Easter at Cadwell

Both myself and Leigh are getting ready for a steady drive down to Cadwell tomorrow. Leigh is doing the practice day on Saturday, and both of us are racing on the Sunday and Monday, so if anyone fancies a day out, feel free to pop in for a cuppa tea ! I am out on Birdy's 400 again, he has had the motor checked today after it had a bit of a rattle from the top end at Mallory so fingers crossed things are ok. Thanks to Roger of RMKD has kindly offered his bike as a spare just in case. We've not had time to get the 440cc engine ready but that may be done for Pembrey. Hopefully the racing will be as close as it was at Mallory (see pic left) and we can get some good results. Leigh is hoping to get back on the podium again in the minitwin class now we have found the horses that were missing in his engine.

DYNO HELL

Well the bike was back at J K Tuning this Saturday. Unfortunately I had to work, so my stepdad Rob was nice enough to take the bike for me. As I mentioned before, I knew the bike had dropped some power after the crash at Brands but I wasn't expecting such a severe drop! Rob got to John King's about 0930hrs expecting to do a couple of dyno runs and be away. As soon as they got the bike on the dyno, Rob and John were shocked. 49bhp and the fuelling was all over the place! Originally the bike had 71.9bhp, so I had lost 22.9 bhp and couldn't believe it. In one respect, it means I rode exceptionally well at Mallory with such a power deficit but what could I have achieved with full power? It wasn't a simple job to get the power back either!! Rob and John spent the next 6hrs and 34 ( yes, 34! ) dyno runs to get the bike back to decent power, so now the pressure is on for a decent result at Cadwell as reward for their time and hard work. Thanks Rob and John for your help and patience, it really is appreciated.

The Wall

Just thought I would show you a couple of good photos from Mallory. I was just about scraping my shoulder on the wall at Shaw's hairpin every lap. On these ones you can see Steve Tomes getting it slightly wrong behind me, probably missed his braking point. Pictures are from www.pljphoto.com they cover loads of events so take a look.

S.A.D (Snetterton Absenteeism Depression) !

Well, unfortunately I had to give the Bemsee Snetterton round a miss. After spending a lot on items needed to improve the performance of the bike, it meant I had to reduce expenditure elsewhere and 1 round of race entry fees seemed the best way. I was ok with this decision until the results and lap times came out for this weekend. Top 5 was attainable doing the same lap times I did last year with warped brake discs i.e no braking power!! Gutted, could have had a win or two if I had been there. Oh well, roll on Cadwell.
Big shout out to my team mate Chris Boland and his wife Jacqui, who will be missing the next couple of rounds. Both are in the RAF and are on tour in Afghanistan for 8 weeks. Apparently ticket sales are going really well!! Joking apart, stay safe mate and see you soon.

I'll Make You Famous !

In the papers again ! Bikesport News Issue 232 that was out on Tuesday 24th March. You can see me in second place on No. 77, I think this is from the first race on Sunday at Mallory Park which I won.

If you double click on the paper clipping below you can read the report from the paper, Leigh gets a mention too.

And don't forget to watch MotorsTV next Monday at 7pm.

MY HORSES HAVE BOLTED!!

Well, it seems the crash at Brands Hatch has done more damage to my bike than we first thought! Even though the results from Mallory weren't too bad, they should have been a lot better. Injuries aside, every man and his dog could and did pass me on the straight. Apparently the loss of power was bloody obvious even from the pit wall as bikes of lesser power ploughed past me with ease. So, the question is, where have I lost the power? Unfortunately, it's back to the process of elimination with no obvious answer prevailing. Having said that, I have decided to fit a power commander, which enables more precise tuning from our friend John King ( J K Tuning ). Fingers crossed, we'll have the bike sorted for Cadwell and climb a bit further up the championship.

Tigcraft KTM Update

Had a quick chat, that turned in to a long chat, with Dave Pearce today to see where we are at with the Tigcraft KTM. We are currently waiting for the swingarm to be completed and the engine to be built up. All the new parts have now arrived for the motor and it should be built up in the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately it does mean we may miss the ThundersportGB round at Cadwell with this bike (I will still be riding the ZXR) that we were due to enter and use as a shakedown test in preparation for the first Supermono round in May. We will have to look at somewhere to test the bike prior to this meeting, possibly a race as this is when you get a true understanding of a bike, but we will see.