On The Edge Racing

Off we go again!! If nothing else this year we are certainly getting to see the country! Outfit was packed away after the disappointment of Anglesey and new parts ordered (Boyer Ignition unit). On the Tuesday I had to travel back to France for work so had no time to offer to ‘outfit house-keeping’. I had to work for two weeks in order to get time off for the racing and so returned home on the Tuesday evening prior to race weekend. Fortunately my son had been to Mike Richards at MRE Equippe in Banbury and collected the new ignition box. First priority on Wednesday was to fit the box and make sure the outfit ran which it did. The rest of the day was spent preparing equipment, sorting the tools, collecting the van from lock-up, preparing the caravan and doing the shopping! Piece of cake this racing lark!! Van was loaded Wednesday evening and after a quick run around thursday morning, we were ready to roll.
Our first part of the trip was to go to our ‘race friends’ house, Nick and Shelli, at Sheffield, only 220 miles, but a good stepping stone to Scotland. We spent the night with them and set off from Sheffield by 8.30am and after a good run arrived at the track by around 2pm.  My passenger for the weekend was to be family friend James Cannon, who had flown up and was at the track waiting for us as we arrived. A track day had been arranged by the track and our two sessions for the day was to be 5pm and 7pm. Our pit was set up in good time and we were ready for the first session in plenty of time. We had not been to the track before and had not had time to walk it so this first session was very much a toddle round with a good look for the lay out etc, which we accomplished with ease.

Session two would turn out a little different. We started okay and started speeding up a bit as we got used to it. However after about six laps, after passing the start finish line, it suddenly just cut out. My immediate concern was a repeat of our ignition problems but quick checks back in the pits revealed a good spark. Consensus was that someone had dislodged the ‘kill’ switch as when we tried to start, it fired up straight away. So usual checks were done and outfit was put to bed for the night, all ready for the next day.
Saturday arrives and official practice was our first order for the day. It was a little hard to start, which was unusual, but it did and we headed out for practice. Again after five or six laps the bike cuts out. I tried fiddling with the switch to no avail and again we return to the pits. More investigating, but it starts up again, after so some more adjustments to the kill switch and we are ready to go again. Race one turns out as the last two sessions, with the outfit cutting out after six or so laps and clearly we have some other electrical fault. I decide after consultations with friends to rewire and re-locate the ignition box which is done without and problems and we are ready for the afternoon’s race.

Due to our non-finish we are dead last on the grid for race two. On the drop of the flag we get a good start and pass some of the 750 outfits. We maintain a good pace but set for a lonely race as we do not gain any more places, but equally lose none. We really enjoy the circuit with its twisty technical section then two straights joined by the challenging hairpin. The outfit remains running to the end, apparently problem solved, and we cross the line in 9th place of 12 finishers. Back to the pits and all routine checks are completed and after a couple of hours it is put to bed for the night. Our friends Nick and Shelly had blown up the gearbox on their Imp outfit and so we had offered them a ride on our outfit in the morning practice, so that would be the order for Sunday, followed by one race in the morning and the final race in the afternoon.

Sunday morning arrives. No more problems today, surely!! We are up in good time and roll the outfit out to start and warm up. It won’t start on the button so we give it a push start and it fires up first go. Then shock – horror, an oil trail behind us and a veritable puddle beneath us! With the fairing off we see that oil is pumping out of the outlet pipe from the oil pump. Its tight enough but further checks reveal that an oil seal ‘o’ ring has blown. Now some say that you can never have too many spares. Clearly I have not reached that stage yet and the hunt around the paddock for spares begins. The up-shot being that Nick and Shelly miss their practice go and we miss the first Sunday race. That’s Racing!!!!!!!

We watch the race, frustrated from the side. But once finished we continue our hunt. A big thanks to John Perkins who literally hooked a couple from the bottom of an old spares box, which once fitted seemed to have us running again. Race four in the afternoon sees us at the rear of the grid again. We make good progress again, passing the 750’s off the line, if with a little paint scraped against the pit wall! Well I did not think it was that close! The race was very much the same as our race yesterday, no one else we could pass but maintaining our position, although we were very keen to improve out time from Saturday. We finish the race 11th of 14 finishers and timings would show that we took a second off our previous best time.

Once all finished the dreaded clearing up begins and we start the long haul home. Again we would break the journey at our friends in Sheffield and eventually roll up home around 2pm on Monday. Final thoughts for the weekend………. The track was really good, very enjoyable. We finished two of the four races so a 50% improvement on Anglesey. More lessons learnt (‘O’ ring kit ordered!) but of the problems we had, none major just niggling. Roll on Brands Hatch, 9th and 10th July.

Tim Chapman
HPMCC.