A rare opportunity arose to race
at the new circuit venue on the mainland of China, not far from
the well known Macau street circuit. This was a bonus for the
team, it was an official FIM sanctioned race, one off, if not
the first international motorcycle race to be held at the circuit.
It was only a six-hour sprint race, but still it presented a
chance to further develop the bike, keep the lads at race pace
and au fait with the bike.
The number of team personnel had to be trimmed for this event,
mainly due to cost of travel, accommodation etc. also, as it
was only a six-hour event, not so many people were needed to
feed the team need. No cook required no masseuse, only one timekeeper,
and no liggers. Stripped down bare necessities racing.
Once again the rider line up changed. Andy Notman was injured
so wouldn’t have been able to race with us if he hadn’t
been racing for Phase One anyway. Mick Godfrey took part on
this occasion, his first real test and taste of the lairy lime
bullet. John Barton once again was riding, but his compadres
at Le Mans were otherwise engaged. Gus was probably running
what he brung somewhere, and John McGuinness was busy with BSB
and Isle of Man preparations. The third man was the very fast
Russell Baker, hair ‘n’ all who is usually gracing
the No 33 Team Chalons saddle with fellow Englishman Phil Giles
Russell was a seasoned endurance racer who was right up to speed
and capable of belting out fast laps consistently plus he was
available for this race.
From Worthing to Gatwick onto Paris then direct to Hong Kong.
Twelve hours later and halfway round the world, we all disembarked
and straight into the coach to our temporary residence in The
Peoples Republic of China.
Three hours later having negotiated the many SARS checkpoints
signed sworn statements of non-infectious bodies each individual
bizarrely had to have their temperature checked then sign in
multi triplicate to say you haven’t got it, whatever it
was that day. Onward to the hotel, 20 minutes from the circuit,
called the ‘Two Thousand Years’ we had been travelling
for 24 hours by the time we strode through the imposing portal
of the ‘Two Thousand Years’.
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We were informed that the bikes
had not yet arrived at the circuit, and were not going to arrive
until the morrow (Thursday). Good start!! So we all had a day
off.
Eventually the crates turned up Friday, a day late. By late
Friday afternoon, we had the bike uncrated, the meagre spares
kit that we had managed to squeeze into the crate spread around
our garage, bike prepped and scrutineered, race number ready
for practise was a departure from our preferred position of
cinquante-neuf was no 34. Practise and qualifying on Saturday.
Saturday morning, and the testing business of practice and qualifying.
Two hours only to fine-tune and adjust the suspension. To address
the stability problems the riders were encountering.
Short wheelbase, plus huge power equals wobbly handling, especially
under load firing out of corners and also flat out in a straight
line. The set is also hampered to an extent by the fact that
the three different riders prefer slightly different set ups
to suit their own individual style. The quandary is do you set
the bike up for the slowest rider or the fastest rider or find
the happy medium?
To make the bike longer we pushed the rear wheel as far back
as possible on the adjusters, and a happy medium on suspension
set up was found. Tyre choice wise we were using the new Dunlop
640 compound slick which is a fat tyre, weighing in at a slightly
unusual 195/70 x 17. This minutely alters set up and had to
be factored in to the whole equation.
Then naturally the gearing had to be altered to suit. More fiddling
about, and the final preparation for practise the next day
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| SATURDAY AFTERNOON QUALIFYING |
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Russell Baker was quickest in practice.
Saturday afternoon qualifying. Went smoothly, with different
sessions for each rider. Weather was 30 odd degrees, 80% humidity.
Muggy to say the least!!!
With our freshly strained fuel ready (it had sediment in it
and all teams were issued with an extra strainer (muslin sock
type affair) to attempt to clean it up. Sounds like Jokesville
fuel.
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Barty
out first for his first session of 45 minutes and seventh
into the first corner, but short-lived glory as the race was
red flagged and re-started for a false start
Because of the weather conditions it saps your energy, not
only does the heat make you torpid but you sweat buckets thus
dehydrating and exacerbating the whole process, though micturition
was not a noticeable problem, which is usual when loading
up on fluids. At the speeds involved it was felt three quarters
of an hour was long enough for each rider had so as not to
wear them out and exhaust them. Thus equalling slower times.
We are still encountering problems with the brake pads. The
stopping ability appears to be good but the longevity of the
pads is causing problems. After two hours they are only fit
for the bin, scoured of all trace of pad material, just hot
metal and the stink of immolated stopping power.
Currently using Performance Friction pads, the most favourable
currently tested, this one component is big money just in
pads for each race.
We had tried OE pads but they fared no better, and the net
is cast for alternative stopping power offering the same level
of our current incumbents bite, grip and feel but with extra
longevity and consistency
Barty was finding it tough in his first stint. His times were
falling towards the end of the session, and he was shaking
his head everytime he came past. Worried the natural thought
that there was a problem with his tyres going off, or some
other machine problem. Dismounting in the first pit stop the
true reason only became apparent. He was sapped of energy.
The first aborted start, coupled with the inevitable delay
before the restart resulted in His Bartiness apparently dehydrating
and struggling to not only concentrate and stay focused whilst
keeping his times consistent. Virtually collapsing as he disembarked.
It turns out that he had been suffering the previous coupla
days with the bug of doom most travellers will encounter when
a sudden change in air, climate or diet is thrust upon them,
an unpleasant scenario as most of us know.
Russell out next session without incident, pushing us up the
leaderboard.
Settled in on an unfamiliar bike, Mick was the third man out,
his first real ride in anger to test the bike’s limitations
or his. Being a natural he settled into a favourable stride
and had an uneventful first session.
Just over two hours gone. Already a third distance. These
little sprint races are over so quickly. Because of the clement
weather, no lights were needed as we tore into the afternoon
sunshine.
So far so good, we couldn’t afford a major problem,
due to lack of spares and personnel
A recovered Barty was ready for his second stint and rode
a blinder to hand over to Russell. We were creeping up the
leaderboard gradually and the lads were acquitting themselves
well.
Because the three riders used different gear change set ups,
a QR adjustable linkage had been fitted to the bike, to swap
the pattern from road or race as required during each pit
stop. Russell used the race shift pattern.
Due to a change in set up from the Le Mans spec the linkage
in question protruded just that shade too far from the otherwise
svelte 10R silhouette. Consequently this was being bashed
into the black-stuff on the lefthanders and eventually broke
the mounting bracket, and when we came to change it, the bush
that sits in the bracket was missing, accounting for the sloppy
feel at the lever the riders had mentioned.
It took twenty minutes to muster something together for Russ
to exit into the fifth hour, the gearchange was set up in
road pattern format. Russ was still struggling with the gear
change when he hit a neutral when peeling into a corner, forcing
him to run straight on into the kitty litter on the brakes,
thankfully Russ was ok and ended up underneath the bike minimising
the damage. Picking it up he was back into the fray, but we
had dropped down the leaderboard from running 11th to mid
table, with little time to regain any ground.
Tango was on the scrounge/liberation/beg/borrow or steal mission
for some suitable components to fix our worsening and debilitating
gear change. The Swiss Bolliger team kindly helped us out
with a used set up spare, which we fitted to continue to the
end of the race. Finishing 21st overall from the grid of 33.
One evening to relax and digest the whole trip before packing
the bike up in its crate (dry) and despatching it to Charles
de Gaulle aeroport in Paris to be collected over the next
two weeks………………..and that’s
another story.
Team
Personnel
Alf
Burnsie
Tango
Mick,
Barty
Russell Baker
Rupert
Tom Burns
Damian
Dave
Fuel:- 208 litres throughout, practise, qualifying, and race.
Tyres:- Six (4 rear, 2 front)
Brake pads:- 6 sets of fronts...
Oil:- Nil litres.
Doby Trutcenden 25.6.04
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