Race report: Snetterton 200 2017 Round 1

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY – 2017 CRMC ROUND 1 – SNETTERTON 

The Classic Racing Motorcycle Club 2017 Championship kicked off in March at the Norfolk circuit of Snetterton. Due to deployments, work commitments, weddings and a lack of moral fibre (bad back), the RAF Team only managed to enter 4 riders. Chief Tech Shaun Houston was at his local circuit on his trusty Honda MT 125 whilst Squadron Leader Symon Woodward, Flight Sergeant Ian Ridley and Corporal Gav Heggs competed on Yamaha 250s in the Post-Classic air-cooled class. Woodward also competed in the Post-Classic 500 air-cooled class on his Yamaha 400.
Houston started the season in a familiar manner, 1st Practice, 1st Lap, 2nd corner, down like a sack of spuds, earning him (again) the honour of first crash of the season for the Club and first user of the 2017 recovery van. This was just as people were forgetting his antics several years ago, where he managed to take out half the grid on the 1st corner, of the 1st race of the 1st meeting of the season. At least this time it was a solo effort. On returning to the paddock he was muttering on about, new tyre, cold track, cold tyres, mud on track, poor alignment of zodiac signs etc.

The first race for the Team was the Air-Cooled 250. This was Ridley’s first ever race and Heggs’s second. The first race of the season took its toll with only a depleted field finishing. This said, Heggs and Ridley finished a very respectable 4th and 5th with Woodward taking a relatively comfortable win. 3 RAF Riders in the top 5!!! A great start to the season 
Whilst Houston was waiting in the collection area for the first 125 race the dull weather turned to rain. It stopped before the race start but not before making the track wet and “interesting”. When the flag dropped, Houston managed a decent start but there were a couple of first lap incidents from some of other riders due to the conditions. As Houston had only covered about 400m of practice he was cautious until his tyre had a chance to “bed in”. After a couple of laps and all riders now familiar with the track conditions, there was some good racing and he managed a 5th position.
Woodward had a decent race in the Air-Cooled 500 race despite seeming to be lacking quite a bit of power, (or everybody else had developed a lot of power over the winter). He was still managing to hold second on the penultimate lap when he was gifted the lead by the retirement of the leading bike. Woodward held this lead until about 20 yds from the finish line where he was out-dragged into 2nd.

The practice lap of the second 250 race was conducted in the rain after a long delay to clear oil from a previous crash. During the sighting lap Ridley managed to find the oil at Murrays and lost the front end. On recovering the bike, a marshal informed him that he couldn’t have picked a worse line as far as the oil was concerned. A mangled clutch cable and some damaged bodywork seemed to be the worst of the damage. Due to the track conditions and the weather, the afternoon’s racing was cancelled, now where’s that B-B-Q and umbrella??
The weather had cleared for the Sunday with a pleasant and dry days racing had by all. Unfortunately Ridley missed the first race on the Sunday due to a lack of paddock experience and an appreciation of timings etc, getting the bike re-scrutineered just a little too late to join the third race (extra adjustments were needed), so a valuable lesson learned. This race followed a similar pattern to the first with Woodward winning with Heggs 5th.
The first 125 race of the Sunday was quite windy, which effects the 125s more than most. Again Houston had a decent start and the race had a few first lap incidents again. Houston managed to stay clear of these (and didn’t even create any) and was enjoying some great racing with other competitors, all dicing for the 4th – 9th position. He managed to pull clear to be able to concentrate on the 3rd position rider just up ahead as he was now “pulling him in”. Going past the last lap flag, the 3rd position bike had about 4-5 bike lengths on Houston. But it wasn’t until the back straight, with a tail wind behind, Houston managed to slipstream and then pass and stay in front for the last half lap to take 3rd.
In the first air-cooled 500 race of the Sunday Woodward was exchanging 3rd/4th place twice a lap until the final lap, where his efforts to make up all of the ground lost on the two long straights by braking into the corners ended in failure, resulting in a high speed crash and tumble. The rider walked away but the bike was in need of a bit more care and attention and did not go out for the last race.
The final 250 race of the day had Ridley back out with a temporarily repaired clutch cable, but with the clutch slipping a badly. Unfortunately as he started the last lap, the bike started making an “unusual noise” so he decided to pull in and retire from the race. Being a true Team player, and not wanting to miss out, Heggs took the opportunity during the race to retire his machine due to an ignition problem. Woodward achieved a comfortable win to make it 3 out of 3 but is anticipating much harder races in the coming season.
The last 125 race of the weekend was just as much fun as the previous earlier race. Positions 1, 2 and 3 had made a clear brake but Houston was in either position 4, 5, 6 or 7 with three other riders. A blanket could have covered them most of the time! By the time they passed the chequered flag, 2 seconds separated the four with Houston finishing in 6th position.

The Good – Some Excellent racing including race wins and fine debuts
The Bad – Minor mechanical issues causing DNFs (Did Not Finish) and DNSs (Did Not Start)
The Ugly – All riders took DNF, some damaging the new Teams paintwork schemes.