 |
As we come to the closing hours of the last day of 2021, the team have been reflecting on, what became, quite a full season of racing despite all that COVID business.
Team attendance varied due to other commitments as ever but we always had a presence at every CRMC meeting that ran as well as a few other club meetings as we made the most of reduced restrictions.
The usual (increasingly weathered) faces were there, with Simon Woodward, Andrew Green, David Williams and Paul Kirkby riding, supported by Roy Dale and John Walton. New to the team but not so much the circuit, John Hannaford made a big impression on the club and a very welcome return was made by Chris Bartlett.
 |
| It's been a while boys... |
As 2021 kicked off you may have been called a little over optimistic that there would even be a racing season this year, but Mallory, for it’s faults, was a success and the following meetings were enjoyed with decreasing restrictions and somehow avoiding the complete drowning we fully expected every racing weekend.
To stick with tradition, we shall now hear from the riders who were sober enough to use a keyboard and how their season went. As a little bonus we are also going to hear from the grizzled, oil stained, gin soaked paddock dwellers (no not Woodward) for their take on the years racing.
Before we get to that though, we shall hear about the small collection of sponsors who make all of this racing possible with their support. Then go buy their stuff!
On with the show.
You have most likely already read our monthly race reviews so we will keep this short.
With various members of the team retiring, deployed or otherwise broken, the team still managed to field:
Andrew Green - Yamaha RD250, Post Classic 250 Air Cooled.
Chris Bartlett - Kawasaki ZXR400L Supersports 400
Paul Kirkby - Honda VFR750 RC24 , Post Classic Superstock 750
David Williams - Honda VFR400R NC30 Supersports 400.
Yamaha FZ600, Junior Production.
Honda VFR750 RC24, Post Classic superstock 750.
Symon Woodward - Yamaha RD400, Post Classic 500 aircooled.
#51 Kirkby
This year was all about seeing how I would get on with the Honda VFR750 RC24. Inspired by the exploits of Heggs and Williams and in the process of swapping all my TZ350 gear over to a new rolling chassis, I moved over to the dark side (four strokes) for the 2021 season.
A soaking wet Mallory Park practice in May saw the bike turning a wheel for the first time with me finishing the only race for me; 5th in class but. Even more encouragingly I was 2nd fastest through the speed trap...woohoo. Pembrey the following month was the highlight of my season. I was still struggling to get away at the start but was
really starting to enjoy riding the bike. A 1st and two 2nd places (plus a DNF) in the CRMC races and I also broke the class lap record in the process. In the ACU race I finished 2nd in class, winning a nice trophy and a bit of cash finishing 17 seconds ahead of 3rd placed man TT star Dominic Herbertson. Cadwell in July was a disaster. Fastest in the first practice session I crashed in the damp ACU practice, knocking myself about a bit, wrecking my helmet but more importantly snapping off the footrest mounting points. I decided to call it
 |
| "Someone grab the Mr Sheen" |
a weekend and limped back to Scotland on Saturday. Donington Park at the end of the month was more of a success where I came away with a 2nd place in the first CRMC race before crashing out of the ACU race whilst dicing for 4th place in the years most competitive and well supported race. I had also managed to lap within 0.4 sec of the CRMC lap record so came away happy again. Castle Combe was a wash out on the Sat three weeks later so as I hadn’t been before I decided to sit it out rather than risking getting no dry laps in at all the following day. Despite starting 31st on the grid I managed to finish 11th overall and 4th in class in my first race there. This was followed by
another 4th place but this time in the ACU race. Another good enough result on my first visit there and I also managed to dip under the lap record.
I decided to miss Anglesey a fortnight later after all of the travelling that I had been doing at this point with most of my journeys taking 8 - 12 hours each way! The last meeting of the year was at a rather cold and damp Croft in October. I didn’t feel at all confident and wobbled round all weekend. Two 3rd places and a 4th in the Race of the Year really don’t tell the story and I was just pleased to be heading home late on Sunday afternoon with myself and the bike in one piece (Ed: for a change).
The bike has been great this year thanks to the continued support that we receive from our sponsors and consistently fastest in class through the speed traps. I’m not planning on doing too much to the VFR over winter apart from replacing the standard front fork internals (for something more suited to all weather racing) and finally getting round to repairing the tank after our excursion in to the the gravel at Donington. Hopefully by this point the TZ350 will also be built up and ready to go again.
I can’t wait!!
 |
| Cool as F**K |
#74 Heggs
 |
| Quick weld up that.. |
Well I have been busy doing a rather long aviation engineer course which culminated in me spending this year travelling a lot. Although I absolutely could have raced, I doubt I would have really enjoyed it a lot. So instead I have put my efforts into getting the bikes presentable and coaxing another MOT out of my aging van. So far I have been unsuccessful on both of those free time goals but I have qualified as a licenced aviation engineer so that diminishes my excuses for not rocking up in '22. More on that next year!
 |
| Ready for 2022 |
I’ve never written a piece for the Team Blog before, having always spannered away in the background for Sy Woodward. But with his semi-retirement, I’ve moved on to working as a Tech Official and spannering for a non-RAF rider but friend of the team; Ziv.
For my first piece, I’d like to expand a little on the Tech side and hopefully give some insight into what goes on behind the scenes. Most weekends as a Tech Official are simply dealing with the massive task of getting everyone through scrutineering on Friday night / Saturday morning. Other than the odd unusual occurrence, (such as a rider – who’d clearly not read the rules - turning up with a side stand still fitted and in use) there’s not usually anything of note. Thereafter, it’s routine stints either as the Holding Area Tech looking for anything wrong such as leaks or loose objects, minding the quarantine bikes after a crash in the scrutineering bay, or doing Start Line Tech, which is similar to the Holding Area. That was the case until Cadwell this year.
The events that unfolded were both shocking and reassuring. Shocking in that it could so easily have been a lot worse; reassuring in that the whole event machine worked like clockwork. Something that’s often not appreciated by those who’s race is delayed after an incident, so here goes….
The Saturday was bright and sunny, and I’d been doing Start Line Tech most of the morning without any dramas. It was late morning and the beginning of the first parade so no Start Line Tech work; I began to relax and to spectate when, to coin a phrase, all hell broke loose. A relatively slow-moving Greeves was passing close to the pit wall when the rider missed a gear. The bike immediately behind him and closing fast, managed to take evasive action and went round him but the unsighted VFR750 rider behind him on full chat had no chance and ran straight into the rear of Greeves. The Greeves, as it turned out, appeared to get off lightly, with a bent exhaust and a few scrapes as it skittered across the track. The rider was a bit shaken but otherwise ok. The VFR was not so lucky, It hit the pit wall and went down hard, breaking the crank case and rupturing the cooling system thus spilling large quantities of oil and water across one third of the track for a distance of about ten metres. The next few seconds were a blur of red flags and frantically trying to warn approaching riders of the danger. Fortunately, other than being badly shaken, the rider was ok. Time was then spent moving the wreckage, clearing up the spill, which was bad enough to need the Cadwell crew to get involved, and getting the circuit open again for the next race. I was particularly impressed that the young assistant Clerk of the Course arrived on the scene quickly in the Course Car, and got actively involved with the clearup. “Learning on the job”, I thought. Immediately after lunch, having put that one behind me, I was on the Start Line again when, to everyone’s horror, a rider some half way back on the grid put his hand up as the flag dropped. He was then rear-ended by another unsighted bike, both went down and then one of them was hit by a third bike which also hit the rider. Again, red flags were deployed and the emergency crew and Doctor were on the scene in seconds. Unlike the first incident however, and due to second rider on the ground appearing to have been severely injured, nothing was moved except for turning off the fuel and kill switches on the crashed bikes until authorised later by the Clerk of Course. After some time the rider was considered stable enough to be moved so was taken away to the Med Centre and from there flown to hospital. Thankfully, later reports suggested that he had sustained no serious injuries.
Subsequently, the clear up went ahead and racing resumed with most, none the wiser as to what had just unfolded. For myself; this left me no immediate time to really absorb what had happened. Perhaps that was for the good, but on later reflection it occurred to me that I’d packed more learning into three hours, than most get in a full season and that whether that was a good thing depends entirely on one’s perspective.
 |
| Some ancient bits of kit next to Albert and some bikes. |
In closing
Thank you all again for helping make 2021 the best glitter decorated turd it could possibly be. We were all so pleased to see spectators back in the later stages of the season and can't wait to see you all again in the new year. As we all rest, upgrade and update over the winter we look forward to 2022 which we will be filling you all in on soon.
We hope you have all enjoyed this little review. From the whole team we wish you a happy and successful new year.
Written and clumsily edited by Gavin Heggs
Comments
Post a Comment