More famous last words from t'Boss;

Hi All,

A very wet day yesterday and the team pulled out of evening practice early to concentrate on readying engine no 3.

Practice did go ahead with much standing water and poor conditions - they got most people out for one lap untimed - so we didn't miss much!

Benelli Race HQ was again a hive of activity interspersed with T and Pastie / pie breaks.

I was working yesterday so it was left to Neil, Pat and Fozzy ably assisted by many drop ins to do the jobs of the day.

Engine no 3 was completed and installed at 12.05 last night after a 15 hour day for some.

She ran up fine and this morning it is off to Slick Bass and the dyno to run in and see what BHP we are getting and how good an engine I have built. If all goes well then we will be out with this engine tonight, if not then its back to either engine no 1 or 2.

Engine no 3 is essentially the ex works TT bikes engine with all the trick bits and close ratio box etc. The straight cut gears are magic to the ears as they whine away. Neils first impression was that something may be wrong when in fact all is well.

This morning we are greeted by the sun streaming in and dry roads.

Let us see what today brings.

As well as practice tonight - Jane gets to go round in the Roads Open car as I bought her a ride as part of her 50th birthday present

More tomorrow

The Bosses Blogg update, before you ask, I have no idea what it has to do with my'Loins' either, I hope to Ged that it's a typo!... :o)

Hi folks,

What a day was yesterday and such is racing for you!

Fozzy got checked out at Nobles first thing and luckily had no fractures or torn ligaments so its just bruising and hence he had a painful night.

We then started on the bike and with 9 hours to go before the end of scrutineering and start of our practice session managed to rebuild the bike and get it out again.

It had:-

New front end - forks, oils etc

New wheels and tyres

New swinging arm which was machined by Steve Moynahan for us (famous he is)

Footrest hanger and lots of other bits straightened

New screen

... and a pile of small bits sorted out

We rolled up around 6pm with an hour to spare and its with thanks for Pat, Eddie, Robert, Fozzy and others that we shared the tasks out and got the job done - and correctly to!

Fozzy did two complete timed laps so it with great joy that I can tell you that he put in a first lap 81mph and second of 82.33mph!! Great for a man with a duff shoulder!

So - we are back in the game and now its raining!

John

More Boss Mini Bloggage!;

Morning all

Just a quick update from yesterday.

As you know we stopped short on Saturdays practice at Governors Bridge with a loss of power which was suspected to be a broken ring.

Investigations yesterday revealed that mechanically all was fine and all it seems to have been was a dodgy ignition lead! Its the 10 penny items that cause so much grief!

We continued with our plan to swap engines and yesterday saw us:-

Swap engines

Re-spray the fairing

Swap out most of the electrics - coils, ignition box etc

Much testing including taking her for a run up on a private road

Collect the new built up crank and close ratio gearbox

Drink many cups of T

All this and it rained and rained and rained!

Today looks good weather wise and first up is more testing on a private road to make some detail crab changes and then its back here to fit the fairing and 'sticker' her up ready for scrutinizing this afternoon and out again this evening.

I hope to crack on later today with the build of engine no 3 - which will be our race engine for the day featuring the very best of everything!!!

Picks soon.

Take care all and here's to a good fast and safe practice tonight.

May the timings begin and lets see of we can crack an 80mph lap from the off!!!

John and TS//2C Racing

Mini Blogg from the Boss of Team TS//2C racing...;

Morning all

Just a quick update from yesterday.

As you know we stopped short on Saturdays practice at Governors Bridge with a loss of power which was suspected to be a broken ring.

Investigations yesterday revealed that mechanically all was fine and all it seems to have been was a dodgy ignition lead! Its the 10 penny items that cause so much grief!

We continued with our plan to swap engines and yesterday saw us:-

Swap engines

Re-spray the fairing

Swap out most of the electrics - coils, ignition box etc

Much testing including taking her for a run up on a private road

Collect the new built up crank and close ratio gearbox

Drink many cups of T

All this and it rained and rained and rained!

Today looks good weather wise and first up is more testing on a private road to make some detail crab changes and then its back here to fit the fairing and 'sticker' her up ready for scrutinizing this afternoon and out again this evening.

I hope to crack on later today with the build of engine no 3 - which will be our race engine for the day featuring the very best of everything!!!

Picks soon.

Take care all and here's to a good fast and safe practice tonight.

May the timings begin and lets see of we can crack an 80mph lap from the off!!!

John and TS//2C Racing

Right o' I've had an enforced moment of calm. I've had to come into hospital for a kidney biopsy (of my transplanted kidney). They take a big needle, stab your kidney with it and it takes a tiny core from the tissue of your kidney, this core can be examined to check the health of your kidney. My guess it'll tell 'em it's just been stabbed! :o) My 'enforced' petit sojourn is due to the fact I've got to lie still for 6 hours so the kidney doesn't bleed 'unnecessarily'..!

Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, just in and out and wait for the results but Liz (long suffering wife) has just had to have a emergency cesarean section loosing 3 pints of blood and gaining us a 'bouncing' baby boy (George) of 9lb 2oz! So she could do with a hand. Bobby, our first son is currently enjoying wearing out his respective matriarchal and patriarchal grandparents with my sister taking subs duties when they have been exhausted..

George's late arrival also means I had to miss the invitation race at Cadwell with the VMCCs British Historical Racing club. John and Neil, at great expense, arranged to bring the TS//2C team and the little Benelli 'across' to race at Cadwell in the event I had to miss one of the important championship rounds and therefore missing a signature for the ACU mountain licence. The ACU's ridiculous and impotent qualification requirements are extremely difficult to get on time and in my opinion have almost no benefit in preparing a rider for the ravages of the mountain course. The team still attended Cadwell and I understand a worthy replacement rider was found. But that's for another Blog..;o) Maybe I could persuade John or Neil to write it.

And so to the matter in hand, the final mountain course licence signature eligible race on the Jurby Airfield circuit. The weather forecast for the weekend was really bad, wet and windy, which is fairly normal for Jurby, but in reality unusual this year. So far all the races had been in unseasonal bright sunshine, even the first test day in Feb. We drove up to the circuit in driving rain at the usual early approach. As we arrived at the circuit the rain slowed to a persistent drizzle but it wasn't bad enough to dissuade Neil from his usual high quality sausage grilling skills, he set up his stove and we were all royally fed..:o) The time waiting for practice to start was spent discussing bike set up and a battle plan for the Manx GP. During the discussion it was remarked upon that we would need to be painstakingly careful with prep' to the point of anal pedantry. This was the que for the quote of the weekend from John that we will always get out of the banter box in time of need, "It's ok I can 'do' anal!".......

Practice was wet, and we chose our wet setup, which coincidentally is the same as our dry set up. There are sometimes advantages to having somewhere over 24 brake horse-power and classic tyres...:o) In that such a light bike, exceptional chassis and relatively little power the whole set-up is quite forgiving to errors. Grip was good considering the conditions and John's small experiment with porting had netted a much more agreeable midrange which would help in the wet.

After practice the drizzle abated and the track began to dry leaving a damp but not wet track, this enabled some of the early races to get a decent few laps in before the heavens opened again and the synchronised motorcycle lobbing began. Virtually every class had a couple of stoppages. I found the Benelli quite well behaved in the wet and enjoyed good progress during the race, leading the class. As I approached some of latter Steel Framed 600s I started to line up a couple of passes, I could just about see through the murk that there were at least 3 guys struggling where the Benelli felt good. Each time I girded my loins for an attack the yellow flags would be out and in such a short wet race the attrition rate meant that the yellow flags were out all the way round for the rest of the race and we'd been warned very strongly before-hand by the Clerk of the course that any flag infringements would not be tolerated. We still won the class and gained a sig so everyone was happy!

The Clerk of the course decided to suspend activities as everyone had been able to complete one race (for sig's) and the marshals and officials were getting a bit fed up and on the edge of hypothermia! A good decision in the interests of safety and sanity. A couple of the young guns had a little whinge but could ultimately see the sense..

Despite the conditions it was an enjoyable day and we came away with exactly what we wanted a Class win and another sig for the MGP.

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)

Titbits...

Some of the, 'juicy titbits' I promised turned out be a damp squib. Most notable of which was the opportunity to test and set-up the Manx entry to the TTXGP (worlds first 'clean emissions' motorcycle road race) the Isle of Man team lead by Keith 'Mad Dog' McKay have been working a warp speed to prepare a 'from scratch' entry for this event based loosely on a Ducati 748 chassis....Sadly the bike wasn't going to be ready in time to test due to the late arrival of some key components and pushed the completion date to the beginning of TT fortnight! I understand it's now finished and has had some dyno runs and is ready to be piloted to victory by the amazing 3 time MGP winner (in his newcomer year!) Dan Kneen. Watch the TT results for more history in the making....

Other titbits seem to be working out well. Pat Sproston, supporter of team TS//2C racing and aficionado of all things motorcycle,old and Italian has very kindly offered the use of his Motobi 250 (a badged version of our Benelli 2C) to race at Three Sisters circuit this weekend. The reason for this is mainly because we need signatures for the Mountain course licence (arbitrarily enforced by the ACU some years ago.). If we'd had our entry accepted for the pre-TT classic at Billown. This wouldn't have been a problem but for reasons best known to themselves our entry wasn't entertained on the grounds that we'd have been 'unlikely to qualify'. I guess they haven't been paying attention to the mighty Team TS//2C Benelli's progress! (hopefully I'll get time to add a race report and pictures of Pat's Motobi after this weekend.)

I managed not to crash the Motobi at a recent try out in wet conditions at the Three Sisters circuit so hopefully I can repeat that performance on Sunday and bring Pat's bike back in one piece to take a signature home. Riding Pat's bike has shown some differences in set-up and engine characteristics which John and Neil are keen to try in our spare engines. John has also been picking up some serious tuning tips up from the Benelli 2C fanatics in New Zealand, some of them are a little extreme for our needs and would see us 'sharing' our cranks with the crowd before we even got to St Ninians! The theory is useful none-the-less.

In other news; The second child to the Fozzy empire is imminently due so I'm on high alert for a quick dash to the local maternity unit, must remember to pick Liz up on the way!...;o) John and Neil as team bosses are keen to put contingency in place should I be forced to miss any of the signatured races so they've entered me in a race across (in England) at Cadwell park as a guest to the VMCC's Historic Racing Club. We should now have enough options to ensure we have enough signatures for the ACU's completely impotent (but sadly essential) Mountain course licence.

I took this weekend's free time, by virtue of it being my wedding anniversary, to go up to Scotland for some training with a fellow mountain biker. (No you cant have my wife she's brilliant and she's all mine!) Unfortunately due to an inability on my part to properly calculate friction coefficients of dry versus wet granite, I took a bit of a tumble on the 'Qualifier' section of the Dalbeatie trail. I managed to dislocate my shoulder and sprain my knee! Fortunately, thanks of the fact that I have a skeleton well seasoned by similar motorcycling injuries I'm already back to full motion in both limbs and will be able to cram myself onto the Motobi without any problems...;o) If not without a 'bit' of bruising and a handful of ibuprofen...

In Joey Dunlop Foundation news; the keys to Bradden house have been handed over by the Manx Government and work can start on the respite care home that the JDF have been working so hard to raise funds for and acquire. We're proud that our supporters are giving so generously!

You could say this is a little teaser for the Jurby Road race report which will follow soon (before this weekend's race at Three Sisters with any luck.) Goodbye for now and thank you very much for all your continued interest and support.