Jurby South road race report, (24/04/09)

The little 4.3 mile closed roads circuit at Jurby was my first introduction to closed roads racing, it was an ideal taster to show me what I was in for when I entered the 2005 Manx Grand Prix. It has a little of everything that you usually find on a road circuit, fast long straights, mind numbing bumps and some technical blind corners and jumps...

As I've been on sabbatical for a couple of years it's been a while since I raced here and even then due to cancellations and clashes I'd only actually ridden it a couple of times before, that was on the bone crunching ogre of a bike that was the Kawasaki ZX10 Superstock bike.. So it was with virtually no trepidation and some excitement I approached this weekend's attempt on the little Benelli.. I thought it would be nice to enjoy the circuit on a bike that didn't feel like it was trying to tear you arms off and beat you to death with the bloody stumps.....:o)

John and Neil had done their usual high standard of prep and the bike was gleaming with improvements in place from my last feedback... (the kind of team you dream of riding for!) and as is the standard practice in team TS//2C racing, John was up with the larks and motivating anyone with a pulse within infectious range..:o) Closed roads races usually get going allot later in the day due the limitations of closures so when we arrived a the paddock at a time that would have been early even for an airfield race it was no surprise that we the first ones to arrive! This gave us plenty of time to unload, cook bacon and sausage and generally shoot the breeze with the next arrivals..

It seemed to take an age to get started, (not unlike this Blog I hear you cry! How very dare you!) but once we did filter out onto the roads and begin our familiarisation laps it all started to come flooding back and the little Benelli felt a comfortable as an old armchair...In the absence of a mid range I'd taken a gamble on the gearing and gone as long as we had sprockets for. On a fast circuit like Jurby you tend to spend most of your time flat out anyway so assuming I could keep up momentum the long gear should have been ok, there was a following wind on the fastest straight so it had to be the way to go...Just for safety's sake we'd jetted the left hand cylinder a bit more rich as we'd noticed it running much hotter than the right and didn't want to risk a seize on the high revving circuit. This of course meant the motor wasn't quite as sprightly as it had been but for safety's sake worth doing...

There were a few more classics than usual, most notably Chris McGahan on a Honda 350K4. He was here to shakedown the bike for the Pre-TT Classic races at Billown in a few weeks. Chris had some problems in practice which is often the case with these old classics, especially if they're not used regularly..We had a good practice, decided we were about right on the gearing and that I would improve my lap times considerably if I remembered I was using drum brakes, not disk and having to do u-turns at the end of every straight!

As there is only one race on a closed roads day you tend to find you're gridded with other classes. We were up with the 400's and Modern Classics and the Classic grid included and old GSX1000 and a Yamaha750!

The classics were allowed to gather at the back of the grid and start a few seconds after the main grid..lucky us..;o) I made a concerted effort to fix my gaze on Chris McGahan on the K4 although he had a good 20bhp on us I was hoping to get a bit of a slipstream on the lighter Benelli. It worked for the climb through the 5 speed gearbox but once we hit top gear the K4 started to pull away, as the Benelli climbed into it's peak power (all 25+bhp of it!) I started to equalize the gap on Chris. Then started gaining on him REALLY quickly! just as I started to think that I might be able to get on terms with Chris he put is hand up with a problem...damn! And here was me thinking me and the Benelli were a flying combination!...:o)

The rest of the race was a little lonely, with Chris gone and the 2 big multi cylinder Jap' bikes a forgotten spec in the distance It was just me and the circuit, with a big gap back to Ed Poole on the Manx Norton with Stuart Robinson bringing up the rear. I was really enjoying the little bike on this circuit finding that I didn't really need to do much else other than steer as we spent most of the time flat out only changing up and down the gearbox at the 3 junctions making up the corners on the Jurby south circuit. I even managed a bit of air under the front wheel on the 'pill box road' but that's more down to the road surface than the awesome power of the bike..:o)

During the practice I lost the end can from my rhs exhaust due to the bumpy, vibey and high revving nature of the circuit and towards the end of the penultimate lap a pretty strong vibration started to emanate through the bike from the engine. I didn't want to be picking up bits of Italian alloy from hedgerow tonight so I knocked 1000 revs or so off for the final lap thinking that it may have been the cranks' way of telling me it was time for a refresh..

With a successful finish and another signature towards the ManxGP the day was called a success and we were able to pick up a trophy!. We were the fastest Classic but the way the grids were joined it included the 2 big Jap multi's and we were awarded a third. Not a problem, lots learned and an intact motor to strip and diagnose. ;o)

We have a spare motor to try for the next Airfield round and John and Neil have been 'playing' with porting and are waiting for my feedback... Hopefully they will have built a nice reliable motor for the Manx GP. This weekend will hopefully be the final signature for the Mountain course licence as I rode a little Motobi (badged version of the Benelli) at Three Sisters last week courtesy of Pat Sproston of Felt Tip Racing to make up for the missed sig that the Pre-TT classic would have provided... I was under strict instruction from all quarters to have a steady run and bring it home for a sig'. It was the Motobi's final race before it's retirement so I really did take it carefully. A 6th place and a lap time slower than my wet practice..:o) but the sig' was achieved and everyone was happy...:o)

Round 2&3.

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...