit that is far from Sam’s favourite meant he was only 4th fastest.

Team 2 were also out of sorts; Carl knew he was easily capable of a sub 1min 50sec lap but this eluded him due to traffic and low set up time meaning that T2 had to settle for by far their worst qualifying position of 2018 in 22nd (7th in class).

Darryl was fastest of him and Lee who had both returned after a quite period to allow Darryl to recover from a shoulder operation. Qualification of 27 th (10th in class) was not as high a position as they’re used too but was more than acceptable considering the ‘scary’ pass made in order to set that time as another even faster rider took them both with gritted teeth into Shell Oils.

Team 4 were down a rider of their magic 3 man squad as Daz had rightly put his family first and had to pull out last minute to assist. Whilst Robbo was struggling with setup (despite doing the trackday) on a circuit he’d never been to; Dave was still struggling with gear changing issues that had plagued him at the Donington 8hr on top of the bike feeling different after the rebuild due to his crash there. Only 35th (8th in class) and over 6 seconds slower than Dave’s PB was a disaster for them.

Biz and Matt made up T5 and worked through the weekend systematically. Morale was high and they’d studied the track on YouTube, maps and numerous track-walks. Matt was still recovering from an injured thumb but was ready to attack the circuit. 34th (14th in class) on the grid next to T4 was again lower than they wanted but the 3 hr race gives lots of time for all teams to improve.

The team also had a special guest in the garage in the form of Ilse of Mann TT Legend John McGuiness. He’d pulled his 2015/2016 Stock 1000 race winning bike literally out of a museum to gain some race signatures in order to allow him to race in the Classic TT. The team even got to assist in changing tyres and getting him out on the grid. The Team Sergeant Major’s daughter even baked him a special cup-cake.

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Milika ensuring McPint feels welcome in the Army Team garage.

Race Day

Due to the unusual timetable the team found themselves with very little to do on the Saturday morning. Some of the riders managed to take part in the ’emergency practice’ at 0900 to confirm repairs and changes were working but apart from that it was a waiting game until guests started to arrive at lunch. The team manager had organised laps in the safety car for many guests who got a shock at the undulations and technical difficulty of the circuit; all got out of the car with either big smiles or a look of pure terror. Many thanks go to the No Limits Racing team for facilitating this, especially Toni, Clare and Allan (safety car driver). It really made the day for our guests who included Major General Gaunt – Chairman of the British Army Motorsport Association (BAMA).

The first hour of the race was all about tactics. Knowing how notoriously difficult it is to overtake at Oulton, a good start is imperative. T1’s Sam Cox made a great start being in the top 3 into the first corner with T2’s Carl Goodchild hot on his heals after taking more than a dozen places off the line. T4’s race was all about completing the 3 hours with the numerous difficulties they’d had but a strong start saw them taking a few places, as did Teams 3 & 5 who both moved up the grid from their start positions.

Despite the strong start T1 had dropped to 5th after the first hour due to the vibrations of the R1’s ‘big bang’ engine working Pep’s exhaust a little loose of the headers; the excessive noise meant he was black-flagged and had to return to the pits for an early change which lost T1 valuable seconds. Team 2 were in a stronger position and had worked their way to 14th (4th in class) and were under 40 seconds from 3rd but with ‘Mutts Nuts’ and ‘Private Sector Team 1’ both within a lap it was building up to be a good battle for 3rd Clubman 1000 position.

Team 3 were having fun and enjoying having a strong race including a few close overtakes and battles with T4 & T5. The pitwall queen Cath was impeccable as always with pit board but Lee’s age and eyesight is obviously affecting him as he ‘did a Loz’ and missed the PIT sign for 3 laps. They held 10th in class over Team 5 who’d moved up to 13th Clubman 1000 and by 4 places overall. Team 4 were still struggling but held their qualifying position despite Robbo having a slipping clutch that required an unplanned stop.

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The 2nd hour of the race was relatively calm and settled. Bikes were behaving themselves and non of the riders in the race had crashed. The teams race positions remained relatively unchanged but Team 2’s battle had tightened with 3rd to 6th places all being within 1 minute of each other. The battle was really on and Team 2’s riders knew it; pushing as hard as they could.

Lee of T3 jokingly commented that Andy had tried to kill him as he went the long way around him through Cascades, a trick he also later pulled on T1 rider Pep; as Pep came out of the pits Andy gave him space but knew he had to push on so drove hard around the outside of the first corner. Pep came back past Andy a lap later with the ‘follow me bum tap’, Andy then tagged on for 2 laps before getting caught up with a backmarker and having to run-on on the entry to Hizzy’s chicane loosing the tow.

Expecting Daves bike to be out of action Robbo was prepared for a quick refuel and Dave to take his bike for the next session but fortunately Daves gear slipping also turned out to be his new clutch bedding in and he was able to take his own bike out for his second stint. Daves lack of sixth gear and hard use of the red line meant that his fuel only lasted for fifty minutes but he managed to put in twenty seven laps and achieve the teams best lap time of 1min 54secs; several seconds from his personal best but respectable enough in the circumstances.

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Bikes Lined up in Parc Firme post race

As the laps ticked up the time ticked down; T5’s partnership was working well and Track Tech’s Chris had kept the transponder changes slick throughout the race. Both Matt and Biz were riding well and continuing to gain pace throughout. The final stint was left to Biz with the goal of just finishing and getting team 5 across the line but his higher pace was now causing front end problems under harder and later braking. This did not stop him from taking his first chequered flag in 28th overall and 13th in class. All in all a good weekend for both riders with Matt testing his recovering injuries and setting good times and biz going from not knowing the track to making a massive dent in his lap times and progressing with rookie season.

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T5 happy with their progress

Relieved that his gearbox survived the hour Dave handed over to Robbo for the last thirty minutes and Robbo continued his good form achieving a personal best of 1min 54secs on his first visit to the track. It wasn’t without excitement however as he started pushing harder and came very close to high siding into the downhill of Cascades! Remembering that the goal was to finish the race he eased off on the throttle a little to complete the race in 31st position and 5th in class. A tough race for T4 but they were over the moon and extremely proud of the hard work required to complete the round successfully in such challenging circumstances. Looking forward to the return of Daz and getting the bikes fixed to get back to it’s recent podium fighting form is the priority.

T3’s calm and composed approach saw them climb to 20th overall and 8th in class whilst T1 held onto 5th overall but closed the gap to only 32 seconds, still holding their 3rd overall in the National 1000 championship.

T2’s final hour got very exciting in the Clubman 1000 class. Carl was on track in 5th position and closing the gap to Mutts Nutts in 4th and to Apex Racing in 3rd. There was only 30 seconds separating T2 from either a lowly 5th place or a step on the podium. At around 40 minutes remaining Mutts pitted and T2 leap frogged them but still had to pit themselves. 2 laps later T2 pitted and the last rider headed out; tactics and a smoother transponder change meant that T2 were now in 4th and 8 seconds ahead of Mutts. Both teams were racing hard and the gap was widening by half a second each lap but Apex in 3rd were half a second faster than T2. With 20 minutes remaining Apex came in for a transponder change and T2 took 3rd position, Mutts Nutts 4th and Apex 5th but Apex were really quick with their fresh rider and took Mutts on the last 2 laps but T2 held 3rd and earned their 3rd podium of the season, strengthening their 3rd place in the Clubman 1000 Championship. A really great battle that provided huge enjoyment for those following the live timing; after 3 hours of racing only 31 seconds separated 3rd to 5th C1000 positions.

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Check out the race highlights from motorsport media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G0dwerf_QA&feature=youtu.be

The podium: https://www.facebook.com/NolimitsracingNLR/videos/1853041744810437/

Oulton Park in the Safety Car: https://www.facebook.com/100013228777092/videos/512726935844928/

Donington Park 8 Hour, Army Team 2 – 2018

Posted on August 5, 2018 by teamarmyeracing

The Team arrived to a sunny Donington Park on the Friday evening ready to set up for the 8 hour race. Having had great weather for most the season, the team were keeping their fingers crossed for it to continue; however after checking the weather that evening they realised it was going to drastically change.

After unloading their bikes and setting up, the team met the guest 4th rider Karl Rhodes. Karl is a friend of the team and a clubman 600 racer (too good to be wearing the orange bib). That evening scrutineering was done and the bikes were ready to race.

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The Morning of the Race

With plenty of rain coming down throughout the night, it was an early start changing some of the tyre choices to wets. The conditions were tricky and the track was wet but conditions were humid and windy, meaning the track would gradually dry, but for the first rider going out on track its wasn’t quite dry enough for full dry tyres.

Qualifying

None of the riders had done a test day in the days leading up to the race but having raced at Donington earlier in the season the team could use previously known good settings and adjust from there. Robbo took the first 15 minutes of qualifying, going out on a wet front and a cut rear. Once on track he found there was a dry line, believing he had made a bad tyre choice he carried out his minimum laps required. He also realised there was a few setup tweeks needed prior to the race

Daz followed for his 15 mins of qualifying, gradually pushing and pushing to see what the new Comp K tyre was like but couldn’t get the feel he wanted in the conditions. Dave qualified next during which the bike developed an issue with the quickshifter (which he later disconnected), but this did not impede his already rapid pace. Finally it was Karl’s turn – he ended up setting the best lap of 1:47 which placed the team 22 of 33 and 3rd in club 600.

Race Start

1100 hrs / 1400 hrs. Robbo was elected to carry out the race start. Unfortunately due to the team pre-race chat Robbo was seconds late for the warm up lap, resulting in the NLR staff placing him at back of the grid which was devastating. Lined up on the grid ready to go, the flag dropped and Robbo ran straight to bike, jumped on, and the bike failed to start. The other bikes screamed away and the rear of the pack began to exit his view, after what felt like eternity the bike came back to life. Robbo took off like a man possessed – knowing how much catching up he now needed to do. By the end of the first lap he had managed to tag on the rear of the pack. After constant pushing he managed to battle his way back up to 26nd just before his 45 minute stint was over, 3rd in class and setting a new PB lap of a 1:44.7 which was .2 second quicker than his last visit to Donington. His second to last lap before pitting he almost crashed at Craners, the bike start to slip away when exiting but by luck he managed to stand the bike up. He then Knew he was pushing a little too hard (especially with another 7 hours to go) and eased off.

Despite a quick pit stop the team dropped to 4th. Daz went out, gradually pushing more and more. Within a couple laps the team had secured 3rd in class once again. He continued to push now slowly closing the gap on 2nd position but unfortunately 20 mins into his stint he pushed a little too hard at Goddards (just before the start/finish line) the back end of the bike lost traction and it slid away underneath him. He was instantly up and back on the bike, managing to get back in to the pits to get the transponder on to Dave’s bike (excellent effort from Daz). Dave was out and straight on pace, 30 minutes later he set a team new PB lap of 1:44.4. Fast and consistent, Dave’s ride went without incident and the team held 3rd. Meanwhile in the pits Daz knew that the Comp Ks was not for him so he whipped them straight off and reverted to a set of Metzler K1’s and moved on to repairing the cosmetic damage from the crash. After Dave’s epic session Karl was ready for his first stint. Nerves kicking in a little (racing with a new team) as anyone would be, he turned a few laps then the nerves were gone. Consistently getting quicker by the lap he went on to set a new team PB of 1:43.9 which remained the teams fastest lap throughout the entire 8 hours (Well Done Karl).

Daz making some quick repairs before making another session.

1400 hrs – 1700 hrs. The weather took a turn for the worse; drizzling with bigger clouds on the horizon. Robbo went out on his 2nd stint in hope of getting his PB down but he found himself catching back markers at difficult overtaking points. Daz was now ready to push on the cut tyres and improved his lap times massively over the Comp K’s. Dave went out next and was pushing and pushing his slicks to keep them warm in the changing weather conditions. The track started to become damp in parts and as he came out of the old hair pin up towards Starkeys Bridge he lost the back end, then it gripped – resulting in a big high side. Dave landed on the grass after sticking his boot through the screen of his own bike (ouch!). Straight up onto his feet he knew the bike wouldn’t start so desperately ran towards the garages with the transponder. Iain (pit crew chief) was instantly on the run and took the transponder to get it on the Karl’s bike. Karl was straight out on wets, constantly putting in quick times. Most riders prefer the dry and improve the most, unbeknown to the team Karl was a rapid in the rain and improved consistently. Dave had to spend an hour or so in the medical tent to receive treatment for his injuries (well done in getting the transponder).

Dave’s bike post crash – a hard push to be ready for Oulton in 2 weeks.

1700 hrs – 1900 hrs The weather was up and down again with many teams changing to wets. The rain came down hard 30 mins into Robbo’s stint resulting in him having to let right off and roll around the track as it was so slippery. Coming up behind Team Rat Pack they lost the front end causing Robbo to swerve and just miss the rider. With Dave unable to race and Daz’s bike on dry tyres it was Karl drew the short straw and was quickly back out again on his wets. The conditions continued to deteriorate with standing water and streams forming across the track and it became Daz’s turn to try out his wets and pushed hard for the last remaining 48 minutes to finish the race. Originally the team thought they had finished 19th overall but had in fact finished 18th due to some unfortunate DNFs due to the rain. Overall position 3rd place in Clubman 600 class and Army Team 4’s first Clubman class podium.

Hourly standings

Qualified 22nd of 33 and 3rd of 5 in Club 600

1 Hour 26th and 3rd in club 600

2 Hour 22nd and 3rd in Club 600

3 Hour 20th and 3rd in Club 600

4 Hour 21st and 3rd in Club 600

5 Hour 19th and 3rd in Club 600

6 hours 22nd and 3rd in Club 600

7 Hour 21st and 3rd in Club 600

8 Hour 18th and 3rd in Club 600

Reflection

Overall a fantastic race with the difficult weather making it very challenging. Quick pit stops and tyre strategies undoubtedly were key to the Team’s success. Big thanks to the pit crew for helping keep the bikes going and of course the pit-board, 8 hours is long time for 2 people to remain on the wall outside in ever-changing weather conditions! We would like to thank our friends and families for support and our sponsors. Without you all Team 4’s success at the gruelling 8hr race would not have been possible.

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Team 4 looking rightly proud of their first Clubman 600 podium.

Team Manager: Just finishing an 8 hour endurance race is a feat in itself. Despite two crashes, challenging weather conditions and still being a Rookie team; they excelled and claimed their first Clubman 600 podium amongst strong competition. The Team are proud of their development and we look forward to their improvement through the remainder of the season.

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