It seems like it’s been a long time coming, but at last we’re off and running with the first meeting behind us, which was this weekend just gone at Brands, and it wasn’t a bad one at all!
Prior to that, two weeks ago I had what was to be my first outing(s) on the bikes at the official NG test day at Castle Combe, albeit it turned out to be a total washout- literally.
It pissed down all day, which in itself wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as I could do with more wet practice, but two sessions in,a Ducati dropped it’s oil for a complete lap
The wet track apparently didn’t help matters and long story short, the mess was so substantial, they ran out of detergent with the end result that it took from 11am until gone 3pm to get the track in a suitable condition to be able to ride on.
On top of that, there were a record number (36!) newbies doing their ACU CTC that day, and they of course had to take priority so 3 to 4 pm was taken up with them doing their practical on-track stuff meaning that racer sessions didn’t get underway again to well gone 4pm, by which time many had given up waiting and gone home.
Looking on the positive side though, I got a bit more tracktime than most, as I was roped in as an instructor to look after and lead a newbie group around on their practical assessments although we could hardly call it practice as it was sloooow- there were ( understandably) some very nervous wannabe racers there and it was still peeing down- but at least it was some laps I guess, albeit on the old (wet) bike, TB never made it out of the van.
Anyway, on to last weekend at Brands….
I like the Brands round as although the Indy circuit is dead short, it’s still fun, and we stay on-site in the Mercure hotel at the circuit entrance- for the majority of competitors who always stay at the circuit in their motorhomes/ caravans/vans etc I know it’s no biggie, but for me it’s nice not having to drive to and from a local hotel .
So we did the usual, drove down on Thursday afternoon, set up in the garage (sharing with one fellow Banditeer and a ZXR400 rider who’d done the Manx/TT 5 times) , and retired back to the hotel for a hotel room picnic, a bit of TV and bed- spookily, we were given the exact same room that we had last year- 105 if you’re interested
Friday morning came, and it was bleddy freezing! Just on the cycle ride ( I’ve recently bought a bargain very lightly used 8-speed Dahon fold-up bike just for this sort of ocassion
) from the hotel at the circuit entrance to pit lane my hands turned to blocks of ice, but at least it was dry.
I (as one of the Bandits), along with the Minitwins, 400s and Desmo was in group3, so by the time our first session came around the sun was trying to break through , and it was great to be out on the bike.
It was the first time I’d been out on TB since Oulton in October last year, we now of course have a nose fairing, I’m 9-10Kg lighter than I was back then, and although I was definitely rusty, the bike felt good and I was feeling my way in gently.
And it was good that I did, as I spent most of the day chasing down a couple of oil leaks- one from a sealing washer on one of the rocker spindles behind the cylinder head protectors – these things
And the other, which took a bit more sorting out, was from the ignition pick-up cover- it took a bit of a whack at my little off at the Anglesey TD with @dodgy last year meaning that one of the bolts into the crankcase is now an M8 rather than the standard M6, and the spacers on the (compulsory) GB racing cover seemed to be causing an issue now.
I replaced the gasket, and went out again, that didn’t fix it , and after that replaced the GB Racing cover with a new one and all new bolts, and that did, so the next few sessions were uneventful.
As I was in a garage, the scrutineers come to us, which is nice, and this particular one really showed his worth.
So far in my two previous seasons, I’ve only failed scrutineering once, and that was my very first meeting (Oulton 2024), by having plastic rather than metal dust caps .
This time, the scrute detected some play in the rear wheel bearings of the main (blue painted) rear wheel of TB. Admittedly it was very slight, but stating the obvious, on a race bike particularly, any play is unacceptable.
It wasn’t going to be a show-stopper for me, because as well as having a complete spare bike, I also hasd a spare set of wheels in the van, but I ideally didn’t want different coloured wheels (yeah, tart, I know
), or the faff of swapping new tyres onto different wheels, so I whipped the wheel out and replaced the bearings ( it was just the one on the chain side in the wheel but I replaced all three) with some nice new Koyo ones, and dropped the wheels into DCM for a new pair of SportSmart TTs ready for Saturday morning qualifying, and retired back to the hotel.
Saturday morning, and as I’d also entered the pre-injection class , I had two qualifying sessions.
First up for me was PI600- I was the only Bandit entered in it, so fully expected to be pretty much last, as however hard I try, I simply don’t have anyhing like the talent required to make up for a 30-40HP deficit, slicks, lighter bike, better brakes etc…..
Anyway, excuses done- out I went, and although I and the bike felt good, the stopwatch confirmed a mediocre performance of mid 56secs qualification time, but excitingly for me, there were slower people than me out there- I’d qualified 13th out of a grid of 17, with two R6s, an R7 and a ZX6 behind me- Yay!- it looked like at least I’d have someone to race with, or beat , so I was happy with that, despite my slightly disappointing time
Next up was qualifying for the Lightweight Naked Streetbike (LNSB) class, my main event, and here we were sharing the grid with the Minitwins, which TBH is greatly preferable to the “Golden Era Superbikes” that we were sharing with for most of last season, as although a well-ridden decent Minitwin is significantly quicker than a Bandit over a lap, they are a lot closer, especially on the straights.
I felt that I was starting to get my eye in now, so this session went a bit better, with me qualifying in the 55s- still not quite equalled my previous Bandit PB but it was very cold out there, and putting it into perspective, that was 3rd fastest Bandit, 1st Vet and put me 8th on a grid of 28, so very happy with that
My first race (out with the PI600s) came around , and out I went.
I got a half-decent start, gaining a few places in the first 50 yards, but passed again by almost everyone as soon as they got into 2nd gear, and by the end of the first lap was on my own , with the four I’d out-qualified behind me.
And that’s how it stayed for the rest of the race, I was no where near fast or close enough to the guys in front to be able to catch and challenge any of them, and none of the four behind me were close enough to me to challenge me, so TBH it was one of the dullest races I’ve ever had, was sort of like being on a trackday again, just doing laps, with me crossing the line basically where I stated- 13th out of 18, but as I found out later, I was 2nd PI Vet, so FWIW, I got a trophy for my efforts, albeit the relative dullness of the race for me helped me decide not to bother with entering Sunday’s PI races, and just stick with my current Sunday entry of the two LNSB races.
I had a break for 30 mins or so, then I was back out for my first LNSB race, which I was much more looking forward to, starting 8th on the grid, and I had the camera on facing forward for this one.
And although I lost my way a bit for a lap or two half way through after a lost the front at Mclarens, it was a decent race for me- slightly frustrating in my lap-times in that I still hadn’t broken into the 54s, but I crossed the line 8th on the road, 1st Vet and 3rd Bandit with the next Bandit some 6 seconds behind me, so a decent result.
Vid of the race here- I also have an edit including the GPS stats which is quite cool to see top speeds, G force etc, I couldn’t do the 360 degree views with them enabled so you don’t get to see some of the stuff behind me, so I think this is the better vid- on this circuit, for this race, anyway. Actual race starts at 3min20sec.
The weather on Sunday was pretty much the same again- very cold (4-5 degrees) first thing and foggy, but it cleared later in the day and I had two great races, crossing the line 1st Vet /3rd Bandit/9th overall (only just though with 0.11 of a second covering 3 of us at the finish!) in the first race,(I put the camera on the back of the seat for this one)
And basically same again ( 1st Vet and 3rd Bandit) in the last race, albeit with a much bigger gap between me and the next Bandits.
And that wrapped up my weekend- maximum points in my class, so , as Borat would say, great success
plenty of laughs with my two brothers who both came to watch / help, stayed in the hotel Saturday night and came out to dinner with us , and really good to catch up with a load of friends that I haven't seen since last year.
I’m definitely a bit rusty and tentative but it’s coming back, and is nothing bit more track time won’t solve.
One point that is interesting to me is that I expected my significantly reduced weight (10kg lighter than I was at the end of last season) to have an effect on my lap-times, but it hasn’t yet, albeit it has really reduced the amount I sweat- prior to this weekend, the inside of my lid would be dripping with sweat and I’d be red in the face at the end of every race, irrespective of the ambient temperature, but I barely broke a sweat at any point this weekend.
Anyway, something for me to ponder on, and take to the next round which is Cadwell in 3 weeks time, but the weekend before that I’ve got what will be my first ever visit to Darley Moor for the opening round of their championships- after speaking to a few at Brands this weekend, I have mixed feelings about it, and particularly as it will be my only meeting to date that Isabella won’t be with me, but I’m sure it will still be fun, and it's more seat time ahead of the next round at Cadwell- I’ll report back, whatever happens
Between now and then, TB will be getting the usual nut and bolt check, maybe a few stickers on the fairing and might see if I can chase down a few more horsepower, albeit short of a top-end refresh that's realistically unlikely to be successful, but we shall see.
Oh and a final note- all the Bandits got ushered into Parc fermé and dynoed at the end of LNSB race 1- mine wasn’t the fittest (5hp down on top bike), but not bad and pretty much in the middle of the pack at 74bhp , which for reference, was 80bhp on PDQ’s dyno a couple of weeks ago...
) fine tuning to optimise engine performance and although unfortunately it wasn’t possible to run it on my benchmark dyno at MSG racing as Gav’s ageing Dynojet Dyno is broken and he currently can’t get the bits to fix it as it’s too old, we performed very well on PDQ’s with good numbers, no hint of clutch slip, near perfect AF and my fine tuning on the day netting me a clear 2HP and 2.5 lb/ft of torque pretty much all the way from 7k to the limiter at 12k- the actual numbers on any dyno other than the club one at the circuits are arguably irrelevant, but suffice to say I'm as happy as I can be with the results 
(non alcoholic ones during race weekends though 
