First race of the 2009 season
The first
round of the new 2009 Bike season took place at Brookland raceway in
Kent
. It promised to be an outstanding race with a few new faces
joining us for the first time. Brookland raceway is the closes thing we have in
the
UK
to the large open tracks you seen on the continent. With
this at the front of everyone’s mind it was an ideal opportunity to test any
new technology or set-ups in lieu of the World Championships later in the year.
As normal the
weather in this country played a blinder, the forecast was for heavy rain and
high wind all weekend. Thankfully this was only half true, it rained all
Saturday and Sunday morning but cleared to blue sky in the afternoons. The wind
played a large part in the racing this time round as it was blowing across the
track causing the bikes to weave dangerously as they barrelled down the straight
at 50+ mph.
Pit’s and
Bob
’s
Looking
around the pits it was clear that all the competitors were taking this round
very seriously, many of the teams and individuals were using all available time
to work on their bike and equipment even burning the midnight oil in some cases,
don’t worry we know who you are....
Dave
and
Clive
Andrew
’s new bike was given a baptism of fire this weekend but
came through it reasonably unscathed. The parallel link front suspension looks
like it could cause problems in a smash but in reality it was the ball links
that gave way if called upon.
Graham
and
Gary
Clarke
were also out to prove the new
Weston
UK
‘EB1’ bike has a place at the sharp end of the sport and
from the results they’re well on their way. The bike looks like a work of art
with a covered gearbox, polished swing arm and new belt drive to add to the
exclusivity.
Along with
new improved KP09 bikes this season, McLarney Racing have evolved the Daytona
chassis into a SuperBike Championship contender. The R500 was more than ready to
stretch it legs along the long straight and round the high speed corners at the
Brookland circuit.
Derek
was more than pleased with the final result for the new bike
and will no doubt report the findings back to the rest of the team for
evaluation.
Saturday Practice
New to the
2009 BRCA Championship was a 20 minute timed class by class practice on the
Saturday afternoon. Each class was given the chance to run in race conditions
and get a good measure how they stack up to the competition.
Marshalls
were out in force to make sure any “moments” you may
have didn’t mean a trip down of the rostrum to pick your own bike up. The BRCA
committee decided that this Saturday session was a practical and useful idea and
decided to implement this for all BRCA rounds this will no doubt be discussed at
the
AGM
later in the year.
Sunday qualifying
As predicted
the weather for the first two rounds was wet, really wet, even the best drivers
with softest treaded tyres and the longest scratch bars were struggling to get
above 11 or 12 laps. Once the weather had settled the track dried out then the
gloves were off and the first two rounds counted for nothing.
In the 3rd
and 4th round of SuperBike qualifying
Darren
was setting a blinding pace for Roki,
Colin
and
Dave
to try and match. Roki and
Colin
shared a fast lap of 23.43s with their KP09e but
Darren
again with the same bike ran a 23.02s fastest lap and was
noticeably quicker round the two main high speed corners. As normal there were
some surprises in the field, Dez Chand, Steve Leake and Andy Carless all missing
out on the final few places in the A final
In SuperStock
Graham and the Weston ‘EB1’ was using a lot of local track knowledge to gain
the edge on Steve Newey and Dave Scouse, in the end Dave Scouse and the new
Daytona Type-C pulled it out of the bag to claim a FTQ of 24.05s. Chris Douglas
and his factory McLarney had crashed out of qualifying due to technical problems
earlier in the day, on the odd good lap he was running a 24.7s fastest lap but
with 5 riders all within a couple of seconds there was a fierce fight for the
remaining places in the Stock A final.
NitroBike was
much the same, Ken Dineen was on the pace with his recently improved 4-stoke but
it was john Veal that held it together for FTQ with 26.95s.
Finals
Quick before
the rain comes back!
B final stock
Leg 1 started with full-Grip track so the pace was good and racing was clean.
Dave
Timms
headed up the start line with
Matt
Book
,
Fred
martin,
Chris
Douglas
and
Peter
Chang
following closely behind. It took
Chris
less than a lap to get up to 2nd and then a
further 3 laps to pick a time and a place to take
Dave
Timms
safely for first place.
Matt
had a crash early on and took several laps to make it back
up to 3rd place just in front of
Fred
Martin
. Leg 2 however didn’t have a full-grip track which caused
a few early incidents for the front runners,
Dave
Timms
and
Chris
Douglas
swapped places three or four time due to unpredictable track
conditions.
Fred
Martin
managed to hold of
Matt
Book
off in this leg to claim the 3rd place pushing
Matt
down to 4th. Final results for both legs was a
Win for Chris, 2nd for Dave Timms leaving Matt and Fred with equal
points but as Matt had put in the quicker race in leg 1 so he got the 3rd
place.
Dez
Chand
had the pole position for the Superbike B Finals with
Steve
Leake
,
Matt
Timms
and
Andy
Carless
giving chase. Leg 1 was led for the full 16 laps by
Dez
Chand
, leaving the other guys to scrap for the points, and scrap
they did. 2nd, 3rd and 4th place swapped round
almost every lap until eventually
Steve
Leake
managed to pull a few seconds gap on
Andy
Carless
as they went into the last few laps. Leg 2 was an all
together more civilised affair with the lead remaining unchanged although and
early mishap saw Gerald Page drop to down 6th place after that
incident he seemed to be on a war path, working his way back up to 3rd
in the end. Final results were a clean sweep for
Dez
Chand
and
Steve
Leake
in 1st and 2nd,
Gerald
Page
claimed the 3rd place spot just in front of
Andy
Carless
.
The Superbike
A final leg 1 got off to a rapid start with
Darren
Johnson
leading the way from
Colin
McCabe
and
Dave
Andrew
. Altercations with a kerb saw Roki Drop to 5th and causing
him to have to work his magic again and sneak past Gary Clarke (who last raced
four years ago, but you wouldn’t notice). Leg 2 was much the same,
Darren
cleared of with almost an extra lap in while Roki and
Colin
were finally separated by 0.27s across the line after the 7
minutes, now that’s close!
Jevon
Frost
,
Derek
McLarney
and
Simon
all had their work cut out to stay ahead of the next guy who
was always waiting for a small mistake to take the inside line and make and
extra point or two.
Darren
takes maximum points then
Colin
, Roki,
Dave
Andrew
, and
Gary
Clarke
following.
SuperStock A
final Leg 1, got off to a close start Dave Scouse leading for 5 laps before out
braking himself off the long straight letting Graham past to claim the first leg
by 4 seconds at the finish line.
Steve
Newey
and his new KP09e held his commanding 3rd place seeing off
Chris
Groom
and
Dave
Richards
, in the end only 8 seconds separated the top three. Leg 2
was even closer but with a rain shower in between the legs, everyone was
scrambling for longer bars and wet tyres. Needless to say like the Stock B final
the lead swapped 4 times in the first few laps but then settled down once tyres
came up to temp. Final results were
a win for
Dave
Scouse
with
Graham
,
Steve
and
Dave
Richards
behind.
The Nitro
bike final was changed from the usual 15 minute run to two 7 minute final to
save having to refuel.
John
Veal
took the first race with room to spare, but the second leg
was a different matter.
Neville
Smith
stamped his 14 lap authority over
Alan
Watkinson
and
Alan
Waterfall
to claim the second final. Maximum points were given to
Neville followed by
Alan
Waterfall
and
Alan
Watkinson
, as
John
Veal
didn’t start the 2nd leg with a blown glow plug ruining
his chances of a large amount of points this time round.
FTD and Concours prize
The FTD
prizes and vouchers went to new guy
Darren
– SuperBike,
Dave
Scouse
– SuperStock and
John
Veal
– NitroBike. Many thanks to
Steve
Newey
and Formby Models for their full and continued support for
the Bike class in 2009. By sponsoring the FTD and Concours prizes they are
helping to secure the future for the section.
Our new BRCA
Scrutineer was wandering the pits looking for bodywork that was not
representative of a full bike; riders must have identifiable forearms and shins
(hands and feet are optional). One bike that did stand out to more than one
person was the great
Suzuki
replica that
Dave
Timms
was using. For the concours prize,
Dave
Scouse
’s new bride, Magi was nominated as the Judge for this
round.
Mr
Timms
went on to win the concourse prize along with £30 of
‘Formby Dollars’. Other notable,
well finished designs were from
Alan
Watkinson
,
Roki
Read
,
Alan
Leighton
and
Dez
Chand
, keep it up guys. As you know we need to keep on top of our
public image and make sure all the bikes on the track are well finished and
ready to be shown to a member of the public or photographed at any time.
All Wrapped Up
Congratulations
to all the entrants and a great thanks to the committee members who organised
and ran the meeting seamlessly, we owe our success to you. Remember to book the
14th of June in the Diary for the next round of the BRCA Bike Section
National Championship held at Cotswolds, Gloucestershire where I believe we may
have visitors from the
Craigavon
club in
N. Ireland
. Check out the club website at www.cotswoldmodelcarclub.co.uk
and www.moto-5.com
for more details.
Many
Thanks
Chris
Douglas
BRCA Bike
Section P.R.O.
