NBT- I'm going racing 😳

[Sunny]

Excellent write up, thanks for keeping us updated
And MASSIVE congrats on the championship lead mate - proper chuffed for you!

[KungFooBob]

There's nothing like spending £500+ for a race weekend and getting a £2.50 plastic pot.

I'm not taking the piss. The best I ever managed was a 2nd and I will love that £2.50 plastic pot to the day I die.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I always thought not coming last was an achievement

[Dodgy69]

Superb.

[KungFooBob]

I always thought not coming last was an achievement

My first club race I came last.

I'd put the spannies on my RD250 the wrong way round and reduced my ground clearance to around 40 degrees (I'd bought it in bits and assembled it in my living room, before I had a wife). I just couldn't get round the corners.

[weeksy]

Awesome write up Rich. I need to employ you for James's write ups

[Buckaroo]

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!!

[Noggin]

Totally awesome!!! Hope you still have the grin going on!!

I always thought not coming last was an achievement

That was my main goal - I knew I'd never be quick and near the front, just didn't want to be last

[Tricky]

Awesome write up Rich. I need to employ you for James's write ups

Oh I dunno, I reckon you do a brilliant job on those, and as for the sacrifices and effort you both make and put in to get him where he is, and the sheer amount of time you personally spend physically getting him to practices and races, that really is huge- I know when it's your boy it's different but not every parent would do that and he's a lucky lad - respect to you matey

[Supermofo]

Good work fella, sounds like you aren't only getting the fun you wanted but are doing bloody well too!

[crust]

I feel a trip to Ikea (other furniture shops are available) for a bigger trophy cabinet is in your future.

Excellent read, top work

[Potter]

Great write up.
That trophy cabinet will be getting full.

It's crazy how happy a good race and a trophy can make you.

[Bigyin]

I always thought not coming last was an achievement

I always thought finishing was an achievement

My weekend of 4 250 proddie races at Knockhill as a yoof was as follows

Race 1 started from the back, managed to make a couple of places, taken out at hairpin, DNF
Race 2 started from the back, managed to make a couple of places, crashed all of my own doing at the hairpin, DNF
Race 3 started from the back, managed to make quite a few places , finished in top 20.
Race 4 started from rear 1/3rd of the grid, managed to keep my place, taken out at hairpin, DNF

I realised racing wasnt for me after that brief experience

Well done Tricky, simply outstanding mate and really pleased at just how much you are enjoying the whole experience

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I don't think I ever went quick enough on tarmac to crash, on dirt I went from falling off because I was going too slow to hurting myself because I was going too fast for my lack of ability.

[wull]

I always thought not coming last was an achievement

I always thought finishing was an achievement

My weekend of 4 250 proddie races at Knockhill as a yoof was as follows

Race 1 started from the back, managed to make a couple of places, taken out at hairpin, DNF
Race 2 started from the back, managed to make a couple of places, crashed all of my own doing at the hairpin, DNF
Race 3 started from the back, managed to make quite a few places , finished in top 20.
Race 4 started from rear 1/3rd of the grid, managed to keep my place, taken out at hairpin, DNF

I realised racing wasnt for me after that brief experience

Well done Tricky, simply outstanding mate and really pleased at just how much you are enjoying the whole experience

Haha, that fookin hairpin!

It was like railways at East Fortune, you’d go into there on the 1st lap thinking “please make it, don’t hit me don’t hit me”…………

[Bigyin]

Haha, that fookin hairpin!

It was like railways at East Fortune, you’d go into there on the 1st lap thinking “please make it, don’t hit me don’t hit me”…………

I have some pics from the late 80's of East Fortune ..... looking back at them there are farmers hard standings out there with better surfaces and less weeds growing through

[Tricky]

This week-end's round was at Brands on the usual (short) Indy circuit, and there were bookable garages, so I made sure I got my name down as soon as the notification came out as although there are definite disadvantages being in a garage if you have a motorhome/ caravan setup, we don't, and it's a definite plus for me not having to mess about bringing and setting up / tearing down the awning, gennie and the other stuff that goes with it, and well worth the extra £30 that being in a garage costs.

Ahead of the actual meeting I had a few little bits to get sorted on the bike and my kit- on the bike, apart from the usual clean and nuts and bolts check, I needed to change the gearing slightly for Brands, and after Pembrey, I'd also decided to try the heavy (20W) fork oil , just to try and slow things down a little at the front.
As I'm pretty sure I've previously mentioned, the regs on the Bandit series are pretty tight, and the only allowed options you have for altering the forks is different weight springs or oil, and the addition of spacers on the springs to add pre-load- all the original suzuki internals have to remain as standard, and the use of cartridge emulator etc are specifically prohibited.
So, out came the forks (there are no drain plugs on these), off came the tops, I tipped them upside down to remove the old oil, added just under 500ml of 20W and put them back in.
Apart from that, the only other change was a slightly smaller rear sprocket to up the gearing a bit, which annoyingly meant I had to shorten then chain, but that's no biggie so then we were all set bike-wise.

The other changes were to my riding kit.
A comment/complaint I've had from some (well, both of them actually ) of my supporters , is that it's hard to pick me out sometimes on track, particularly when I'm in a bunch as although I'm currently wearing an orange jacket, most of the bike and my helmet and now leathers too is black, and after seeing this pic (was taken by the NG photographer at Pembrey, and was in the Brands programme), I can see what she means- I'm 5th in this pic



So, I bought £5 worth of yellow-ish vinyl ( the sort people wrap cars with), and after an hour or so with some scissors, a knife, and heatgun my lid had gone from this



to this





And of course, as I’m a tart and have no shame, I got my nickname sewn onto the back of the new leathers




And finally, for good measure, I whacked some vinyl on the leading edges of the front mudguard of the bike too....



So , last Thursday came, I loaded up, and off we (Isabella and me) set towards Brands mid-afternoon- if there are no traffic issues it’s only approx 1hr 45- 2hrs from us, but a large part of the journey is the M25, so, well, am sure you can guess, and true to form, although everything was going well until we got to the Leatherhead/Reigate area, it all came to a grinding halt, and it was like our trip to Pembrey, and groundhog day albeit on the M25 instead of the M4 this time, and we had to leave the motorway as there was apparently a cyclist on it.
The next hour or so was a bit fraught with lots of road-ragey people as a result of too many vehicles trying to get down roads that were too small for them, so very tiresome, but the nice thing this time was that we didn’t really care as we had guaranteed garage space ( pole position too in #3 we were right next to DCM and Ricky Elder and the cafe/ race control, so perfect
I’d also booked us into the Brands Mercure Hotel, the one at the circuit entrance, so couldn’t have been more convenient really.

Apparently they had been doing some filming for some future Brad Pitt F1 film there that day, so there was extra security and an evening car trackday there which meant we couldn’t get into the garage until 8:30 pm, but it was a lovely day and only took me 15 mins or so to unload and setup, then walk back to the hotel for a couple of beers and bed.



Friday was perfect weather, the bike was great with 20W oil in the forks making a marked improvement, and the gearing just about spot on for my pace, with me hooking 6th about ¾ along the start/finish straight and my final big shift light just starting to flash pretty much as I shut off and knocked it down two for Paddock.
I reckon you can’t really get an accurate gauge of how well (or otherwise) you’re going on test days, as you never know if people are really trying, so I was going on last years (same weather) Bandit results , which had fastest Bandit lap of the meeting at a 54.0- the outright lap record was set back in 2021 and is a 53.1, albeit that was on the Conti tyres, on the current Dunlop Sportsmart control tyres it’s approx half a second slower at 53.7.
There was, of course, no way I expected to get anywhere near that ( or needed to TBH to win the Seniors class) but I finished the day lapping in the high 55s with the feeling I definitely had more to come, so I was comfortable and very happy with that, and retired early for a (delicious and highly recommended BTW) Chicken Tikka Jalfrezi at the Rajdani, a pleasant 15-minute stroll up the road from the circuit main gate.

Saturday morning came and although the weather was by no means bad, there was a very fine drizzle as I walked to the garage from the hotel, and some very ominous-looking dark clouds and some on/off rain forecast.
Temp was still forecast to be 20 degrees + though, so wasn’t really a worry as any rain would dry out very quickly.




My qualifying session came around and out I went- the 400s were out with us and I got caught up with a couple of them for the first couple of laps, and just I’d got clear on about the 3rd or 4th lap and thought right, lets get my head down, I came out of Graham Hill accelerating hard towards Surtees then bang- my front wheel went from under me- I was sure I was down, but thankfully it gripped again just as I hit the edge of the track and the grass and I stayed on- feck knows how, but it was pure luck.
There was a load of blue smoke in front of me and a trail of oil pretty much the complete length of the bottom straight from Harley Prebble’s Bandit (he of the Evel Knievel leathers in the BSB F900 Cup races) after one of the rods decided it didn’t want to be inside the crankcases any more.
That took them a long time to clean up, and ended our qualifying session after only 4 laps, disappointing for me as I was still in the 57s ( Harley got pole with a 54.4 ) and it put me back on the 6th row, 17th on the grid, but not a disaster really as Keith, my close rival in the championship was only one place in front of me in 16th.

Saturday’s first race came, and I got a flier, managing to cut through a few on the run-up to and through Paddock, the first corner. Was a fairly action-packed race for me, with me finishing 4th Bandit over the line, only 0.5secs off 3rd, but most importantly for me 1st Senior, some 10secs in front of my main championship rival, so I was dead happy with that.
I was lapping in the 55s, with a best of 55.6, which was 1.06 secs off the fastest lap of the race, set by (you guessed it Harley Prebble- he borrowed one of the other front runners spare bikes, and just whacked his own fairing etc on it.

My right forearm had come up like a baloon again ( I had it at Cadwell in one race) and makes it so hard to brake reliably when it does that- I know why it does it ( 12 race laps around Brands with brakes that need as hard a pull as Bandit ones do is tough) , but I’m not sure how to stop it happening, so will be putting a bit of research into it before the next round, and maybe doing some specific exercises to try and stop it happening, as it is pretty uncomfortable when it does and massively reduces the strength in my arm.

I’m pleased to say that it went down over the next hour or so before my next race, the “ Newcomers” (basically anyone on any bike that has held a race licence for less than 3 years).
I’m currently sitting 2nd in this championship in the “Middleweight” class, which is basically Minitwins, DesmoDues, and Bandits, and TBH it’s tough as although SV650s and Bandits make very similar power, the Bandits are a good 20kg heavier, not as nimble , and just not quite as fast anywhere- a good rider can of course make the difference, but there are some handy people out there on SVs, and I’m the only Bandit rider in this class.

The good news on this race though was that I was further up the grid on the 5th row in 13th, but Liam Walker, my main championship rival was a row ahead of me, and had done a 55.1 in qualifying, so although it was going to be a big ask, my plan was to try and get my usual flier of a start, hopefully get in front and then and try and hang on to the back of him and get him to pull me along if (when ) he came past me.
Unfortunately, it didn’t quite go to plan- Liam got a flier too, but I was with him until I got doofed by a kamikazi out of control ZXR400 at Druids, and that really put paid to things for me, he was gone, and I crossed the line some 6 or 7 seconds behind him in 3rd, with another SV rider ( also called Liam ) in just in front of him.
I was happy with that though, a frustrating but exciting race for me, and of course another trophy, and I’m still 2nd in the championship

Both my brothers had come to cheer me on and help etc, which I love so we had a very pleasant couple of pints in the Hotel bar before they went off on their way, and it was a quick shower and out for some food and another couple of pints before bed.
Even got a pic of all three of us together, which we all agreed, the last time that happened was probably in the 1960s.




Sunday arrived and was scorchio- I was sweating just walking to the garage from the hotel, but I’m not complaining about that- I'll take it every time over cold and wet
With NG, every class has two races on Sunday ( with the exception of the Newcomers race- that’s Saturday only ), and there’s a 10-15 min warm up session for anyone that wants it before racing starts- there is always only four of those, so as you can probably guess, if everyone decides to go out, it’s pretty busy out there on a small circuit like Brands Indy.
The bike was spot on, and I was feeling good, so my initial thoughts were that I wouldn’t bother, then I changed my mind and thought yup I will, I’ll just do 3 or 4 laps to check all’s still well and get my eye in ahead of my first race, so that’s what I did.
My practice pass was in group 4, the final session, so off I went out with what was probably a good 40 ( or possibly more) others.
The bike was just as expected, and the reality was I was just using fuel and wearing tyres out so on my 4th lap I signaled to come in and pulled off the circuit into the pits at the usual place, which when racing is at the end of the bottom straight just before Surtees, and what a spookily good decision that turned out to be, as unbeknown to me ( or it seems anyone else), the bike immediately ahead off me started dumping the contents of its crankcases from the exit of Surtees, all around McClarens into Clearways.....

The rider that had been behind me (a fellow Banditeer called Shane (Slim) Watson) was the first to come across the oil, and bosh, down he went, followed by the next six riders before they managed to get the reds out.

Dunno what it is about me, oil and Brands Hatch, but that is the third time I’ve had a lucky escape in the last three visits- Weeksy and Ceri will probably remember a trackday a number of us did at Brands where a Blade blew its guts out at the end of the start finish straight and covered me and my then brand spanking Street triple in red hot oil just as I was about to tip into Paddock- got away with that one too, although not sure how I did then either!

Edit- link here to that track day report from us all, for anyone that’s interested
viewtopic.php?p=15568#p15568


Anyway, back to the current day, thankfully no serious injuries, just a number of broken bikes and another delay as the racing was due to start and apparently there was a lot of oil and it needed a serious clean up before anyone could go out .
The 600 National lot were the first race, so they gave them 2 warm-up sighting laps, but after the first lap they all came back to the grid waving their arms and shouting, as I think nearly all of them had nearly been off on it, so the decision was taken for an early lunch whilst they got the heavy duty tanker out and gave it a full degrease and scrub which would take a good hour for it to be fully dry.



That was duly done, and racing got underway with no issues, but an unfortunate knock-on effect of the delays was the already full program wouldn’t have been able to be completed, so instead of the planned 2 x 10 lap races each today, it was reduced to one 12 lappers per class.
Bit of a bummer but there you go.
My race came around and Saturday’s results had moved me up on the grid a bit to row 5, and I was raring to go.
Unfortunately I didn’t get my usual flier of a start, got a bit beaten up around Paddock and ended up fighting ith two 400s for most of the race, one of whom is a definite accident hot-spot with his rear wheel in the air on almost every corner, and the other really erratic to the extent that I nearly went in the back of him twice- annoyingly he had a really fast bike, which meant I just couldn’t keep him behind me and I’m sure if I could have got clear I could have gone a bit faster, but 5th Bandit over the line, 1st Senior and 55.1 laptime was still a decent result so we packed up and went home with three more trophies, two more caps , a 15 point chamionship lead, and no mechanical woes or crashes so the weekend was , again, a most excellent one.










The guest class at this meeting were the Lansdowne classics, which was lovely to see- don’t think I’ve ever seen so many Manx Nortons,G50s and Inters in one place at the same time, at least not being used as intended , like these were. There was even a Vincent Lightning- I didn’t get many pics, but here’s a couple that I did






And some shonky old bitsa to get Fromage frothing




Next round is Castle Combe on the weekend of 26-27th July, where I’ll hopefully see one or two of you- It’s the only bike meeting of the year at Combe and should be a good one with doubtless a few big names there too (last year Charlie Nesbit, Josh Day, TJ Toms and a few others were in the big races) - more detail here
https://castlecombecircuit.co.uk/july-m ... e-weekend/


My eldest boy is very thoughtlessly getting married down on the south coast the day before and it’s a big family do so I’ll be loading up the van a day early , driving it to the wedding, and heading up to Wiltshire early morning the day after- I’m going to have to go steady on the beers I guess…
That and the fact that I don’t know the circuit and all the trackdays between now and then there are fully booked mean I’m not expecting it to be my best performance ( just getting all the excuses in early in case any of you do turn up), but whatever happens, it will be fun and we’d love to see any of you , we’ll have Jaffa Cakes and HobNobs and even if I’m shit I guarantee I’ll be trying!

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Hmmm, I don't froth, was the Zephyr raing?

Apart from the frothing comment a good right up, I get a few motorcycle magazines for free (Ride, Bike, Classic Bike and a few others) and that was a better written and more interesting article than anything recently in any of those magazines.

[Noggin]

That's awesome. Loving the spidey sense keeping you upright!

I love reading these write ups, thank you

[weeksy]

Top write up, i'm not surprised it took until 11pm, you must have started it about 7

Great job as always... we always said you were fast for an old fella