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| CRMC Oulton Park - Tamzin Shaw |
CRMC Donnington park
The classic festival at Donnington park is always a big event for the RAF classic racing team. Situated overlooking the main spectator entrance to the circuit, the Teams RAF gazebos were joined by the new Witham oil hospitality lorry, happily showcasing one of the teams biggest sponsors to the huge crowds coming to enjoy the fine weather and classic motorsports.
RAF classic racing team members; Gavin Heggs, Ben "Murf" Murfin, Symon Woodward and Adrian Shaw were in attendance along with RAFMSA riders Simon Allen and Mike Burke and RAFMSA associate riders Joe Woodward and Živilė Žukauskaitė, not forgetting John Walton Toby "Cheese twist" in support of course.
After promise of a 2 stroke extravaganza from Symon, Heggs dragged out his Yamaha RD250, making it a heady 2 RAF RD250's out on the PC250 aircooled grid. Symon started strong by not managing to rebuild his engine in time leaving Heggs to wabble round for a few laps of the first two races, both times ending in brake failure and soiled leathers.
More success was had by the 4 strokes with novice Adrian Shaw proving he had what it takes by qualifying for the ACU race along side some of the best riders the club had to offer. Of course he was only along side for the amount of time it took for him to be lapped, but he was by no means the slowest on the day. Not bad for someone still rocking a novice jacket!
A spill at Redgate caused some rapid work to patch his machine and straighten (as best we could) the front suspension despite an already busy team. The spill and slightly wonky CBR600 did not put Shaw off however, as he continued to build pace through the weekend.
On the same grid, Ziv also started to find some pace but a very unfortunate incident involving a poor pass at Redgate saw her punted into the all too familiar gravel at Redgate. All the more painful having recently resprayed the ZXR400 after the last spill.
We did mention the team was busy and that did have a lot to do with Murf's FZ600 and the funny grinding noise in third. The noise was soon identified as coming from the confetti that had filled his sump which coincidentally matched where third gear used to be. Thankfully a saviour from the paddock and a short drive by Daddy Murfin later resulted in the team now having the joy of an engine swap to do in a carpark. Victory seemed assured for a Sunday outing but an oil leak soon saw Murf black flagged. This was rectified seeing the bike make it out for one race in class and the ACU. A huge deal for someone who thought he was going to miss Donnington entirely, if not quite what he had in mind.
Needless to say, Joe Woodward rode the wheels off any bike put under him, only really suffering difficulties on the ZXR750 which was having some engine issues. If you want to know more, Joe writes his own race reviews over on Facebook. Make sure you give him a follow if you haven't already.
Similarly, Mike Burke was having a great time on his Ducati TT-F1, claiming a series of podiums. To keep things interesting he even entered in the supersport 600 as an underdog and still finished well despite the handicap.
For the first round this season, Simon Allen was out on his Honda K4 rocking a shiny new set of RAFMSA leathers to boot. He settled back on the old Honda quickly, finding the fast flowing circuit a comfortable place to be.
Finally Heggs and Symon were both out on the VFR750's. Symon went well in the first two races with the third seeing the limits of adhesion found during an optimistic pass attempt on the exit of the old hairpin. Heggs, having another slow weekend had picked things up a bit for the last race only to get punted into the gravel at Foggy esses breaking his brake lever but somehow staying on the bike.
Noticeably missing (amongst other team mates) was Andrew Green, who was saving his energy for an even bigger event, a short ferry trip away.
All images below were captured by PJM Photography
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| Zivs trip into the gravel |
Manx GP
Wondered where Green was before? We did mention it once or twice on our Facebook page!
Yes Andrew Green had made the dubious decision of ringing the kneck of a Honda K4 round the isle of Man supported by fellow team mates Roy Dale, Tom Flynn and Potsy.
Worthy of mention, RAFMSA riders Rad Hughes was also in attendance on the Kawasaki ZXR400 and ZXR600 supported by fellow RAFMSA rider Kay Byford Howard and his family. You can read more on him on his Facebook here.
Michael Russel was also back at the Manx on a variety of machines with lots to read on his socials.
For Green this resulted in just 3 laps completed over the entire week. Additional issues such as preventing the oil from escaping and the exhaust making more than one break for freedom didn't hep matters. Miraculously what he had done was at racing pacer so a 1 lap race was completed at an 84mph average on a bike that tops out at 110! We could go on but it is best enjoyed in Greens own words on his Facebook posts.
Image credits to Roy and Tom.
Oulton park
It's been 6 years since the last time the CRMC went to Oulton park and it probably wont be happening again any time soon so the RAF classic racing team were very excited to be returning.
The CRMC were fortunate to again get the summer bank holiday at Oulton park affording them a rare full weekend of racing with a day off on Sunday. Sunday events included some fantastic track tuition from Spike and some bicycle trials which saw trophies going to Joe, Toby and one of Adrian Shaws clan - Connor too.
The team composition was similar to Donington only missing Murf. If you needed a reminder: RAF classic racing team members; Gavin Heggs, Symon Woodward and Adrian Shaw were in attendance along with RAFMSA riders Simon Allen and Mike Burke and RAFMSA associate riders Joe Woodward and Živilė Žukauskaitė, not forgetting John Walton and Toby "Cheese twist" in support.
After a dismal Donington, Heggs left his RD in the garage in favour of the VFR750 which we can talk about later. Symon however had managed to nearly finish rebuilding his bike enough to bring it to Oulton Park. After a cobbling together a functional bike in the garage (too cool to hang out with the team in the gazebo), Symon was looking forward to getting back to his usual antics with Jerry. This set off as expected, with the last thing Symon remembers being Jerry flicking him the V's round island bend. The next thing he knew he was in the back of an ambulance wondering why his ears were ringing.
It came to pass that his bike has seized in the middle of shell oil corner and sent him sailing over the handlebars leaving Symon a bit dazed and Jerry very confused the next time he peaked over his shoulder.
Joe was again smashing great result after great result. The team sent Toby to "babysit" little Woody whilst his dad got grumpier in the hospital waiting room, ensuring Joe made it to the grid on time for all his races, so clearly Toby deserves the biggest praise here. After the ZXR750 blew its new engine on Friday practice, Joe was left on the ever faithful VFR750. There was no way he could keep up with Ant Hart on the Ducati 996 but it was unbelievable how well he did at trying. You can read a lot more about his weekend on Facebook.
The supersport 600 and 400 gang were all first timers to Oulton park. Ziv took advantage of the Friday trackday for some early pace but Shaw quickly learned the track, helped by a bit of capacity advantage they were both close on times though the weekend.
Heggs on the VFR750 took the lessons learned on the Sunday to improve his times on the Monday having found himself, yet again, disappointingly slow. Needing some mid corner pace appears to be the issue "so less braky and more faster" appears to be the cure. On a positive note he did manage to go reasonably well though Hislops which being anything other than a fast flowing corner is somewhat out of character.
Simon Allen had another steady weekend on his Honda K4 finishing consistently but most importantly, thoroughly enjoying the weekend.
Mike Burke was fortunate enough to get a ride on a Ducati 748 which he appears to have taken a shine to even if it's a bit of a different beast to what he is used to. A shower on his first race got the better of him though sending both bike and rider sliding into the grass. Thankfully neither were harmed and he was able to finish all the Saturday races on the podium on the Ducati TT-F1, just a shame he wasn't able to stay for Monday.
Nearly all images below are from PJM photography but special notice has to go to Tamsin Shaw who spent the weekend testing her skills with the assistance of Connor for some fantastically creative photographs included below.
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| Adrian Shaw - Tamzin Shaw |
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| Adrian Shaw - Tamzin Shaw |
The Royal Air Force MotorSport Association supports tens of disciplines both two and four wheeled. More information on the RAFMSA can be found on Facebook, the Sports federation home page, Twitter and can be found with a quick search on MODNet.
The RAF Classic racing team race in the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club (CRMC) offer live timing and have race results going back years, you can find more the team on Facebook Twitter Blogger and YouTube.
There is a strong contingent of the RAFMSA MCRR in No Limits Racing, they can be found on Instagram with some fantastic video shared by competitor James on his YouTube channel and many others can be found on there too. There is also an interservice race held at all NLR rounds for which the RAFMSA NLR team are the defending champions.
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.
This blog post was written and edited by Gavin Heggs.
Finally special thanks go to the companies who continue to support us:
Classic Racing Green, EBC brakes UK, Forcefield body armour, HPE, Hel performance brakes, J&S Accessories, NGK spark plugs UK, PJMphotography, Royal Air Force Motorsports Association, Royal Air Force Central Fund, R-Tech Welding, Ragged edge racing, Stahlwille UK, Witham group and individual sponsors:
Symon Woodward: Mick Abbey tuning.
Andy Green: New Era Restorations
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