KEEP SCROLING DOWN FOR THE LATEST NEWS!!!

Artic testing in the Welsh tundra of Ty Croes for the Macclesfield based Redline Superbikes (Father & Son) Superside team of Gary and Dan Knight.

First time out 2006 in a ‘sell the 2004 Bike’ weekend

The object of this weekend was to blow away the winter cobwebs, and try and raise the profile of our 2004 bike, which we still have for sale, by putting our fastest ever engine into the aforementioned 2004 bike.  Crucially, we were to get our signwriter 'Hazardous Kev'  to scribe a huge-as-possible  'FOR SALE' down both sides of the bike.

A beautiful circuit, Ty Croes.  On the side of a hill, the whole circuit slopes gently down to a beach.  (See attached picture!) The sun shines often, and as one howls down the straight, sunlight reflects off the ripples on the Irish Sea ahead in a distracting but appealing manner.  The circuit is often compared with Australia’s' Phillip Island.  Much better to my mind.  A mere two hours leisurely drive away, and no Aussies (unless you count the Fosters in the clubhouse).  Flocks of Welsh redress the balance.

Sub zero temperatures, frozen heating gas, and a raging easterly rocking the caravan in an alarming manner had us awake in the small hours questioning the wisdom of putting water in the bike before the absolutely necessary hour.  Would it freeze or wouldn't it?  The caravan water was frozen solid.  We knew what we had to do.

THE EVENT

The sidecar race was part of a Cheshire and Northwich club event.  Excellent Club. Friendly efficient organisers, minimal red-tape, not bad value-for-money, and zero bullshit.  Nice.

1.5 Km in length, lots of tight, challenging corners and a scary fast not-quite-flat-out downhill right make up the circuit, around roads of an old MoD site. Oh yes, and it's VERY bumpy.

TEST DAY
Windy and cold, but glorious clear blue sky, and bright sunlight.  Bike unloaded, we nervously removed the water cap.  Great! Not frozen.  About the consistency of a 'Slush Puppy', but not frozen.  We decided to sit out the morning session while things warmed up a bit. Maybe.
Hideous arrived in his usual solid, reliable manner, at the appointed hour.  A large crowd was soon around the bike admiring his skill (he just writes this stuff freehand!), and he soon had an order list from other competitors.

Three sessions gave us good opportunity to get the suspension and brakes set up to handle the bumps.  An interesting afternoon involving several 'offs', until we got dialled in to something like right. This was after all, a test weekend. And these were exactly the sort of glitches we were here to iron out.

THE RACE(s)

Were nicely routine.  We had discussed pulling out on the last lap (assuming we were winning, of course!) so as not to muck-up the club championship.  Dan realised that this might look like we had broken down, thus putting the bike we were trying to sell in a poor light, as opposed to winning, which would hopefully have the opposite effect.

Off we went politely queuing up behind some early fast starters and enjoying a bit of a tussle.  Things started to get a bit desperate, with everyone and their dogs on a mission to get past us.
Anyone that’s ever ridden an F1 in a club event will be familiar with the scenario – F2 riders immediately descend into ‘if we can’t beat it we’ll crash into it’ mode.  Bearing in mind we were trying to sell the bike, I didn’t want ANY damage on it. After being run into several times, I took the opportunity to practice a few bottom-clenchy, round-the-outside-in-unlikely-places type manoeuvres, and cleared off. 

We don't enjoy racing like this, and apologise if it turns out we've upset the championship in any way.  We hope (sometime) to build an F2 350 or 250 or even a 125 for these events, which we enjoy competing in.

The ten lap race was red-flagged after just five by the arrival of the air ambulance, that for some reason couldn't land whilst bikes were on the track.  Very impressive landing though - neatly placed into a space about the size of two badminton courts, in a high wind, without so much as a wobble.  Brilliant.  These guys earn every penny, and turned out several times during the course of the weekend.

The second race was a replica of the second, except it was cut to just eight laps, due to running out time after all the crashes.  I would guess that with the track temperature so low, cold rubber was the principle problem.  The only things getting sticky were rider situations (and possibly underwear). 

Summary

It’s always good to be out again, even in such cold windy conditions.  The bike performed well, and generated quite a bit of interest.  A few teething problems to sort out, but we'll probably use this bike at the Donington International in April (see below).  Hopefully we'll see off a few of the bikes that have changed hands for a lot more money than our asking price (£16,500 with our best engine, ready to race), and someone will buy it!

Team Redline spend a day testing with MCN!

Mallory Park was the setting for Gary and Dan’s first outing on the new 2006 bike.

Joining the team for the day was MCN’s events editor Dave Rawlings, who was going to conduct an interview with team in the somewhat unlikely setting of the pit lane paddock, whilst seated on the enormously bizarre ‘MCN sofa’. Motor Cycle News is a weekly paper and is the UK’s premier motorcycle publication.

The MCN interview had been arranged by Dan, in the hope that this would make a impressive article and might encourage an MCN interest in coverage of Sidecars generally, and the teams progress in the Superside world championship particularly.

Dan was desperate to give Dave a ‘Taxi’ ride during the day, but despite Dan’s best efforts with the ACU, it turned out this wasn’t possible.  We were disappointed our governing body couldn’t (wouldn’t) try a little harder to resolve the issues here.  Sidecars get precious little exposure already, and to get MCN in attendance for a practice day, let alone with a sidecar team, was something of a coup for Dan.  Get that licence Dave. We have a seat just for you!

The primary objective for the day was to bed-in the new 2006 JEB’s  Suzuki GSXR1000 K5 motor in readiness for the first round of the Superside World Campionship at Schleiz (In east Germany) in 2 weeks time.

Yet again we required some last minute sign writing, and Superstar ‘Hazardous Kev’ was dragged from his comfy canal side abode,(this time conveniently almost on-route in Tamworth) late Tuesday evening to undertake the task by van headlights in the local pub car park!  A chilly and difficult task, expertly completed with the assistance of a few warming ‘chasers’, kept flowing courtesy of the ever-cheerful Dad/Grandfather Eric.

A jovial jaunt up to Mallory and an early get-up give us plenty of time in the morning to set up and make a few final set-up changes to the bike before the first session at 1.30pm.

Also joining our team for the first time was new sponsor Graham Frew, from Capital Cooling. Graham’s company design, manufacture and install refrigeration equipment for major supermarkets the world over.  It was the first time Graham had seen a sidecar in the flesh and he seemed to enjoy the whole day, commenting “It’s an amazing piece of machinery!”

Worst moment of the day, and more than just a little embarrassing, the infernal bike wouldn’t start. It always starts! Why, today, when we have the UK’s premier bike publication AND a new sponsor in attendance, do we have a flat battery??  It transpired there was in fact, a reason…

A rather clumsy ‘jump-start’ arrangement was made from a starter-charger (which I had thankfully put on the van as an afterthought to help illuminate the sign-writing operation – dismal failure!) saw the bike labour into life. Looks of overwhelming relief quickly and quietly passed across the red-faces of all concerned.  Particularly those that had had the ignition switched on for most of the morning, whilst buggering about with fuel and ignition maps for hours on the lap-top. (No names!!).

After the first session, Dave from MCN interviewed Gary and Dan and the rest of the team (Eric, Gordon and Ben) on the MCN sofa, and took a few pictures.

The interview will hopefully appear in next weeks MCN, on sale 17^th May.

Testing and running-in, although a mite boring, went pleasingly well, with a few minor glitches were sorted during the afternoon.  Some lap times that delighted us, given the relatively low engine speeds and light throttle openings we had been using, were icing on the days remarkable and ground-breaking cake.

We can’t wait to get to Schleiz.  Roll on the Superside Season!

Double Dutch!

Superside World Sidecar Championship, Assen, Holland (round 6), 24^th June 2006.

THE EVENT

The 3^rd event of the 2006 Superside series was to be host at the newly (much) revised Circuit van Drenthe at Assen, in northern Holland, and the single-race 6^th round was for the first time in eight years to be a support event for the MotoGP.

Assen circuit is fast and sweeping, perfectly flat, and in huge contrast to the last event at Castle Combe, exceptionally smooth.  The new reduced –distance circuit is now just 4.55km (2.5 miles) in length.

At one stage, it looked as if we wouldn’t be attending this race.  The qualifying practices, originally scheduled for Friday, coincided with the last of Dan’s final exams.  In spite of his assurances that he had ‘already passed anyway’, after two years of study we (the parental we, that is) were not going to allow him to miss this exam.  So, we would have to suffer the wrath of the Superside organisation, pay our (at least) 1000 Euro fine as specified by the contract, and worst of all, obviously and definitely get no points.  We discussed at length the possibility of me riding with a replacement passenger (also not allowed unless previously declared as a reserve passenger, but possibly negotiable).  There were two (major) problems with this - first, (call me picky), there were only a few other passengers I would consider that were not already riding.  A former passenger of mine (recently retired) was reluctant to be brought out of that retirement, another likely-contender had already been ‘bagged’ by another team, and I couldn’t get in touch with the third.

However, a big break came when the final instructions email arrived midweek; first qualifying was now to be late on Thursday evening, finishing at 8.45pm.  Hmm.  Dan’s exam wasn’t until 9.00am the following morning.  He should be able to get back in time.  This would entail us missing the second qualifying session (Friday Evening) completely, but as long as we got a half way decent lap in the first (Thursday evening) session, we would at least be on the grid for the Saturday race. 

So, a swift flight back to some conveniently located nearby airport, and job done! 

Well, not quite.  The only available flights all involved much hanging around at airports, but also (critically) arrived back in UK just in the nick of too late.

Having spent a frustrating morning surfing airline web sites, I then spent a tiresome afternoon studying the logistical issues of driving back; travel times, ferry schedules, and eventually, sleep rota’s and even fuel consumption (or to be more precise, re-fuelling times). 

We could, on paper at least, JUST make it. Providing the Thursday qualifier wasn’t wet,  providing the Friday qualifier wasn’t then dry, providing  we cleared the circuit no later than 9.00pm, providing we sailed from Dunkerque, providing we managed to do the journey to the ferry in no more than five hours (!) providing we didn’t get held up at the check-in or anywhere else, providing we didn’t have to stop for fuel, providing nothing went wrong….

It would all be a positive doddle.  A breeze, really.

So that was it.  A detailed ‘to the minute’ itinerary was printed and ferries were booked.  Lots of them.

Another irksome factor was that we then wouldn’t be able to use our own awning, which attaches to the side of the van.  We simply wouldn’t have time to dismantle it.  A quick call to Andy Percy secured a grateful place at his Inn.

Whilst driving down to Dover on the initial ‘out’ leg, Andy called to say that his bus had expired at Watford Gap, and he wouldn’t have his bus (or awning, of course) at Assen.

We were homeless.

We plodded on to Assen, wondering who (if anyone) might let us blag some awning space.  We then spent the best part of a very peculiar day doing nothing (there’s normally so much to do, especially if it’s just me and Dan), and eventually started swapping the bike engine for a fresh one, collected just before we left home. The sun was hot, so I applied a smattering of sun-screen to my still-wintered proboscis.  Brilliant stuff, this sun-screen.  Only minutes later, with tools and bits of bike scattered about, it clouded over and started raining. 

The Gatt team arrived shortly afterwards, and came to our rescue, graciously offering us a corner of their awning.

Exceedingly nice folk, the GRS team.  Thanks guy’s.  We are eternally grateful, and hope we didn’t get in the way too much. 

QUALIFYING                

Another fresh engine to bed-in saw us spending the ‘free-training’ session cruising around, and learning the new circuit. 

With only this one-timed session to go at, a reasonable time as soon as possible was essential.  The weather, although prone to sudden heavy showers, looked as though it may at least work in with our plan.  This would be another hurdle over.  We finished 7^th, which we were pleased with.  (Well, I was anyway).  We knew we could possibly drop as many as 6 or more places during the second session, but we (me) were happy to just be able to start the race.  Disasters aside, of course.  And there was about to be plenty of opportunity for a few of those.

THE FIRST RACE (BACK HOME, THAT IS).

A swift, traffic and trouble free run back to Dunkerque saw us with enough time in hand to refuel in France, thus saving a few quid.  A few ‘moments’ when the new sat-nav sent us off on unlikely non-motorway ‘short-cuts’, but these turned out to be good info, in spite of the doubts raised by instructions smoothly delivered by a female voice.  Is it just me, or do all blokes inherently distrust verbal route instructions from a female?  I’m sure confidence would be higher if the delivery at least had the tone and insistence of a demanding school ma’am.  Do any of them use a male voice?

The leg to Dunkerque was always going to be the most fraught section of the journey, and it was now over.  We (I) could afford to relax a little, secure in the knowledge that Dan could be delivered to college in good time for his exam.

Which we did, and just a few hours later we were on our way back to Assen, and making good enough time to catch an earlier ferry.  We were booked on the 6.00pm, but I had always planned that we would turn up early, and get the 4.00pm boat.  As it turned out, we arrived in plenty of time to catch the 2.00pm.  Good news.

Except that we hadn’t allowed for the Norfolkline jobs-worth who simply was not going to let us onto 'his' boat, that we weren’t booked on. Git.  We were ordered out of the dock and told to not bother coming back until the 6.00pm ferry was due.  Git.  As we drove out, we decided to go around the block, and try a different check-in, on the off chance.  Having explained the situation, this check-in clerk couldn’t have been more helpful, and although it was now too late to get on the 2.00pm boat, suggested we go back about 20 minutes before the 4.00 sailing, and wait to see if any bookings didn’t show.  As we drove out of the port, the two o’clock boat was leaving, and we could see lots of space at the back of several lines of trucks on the open deck.  Git.

A couple of hours to kill, and nothing to do except sit outside a nearby beach front pub, in the baking sun, reading the papers, and supping excellent draught Spitfire bitter.  Erring on the idyllic, you might think.  But for the second time in two days, a strong and strange feeling of ‘wasting of time’ rather spoilt the arrangement.

We pitched up back at the check-in at the appointed hour, but in spite of the best efforts of the clerk, I could see on the monitor that all the places were full.  A third ticket to exit the dock was issued.  We trundled around the block again, and were wished well by all the Customs and security staff, who by now were all aware of our plight, and with whom we were now on first name terms with.  At least we collected a few new fans.

We eventually arrived back at the circuit at around 2.30am.  Access to the paddock now involved a detour around and even through some of the camp sites.  Literally hundreds of pre-race parties were in full swing.  An incredible spectacle and an electric atmosphere.  One day I’m going to ride to the Assen TT, camp, and be part of the ‘other side of the fence’.   My former passenger Malc Jackson frequently does, and I can see why.  Well, just a thought.

THE SIDECAR RACE

Having finished preparing the bike, and still distinctly groggy through lack of sleep, I grabbed an hour or so in the quiet.  I came-to some time later to hear Dan criticising the eagerness of another team as they rumbled past the caravan.  Early indeed, since we still had another hour and a half until commencement of the start procedure!  I turned over and went back to sleep.

Five minutes later, Dan burst through the door yelling at me to get ready, because the race had been brought forward by an hour and nobody had told us. It transpired a bulletin had been issued, but of course we weren’t there to get one!  Still half asleep, we panicked our way through the final half-hour or-so of bike prep procedure in about five minutes, ably assisted by the GRS team, Richard and Paul having already left.  Thanks again, boys!

Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of our less good races this year.  The engine was severely lacking in power (my fault), the clutch was slipping badly for the first half of the race (probably my fault), a leaking brake fluid reservoir (not my fault), and consequent poor braking and oil-coated passenger all contributed to reducing our lap times by nearly three seconds a lap.  Pretty soon it seemed everybody had disappeared into the distance, but we settled down to have quite an enjoyable (if relatively slow) race with Jos Moser, briefly involving Billy Gallros also, but we managed to hold Billy at bay and eventually drop him.  Toward the end of the race, I followed Jos round and picked a most likely passing place.  It looked like a last lap dive into the final corner (chicane) was promising.  With a few laps to go, a rash of yellow flags started to appear at various points around the circuit.  Since the regulations prohibit overtaking under a yellow flag, it occurred to me that leaving the planned manoeuvre until the final corner was perhaps cutting-it a mite fine.  People were clearly becoming desperate and/or careless toward the race conclusion, and if we arrived at the chicane to find yellow flags, that would be the place lost.  I knew the Moser engine was considerably faster than ours – we were struggling to stay in touch down the straights, even with the tow, and there was no way we were going to out-drag him to the line.

The plan was brought forward by a lap, and executed as planned.  We just managed to hang onto 10^th place across the line, with a hard sprinting Moser team a fraction of a second behind.

Not our ideal finish, especially after our encouraging qualifying times, but at least some points.

This was always going to be a difficult tiring and trying weekend.

I like a challenge, but challenges of this sort don’t mix well with World Championship racing.

The new circuit Van Drenthe was better fun to ride than I dared hope, my only criticism being that the new hairpin is a tad ‘Micky-mouse’.

Was it worth all the dashing about?  Of course.  But one weekend like that is probably enough in a lifetime.  At least Dan’s exams are finished now. 

Anybody need an AVCE qualified motorsport engineer?

THANKS

Special thanks this week of course to the GRS Team, also to our new product sponsors, Agip Oils.  And thanks as ever to all our other product sponsors: Lintek (FM Helmets), Capital Cooling, Ready Design, Daytona Boots, James Lister & sons, Goodridge UK, JP Exhausts, all the Knights, the O’Driscolls, Louis Christen and Ben and Gordon, and Wolfgang Zech for the impressive pictures.

Dubious German Decisions

Superside World Sidecar Championship, Sachsenring, Germany.  Rounds 7 & 8, 15^th and 16^th July 2006.

THE EVENT

The 4^th event of the 2006 Superside series was to be host at the Sachsenring circuit located near Dresden in Germany.  For the second time in a row, the Superside event was to be a support event for the MotoGP.

3.67km (2.28 miles) in length, Sachsenring circuit is a real rider’s circuit.  A good mix of fast, sweeping, and tight, nadgery corners, combined with hills ranging from gentle gradients to a couple of ‘near-vertical bumps’, with several fast and awkward  off-chamber curves. Vast, heady and enthusiastic crowds complete the magic.

We’ve worked hard with the 2005/6 Suzuki kit electronics for a year now, but only recently have we managed to get a current engine back together to complete the package. 

Our route to Dover once again took us to Banbury, and yet more time on the JEB’s Engineering Dyno of John Baker to try and bring it all together.  We ‘wasted’ several frustrating hours overcoming a few issues created by some inferior engine parts, (better sorted on the dyno, of course), and then started to produce some results along the lines we’ve been striving for. Good.  Some more of the planned tests would have been nice, but John had other work to do, and we had a ferry to catch. 

The sat-nav took us on a route that I would never have planned, but it was different and consequently interesting.  It was also flat and fast.  We arrived in the Thuringen area of Germany with time to spare, and the lads dropped me off short of the circuit, at Jenna, so that I could cycle the last 60 miles or so to the circuit.  (Cycling is my other ‘pastime’).  Beautiful countryside, picturesque villages painfully neat with truly old-world buildings, and glorious sunshine (38 degrees) made for a near perfect few hours cycling.  High humidity rendered the ride a little ‘sticky’, but I certainly wasn’t complaining.  Even about the miles and miles of country lanes laid to teeth-rattling, bum-battering, wheel-buckling ‘Pave’ (small granite cobbles).

I arrived at the circuit to find the lads had already set up most of the kit, and sat and had a cold beer whilst directing the finishes touches to the camp.

This was the life indeed, and it was to get better yet before it all crumbled.

QUALIFYING      

Was hot. Very hot.  Ambient that is, although the action on the track was soon to get that way.  The previous afternoon at the same time the temperature in the shade had topped 41 degrees, with dripping humidity.  Thankfully it had cooled very slightly for qualifying.

With a packed programme for MotoGP and the support races, training (practice) was brief at Sachsenring.  One un-timed and one timed session were scheduled, with only a short space between the two during which we weren’t allowed to leave the pit lane.  This was always going make for a fraught qualifying.  A late change to make both sessions timed helped ease the tension, but only slightly.

Our ploy was to stay out until we had at least completed qualifying distance (5 laps), and then if everything felt OK, stay out as long as we could to try and build some speed.

Sachsenring is a relatively short circuit, but it’s very technical, and there’s a lot to learn.  It was mostly wet on our only other visit last season, and we hadn’t enjoyed it.  We had very little meaningful set-up information, but as it turned out ‘guessed’ fairly accurately at most of the settings that mattered.

Things went according to plan, and our lap board showed us consistently around tenth, which was where we finished the first session.  Encouragingly, we were fastest through the speed trap, with our speed trap average nearly 8 KPH (5 MPH) faster than the next fastest team (Frenchman Seb Dellanoy), and a fastest speed of  223.9 KPH (139.1 MPH)

Great.  At last, after all the painstaking development, we at least (theoretically) had the fastest sidecar on the planet.

A debriefing during the ‘interval’ highlighted a few areas where we might be able to gain time.  The bike might have been fast in terms of top speed, but we were having difficulty getting out of several corners cleanly, and racing on short circuits is all about acceleration and corner speed.

Putting our revised techniques into practice during the second session saw our position lift to 6^th.  That was better.  And a yet higher top speed of 224.5 KPH suggested we now had slightly improved drive.

RACE 1

Was an 11 lap ‘Sprint’ race. 

A reasonable start got us away with the fast bunch, but soon swamped through the section where we had been slow in practice. 

We hung on well though, and managed to re-pass Gatt/Randall on the third lap, to take 6^th place.

Stuart Muldoon retired on lap 8 to momentarily elevate us to 5^th, but still struggling through our ‘slow’ section, and with a shredded rear tyre (see photo!), Andy Laidlow took advantage and came past on the same lap to put us back in 6^th. 

But apart from that one section, and in spite of the badly blistered rear tyre, we were quicker everywhere than Andy and Patrick, and we sat behind applying just enough pressure, we hoped, to force a mistake.  Of course, there were no mistakes and it was down to a nice tidy out-brake into the last corner and a clean drag to the finish to put us back into 5^th.

Or so we thought.

We cruised back to Parc-Fermme to be informed that we (I) had incurred a 20 second penalty for an alleged jump start.  I quickly realised the reason for this; as I engaged first gear when the red lights came on, a slightly dragging clutch caused the bike to push forward a few inches against the brakes.  I certainly hadn’t over-anticipated the start, but resigned myself to the penalty, which effectively dropped us from 5^th to 10^th place. 

But by the time I got my helmet off, Dan had spoken with our pit-wall team (Ben), and dashed off to find an FIM annuaire in the technical stewards bay.  He soon found the relevant regulation, which clearly states that the team should have been informed of the penalty before the end of the fourth lap.  We were informed on lap six, or would have been if the marshal concerned spoke English, that a twenty second penalty would be added.  In the event by the time an adjacent team member had overheard and translated, it was well into lap seven.

But the clerk of the course was not to be persuaded to change his evidently flawed decision.  It seems my marginal ‘technical infringement’ was to be penalised, but the obvious ‘technical infringement’ by the organisation was acceptable. We had clear evidence on our own lap sheet of the time we had been informed, and mis-informed at that, that a penalty would be applied.  Initialy told we could see the video evidence of our team being informed; this somehow became ‘unavailable’ when we insisted on seeing it.  The organisers evidence consisted of a piece of FIM paper with our number and the name of a marshal on it.  No times or lap numbers.  This somehow ‘proved’ the correct procedure had been followed?!

To add additional insult, I had been given a ‘drive-through’ notice as well.  Our team was never informed of this! I was threatened with complete disqualification for failing to do the drive-through penalty indicated by a board shown at the exit of the final corner (smart) if I didn’t be quiet and go away. I completely failed to see this board, along with about half of the field that it seems also hadn’t seen it.  But it should never have been put out anyway. What a grade ‘A’ cock-up!  I could see that the organisers, faced with overwhelming evidence, realised this was all a complete farce.  Clearly too embarrassed to admit it, however, we inevitably and outrageously were the losers.

Still, at least we were still in the points, and a few tweeks the previous evening brought our top speed to over 228 KPH (141.7 MPH).  Too fast for the Germans, perhaps?

RACE 2

22 Lap ‘gold’ race.

Still smarting from the previous day’s fiasco, we were more determined than ever to make this one count.  A last minute decision to change to a more durable rear tyre than we had planned on using unsettled me slightly.  I don’t like the construction of these tyres, (I find it difficult to match the suspension settings accurately) and normally avoid using them.  But the heat and tattered tyres after the first much shorter race pretty much left no choice in the matter.

A flying start (but NOT a jump one!) put as in the front with several other bikes.  Four abreast into the first corner, Reeves on the outside went into the gravel, leaving us to tuck in behind Delanoy and Manninen, in third place.  We managed to hang on for the first couple of laps, but still slow through sector two, and not fully confident of the rear tyre/suspension, we dropped behind a little.  After four or five laps I realised we were making a little ground, but then we got well and truly ‘mugged’; first by the hard charging Reeves, then whilst a little back-footed also Muldoon, Gatt and Laidlow.  Once they came past, and as I gained confidence with the set-up, it soon felt like we were being held up by them.  Mulddoon was the first to be despatched, whilst hampered by loose bits around his cockpit.  Under continual pressure, Gatt/Randall went for an excursion coming out of the fast hairpin, leaving us to battle with Laidlow again.  With plenty of blue flags, most of the backmarkers were easily passed.  But on the penultimate lap we got badly baulked on two occasions, enabling Andy and Patrick to escape.  A wild effort on the last lap enabled us to almost get within striking distance by the last corner, but trying too hard (which was the only way TO try for a chance to pass) we went into a half-spin, with the bike going on its side up the hill to the finish.  Thankfully, after what felt an eternity, it all eventually came down shiny-side-up, and we managed to stave off the following bunch to hang on to 5^th place.

 The event should be televised later this month - well worth a watch, We hope!

For details, check: http://www.superside.com/onair.html

Summary

Two tremendous races that had the huge crowd in a frenzy.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a track-invasion after a sidecar race. 

I think all teams did Superside particularly and sidecar racing generally proud.  Hopefully performances like this, along with the tireless efforts of Carsten Sauer, will eventually to get sidecar racing back to full MotoGP status.

We are happy that we accumulated sufficient points to lift us to 7^th overall, but obviously smarting having lost nine points as a result of the time penalty.  We don’t just loose 9 points – all the other teams from 5^th to 9^th place have gained points.

It’s now clear that regulations involving penalties during the race, at least in respect of informing the teams, needs to be clarified and tightened up.  We think that organisers should also face stiff penalties for decisions which penalise a team, and are subsequently proven to be incorrect.  What would have happened if we completed the drive-through, and then the penalty was proven to have been applied either incorrectly or the notification was not within the procedure (as in our case here)?  Would we have had twenty seconds added to our time?  I suspect not.

Well done to Dan for having an accurate understanding of the FIM race regulations, and immediately realising the organisers infringement, following on from our own.  It’s a pity that the FIM only selectively uphold there own regulations.

It’s probably also a pity Dan doesn’t share the same retentive memory for college work, but I’ll reserve that judgement until we see his exam results later this year.

We’re looking forward to seeing the televised race(s).

Anyway, onto the fast and picturesque Salzburgring circuit in a few weeks time.  Set in the heart of Julie Andrews ‘Sound of Music’ countryside, complete with lush alpine meadows and tinkling cow-bells, this is a track that we like.  Hopefully the full potential of our increasingly powerful engines will make our presence felt here.  From there we go straight on to Circuit Grobnik near the Croatian town of Rijeka, so the next report will again be for two events back-to-back.

Our very favourite place - In front!

THE EVENT

The Superside event was back to being ‘Top of the Bill’ at the Austrian event held on the picturesque Salzburgring circuit, set in the very heart of the area famed for the filming of ‘The sound of Music’. 

We really like this place and were looking forward to creating some music of our own with our new, long awaited and much revised exhaust system.  However, our reasons for updating the exhaust system centred more on improving engine performance than acoustic performance.  I was also hoping to boost heat dissipation in order to minimise leg-burns.  This had become something of an issue at a couple of the rounds when conditions had been very warm, with my sweat-drenched Kevlar suit retaining sufficient heat to scald lower legs.  Having recently witnessed the limb-threatening injuries of Bill Philp, horribly aggravated in a similar situation (Ouch), weeping blisters it seemed, might be best avoided.   Especially since we’d already spent our emergency skin-graft fund on tyres.

More long hours on the JEB’s Engineering dyno of John Baker on the way to Dover didn’t (that is, haven’t yet) produced a big performance gain.  We were essentially testing the new experimental exhaust system which in some respects flew in the face of popular thinking, and we found it curious that the overall effect was so little in any direction.  But we did eventually realise a slight but hopefully useful gain in the mid-range. 

Many of our ideas when implemented are now showing negative results.  I don’t think we’re being any less creative, which suggests that we’re possibly into the seriously nitty-gritty points-of-horsepower with this engine.  Although we appeared to have a comfortable performance margin at the last round in Germany, the long, flat-out uphill drag at Salzburgring would be the perfect venue to compare our outright power with that of the other teams.

4.255km (2.644 miles) in length, Salzburgring circuit is set high up in the Austrian mountains (2130 feet-ish, to be precise-ish), and is fast becoming a rarity for being (almost) original in layout and length, and one of the few remaining ‘Classic’ circuits.  A ‘power’ circuit, really, consisting of two very long, fast (not very) straights, connected at the ends by bottom-twitchingly vast and fast open hairpins, with a brief, flat and twisty infield section.

Nearing Salzburg mid afternoon, atrocious weather put me firmly onto the horns one of those agonising ‘Bike-or-Beer,’ dilemmas. I had been looking forward to a challenging and seriously mountainous alpine cycle ride the last forty miles or so to the circuit, and had planned a route I knew would be visually stunning.  Whilst I don’t particularly mind cycling in the rain, especially when it’s fairly warm rain, I really don’t have the will power to set out in such conditions unless it’s for an event - and that’s hard enough.  Anyway, that’s my excuse.  But in the event, we still had to stop and get fuel for the bike.  So that was it.  60 liters of V-Power, and four bottles of local Chiemseer, danke.

Having left a parched and straw-coloured England, the region appeared worryingly lush.  This is clearly a moist district, and of some note.  We picked our way through the mountain mist and rain, across luminous green meadows, through villages of twee chalets and log cabins straight from a fairy tale, eventually arriving at the flooded paddock.  I recognised it well.  It looked just like this last year.

QUALIFYING   
Saturday was a busy day indeed.  With free practice, two qualifying sessions and a race this was really a whole (long) weekends racing crammed into one day.
The un-timed session was wet, and didn’t really prove anything except that it was perhaps time we replaced our well used wets.  So at great expense we did, and of course that stopped the rain at a stroke.

Still very damp just before the first qualifying, it was clear that intermediates were going to be the order of the day, and mindful of the fact that this might well turn out to be the ‘dry’ session, fitted new intermediates.

That did the trick.  The sun came out, and by the time we completed our ‘out lap’, and six new tyres later, the track was more-or-less dry.  Ah! well, it’s only money.

On track, the bike felt good, despite eye-watering heat in the fairing from the new exhaust.  We were delighted to find ourselves in fourth place at the end of the session.  Not so pleased to find I had a burn blister the size and shape of a very large jellybean on my right ankle, even though well away from any heat source.  Hmm.

For the second session, we fitted the ‘Webbo’ exhaust, and made a few other changes, but didn’t go any quicker.  This exhaust produces noticeably more power, but the bike just wasn’t as nice or easy to ride.  Just goes to show that track testing is always the ultimate test.  We dropped two places to 6th, but we were happy enough with that, and reverted to all the settings we had used in the first session.

RACE 1

An 11 lap ‘Sprint’ race, for which the dry conditions remained.
A poor start saw us swamped by seven or eight other teams before the chicane slowed everyone except the Laidlow team who careered into the back of us, and took advantage of our consequent wide line to put us back another place.  Gathering our pace, we followed Laidlow/Farance as they batted bikes off the track, and eventually (literally) running into championship contender Tero Manninnen, pushing his rear tyre off the rim, and out of the race.  Along the long fast straight, wind resistance took its toll on the by now badly damaged bodywork on Laidlow machine, and we lost considerable time avoiding large pieces of low-flying carbon fibre, that meant they had to pit.  This effectively put them out of contention, and elevated us to 6th place.  The leaders were well away by now, and although we seemed to be catching Gatt/Randall, it was clear there weren’t enough laps left to catch and pass them, so we ‘plodded’ round for a lonely finish.  Behind us was Steve Norbury, with whom we had been on equal points, 7th in the Championship.  At least we were now ahead by one point.  But the heat blister had taken on alien proportions, and hurt like hell.
 
RACE 2
22 Lap ‘gold’ race.  Wet, wet, wet.  And the rain just got heavier and heavier.  A few half-hearted moves were made by some teams to have the race cancelled, and if it had come to a vote, I have to confess that, still lacking confidence in the wet and with brand new un-scrubbed tyres, I would have abstained.
The organisers delayed the start by 15 minutes, then a further half hour.  Miraculously, the rain stopped just as the deadline fell, and the decision was taken to run a (very) wet race. Still, I thought, at least the water would keep the exhausts and temperature under the fairing cool.
We slithered horribly around the sighting and warm up laps, only to aware that the amount of water on track meant our tyres were now probably even more polished than before.
The lights went out, and we stood still with the back wheel spinning, even with the lightest of throttle opening.  We eventually got under way a resounding last, caught up the back of the pack, and disappeared into an impenetrable cloud of water spray.  In spite of the rain, we were all probably exceeding 150mph at the top of the straight.  If there were any incidents ahead, it was obvious the first we would know about it was when we became a part of it. This was madness.  I dropped back out of the spray, and followed at a safe distance.  I’d try and pick a few places if it started to dry. If not we’d just practice at the back (again) and try and keep out of everybody’s way when they lapped us.

Up ahead, Team Excalibur, with misgivings similar to my own pulled out, and we eventually tiptoed past the teams of Woodard then Fouki and Grabmuller and approached the minor points.  With four or five laps to go, although still wet the standing water began to disperse and we managed to at last break through the now badly glazed rear tyre and reach some decent rubber.  At least we had drive, although stopping and cornering was still very hit-or-miss, and we enjoyed a few ‘rushes’ as we encountered unplanned lines through the fast curves.  We continued picking off teams we normally might lap, and eventually had Steve Norbury in our sights, also struggling down in 13th.  But before we could get close enough to strike, the chequered flag was out, and we were level pegging again on points for what I thought was 7th place in the championship. 

Wrong. 

Summary

Impressively Austrian Jos Moser, on his home circuit, had two fabulous results of a 3rd and a 4th, and had leap-frogged Steve and me from some distance behind in the points count. 

I was wrong about the exhaust temperature too.  Washed with steam and boiling water for nearly forty minutes, the alien had burst forth from my ankle.  I now faced the prospect of a week in Croatia with a large wound.  This raised a number of questions; Do they have MRSA in Croatia (Still don’t know); is an E111 any use in Croatia? (Probably not); did we have enough money to pay for even basic medical treatment if necessary? (No).

Not a good weekend for us. 

I was going off Salzburgring.

Once more in pouring rain, we packed away our soggy kit, and headed off for Croatia hoping we might there be able to redress the balance.

It’s at times like this I wish I’d bought more bottles of Chiemseer.  But at least I’d had the foresight on the ferry to pick up a couple of litres of Scotch.

THE EVENT

From Salzburg, the Superside Circus rolled on down to the Adriatic coast and Circuit Grobnik just outside the Croation town of Rijeka.

Following on from Salzburg last weekend, a number of teams had made arrangements for their kit to be driven the relatively short 300 or so miles further south, whilst flying home to squeeze in a few days work themselves.

But of course on the Thursday morning, due to terrorist threat, British authorities effectively closed the UK for business.  This left all but a few lucky (?!) team members well and truly grounded. (Would you have wanted to be in the air that morning?).  Much hasty car hiring, traffic queuing and ferry-waiting went on.  This followed by some serious all-night, high-speed driving saw the teams all make it to the circuit in time for the first training session.
But there were some very grey faces around!

Circuit Grobnik is set amongst a spectacular backdrop of towering, austere white mountains, with the Adriatic Sea in the distance.  2.59 miles in length, with some 14 corners, races are run anti-clockwise meaning lots of the left-hand bends that make sidecar racing so visually spectacular. With mercifully none of the stop-start 'bus stops' and chicanes of the 'Formula One' circuits, but with very fast, technical corners and a monstrously abrasive, tyre shredding surface, this is one of the most demanding circuits physically for both rider and passenger.

QUALIFYING
Was pleasingly straight forward. 

We had overcome the problems created by exhaust heat that had plagued us at Salzburgring, and were confident that the fairing could now double as a space-shuttle re-entry shield.  Well, almost.

Everything went to plan, and set up and modifications based on notes from last year helped enable us to qualify in a pleasing 4th place.

The second session was damp.  We realised that any laps we did would just help to dry the track allowing others to potential out-qualify us.  We scrubbed in some new (intermediate) tyres at low speed for a lap or so, and sat it out.

Our position at the head of the second row held.

RACE 1
First race on Saturday morning, this is actually a series of 3-lap knock-out heats, with only six or so riders in each race, know as ‘The Match races’. 

The idea is that a thrilling spectacle will be created, with exciting, short races.

Whilst the ‘knock-out’ element supposedly refers to those that merely don’t win, the expression has become rather more synonymous with the carnage that inevitably ensues.
Sure enough, by midday, the pungent smell of plastic resin permeated the pit garages as the teams scrambled to repair broken bodywork in time for the next heat, or in some cases, the Sprint race to be held next day.

The idea was, I suppose, a good one, but in practice this is not a good race.  With some of the riders confusingly still going through the series of ‘finals’ (based on race times), the riders themselves seldom know which races they will be in.    Of course, spectators don’t have a clue what’s going on.

Having qualified 4th, we found ourselves in the last heat, consisting of ourselves and (based on Championship positions) the worlds four fastest sidecar teams, and our old sparring partner, Steve Norbury.  Could we rise to the challenge?

Apparently not.  

We tried hard, but could only just hang to the back of the fast-foursome, with Steve DNF-ing.
So that was that.  Or was it?  You just never can tell with this event.
As we prepared the bike for the Sprint race the following day, we were told we were through to the semi-final in five minutes time.  It seemed our efforts to keep with those truly fast had somehow qualified us on race time.

We gamely pumped out several gallons of fuel from the bike (which had been fuelled for 15 laps, not three), and dashed down the pit lane.

This time in the slower of the two semi-finals, we enjoyed a good three lap battle, and just pipped the Laidlow team for 3rd place through the last series of corners.  With six teams from the two semis making up the final, we now went through to the final, right?

Wrong.  It just doesn’t work that way. 

We were eventually credited with 9th place. 

Space and time (physical and chronological, rather than cosmic), prohibit a full explanation here.

RACE 2
A 10 lap ‘Sprint’ race.

With the absence of Championship contenders Finns Tero Manninen and Peka Kuismanen who had crashed heavily in the Match semi finals (and out of Championship contention), we were elevated to the front row of the grid. 

Scrubbing in new tyres for the final Gold race during the morning warm-up, we had been second fastest only to the World Champion Reeve team, and were looking forward to a good scrap during this fairly short race.

An appalling start saw us engulfed by a dozen or so other teams.  We desperately tried to pick our way through the traffic, but we had made a serious error of tyre choice and after just one lap, the sharp surface had ripped our relatively soft front and rear tyres to tatters.  We were being passed almost as much as we were passing.  We eventually managed to get past the Laidlow team (once more) to take a disappointing 8th place.

RACE 3
20 Lap ‘gold’ race. 

Confident we had this time made a better tyre choice, we once more took our place on the front row of the grid.  For this race we also had a Superside on-board camera fitted.  Rear facing, this would provide an interesting insight into the activities of Dan (normally well behind me) which I rarely get to see.

An only marginally better start saw us reach the first corner in tenth place.  But this time we had good, durable rubber beneath us, and we quickly dodged and weaved our way through some of the traffic.  Up to sixth place as we went into lap six, we howled down the start finish straight only inches behind the rear wheels of Steve Norbury in 4th, and Jos Moser in 5th.  As Steve braked, his machine went into a violent spin as he crossed the notorius bumps on the off camber entry into turn one.  We swept to the inside of the track, hoping that the now cartwheeling bike wouldn’t bounce off the Armco barrier back onto the track, collecting us in the process.  In the event, bike and riders cleared the barrier, pit exit road and finished up deeply ploughed into the earth against the distant Armco of the corner.

The race, of course, had to be stopped.  We all reassembled on the grid, deeply concerned for Steve and passenger Scott Parnell.

This was obviously a major disaster for Steve and Scott, but it wasn’t very good for us either.
It turned out that the race was now to be run in two parts, with the results based on combined race times.  The real distress was that grid positions for the restart would be based on race position at the time the race was stopped.  After the six laps of hard work we had done, we now found ourselves back on the third row of the grid, right alongside the teams we had raced so hard to pass and drop.  That, as they say, is racing.  As we waited quietly on the grid, the sky darkened as black clouds began to gather.  Thunder rumbled all around.  It looked as though this might be another wet race.   Good-oh.

A better launch on the restart saw us hold 7th place, but everybody seemed a bit subdued, and the slightly reduced pace meant we all stayed closely bunched.  We took advantage, and soon found our way past Moser and Frenchman Seb Delannoy. Everyone soon got going, and the race turned in to a phenomenal six-way battle for 3rd place, with positions changing by the lap.  Delannoy eventually managed to get away, whilst we got held up by the Laidlow team who we eventually passed.  Closely matched, they managed to hang onto us, but aware that we had been some distance in front of them during the first part of the race, I knew we where quicker than them on corrected time.  As an impressive lightning show lit up the mountains all around, we rode safely and defensively.

Entering the last series of corners where we had so effectively passed Laidlow in two of the earlier races, I defended a tight inside line and in a nice move, Laidlow went around the outside of us. 

It mattered not a jot.  The finish line was only yards away, and we followed through to take 5th place in the second part.

As we drove into Park Fermme, the heavens opened.  Phew.

This left us a comfortable 4th, with our friends and pit-garage cohorts Richard Gatt and Paul Randall 5th, and Laidlow/Farrance eventually 6th.

A nice result, if frustratingly short of the podium once more.

Team Reeves won, and with the demise of (one of) the Team Finland team, clinched their second World Championship.  The other Team Finland team of Paivarinta/Kartialla were 2nd, with Delannoy/Guignard 3rd.


Summary

A rather mixed weekend for us.  We consolidated our 8th place in the championship nicely, and the battle between us for 6th (Gatt) and 7th (Moser) places is now very close.  Although mathematically very possible, it seems unlikely that with just three races left, we can catch Delannoy (4th) or Laidlow (5th), but we’ll be trying our hardest, and hoping for some luck (of the good variety, preferably).

Thankfully, the Lockside team of Norbury/Parnell had escaped without life threatening damage, although the bike was heavily smashed.  Steve had relatively minor injuries, whilst Scott was carted off to hospital and detained with a suspected broken collar bone, dislocated shoulder and various other painful wounds.  This raised a few questions about the Croation health service…. 
Get well soon guys.  Hope to see you in Assen.

Congratulations to Team Reeves on their second successive World Championship.


THANKS
Thanks as ever to our product sponsors: JEB’s Engineering (John Baker), Agip Oils, Lintek (FM Helmets), Ready Design, Daytona Boots, James Lister & sons, Goodridge UK, JP Exhausts, all the Knights especially Mum and Dad who made the long drive down to Rijeka to cater for us again, the O’Driscolls, Louis Christen, Ben, and James and the Lads for the exhaust.