Hi all… some very over due race and ride reports…

I writing this all in one go some time after the events, so it may lack the important details and may not make any sense to anyone but me. Typically I will end up ranting so apologies for being long winded upfront!


Oulton Park Circuit, No Limits Racing MC April 2015 - 600 Metzeler Newcomers Series, Apri 2015
Was great to be back in the paddock even though it was pretty cold still. Upon arrival I was shocked/impressed with the turn out - Fucking rammed! Caravans, trucks, buses, vans and pit tents galore! There are plenty of pit garages however they are reserved for endurance teams all weekend. It seems the racing culture here is a kind where you live/camp at the race track for the entirety of the race weekend and then some. And bring the whole family. So much coin thrown at peoples set ups. There is a big focus on endurance team racing in clubs here, that I wasn’t really expecting, but it is pretty cool and wouldn’t mind getting into which is what I think brings focus on bringing half your house, your whole family and your whole garage to the track. Good vibe happening all round. Scrutineering was the usual long wait but they were pretty laid back tbh, mainly checking safety rather than regulation sized numbers n all that shite.
Schedule went like this:

Friday:
2 x 14 minute practice sessions 9/10am
1 x practice session at 340pm
1 x Qualify at 5pm

Saturday:
1 x 10 min practice 9:10am
Endurance race - 4 hours
12 lap race at 3pm
12 lap race at 5pm

Practice sessions were ok, Dry track, slight cloud, cold wind, some blue sky. I had been to Oulton once before but it was raining, naturally. I thought I should be ok for qual BUT just before all the practice sessions on friday started it was announced the 2nd Ambo couldn’t make it for the prac and qual sessions ….. insurance etc blah blah ….forcing the club to move everything to the next morning. So the schedule changed to this:

Saturday:
1 x 10 min practice 9:10am
1 x 10 min qual 9:50am
Endurance race
12 lap race at 3pm
12 lap race at 5pm

Waking up to rain on saturday morning was slightly annoying, but hey. Once I got to the track rain was ceasing, but still threatening and track very wet.

Qual was ok, very slippery ended up in with p23/35. Happy enough with that. Was a little shocked at the 10 sec gap between the top 5 runners compared to the rest of the field who spanned a further 10 - 20 seconds. (turns out (gossip) these dudes stay on rookie licences for 3 or 4 years to chase trophies, bastards! ...Fast bastards!) The pace overall is pretty damn quick though!

First race was typically manic in every way. Not the greatest start, usual shenanigans from other dudes, few yellows out on lap 1, starting to enjoy it all when the safety car flag comes out….much confusion as to what this means from some guy in front of me who slowed riiiiiight doooooooown… risking a penalty, a few others and I got bored with that and broke free for about two laps, with the pack now long gone…until the race was red flagged 4 laps into a 12 lap race. :(
Finished in 22nd. The qualifying for the next race was going of fastest lap time from the previous race. Since a few of us never got going we never set a good time and we all lost about 8 grid positions.
Starting from p30/35 I was pumped cause I knew I could easily get passed the 10 riders in front of me. Weather became awesome (read; not grey)... bit cold but sun and dry track. Go out on sighting lap, as we enter last sector I have trouble changing gear. pulling up to grid I still have trouble, Hm. trying to find first….click click click CLICK. Got it….. Red lights out...
Didn’t got it. Was still in third, rode the clutch like a mofo off the start, manic first corner, bog down cause of 3rd gear, T2 hand a bike and man cartwheeling across the track. Still stuck in third, decide to retire, then race was red flagged. Pull into pits, check it out, bloody bolt had snapped in the casing from rearset gear shifter pivot bracket. Which was fouling the action of the gear shifter. Muthafucker. Race day over.
So, great experience, dropped about 8 seconds over the weekend, a lot of waiting around and not the amount of track time preferred but thats how it goes. Good fun, good club, good meet!

Vid of the first race:


Snetterton 300 Hottrax MC May 2015 - Rookie 600 series, May 2015
Having recently spent 3 days at Jerez and having been to snetterton twice before I was looking forward to this round. Hottrax seemed to be a well organised club, good vibe although turnout seemed to be lacking. Weather was forecast to be sunny, but of course come race weekend it was a bit shit.

Schedule:
Saturday
1 x 14min practice 910am
1 x 14 min qual 940am
Race 1 1130am
Endurance race

Sunday
1 x 10 min prac
1 x 10 min qual (for race 3)
Race 2 12am
Race 3 2pm
Race 4 4pm

Morning sessions on saturday were ok, but due lack of entries a last minute decision was made to combine all 600 classes (clubman, pre-national, power stock and rookie). Wasn’t sure how this would affect things as the front runners like John Lea, the Parish Brothers and Gaz Evans are all competitors in the IOM TT and MANX GP series…… it’l either be great to ride alongside them, or extremely embarrassing getting lapped 3 times per race. Turns out it was closer the the former.
In qual it was hard to find some clear track with only 14 minutes on a long circuit, most of us only managed 3 flying laps. I qualified 18/30 over all, 6th in rookie class. Once again happy enough but obviously knew I could have done better.
First race was ok. Never found a rhythm and was lacking vibe. Start not great and several mistakes mainly on lap 3, I lost 3 positions finishing in 21st. If nothing else I managed to get a feel for they guys I was racing against.

Sunday mornings weather was looking a bit grim. Much colder with dark clouds threatening, however the rain held off until the afternoon. The qual session was ok, battling with a cold slippery track surface, and although dropping 4 seconds from yesterdays qual I only managed 19th, 6th rookie again.

The first race on sunday (race 2) had me starting from 18th again and I was feeling good. Pumped, ready for a good race. Start was better than previous race however after a lap or so I was down on power and bike was intermittently sputtering. Uh oh. Tried the Jeremy Clarkson more POW-WER technique praying it was a bit of dirt clogging an injector or something…. but it wasn’t. Had to retire after 4 laps.
Turned out to be one of the inline HM coil connecters had loosened enough to break contact making cyl 3 not fire. easy enough fix. Spueing I had to retire, again. 0h well.

Prior to race 3 rain had fallen onto the circuit. Not much, and surface was starting to dry although weather wasn’t hot or windy enough to dry quickly. Umming and erring about tyre choice, after studying weather radar for a while I decide to go slicks. 3/4 of the field went on slicks and 1/4 went for wets. Few people sat the race out.
Grid up, rain on visor. Sighting lap showed the back half of the circuit was dry, some tricky corners were still wet. Someone got on the brakes a bit too hard at the end of the back straight and crashed, which left us sitting on a cold grid for about 8 minutes whilst they recovered old mates bike.
So with everyone on cold tyres, some with wets, really cold surface, another sighting lap then the race got underway. Pretty pumped. Start was meh, Got a few positions on the run to t1, was in the middle of a pack for t2 and t3, was out braked in t4, then held position for a couple laps. Took the first 2 laps pretty easy with grip levels on the mind. The sun was trying to come through during the race, helping the mental side of things. Found a good rhythm around lap 4 and soon after found it quite easy to hunt down the guy in front and get passed him. Unfortunately, the camera stopped about halfway through the race - I should have reset after sighting lap crash. I was having a ball on the second half of the race passing a few more dudes, having a bit of a battle with a R6 and pushing beyond my limits.
Finished 8th overall, 4th rookie. Pretty happy with that and felt confident heading into the last race.

Waiting around for a hour or so watching the rain clouds roll in was a bit boring. Watching the radar, clouds should pass with no rain. The litre bikes were out and was the race before mine. On their grid the rain came down. Hard. Half a lap and the race was red flagged. Poor buggers had to limp back to pits in pissing rain on slicks. Literally straight away my race was called up, and although I had a couple of randoms (that I was chatting to ironically or not about the weather) offer to help swap wheels, there simply wasn’t enough time and only a minute or so later the pits were closed and my race ran with only 8 bikes on the grid. Not too happy about that. I assume those that went out had a wet bike or were really clued in to how quick the rain would come and already had wets on. Great example of the awesomeness of having a wet bike!!

Overall a good weekend. Would have been good to be in the last race, but hey. Bike is in one piece for the Brno trip soon after.
Best time was a 2:09.7. Really happy with that as prior to the weekend I was sitting in the high teens and my best qual time was 2:14.2. Was hoping for sub 10 but with such a cold surface I didn’t see it happening easily. Some sad news port race weekend, Hottrax ceased trading. So my planned racing schedule just halved. :(

Vid from race 3:
https://youtu.be/Lr6cuBRoSlg

Silverstone International Circuit - No Limits Racing MC, Newcomers 600s and No Limits Cup 600s, July 2015
Once again, the paddock was absolutely packed. Squeezed into a spot and made friends with next door who happened to be the guy that made an appearance in my oulton park vid @1:29. Having just come from 3 days at Brno, I was comfortable with the bike and pretty pumped for this round. Plus, this round I cross entered into the No Limits Cup 600 category to enable more track time and less waiting around - plus a much better pedigree than rookie class, thus, quite aware I could be running dead last. It was always going to be an interesting round as not many people have ridden this circuit, in riders briefing everyone was asked if they had ridden the international before, about 10 dudes out of 200 put their hands up. The facilities were, as expected, top notch. The pits where more akin to a warehouse than garage. Vast. Uncommon for a uk circuit! Track surface was exceptional in most parts, about as good as eastern creek, except for the link road used on the international layout.

Much the same Schedule as other rounds:

Saturday
1 x 15 min prac 910am
1 x 10 min qual 1010am - Newcomers
1 x 10 min qual 1050am - NLCup
Race 1 @ 1205pm - newcomers
Race 2 @ 1245pm - no limits cup
Endurance race

Sunday
1 x 12 min prac 910am
1 x 12 min prac 945 am
1 x 10 min qual 1010am - Newcomers
1 x 10 min qual 1040 - no limits cup
Race 3 1115am
Race 4 115pm
Race 5 245pm
Race 6 330pm
Race 7 430pm
Race 8 545pm


Saturday started off well, weather warm and no rain. Got out for the prac and qual sessions trying to find my way around in crazy amounts of traffic. I have most corners worked out by now, trying to focus on the first and last turns, both blind, both quick, both with no room for error, both all about hitting the perfect mark at the perfect speed.
The circuit is only a couple of k’s long (tiny bit longer than WP) and both races I was in had 40 and 42 riders respectively. As well as a new circuit, I had just replaced my clutch friction plates as well as re-installing my stm slipper clutch after the Brno jaunt, so my first real test was the prac session, and then the next real test of starting would be start of race 1. Didn’t think I did well in either qual, Newcomers was 25th/40 and NLcup was 35/42, which was ok in hindsight I guess.

First race was the usual panic and nonsense at T1, then the field settled itself after a few laps. The start was pretty crappy as the new clutch meant my gripping point was further out than what I am used to, making it slow and having to ride the clutch a whole lot more. I was making a few mistakes throughout race and still trying to work out the fastest line, especially coming onto the straight - a deceptive corner than has a jump at the entry to it, which depending how you land can be awesome or totally not awesome. For positioning I think it was a case of the ol, 'get a few lose a few' and I ended up finishing 24th. Crazy but fun!

Race 2 was a bit more fun and less panicked, fewer rookies is the answer why. Not a great start off the line but run to t1 was good, made a few positions on the first lap, then lost a few in the remaining laps. Found a groove with about 3 or 4 other bikes, couldn’t get passed em though. Can see that these guys are much better riders than rookie. A few yellow flags, ended up in 24th (fastest lap = p26 on next grid).

Sunday was a mixed day of weather, the main focus on storms in the afternoon. Morning session helped to get more comfortable with markers and track characteristics but not very quick due to rain. A damp qualify on wets got me to p16 for race 5 newcomers p20 for race 6 in NLCup
Then headed into race 3 quite keen to do well. Terrible start, sent the bike skywards. The race seemed to be chaotic although that seems to be the norm for rookie racing. One guy seemed to be charging every corner and being dangerous in general, almost took me and several other guys out until the inevitable happened and he clipped someones rear aka “the marquez”.

There was a fair bit of rain in the early afternoon and therefore MUCH waiting around; starting to become one of those afternoons. It rained, then they swept the track of standing water. Then it rained again and they swept it again. Then there was an incident on the starting line, no chopper needed but still not great. Unsure what happened but oil all across grid, off racing line. Finally after a few hours it was announced only a couple of the 10 or so remaining races will be run and the schedule will be all over the place. My next races were race 6 (NLCup), race 5 (newcomer) and race 8 (NLCup) after the incident break.

Strange vibe was felt pre race as the sun was out, the track was soaking wet and no one knew what was going on. Bring on the Carnage!
It wasn’t really until I hit the sighting lap did I realise this was my first proper WET race. And fuck me was it wet. Made worse by the blaring sunshine reflecting off every drop of water being spun up by the guy in front. This will be interesting. Blinding AND wet.

The start from p26 wasn’t entirely bad from me, but the entry into T1 was a lot faster than I was expecting given the standing water and my total lack of experience charging T1 in the wet. I had to make one of the moves where you ain’t sure if it will stick. Luckily it did stick and I continued on at a cautious rate, totally unsure of my grip level, kinda just going with the flow. Grip turned out to be ok and water dried off reasonably quickly, one of those times you love the english summer. Making a few places early on I was trying to hunt the guy in front. About halfway through the track was 3/4 dry and felt I had a good pace - on wets on a drying surface. Lap times obviously not incredible but having fun. Finished in 21st.

Due to delays for some reason my next race was back to back. So straight out through pard ferme - where we are held for a few minutes after each race - straight onto the grid for the next race. Happy to see everyone has chosen wets. Track is almost dry but some puddles in the dicey spots as per. Also happy to see my tank is half full!
Sighting lap lets me see how shaky and nervous most of the riders are. Whereas I am pumped from the last race and know the track has grip for days.
Grid up, great start, probably the best to date, get a got spot into T1, I think I go wide to get the line for T2 and it pays off. I can see I am placed well, and making ground on the guy in front. Get him and another towards the end of lap 1. Focus on hitting corners well, riding pretty good with the odd mis-calculation and mistake, lost one position in particular by an excited love tap from one bloke at T3 on lap 8 I think. Otherwise riding ok, even start lapping some people. Tyres are getting really hot and start crab walking whilst leant over. Its the strangest feeling. Not a good feeling either, feels like it could let go at any moment. Track is pretty much dry as a Nun’s now and have zero feel from the cooking wets. Manage to hold on to the end, sans the last few corners where ol matey gets passed me. The situation wasn’t helped by a lapped rider getting in the middle of my last chance overtaking spot. Epic race tho, so much fun! Finished 10th.

The last race of the day was back on slicks in the NLCup. Last race of the day after a long day. Starting from p20 I had a decent start, a couple of “oh fuck” moments and found myself in the same group I was in during saturdays dry race. It was great to be back on the dry track on slicks and the pace was quick. A fun race, scraping with a couple of lads. Finished in 17th.

Overall, a great weekend of racing. I have missed the next two NO limits rounds due to timing, distance and lack of funds but cannot wait for the next and last one, which is Donington in October.

Vid of race 5:
https://youtu.be/-8rcoqhUlhw