28th March 2004 - Preston and District 1st round
After a brief test at 3 sisters to evaluate the new porting on
the Benelli the team decided that we would contest the opening round
of the Preston championship at Ty Croes circuit on the Isle of Anglesey.
This place is a good old trip from our base in Lancashire (approx
120 miles) but we thought that it would be worth the trip to open
the season and to possibly get the drop on a few other competitors
regarding points, as it is not unknown for some of the 3 sisters
regulars not to come out this far.
After a little thought we decided that we would go out there full
handed and take the Benelli, the Gilera 558 Supermono and the F2
600 sidecar. With seven races to contest this early in the season,
this was going to be hard work.
We were lucky to be scrutineered the night before by a friendly
“scroot” only to find that all 4 strokes have to have
a catch area in the fairing belly pan, (never raced a modern 4 stroke
you see!) A short while later the sidecar trailer was short of a
length of mudguard and use of much gaffa tape saw us right.
Practice on the Benelli went well with the new lighter clutch lift
mechanism working well (1/4 the weight of a standard 2c clutch and
the new porting kicking in at around 8500 and giving good power
to 11000rpm and still accelerating when I had to shut off!! The
only problem was mild clutch slip (since solved with some preload
spacers on the springs).
The sidecar practice was fine with no dramas just steady away to
learn which lines to take on an unfamiliar machine and to get Tony
“up to speed” at his first race meeting. Then onto the
Supermono Gilera. Well they kept us waiting for some time and it
got a little hot. While I was out on the bike it puked some of the
radiator contents into the belly pan which then washed back over
the exhaust and vaporised over the back tyre! I thought it felt
a little nervous when suddenly it went completely sideways out of
the top right-hander and then snapped straight again before weaving
off down the straight. I pulled in to find coolant everywhere! Water
is the only thing that you are allowed to put in a race bike as
coolant as I found out is very slippy!! Result was that I decided
not to race the Gilera that day.
As for the racing, on the Benelli I had a couple of good dices
finishing 2nd and 3rd and taking home a pot. The 1st race was stopped
after two laps as one of the riders went down hard and was run over
by the guy in front of me, not a pleasant sight. He had to be airlifted
out because of his injuries. By the 2nd race I was getting the hang
of the new power characteristics of the engine and was starting
to fly, it seems we may have caught up a little on the K4 Hondas
at last.
The Sidecar races were a laugh a minute as Tony got into his 1st
races and was of course instantly hooked on the sport. We found
that we were very good off the line and fast in a straight line
but about ten mph of the pace in the corners, this I’m sure
will come with experience, and indeed it did show as in the last
race we found that we were lapping within 1mph of the crew in 2nd
spot, oh did I mention we came 3rd twice, yet another pot to take
home. So all in all a good day, if very tiring, but a good start
to the season, oh yeah and the sun shone all day, BRILLIANT! Do
yourselves a favour, stop sitting dreaming on the sofa or in the
shed, come racing.
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