Well, it has...It's been over 9 months since I rode a motorbike at all in fact. If you don't count the 20 or so laps I did on the Agni bike in the final rounds of the MotoE last year then it;s more like a year...So there you go Racer's Excuse No1 out of the way early doors.. :)
Part of the reason for this late start to the season is that sponsorship is getting trickier to find and the attitude of the old guard is still reticent when it comes to including electric racing in a full race day programme, however we kept at it and as well as our usual supporting partners (Darvill Racing partners and sponsors) Insight 2 Value (I2V) came up with an enhanced package which allowed us to commit to the 2015 MotoE championship and squeeze in one of the major road events on the Isle of Man; The Southen 100. I wasn't supposed to be taking up any racing duties for Darvill until MotoE 2015 starts in the first weekend of August so I was very surprised when the The Boss, Alex, called me to say that one of our riders had had to cancell his Southern 100 entry at the last minute..(2 days prior) and, 'would you be able t.....'
"YES! Err, that is, yes of course, I'll see what I can can do" :)
So, in time-honoured tradition I juggled work and family commitments and handed over a chest full of doubloons to the Seam Pirates...
Good news: Going road (real) racing again! First closed roads race since 2009, that's 6 years!
Bad news: It's absolutely hammering down.
Strong winds and heavy rain mean that the Southern 100 club had a pretty challenging few days ahead trying to fit in a full schedule including, newcomers, and this is all the more challenging these days given the very limited road closure orders they're awarded, due to local pressures.
As a newcomer, (yes you read right, a newcomer) to the circuit I was scheduled to have two sighting laps behind travelling marshals followed by a practice sessions on day one (of four) followed by further newcomer sighting laps on day two prior to a qualifying session.. The conditions obliterated this schedule which meant I had the two rather sedate sighting laps in wet conditions then no other sessions until qualifying the next day. Even as a newcomer, qualifying cut-off was at 120% of the leading time, which was already a big ask for us with a 30bhp deficit to the leading machines but with no practice and heavy rain I was a bit unsure if this was going to be a short meeting for me...and as if it wasn't a tall enough order we didn't have any wet tyres... Continental don't make a wet tyre in the MinTwin sizes so I was out on the Race Attack 2 a dry weather race tyre...
With nerves jangling I took my place on the dummy grid noticing that that the Supertwins and other (supposed) MiniTwins were all wearing full wet tyres...so that didn't help my nerves much! We were waved away (Video:Wet Qualifying front facing) As you can see the conditions were awful but I was pretty confident in the Continental race Attack 2s and got stuck in learning the circuit. I was pretty relieved to get round in one piece but felt a bit more confident in which way the track went and actually really enjoyed it...I cant say enough about how good those dry tyres are in the wet..they absolutely brilliant!
To my surprise we qualified! I think the wet conditions worked to our advantage in the end but according to some of the spectators Ivan Lintin and James Cowton's times weren't an awful lot slower than their dry times! With that in mind we looked forward to the next day's race..which was forecast to be dry and warm.... :)
Video:First race front facing As you'll see we were fighting an uphill battle against the more powerful Supertwins which was as we expected but we also seemed to be giving away quite a bit of speed to the other 'MiniTwins' too, which we weren't...I did manage to have a nice little battle on the last lap with another MiniTwin newcomer which was immense fun and dialled me back in to some proper racing...
Video:Second race front facing. Unfortunately at the end of the first lap the rose-joint on the gear linkage started to jam. As I rolled down towards pit lane ready to retire I gave the linkage a firm kick and it loosened again allowing me to rejoin..(post race investigation shows the joint has worn and was over rotating causing it to jam.) Unfortunately this meant I was out on my own with no-one to race with but at least that meant I could concentrate on lines and learning the course. I started to go faster into the turns and carry more speed through them as my braking points and turn in points improve.. another small issue we had to work round due to standing in for another rider we were working with a different set-up. My great pal Keef McKay had been riding and setting the bike up around this course but he is 95kilos of Scottish cow pie and I'm a scrawny 72kilo drink of water..The bike was a little over sprung for me so I was finding it a bit of a bone shaker through the more bumpy sections...I was expecting to have much better lap times in this race particularly on the last lap after the leader passed me as it gave an (albeit brief) marker to chase...I was hoping to get clsoer to the 90mph lap on the MiniTwin which I would have been really happy with... However despite feeling faster my speeds were actually down on the first race's times...It's possible that the continuing issues with the linkage throughout the race may have contributed but we also noticed when cleaning the bike after racing that there was a weep from the base gasket so it's also possible that we may have been even a little bit more down on power than we thought...
All-in a really enjoyable few days racing and a welcome surprise to the start of my season..I'm really looking forward to the start of the MotoE season next month where we'll be campaigning one of the Zongshen DC motor'd bikes... :)
