TEAM NORBAR YAMAHA TZR250 MOTORCYCLE RACE TEAM

Brands Hatch- GP Report – September  27th/28th 2008: Andy “Moose” Muse - #45

The class of 2008
Congrats to Hardy (1), Tyler(53) and Rangi(3)

Another easy prep meeting for me, as I only had to sort out the clutch actuator arm thing that stripped its teeth at Snetterton while battling with the old Ramit Racing bugger Craig, which basically involved pulling off the broken one and popping on a not broken old one from my spares kit. Strangely, I’m sure the broken one was a recent purchase from Fowlers, as it was made of pressed steel, rather than cast like the others that I’ve got knocking around. Anyway, by mid-day on Friday I’m chugging up the M4 heading for Brands and the awesome GP circuit, with thoughts of doing well and continuing my recent back of the mid-pack kinda form.

 Yep, that’s travelling on the Friday, as the normal practice day booked by Bemsee was only on the Indy circuit, and I thought that doing short jobbie the day before racing on the long jobbie was only gonna get confusing. Still we were lucky to be racing on the GP circuit at all, thanks to the cancelled BSB meeting at Easter when it snowed…….

 Saturday morning practice goes kinda ok, with most of the circuit seeming fairly familiar from last years outing, with only Surtees giving me any real problems. I managed four laps in practice and tried four different ways to get around the bloody corner, but nothing seemed to be working. I even tried the tight Haga line on one lap, but that didn’t work at all……..

 Anyway, I line up in 33^rd spot on the truly awesome 40 bike grid, and try to work out what’s what in the first couple of laps, which clearly isn’t such a good idea. (Note to self – do some practice next year, even if it means going on a track-day or something to get track time on the circuit the race will be on!!)

 After an ok start I pick up a few spots, but a few faster riders that only turned out for the glory of the GP circuit and the TV coverage come through from the back in double quick time – that’ll be peeps like Sqwelch, dropping back to TZR territory after a year on his R6. I’m still rubbish at Surtees, Den Grant getting past on one lap along with bloody Craig again, and I seem to be having problems shifting from 4^th to 5^th and 5^th to 6^th at this point too - think this was due to a combination of too many revs, body position, crap timing and a rubbish overall plan. The problems were definitely costing me time along the Pilgrims/Hawthorn run out onto the long part of the circuit, as well as on the run back into Clearways – damn!!

 I get past both Steve Whittle and Tony Trumpet on the brakes in Paddock next lap round, but both of ‘em go for a desperate move up the inside at Druids, with Steve pulling a stoppy into the gravel, and Trumpet following him into the kitty litter too – both stayed on to re-join though. I’m kinda half blocked through the corner, allowing Higgsy and Flynno to get into the mix as well, both of whom were better at Surtees than me – double damn!!! I make a move around the outside of Higgsy at Hawthorns, but somewhere between Westfield and Dingle Dell the bike starts making a horrendous racket. I think it’s the power-valve cap from the right had side going AWOL, and remember Fish having the same problem at Snetterton last year, pulling in, only to be told by Bally that it would have been ok to carry on. So carry on I do, but it plays on my mind, allowing Flynno to get away, and Higgsy coming back past before the flag too. Damn, damn, damn…….

 For all that work I’m still in 33^rd, but I’ve done a 1.55.772 lap – a personal best by nearly a second…….

 I then get pulled by the marshals when leaving the circuit for noise testing, but discover that the racket has actually been caused by one of my fancy Tyga Performance end cans going missing!!! I ask if anyone has found it, and a few calls go out on the radio etc but no luck, so it’s out with the spanners to pull the Jollies off Gaz’s bike – kindly brought along as a spare for the weekend, cheers fella.

 The second race is kinda the same – reasonable start, in the mid-field mix for a bit, before dropping back into a bit of a scrap with Trumpet, Higgsy and Flynno again. I’ve still got gear shifting problems out and back on the long circuit which is starting to piss me off a bit, and by the end I’m still in 33^rd with only a 1.56.023 to show for my efforts. Even Marcus gets past with a lap or so to go, and he was only out for a bit of a ride around as part of his recovery from that nasty crash at Silverstone. Nice new leathers and lid though chap – I didn’t recognise ya at first.

 I have a fiddle with the gear selector back in the paddock, basically trying to drop the lever down a bit to help with the changing problems, but as I run a lever directly fitted to the gearbox shaft I don’t have any fine adjustment that a link rod would give me, and even one spline down on the shaft has the lever set way too low. Defo need to fit my new rear-sets for next year to sort this…….

 I go for a gearing change instead, dropping to 15/45 from 15/44 to help with a bit more corner exit drive, possible ‘cause I’ve not been pulling super high revs out on the long straight – well not when I actually manage to snick it into 6^th anyway…….

 We then have a huge paddock party, with all the YPM club trophies handed out – best bike to TDR Paul, TZR Tour to Tyler and the Rookie trophy that I won last year going to John Parbury – superb!! There’s music ‘til late, nibbles and dancin’, plus more drinking than should be allowed prior to another days racing, but the main culprits seem to be the various WAGAM’s that always pitch up for these events – that’s Wives and Girlfriends and Mothers!! I’m sure there were some sisters and daughters in there somewhere too, along with the Colonel and Gaz leading the dancin’ from the actual YPM-ers – Gaz even kept his clothes on!! Oh yeah, Fish nearly managed to complete his speech without swearing – just one little curse slippin’ out near the end chap – well done…….

 Sunday warm up goes well, but then we wait, and wait and wait. And then wait some more…….

One Air Ambulance arrives, collects someone and departs, followed less than half an hour afterwards by another that actually lands on the track. It’s clear there’s been some serious issues and injuries in at least two races with everything delayed to deal with the aftermath. On race day you try not to think about this stuff too much, but I find out prior to typing this report  that Ben Lightowler who raced a Superstock 600’s passed away from the injuries he sustained. I didn’t know Ben and had never met him, but my thoughts are with his family and friends at what must be an impossible time. Maybe take a minute quiet time prior to reading on???

We are eventually called for our first race well into the afternoon, with grid spots for the non-championship Paul Hogan Trophy being decided from the lap times from the two Saturday races – guess what I’m in bloody 33^rd again!!!

I get my best ever start, with the front lifting gently on the power and dropping gently back to the tarmac as I snicked the bike into 2^nd, driving well into and through Paddock– unfortunately this is just for the sighting lap, so I push like hell to get back to the grid and try to give myself time to work out what I’d done!!

 The actual start is quite good too, and after nipping past Barry Negus and Den I set off after a pack that includes Andy Shaw, Ramit Craig, Ross Barnes, Adrian Grove and Higgsy. I get past Higgsy and Adrian at least a couple of times, but either my crap line through Surtees or my gear shifting issues lets ‘em back later around the lap. The bike is a missile on the lower gearing though – proper fast out of Druids and through Sheen, where Gary from work was watching……

 In the end I come in on the back of the five bike pack, but I’m in 28^th spot, and I’ve done a 1.53.630 lap 3^rd time around while closing the gap to make it a ten wheeler, so I’m generally happy – that’s three seconds faster than I managed last year. We collect in the pit lane for the televised trophy presentation (yep, this’ll all be on Motors TV at some point, I’ll try and let you know when……), before finding out that our second race has to be cancelled due to the issues earlier in the day.

So that’s it, 2008 all done and dusted. I didn’t make the 20 point target that I set myself at the start of the year, but with the general season disruption due to crashes, football, weather, clutch failure and various other bike issues I can’t be too disappointed. I’ll definitely be back for another full season with Team Norbar Racing in 2009, which as things stand currently look like being me plus Gaz, with Fish sometimes/maybe and Bally not doing much due to his expanded family commitments. Rab might be along now and again, but we’ll have to see.

 Thanks to Simon, Eidi, Gary, Bob and family plus Paul for pitching up to watch over the weekend – your support is really appreciated, as it has been all year.

 Finally, the photo’s once again come from www.racing-line-photography.com, and damn fine they are too – thanks Russell.