Firstly I'll apologise for leaving my update so long. I could cry about there not being enough hours in the day day to; race, train and help my heavily pregnant wife (Liz) with our (nearly) 2 year old son Bobby, but I doubt I'll get nor do I deserve any sympathy..:)
So to business. I'm sorry to say the second round was a little uninteresting, only in that you've heard it all before. It was a carbon copy of the first round but without the crash...Practice went well and I won both of the races, which were just me and Ed Poole on the Manx Norton. The bike was exactly the same as it was when we finished the first round because The team bosses (John South and Neil Costa) had been on holiday and they only had time to make good some of the more heavily damaged items on the bike. Our team photographer Gary Lark was also on holiday so we didn't really get any fresh photos.
In the gap between round 2 and 3 John and Neil, (particularly John) had been burning the midnight oil, making new fairing brackets and patching up the fairing and adding the names of a few more sponsors for the Joey Dunlop foundation. John also changed the fork oil to a
lighter weight oil after my feed-back that the front end felt a little harsh on the rougher parts of the circuit. It was really the only way we could lower the compression damping on the fork, this also lowers the rebound damping effect as the 2 damping mechanisms can't be separated on these old forks. In this instance it is the lesser of 2 evils, I think I can ride around a rebound damping problem better than I can too high compression damping. Whilst all this industry was refining the 'little pretty' I re-kindled a contact I had many years ago with Renthal the famous handlebar and sprocket manufacturers. We needed a range of sprockets for the Benelli but they're not readily available. Renthal agreed to make us a one-off batch of sprockets based on the pattern of the original steel sprocket on the bike. Another addition for round 3 was the tyre warmers, such short races meant that the tyres were only just getting upto temperature towards the final couple of laps, tyre warmers mean
I can go a bit harder early on and have a play with some of the more modern bikes with sticky rubber on.
I also found a little time to add a competitive mountain bike marathon to my training regimen, it was a welcome change to my usual circuits and 60km in the East Radnorshire hills was just painful enough to stop me feeling guilty about enjoying myself...;)
Round 3 was starting to generate some excitement at Benelli HQ (Johns house). We'd been given some advanced info that there were going to be a few more classics turning up for this round, the only bad news it that most of them sounded like Benelli slayers.. Ed Poole would be there with the Manx Norton as usual but we'd also see Flip Phillips on his Rob North' Rocket 3 and Pete Hindley on a ex works Cotton (Rotax) 250, which was rumoured to be boasting around 75bhp! The one I was most excited about was a Ducati 350 which would have been very similar to our Benelli but unfortunately never turned up. :(
I was nervous about the races because I knew we wouldn't be a match for the Cotton or the Rocket 3 and if any one else turned up it looked like we could be looking at our first round without a podium. practice confirmed my concerns as the Cotton 'blew' past me onto the straight, every time he cracked the throttle it looked like it was trying to smack Pete in the face, a bit of a fiery handful but with it problematic set-up and reliability. Pete managed 3 laps before a misfire forced him to pit. Flip's Rocket 3 wasn't being quite the threat I'd thought it would be but as suspected Flip was just biding his time feeling his way round for the bike's first outing of the season. I hope the looming road races bring more of these beauties out of the woodwork...
The Race started as I predicted with the Cotton disappearing from away up the grid somewhere and the Rocket 3 (No146), finding it's racing legs getting away, blasting past on the straight early on. On the first lap as we entered the long back straight I could see the Cotton winding up for a high speed assault when the bike suddenly lurched sideways smoke pouring from the screeching rear tyre with that familiar silence from the motor that 2-stroke riders fear so much, the highly strung motor had beaten Pete's experienced 2-stroke clutch finger to the race to protect a 'nipping motor' and it had seized solid on him... Bloody good skills keeping it up-right at that
speed but ultimately the end of his day...A few laps in and I started to catch Flip up through the twisties, the powerful and heavy Rocket 3 might have been an animal on the straights but it was no match for the nimble little Benelli through the chicanes at Jurby. I clawed back his straight-line advantage a little more each lap until I was close enough to risk a controversial (Drum Vs Disc!) 'sneak' up the inside early on in a twisty section to maximise my advantage. Spectators later told me that the move appeared to 'rattle' Flip on the Rocket 3 and I didn't get a reply after that. I guess the little Benelli can be a bit of a surprise to some people..;)
Race 2 started without Pete Hindley on the Cotton, the seizure was a pretty solid one and not a paddock repair. Flip was forceful at the start and put himself and the Rocket in a commanding position, I knew I had to get past him early in the twisties and get another couple of bikes between us before the straight if I was going to stay ahead in this race. Now it sounds like I'd thought about this in advance and executed it to perfection...the reality is that I'm still getting the hang of drum brakes and weather I wanted to or not I sailed past 2 or 3 bikes into the right hander at Runway corner, However far from my intent the reality was, the end result was the same. Sometimes a little luck is very welcome..:) And on the bright side I didn't accidentally ruin anyone's weekend by nerfing them of the circuit..I think..:)
The next race is on the Jurby South Road circuit with fast straights and not many places for a little 2-stroke to hide, I'll be making up all the ground I can on the bumps and the few twisties and hoping We get someone on something similar to battle with.
With any luck between now and then I'll get chance to fill you in on some of the Juicy developments happening between races and the lead-up to the Manx GP....ta ta for now...
