TEAM NORBAR YAMAHA TZR250 MOTORCYCLE RACE TEAM

Cadwell Park  Report – August    2nd/3rd 2008: Andy “Moose” Muse - #45

If ever there was ribbon of Tarmac - this is it !

Well, this has without doubt been the worst two weeks of pre-race bike preparation that I can remember – it’s a nightmare when the schedule has two meetings close together, and you end up with bike problems from the first time out……..

Anyway, post-Brands I thought I’d sussed out what I needed to fix my mangled clutch and had everything on order from Fowlers by close of play Monday after racing, giving me a few days to pull the engine out of the frame, call in at Reading for a bottom end disassembly master class from Fish in his garage (plus a couple of beers and a pizza…..), fit my new crank, replacement gearbox and gear selector fork, and then get everything bolted back into the frame prior to heading off to Leeds for a few days for work the week before Cadwell – phew, I’m outta breath just typing that!

Trouble is, I’d not spotted the cracked clutch cover and a couple of other issues, and the two main parts for the clutch didn’t actually arrive ‘til the day I was heading off to Lincolnshire for the practice day!! So, during the four hour plus drive from Bristol I hatched a kinda plan with Fish to get up early on Friday and do the final re-assembly, but even that didn’t take everything into account…….

The clutch went in easy enough, with just one broken bolt when tightening up the springs, fixed by Fish without too much bother – cheers chap. The final drive sprocket and drive gear on the end of the crank torqued up without too much fuss once there was something to torque against, but it was the clutch cover that was the main issue. Basically I had to make one good one from two spares and a few extra parts I’d rescued from my old one, which took forever. I then fitted it incorrectly (didn’t check that the kick start gear was engaged correctly – won’t do that again……) before having problems with a water leak that needed a water pump gasket that I didn’t have. Fortunately Rangi did – cheers fella!!

So, by the time all that was done and my wheels and seat had been swapped back from the spare bike, there were only two sessions of the practice day left – bummer…..

Still, out I go onto the track, running over the new parts fitted to my bike in my head on the way to the collecting area: front tyre, front disc, front pads, clutch basket/boss/plates, crank, half a gearbox, a gear selector fork and various gaskets and seals – fingers crossed I’ve put everything together correctly!!!

I take it steady for the whole session, gradually pushing the revs to circa-10k to give the new crank a chance to run in slightly, before pushing on a bit in the last session of the day. Amazingly everything seemed ok, so it was a case of downing a few beers, grabbing some food in the café and lock wiring everything together as per the ACU rules to stop nasty slippery fluids escaping onto the track.  

For the morning practice session on Saturday is wet – really wet, cats and dogs type stuff, with standing water in a couple of places like the dip on the Park straight, and a river running across the track at the Hairpin, on exactly the racing line. It’s horrible, so I pull in after a couple of laps and hope the weather improves. Fortunately we’re late in the schedule, so by the time it’s our turn to go out on track again it’s after lunch and the day has been transformed with the sun out and everything – excellent.

 For the first race I’m 27^th on the grid and realise when heading off for the warm-up lap that the launch is gonna be tricky as the new clutch is so different to the old one. Sure enough, I get a truly abysmal start, losing at least another couple of places on the run into Coppice, but make up three of four spots on the run into Park on the brakes – Gaz said later that I passed him and at least two others like I was gonna overshoot the turn, but still managed to get it stopped/turned in time, bloody amazing is a TZR on the brakes……

There’s a gaggle of six riders ahead by now, including Tony Trumpet, Barry Negus, Limpy Pete, Den Grant, Spencer and Chris Wallace so I get my head down and get chasing. Chris manages to get through the group and gets away a bit before I make it through behind him, and with a few riders dropping out with mechanical problems (Griggsy, Reckless Ross, championship leader Mark Hardy, TDR Paul, and our own spanner man turned rider for this meeting Kev P – that’ll be another seized engine, ouch…….) I’m confident that I’m running well up in the pack. I’m also doing laps in the 1:56’s, which I’m thinking in my head is around personal best pace from earlier this year, but I get mugged on the run into Coppice by Spencer who’s also got through the pack behind and closed me down. It’s not a problem though, as with the last lap still to go I’m confident of doing him on the run into Park last time around, but that plan goes out the window when a very fast blue bike comes past down the hill into Mansfield – no, not one of the Stinkwheels mob, it’s Mike Smith on his Pell prepared YPVs/Exocet Missile.

Anyway, as I’m now on my last lap, I don’t get to execute any sort of plan to have a go back at Spencer, so end up in what turns out to be16^th with a best lap of 1:56.089 – a new PB, but I’m kinda disappointed not to have got a point……

For race two I get a much better start and find myself in a mid-pack battle for the entire race, with only Mark Hardy from the faster boys who DNF’d in the first race coming through from the back. I have a bit of a tussle with Dan Howden ‘til he pulls out with a delaminated brake pad – bet that gave him a fright at the end of the back straight – before Chris Wallace comes past on the last lap, followed shortly afterwards by Reckless Ross, bugger!! I’d actually eased off a bit having seen a 1:53 on my lap timer, not realising anyone was actually behind me. Fortunately, Ross has a bit of a moment in Hall bends going onto the grass on both sides of the track before getting things under control, so I nip through and take 15^th for a point. The official results credit me with a 1:52.995 lap, an improvement of over three seconds, superb!!

We then do what’s become the annual YPM street party/take away curry thing, which Katie Griggs has almost single handily organised this year – top job Katie. The organisation is top notch, the food is superb and the chat great fun – so much so that I’m only slightly embarrassed when Nick pulls out an iPod and docking station thing for a blast of my song “Racing On The Limit” (which you can still download from www.bristolrock.co.uk/Temp/Moose/Moose.htm if you’ve not given it a listen yet, you can even download a version without my vocals to see if you can do any better, give me a call if you can……).

As the bike has worked so well on Saturday, and with the schedule again having us out on track late in the day, I decide to sit out the morning warm up and chill out for a bit, grabbing some breakfast and watching some of the racing. Unfortunately this plan came back to haunt me about half an hour prior to our first Sunday race when the bloody bike wouldn’t start!! There’s no spark at all, and the generator pickup is initially diagnosed as the problem. The swap for my spare takes longer than expected, and even then the bike still doesn’t work – bloody TZR’s……

Turns out it was the connection to the main coil, an area that gets disturbed each time the tank is fitted or comes off – will look at that and come up with a better solution for Snetterton in a few weeks.

So, for the last race of the weekend I’m dead last on the grid, and get another poor start to leave me a distant dead last into the first turn. I get good drive around Charlies and pick off Flynno before coming up behind Gaz for the best part of a lap. His bike is fairly powerful on the straights and he’s riding well so I’m held up for a bit working out where to pass but he gets distracted by Barry Negus pulling out at the bottom of the Mountain. I get good drive over the crest and nip past on the way into Hall bends, then set off chasing down and passing Limpy Pete, Higgsy, Den G, Ramit Craig and Tony Trumpet – fairly exciting stuff all round, leaving my mouth really dry after just a couple of laps. Wonder if I can get one of them drinks things fitted to the hump on the back of my Arlen Ness leathers???

By now there a fair gap to Reckless Ross who’s ahead, but I get my head down and try to close in, but he’s three seconds ahead by the time the chequered flag comes out. I’m 16^th again, with a best time of 1:53.477, and three other laps in the mid 1:53’s so not too bad.

Having checked out the lap charts on www.mylaps.com and doing some comparisons with Ross and Chris I can see it’s the first lap that’s costing me big time – I’m generally faster than them later in the race for a few laps, but don’t do enough to make up for the five seconds or more that I lose out on the first lap. Something to think about for Snetterton in September – will get Fish working on a riding/coaching plan for me in advance…….

Also, I need to have a think about my gearing, as it became clear when recording my lap times and results in my s/sheet thing that I’ve been running 15/44 at every meeting so far this year, and the last two meetings from last year. Ok, it could be the right choice for one or two circuits, and I’ve never seemed to be miles off anywhere, but it’s unlikely to be the best option for Donington, Silverstone, Brands Indy and Cadwell. Definitely need to try some options at Snett, especially as I’ve now got my lap timer working reliably enough to measure the difference in practice. 15/42 is apparently the sort of place to start, so we’ll see how it goes…..

Oh yeah, I should also mention that the photo’s used in these reports generally come from www.racing-line-photography.com, and damn fine they are too for just a few quid – thanks Russell.

Anyway, that’s it from me for now – see you at Snett or Brands in September……