Race Review - Mallory park round 1&2 2021

"The generator shall provide warmth"

 

Pottsy & Roy

It was a cool yet sunny Friday afternoon and a small group of Classic Racing Team riders milled about catching up in Mallory parks slowly filling paddock, ready for round one (or was it two?) of the CRMC’s 2021 delayed calendar. The mood was a mix of excitement to get back racing tempered by anticipation for the less than favourable weather expected for the weekend and continued restrictions reminding all that we aren't quite out of the woods yet. The UK is easing out of a winter locked down against the global pandemic (you may have heard something about it?), so although the riders were feeling very fortunate to be out racing again, it was going to be strange not to be sharing the experience with the fans of motorsport who normally attend these events.

Sadly no RAFMSA riders were able to represent the association this weekend. For this round Andy Green had brought his Yamaha RD250 featuring a fresh frame after the 2020 machine had “naturally lightened” itself a touch too much for his liking. David Williams was out on his Yamaha FZ600 & Honda VFR750 RC24 with hopes to continue his good form at Darley Moor last year. Joining Williams was Paul Kirkby on a fresh for 2021 Honda VFR750 of his own, a much heavier beast to the Yamaha TZ350 we are accustomed to seeing him ride of late but not something veteren rider Kirkby would be worried by. Symon Woodward had brought along “the fast Woodward” Joe to compete in a number of classes but was also racing on his Yamaha RD400 Big Al. Finally, and new to the team, John Hannaford was joining us with his freshly rebuilt Yamaha TZ350D. If you want to know more about him or the teams other riders; head over to our start of year blog (once you have finished reading this of course) to read about them and our 2021 sponsors.

Saturday

The riders woke to the familiar metallic clatter of rain falling on their respective van rooves. There are some who actually like racing in the rain, Kirkby usually does particularly well, although even he wouldn’t claim to prefer it. 

Time to wake John up

The Saturday mornings admin was carried out with scrutineering, and signing on to do for those who didn’t get it manage to squeeze it all in on Friday. Bikes were fettled and before long the tannoy rang out for the first of the days practices. As it was the first racing in quite a while; Saturday would be, for the most part, practice and qualifying with the first races of the year coming in later in the afternoon.

Willams & Kirkby debrief in the diesel tent

Thankfully all of the riders managed to keep their bikes upright even if things got a little more squirrely in the soaking conditions than the rider may have liked. Green found out his rear tyre was definitely ready to be replaced and Woodward found himself making an unplanned visit home when Joe's RD’s ignition succumbed to the wet weather. His problems didn't end there however as on of Big Als expansion chambers cracked. Thankfully John Walton was on hand armed with the teams R-tech digital tig 170 which made tidy work of an expedient repair in the paddock.

Predictably the only rider coming out pretty happy was Kirkby who was pleased to find he was settling in nicely with the VFR750, putting in an 8th fastest in class time on his first outing.

In short; Saturday was a soggy memory that most would sooner forget.

Sunday

Although they fell asleep to the sound of wind and rain, everyone woke to a damp but drying track. Could Sunday be dry?

Racing got under way but predictably there was a problem. Due to new noise regulation brought on by people who bought houses next to a race circuit but don’t like the sound of racing *cough*, the racing would end up stopping a few laps in because the noise levels would get too high. As a result, some classes only managed one of the planned 2 races of the day. This was immensely frustrating for everyone at the event.

Green eying up the ever smooth Richard Chetham. PJM

That aside, the results tumbled in: Green by far had the result of the weekend when he dragged himself up from 16th on the grid to 1st place, making up most of those places in the first lap. His EBC GPFAX pads got a lot of credit as he zipped past riders on the entrance to Shaw’s hairpin with confident late braking. 

PJM

Woodward made 10 places off the grid for a 4th in class on the RD400, racing in the PC500 class, which was a nice result having had issues on the Saturday.

PJM

David Williams was disappointed to find he was having a slower than average start to this season, he clearly needs to have Heggs show him a wheel to get him hustling on a bit more. He did however finish all of his races, coming out on top in more than one tussle with other riders.

PJM

Kirkby continued his good start from Saturday with a damp first race resulting in 8th overall and 5th in class for the bike’s first ever race. Not only this he had the fastest lap in class and the fastest top speed of any of the VFR750’s on the grid. A well prepared machine indeed! Unfortunately the fuel cap was leaking for the second race due to a design flaw so Kirkby was forced to retire rather than continue his run of good results on the big Viffer.

PJM

Hannaford also found himself doing very well. After qualifying 12th overall he managed a 5th then a 3rd in class. A fantastic start for someone new to the club and on a newly built machine but John has a few laps under his belt so everyone was expecting good things from him.

The end of the weekend is always a funny thing. With riders in different classes, some were finished and packed up whilst others waited for their turn on the track. As Sunday afternoon wore on, the paddock began to thin as people started the long drive home. Thoughts moved from reflection on the first weekends racing, in what felt like forever, towards the clubs next meeting at Pembrey circuit in south Wales.

Green mentally priced up some Avon tyres so he could avoid any more wet weather acrobatics. He intends to bring along the TZ350 as a shake-down in preparation for Olivers mount. Green often does well at Pembrey so it will be interesting to see him wrangle that beast round there.

Kirby has a TZ of his own to sort out but is giddily looking at every race he can get himself involved in that preferably doesn’t involve him heading too far south of the Scottish border. He found himself on the long drive home feeling positive thanks to good results despite not racing since 2019 and his last outing at Mallory was in 1993! Pauls priorities till his next race will be the TZ and learning to change wheels quicker. Well that or he is open to a mechanic who doesn’t mind being paid in infrequent cups of tea.

Williams, after mulling over the weekend, will be back with more vigour next time. Similarly an unusually quiet Woodward will be back, hoping to build on his current good result and get back onto the front row of the PC500 class that he so often dominates. 

If you want to stay up to speed with the ups and downs of the team you could do worse than to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

For our longer reads, you are already in the right place. This is where we post our race reviews and other articles on Blogger. 

If you want some nail biting viewing, we also have a YouTube channel. So far it is a list of videos gleaned from our various members and other racing disciplines in the RAFMSA but expect some original content soon.

The Classic Racing Motorcycle Club (CRMC) offer live timing and have race results going back years so if you can’t make it to come watch the action you can still stay up to date.

All serving RAF team members race under the banner of the Royal Air Force Motorsports Association (RAFMSA) alongside our veteran former members and associate members. If you are serving and wish to get involved with motorsports you can find all the contact details you will need on the RAFMSA website or get in contact directly with us.

 

 

Finally special thanks go to the companies who continue to support us:

Royal Air Force Motorsports Association, Royal Air Force Central Fund,  

EBC brakes UK, NGK spark plugs UK, Stahlwille UK, Classic Racing Green,

R-Tech Welding, Ragged edge racing, Talon Engineering, Forcefield body armour,

MCA Leicester, Spencer Racing, Tony Salt Tyres, Witham group Motul, PJMphotography, Speedsnap, Hel performance brakes and individual sponsors:

Symon Woodward: Mick Abbey tuning.

Andy Green: New Era Restorations

This blog post was written by the Royal Air Force Classic Racing Team members whose names are featured above then compiled and edited by Gavin Heggs.