ShorttrackUK Club Championship Round 1 - Leicester

Last Sunday was the first round of the ShorttrackUK Club Championship at Leicester Speedway. I entered the Thunderbike and Restricted classes...

Sunshine, Flattracker in the back of the van and on the way to the races :-)

Riders Briefing

Getting stuck into the first turn melee

My pit crew...

There were a few new bikes... and a full newcomers class



I ran well in the heats... starting off with a 5th, then 2 x 4th... then bagging my first heat win and a couple of 2nds :-) 

Skooterfarm

I made good starts all day - this one from the back row.
Thanks Steve Baldock for the pic

Four beautiful Co-Builts



George Pickering on #38 was demon-fast. I got good starts and kept it smooth and steady... thanks Jim for the advice... it works!
Thanks Steve Baldock for the pic

I saw Geoff's back all day. In 2 of the heats, the Restricted and the Thunderbike final, I followed #45 home

Getting on the gas early in one of the Restricted class heats

The way to do it... out in front

6th in the Thunderbike final and 3rd in the Restricted final... my first flattrackin' silverware!
A great day on the clay!

Scunny Mud

Some great muddy pics from Jon Pym on Sunday...

Dodging an errant hot-shoe, tear-off only half torn-off...

Twas a wee bit muddy out there on turn one

Flattrackin - Club Championship at Scunthorpe

Sunday morning we hauled the flattracker up to Scunthorpe for the last flattrack races of the season in the Shorttrack UK Club Championship. Due to the torrential rain the night before, the track owner cancelled the event. Pete Boast eventually convinced him to pump the foot of water off the track and run the event. We got started with the heats an hour or so late - Thanks Pete!

Thanks Steve Baldock for the great photography!

It was muddy, slippy and slidey. Getting off the line was a problem... stone last into turn 1 in the first 2 heats. Despite trying hard to just roll the bike forward, the power of the LC4 just spun the rear up and I was standing still. Once off the line, I made good progress through the field to finish mid-pack.

Waterlogged track

Before the races, Guy Southerland told me he was trying a new strategy. The 'No Crashes' strategy. With my visits to the floor almost in double figures for the season, I agreed this would be a great strategy and adopted it.

Guy 'Bionic Man' Sutherland sporting knee braces

Through the heats for the 'Restricted' and 'Thunderbike' classes, I just took it steady. I didn't touch my rear brake and kept it as smooth as possible - one false move on this muck and you'd be on your arse.

Led by Co-Built Anthony Brown, followed by Wayne 'Snakeman' Drake on his last flattrack race in the UK
Thanks Steve Baldock for the pic

The track dried out nicely and by the time the heats were through, it was mostly fast and grippy with a wide line around the turns - good for passing. I made a lot of passes and bagged a couple of thirds with most of my finishes in the top 5.

Start 'em young! There was a pee-wee speedway track next door

Smooth and steady with no crashes... it pays off. I gathered enough points to get a 7th place start in the Thunderbikes final and a 3rd place start in the Restricted final :-)

We make both finals

Thunderbike final: I make as decent a start as I can from the still mucky inside of the track. Turn one and I get a face-full of muddy water from a cheeky inside move by Les Collins through a big puddle on the apex. I have work to do. Turn one is still slippy as hell with the water from the puddle... turn three and four are beautiful... wide open on the throttle!

Just about to drink the dirt from Les Collins (No 94)

I keep it pinned when I can and make a few passes on the outside of turn four where there's loads of grip. Turn one and into turn two, I just take it easy and two-wheel it through. I reach the chequered flag in 5th with Wayne Drake on my six... on a borrowed bike :-)

Wayne 'Snakeman' Drake was flying on a borrowed Co-Built Thunderbike. After a few offs, he finished 6th in the Thunderbike and 7th in the Pro Class Grand Final - well done mate! Wayne is off to New Zealand soon. We're gonna miss you!

Restricted final: A good start out of the rut in start gate 3 and I'm third into turn 1. A lap or so later and Steve Baldock gets me with a great inside move. Next turn he pulls another great move and is up to second. I'm hungry for a podium and start pushing Anthony Sutton in third.

It was filthy out there!
Thanks Steve Baldock for the pic

Anthony is good out of turn four so no outside moves there. A few laps sussing him out and I make my move. Turn three - with no brakes I run up his inside and lay the bike down hard... I feel the edge of the tyre scraping the grippy clay and I hold the bike up on my left leg... steel shoe earning it's keep all the way... I slip up his inside. Now that's the way to do it!

We finish both finals!

I finish 3rd in the Restricted final. Whooohooo!

I'm all gee'd up to collect a trophy. The final standings are a cumulation of points from all the heats and the final for that class. After the tally, Anthony Sutton pips me by one point and I get 4th for the day. Disappointed to not come home with some silverware... but well done to Anthony, Steve and Andy Riley who beat me to it.

Spy pic - Gary's project taking shape nicely!

The 'No Crash' strategy certainly worked with my best flattrack results to date. 5th in Thunderbikes and 4th in Restricted. Thanks Guy! (also thanks to Steve Coles with words of wisdom).

A great day 'in' the clay!

(now to clean all this shit off the bike and gear... )

Flattrackin - GNC Final at Rye House

The last round of the ShorttrackUK Grand National Championship was held at Rye House on Saturday night.

Things didn't start out too well when the bike refused to idle in the assembly area before practice. I got her going and out onto the track... bimbled up to and into the first turn. She revved suddenly mid turn, spinning the back around and forcing me to lay her down. WTF?

Wicked action pic from Steve Baldock - Thanks Steve!

The meeting was already running late and by the time I'd checked things back in the paddock, practice was over. Great!

Managed to get the bike kinda idling by running her on the choke. Not ideal, but she seemed to rev cleanly. Must be some dirt (or some garage floor garbage... ahem!) in the jets of the carb. The gear lever was bent about 2 inches out of place... of course I forgot my spares box again. Made the gear-change tricky... but maneagable. Soon it was time for my first heat of the evening in the Shorttrack class. I'm drawn on the front row... with zero laps practice... in a race... perhaps not a good scenario.

Soon to be Thunderbike Champ Anthony Brown tells how it's done

Onto the grid, revs rise, the start-tape shoots up and I get off the line. I get out of turn 2 okay and gun it down to turn 3 with Ade Collins just ahead. Lightly on the rear brake... get slide on... all going swimmingly. Hmmmm... mabe a bit too fast... shouldda mabe done a lap out here before trying to keep up with the Shorttrack National Champ... "Clunk!" I tag his back wheel. I almost go down, but save it by picking the bike up and running wide into the thick stuff towards boards.

First heat turn 1 action

Thanks Steve Baldock for the pic

I'm headed for the boards and try get the bike turned. Too late.. I lay the bike down and slide to a halt on my side. My left leg trapped between the front wheel and the engine. I scramble out from under the bike, pick it up and restart as the pack pelts me in its roost. I check over my shoulder for oncoming bikes when I see two other bikes down behind me. Alan Birtwhistle is one of them and he's stuck under the bikes, half-under the boards.

Guto Llywellan and Geoff Cain in the Co-Built garage

I kill the bike, lean it up against the fence and help the marshal and others get Alan out from under the boards. He's okay, his bike is okay. He must have been on my outside when I went straight on. Haven't even done a lap yet and I've already bitten the dust twice! What a muppet!

We go around for the restart. As I approach the grid, I'm shown to the penalty start box "You didn't think you'd get away with that one!" I'm told. Doh! Sorry guys...

Guto's Husaberg engine was having it's last race meeting

We restart. Without the first lap congestion I'm up to the man at the back within a lap and I pick off a few places as I get some practice in. Despite the offs I'm feeling fast... but I'm a bit raggedy. Shorttrack heat 1 done and not in last place :-) Into the paddock for a quick drink and I'm out one race later in the first Thunderbike heat.

I make a good start but struggle a bit to find consistency going into the corners as I explore just how fast one can go. I make some passes and get up to 3rd before going way too deep on turn 3 and losing a whole bunch of places. I make up one or two of these places before the chequered flag. I take a short rest and calm myself down before the next Shorttrack heat. I'm drawn at the back so I use it as practice to get my speed and consistency right. I still manage to not finish last.

Guy Southerland gives us his race face

Next Thunderbike heat and I'm drawn on the front row. I get to the front but soon the Italian ace (great cook and stand-up guy) Jacopi Monti blasts past me. I go to school. In the last few laps I hang onto the back of Jacopo and learn a lot. Points in the bag.

I do quite well in the next Shorttrack heat, mixing it with a few of the lads on the lighter Shorttrack bikes. In the last Thunderbike heat I make a good start and grab some places. Lap 2 and I'm behind RedMax Steve on his beautifully turned out single speed Norton. I draw level him down the back straight and slide on though at the entry of turn 3. I get my sights on the bike in 2nd place just ahead. Red flags. Darn! I was having a good run.

Rider's briefing: "We all know what we are doing..." I was too busy taking a pic!

I slow down and see three bikes and riders on the ground at turn 3... Steve is stuck under his bike and struggling. "Shit!" - thinking that I might have been the cause of the crash. I stop and prop the bike up, hoping that I can help in some way. Steve is in a lot pain. Another rider is flat on his back with a face full of dirt. Steve has hurt his left arm and ankle bady and has to leave the track in an ambulance. That sucks.

The race is restarted. I get another great start and work my way up to 4th. I think of going for 3rd, but after the 2 offs and Steve's crash I decide just to hang back and make sure of reaching the final.

Wayne Drake's podium finishing thunderbike is for sale...

I got enough points Shorttrack to start 10th in one of the Shorttrack Semi-finals - only the second time I've made the semis :-) There are 4 of us Thunderbikes on the back row. It's a good, fun race and we're all pretty close at the back - I'm working on consistency and conserving my energy for the Thunderbike final.

I qualify 6th for the Thunderbike final and slot into the middle row with Steve Coles on my right and Pete Wilky on my right. For the first time that night I don't get a good start. It's okay... but not good. Steve has drawn clear and Wilky is a foot ahead by the time we get to turn 1. As I'm about to get a little slide on and turn her in, Pete vere's accross from my left... completely the opposite way I expected him to go. We touch and our handle-bars clatter together. Next thing I'm half-off the bike... and just along for the ride...

In between heat dinner at Trattoria Monti! Jacopo is a great cook!

I see night sky, lights, feel myself hitting the dirt and being hit by a bike (or two!)... not necessarily in that order. I feel my body grinding into the dirt in a mess of bikes, wheels and handle-bars... feels like a bike hits me and then something big and soft like another rider. It seems to last about ten times longer than it actually did but I eventually stop tumbling with all that hardware and there is silence.

Next thing I know I've scrambled to my feet and am on my haunches, about to stand up. Fight or flight! I see the clay moving beneath my feet and my vision is dancing with a thousand sparkles. I know if I stand up I'll just fall over again. I can't hear anymore bikes - I must be safe... so I just haunch there on one knee watching the sparkles on the clay and breathe.

Welted and skinned!

I move my toes, feet, legs, fingers, hands, arms, torso. It's all working. But there is pain. I see pairs of boots around me. A paramedic fills my vision as I look up. "Are you hurt?", "I don't think I'm hurt... but I'm fuckin' hurting!". "Where does it hurt?" I go through the movements again... "My left leg, lower and upper, my right knee, left elbow..." I raise my right hand and show him my graunched glove, "...and my pinkie". I dare not tell him about the stars... I want to get back on the bike and do this race... 

My mouth tastes of puke... I almost threw up some great pasta from Monti's Trattoria during the impact. That's a first for me. I just stay there on my haunches for a minute or two. Breathing, feeling. The body parts all seem to be working and the stars I was seeing fade. I slowly stand up, helped out by another rider. I move about. Fuck! That hurts! I look around: there is a huge puddle of petrol a few metres away and I see Dave Arnold limping, being helped to his bike... other riders trying to start it. "How's my bike?" I ask.

Plum colored Popeye!

"Gear lever is off." Shit. I couldn't really move about so wouldn't have been much good in the race anyway. They manage to get Dave's bike started and he makes the restart as I wheel my bike off the clay. Turns out Wilky was rammed into me, his bike got a hole through the tank and he couldn't restart either. He was a bit bashed up too... but okay. We watch Jacopo win the race and Anthony Brown finish 4th to take the 2011 GNC Thunderbike Championship on his Co-Built. Well done Anthony!

Another great action shot from the lens of Steve Baldock

A disappointing finish to the season, but I scraped enough points together to finish okay in the final standings. Today I feel like I've been run over by a herd of big, mean and angry Cape buffalo. But thankfully just bruises and contusions. RedMax Steve fared far worse with 4 breaks just below the shoulder joint and a broken leg just above the ankle. He was rear ended after I went past. Get well soon Steve!

Steve in the wars again having just recovered from 2 broken collarbones in the last year

Here's a great vid of the evening's racing... my silly second off is in there...

Vinyl Pinstriping

I was going to attempt pinstriping the Flattracker tank and seat... but my striping is still shite. So I opted for the vinyl route... which had it's own challenges.

Many hours of lining the graphics... this had better be worth it...

The red was a lot easier...

Lookin good! Then the lacquer... which kinda stuffed the whole thing up.

I was was better at it when I got to the seat unit. It still needs work and a few more coats of lacquer... but that'll have to wait - out at the first round of the Grand National UK Championship tomorrow night in Oxford... I hope the finish is tough enough by then.

Flattracker Build - Fuel Tank

Been spending some time in the garage working on the flattracker the last few weekends. Managed to get the tank all sorted.

Tank mounts - done.

After cutting and shutting the tank, I sealed it with Petseal. But what a dumbass - I plugged the fuel-tap holes with paper... which of course soaked up the petseal and cured hard.

Drill them out...

Rethread...

... but this time not for fuel-taps... I had a plan...

A lick of primer on the underside...

Aluminium (heat reflective... more bhp!) paint underneath and a dab of black on the front bits that can be seen to keep with the blacked-outness (?)...

... and instead of 2 fuel taps, a couple of neat banjos leading to dry-breaks. I can have the tank off in about 15 seconds now with no bother: a 13mm nut and a hex bolt, two dry breaks (spring-loaded so it's a one handed affair!) and the tank just lifts off. It's garage tested and all is sweet. A pukka race machine!