Brands Hatch (Indi) – 07/03/08 – 09/03/08 Race Weekend 1

Rider - Paul Welch aka Sqwelch

 

Test Day:

A poor nights sleep on Thursday night wasn’t the best of starts. Gazebos and awnings were all trying their best to make an independent departure. Given the choice between suffering the heat in Qatar that the GP boys moan about and the windy battering at Brands, I know what I’d choose.

I got new rubber fitted to both sets of wheels. Pirelli Diablo Supercorsas and Metzeler Rains. I was glad to have brought both my trolley for wheel carrying and my credit card for abuse. This year is going to be expensive!

I went out for the second session to scrub in the wets, by which time there was a drying line. Being new to using full wets, I went out and spent the session gently building speed as you would on a normal set of tyres. Nothing too fast as I was very aware of the drying line. I came in to find the tyres starting to tear up already! Lesson learned, wets need very little scrubbing in and best to avoid any dry patches!

After lunch, I put the SuperCorsas into the bike. I’d got them nice and hot in the warmers before going out, but still couldn’t believe how good they felt straight out of the pits. After one lap, I started to pick up the pace and get more out of the bike. It was good to get out in the dry with some nice new rubber on.

Another session in the dry and my lap timer showed my times were progressively coming down, whilst I was still feeling comfortable.

The test day was ended prematurely when a sidecar had it’s engine fail midway around Clearways. My last session was red flagged when a few too many riders went down on the cement dust that wasn’t really visible because of the failing daylight.

 Saturday:

Qualifying was cut short by one of the thousands blowing up and spreading oil around the circuit too. I was lucky enough to get in four laps that were reasonably clear and on seeing the times, found myself 29^th fastest out of 48 bikes, 8^th fastest 600.

Because of the Powerbike class being so oversubscribed, it was split into 3 groups and 3 races. Each of the 3 races consisted of 2 groups, so that everybody got to race everybody. It was simpler than it sounds! The grid positions were sorted depending on which groups were racing together and how the respective times from qualifying placed each rider in that race.

I watched the YPM race from the outside of Paddock a bit misty eyed, as Mark Hardy, Tyler and Rangi battled for the lead. The last time I raced at Brands in YPM, it was with these three same riders and we all crossed the line within 4 tenths of a second of each other.

I was aware that team mate Craig had stopped circulating about mid-race. He’d been moving through the pack nicely from his 21^st place starting position when the weather conditions changed for the worse and he’d crashed, launching himself into the air in another highside. I watched the end of the race before hurriedly returning to camp to put the wets in. The conditions were drizzly and changeable so my thinking was I’d rather wreck a set of tyres in drying conditions than wreck a bike in wet conditions on dry tyres. I tried not to worry about my team mate, as his race had run full distance with only yellows flags being waved. Any serious injury would have seen the race red flagged and stopped. Plus I’m getting kind of used to him binning it so much!

 As it turned out, the weather got worse so my decision was the right one and Craig was walking wounded.

When I arrived in the holding area I found my starting position was 21^st on the grid too, which immediately put Craig back into my mind. He was on the way to hospital with a suspected broken shoulder just as I was due to start my first race on the 600 from the same grid slot. I tried to put any stupid superstitious thoughts out of my head.

My first practice start was OK. The warm up lap was fairly good and I formed up to start feeling the usual apprehension and excitement.

The lights went out and I got away well. Starting on a 4 stroke is seriously different and much more forgiving than a 250 two stroke, because if you bog it a bit, there is still loads of torque to pull you away from the line. So I didn’t really gain too much from the lights.

The bikes all seemed a lot bigger when we tipped into Paddock for the first time, but I got around in one piece and started feeling my way around on the wets at race pace. I gained places and lost places as I pushed harder and harder each lap trying to find the limit of the amazing tyres.

My fastest lap was my last and I finished the race in 20^th place, 8^th 600.

The second race was wet too, with more of the same tricky conditions now with the addition of the fading daylight. From 16^th on the grid I finished 16^th. I tried a different technique for starting, holding the revs steady at four thousand RPM but this didn’t work for me. Back to blipping the throttle next time!

 I surfaced from the caravan on Sunday morning to tip the water from the roof of the gazebo and awning. It had seriously tipped it down with rain during the night. Despite this, the ground was drying in the crisp March sun.

My first race was number 13, so I held on my tyre decision until lunch time. With the sun still blazing down, I decided to put in the dry tyres and was looking forward to a fast, dry race.

As I sat in the holding area for my first race of the day, I watched the biggest, blackest cloud you could imagine sprint over the horizon. As more and more slick shod bikes gathered, the heavens opened. As I pondered whether or not to even bother going out to race, the Marshall in the holding area announced that we had seven minutes to change to wets.

I (stupidly) sped through pitlane, through the tunnel and down to the Ram It tent, where I expected to be making a futile attempt to get my wets fitted in 7 minutes.

 I could not have been happier to find Gav Price, Gary Button and Keith Rangi waiting for me with paddock stands and tools in hand. We got the wheels in, and I made it to the grid at the last second. A MASSIVE thankyou fellas.

From 20^th on the grid, I finished the race in 18^th. Not my best race, but my head was pretty frazzled from the whole tyre change episode. The result sheet showed my times were still dropping though, so I was pleased.

 The last race of the weekend was another soaking wet affair. I formed up on my slot on the grid, 16^th again. As my row was flagged away for our warm up lap, a big lad on an R1 two places along got his practice start seriously wrong and flipped the bike. I rode around for my lap after narrowly avoiding his tumbling figure as he crashed spectacularly in front of me. I watched him get loaded into the ambulance while they swept up bits of broken bike.

Another event free warm up lap, and we were ready for racing.

I got my best start of the weekend, nailing it off the line and revving all the way through first gear with the front wheel hovering through the air.

I upped my game some more, posting my fastest race laps of the weekend and finishing in 12^th place, 5^th 600cc bike on the result sheet! Points in Powerbike!

 For my first weekend on the big bike, I was pleased with my progress. Steadily getting faster and getting more comfortable with R6.

I’m now looking forward to Donington and the start of the Supersport Championship.

 Thanks everyone for your help.

 See you soon.

 Sqwelch

Rider – Craig aka Fatboy

At last the first weekend arrived, machine tweaked and fettled for action.

Day one was the Friday test day, this started off poorly with the forecast rain, but new forecasts stated that by 1100 the sun would come out, and it did..

So the bike was left in the marquee until the good weather arrived, as a focused, keen but not stupid (Up for argument I know!!) Fatboy prepared himself for the afternoon sessions.

Due to our good old sidecar friends the afternoon sessions were cut short as a blown engine spurted oil on the exit of clearways. So with a short afternoon of joy on the new improved Graham file rocket with fixed slipping clutch, scrubbed in front Bridgestone and Dunlop rear. There was still an Avon (The preferred wet tyre) still to scrub in… Roll on Morning Practice.

Race day one arrived, and I awoke with a stomach full of butterflies and a peek out the curtain to see what the weather was like.. Inbetweeny, Fingers crossed…….

Practice was late as we were at the back of the programme, but a joy it was once we eventually got out. Another taste of what was to come from the Graham File tuned machine and a scrubbed in Avon made my stomach settle. Slight change to the gearing, a brief discussion with Harold aka Gav Price (Team Mechanic) on tyre choice, keep with the Avon best one for every eventuality and we were ready for race one…….

Race one came round about mid afternoon, and there was drizzle hanging about, but fortunately a dry line out on track. So off we went to the grid, a shiver down the spine warm up lap complete……GO a nice start for a change and into paddock all good, up to Druids…. Whoa their treacle No. 15 Pete Branton new to me but not racing nicks my tarmac, brakes on back wheel off ground funny smell from pants but no lumps…Phew. Round druids and off.

Things are going swimmingly and bike is making me smile, round clearways and find we have a little movement in the back tyre but no scares.. Until lap 4 round clearways again, little movement in back tyre….OHHHHH SH########t too far, the back comes right round grips and we go Sky, Earth, Sky, Earth, Sky, Earth, Sky and stop. Ahow, my left arm hurts a little bit more than it should, but we are still alive.. Marshals look after me brilliantly, send the bike back to Scrutineering and me and my old Ambulance buddy Paul Henson (Sorry Paul!!!!!) off to the medi centre.

Medical centre look after me brilliantly, My one and only Bec, who finding my bike arrive on its own at Scrutineering, arrives at the medical centre whiter than a flock of virgins… gets a drink of water and a helping hand..

Myself and Bec head off to A&E at Maidstone to find that my Right shoulder on the x rays looks worse than my left (Which is the hurty one) and that nothing is broken or dislocated, just muscle damage which will keep me out of the Donny meeting, but up for the 3^rd round at Snetterton.

I would like to thank everyone in the YPM paddock for their help and good words, Bec, Alan and the Adams Family, Tracey, Sqwelch, Rachel, Gav, Paddy, The medical team and marshals and anyone else who helped THANK YOU….. (Thank god it wasn’t my w##king hand!!)…..