Monthly review - August

 

Intro

With two race weekends each for the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club and No Limits club racing teams, August will be notable with their complete absence. Don’t worry, they are both out this weekend at Anglesey and Oulton park respectively and you will be reading all about that in October.

What we have got for you however is very exciting with some great results from all of our riders so lets get stuck into it.

No Limits club riders at Oulton park today.

RAFMSA Open Day

RAFMSA under the sun -Heggs

Well before we get to the racing we can’t miss out on our participation in the Royal Air Force Motorsports Association open day.

Cars, rally cars, motorcycles, motocross, go karts and even e-sports were representing at a sunny Blyton Park circuit to demonstrate our various disciplines to prospective sports enthusiasts from around the Royal Air Force.

Blyton park might not be high on the list of circuits most people would have heard of in the UK but it boasts a wide variety of tracks including a complete tarmaced race circuit (left hand no less) 2 go kart tracks and an off road circuit too. Passenger rides in a wide variety of sports cars, racing in the RAF Waddington Vulcan side cars and rides on motocross bikes round a grass field circuit made the best use of this amazing facility.

The cars and bikes took it in turns round the track with cars taking passengers and the bikes doing their best to demonstrate their sport with a variety of different class bikes out at the same time. This actually went pretty well with the tight little circuit bringing the performance of all the bikes closer together, allowing the raiders to focus on lines and skill.

Most noteworthy were two novice riders who took out the MCRR’s team CB500’s. These machines prepared by Daniel Southerland offer new riders (and occasionally those with a machine of their own in a slightly sorry state) the opportunity to come racing without the large upfront expense putting them off. Both riders showed a huge amount of improvement over the weekend, with tidy lines and a noticeable increase in pace.

Heggs erroneously putting himself near the front - Campbell

Rady to go - Campbell

Murfin lines up on the CB500 - Campbell

Waiting on the green light- Campbell

Carving up Twickers - Castle

Absolutely not racing - Castle

Moto GP Silverstone

Well admittedly we didn't have any riders entered in the event but we certainly did have a presence there with riders displaying their motorcycles and getting in wherever that would let them in.

This was yet another superb engagement opportunity as well as a good opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best racers currently out racing.

RAF Cadet air and space camp - Syerston

Another engagement day was enjoyed with e-sports, carts and cars at RAF Syerston by some of the RAMSA MCRR riders. Campbell and Heggs both survived rounds of questions from hundreds of RAF Cadets. Hopefully they managed to encourage some RAF racers of the future.

F2 Sidecars

The RAF F2 Sidecar team have had a busy August with two meetings in quick succession.

Cadwell Park sidecar revival

With the preceding rounds featuring many issues with bike setup, it was nice to see the team finally starting to jell with their outfit.

Friday was used to fiddle with some suspension settings to not much avail, only to be followed by Saturday practice and qualifying being a wash out with race 1 moved over to Sunday due to delays in other classes. This left 3 10 lap races for Sunday, a tiring prospect but at least it was  on a dry track! With some advice taken from other teams the team decided to take some pressure out of the chair wheel, the result being a less lively drive wheel meaning more confidence in rear grip. This seemed to work and the lads built up their pace as Sunday went on. Getting a 5th, 6th and 7th from a packed field.

Thums up - MGMPhoto

Eying up the mountain - Jules Brooks Photos

chresting the mountain - Joy Richings

Thruxton British Superbike

The following weekend the boys headed down south for a British Superbike round at Thruxton.

After a positive practice, a wet first race saw waved rain flags around the back session making the race interesting for a while until the riders settled into a rhythm. Despite the weather, they were only 1 tenth slower than qualifying with a 1.28.1 and a lonely 11th overall place finish was not to be sniffed at with F1’s on the track too.

After making a few adjustments to the rear suspension the lads were confident they could at least improve on their previous laptime as it was obvious that the pack of F1's in front were all but unmatchable, especially around a circuit of this nature.

A good start once more meant they could cling onto the pack for a lap or 2 before settling into a lonely ride again. Finishing 11th again was no bad thing, but this time with a much improved lap time of 1.26.9 made for a superb end to their weekend.

Jules Brooks Photos

On it!

Manx GP

Rad Houghes and Michael Russel Found their way over to the Isle of Man with fellow RAFMSA riders Chester Norton and Ian Cooper in tow, hopefully not expecting a quiet week supporting Rad. 

Rad had been out on the Kawasaki ZX6R,  ZXR400 and a classic superbike 750 working through issues and refamilarising himself with the track. He had also been feeling progressively less and less well. Not what you want when you are looking at three races round the demanding mountain circuit.  As a result, in his own words, he had a rubbish time on the 600 and 750. “Wobbling” round for a 113mph and a 29th place on the 600 and a 31st on the 750 were disappointing results for the experienced road racer but a huge achievement for most of us should we ever dare to enter. 

In this time, engine issues had required the 400’s motor to be swapped out three times till a loan engine showed some promise. Unfortunately on race day’s morning warm up, the ZXR400’s conrod made a break for freedom through the casing. Thankfully with racing  delayed 30 mins, this gave Rad time to push the bike to the nearest access road for the 400 recovery team of Ian Cooper and Chester Norton to collect it. Rad did manage to show some dedication in turning down a life in a 4.2L E type Jaguar to stay with the bike till collection.

A huge effort followed removing that rather nice but now quite broken loan engine,replacing the head gasket on another motor before fitting it just in time for racing. Unfortunately the motor would not pull between 12-13k rpm meaning the clutch was about to get some serious abuse!

As it happened, fog caused the race to be delayed. Despite the less than ideal motor situation, a race speed of 100mph was not too shabby which was reflected in a shiny bronze replica for Rads best result of the week, a 12th place. Although obviously this was a frustrating week, given all the issues the little 400 had thrown at the team, a huge effort had found a good finish where one had long since been thought impossible.

Top hat - Claire Elizabeth

Team photo with the 400 - Claire Elizabeth

Not without his own issues, a delayed final race of the Week could have been a huge issue for Michael ‘Jack’ Russel. With his ferry about to start boarding you might have forgiven Jack for canning it and jumping on the boat before it steamed off but then you don’t know that the race was no less than the Senior Manx GP, a trophy already emblazoned with his own name. With little over an hour to spare the hand came off his shoulder and a familiar long blur of hills, walls, hedges and houses commenced. Clearly this was enough to egg Russel on a bit as despite getting into some admittedly fun racing with Rob Hodson, the chase had managed to get his time down sufficiently to come in a couple of seconds faster than James Hillier for 6th overall.

After his unmatched effort at the Isle of Man earlier in the year, this was a nice way to finish his year and yes, he did just about make it back to the ferry in time much to the relief of his waiting family.

About to lead the Manx GP Newcomers out.

Russel with some familiar silverware.

Not a bad office for the race.

Closing

With the F2 team, No limits and the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club already out, you already know that October has plenty to bring so keep an eye out at the beginning of next month for another racing packed news letter.

The Royal Air Force MotorSport Association supports tens of disciplines both two and four wheeled. More information on the RAFMSA can be found on Facebook, the Sports federation home page, Twitter and can be found with a quick search on MODNet. 

For more from the RAF Classic racing team race in the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club (CRMC) offer live timing and have race results going back years, you can find more the team on Facebook Twitter Blogger and YouTube.

There is a strong contingent of the RAFMSA MCRR in the MSV, they can be found on Instagram with some fantastic video shared by competitor James on his YouTube channel. The Tri-service challenge is also held at MSV meetings with an Instagram page of its own.

All serving RAF team members race under the banner of the Royal Air Force Motorsports Association (RAFMSA) alongside our veteran former members and associate members. If you are serving and wish to get involved with motorsports you can find all the contact details you will need on the RAFMSA website or get in contact directly with us.

 This blog post was written by Royal Air Force Motorsports Association Motorcycle Road Racing members whose names are featured above then compiled and edited by Gavin Heggs. 

 

Finally special thanks go to the companies who continue to support us:

Classic Racing Green, EBC brakes UK, Forcefield body armour, HPE, Hel performance brakes, J&S Accessories, NGK spark plugs UK,  PJMphotography, Royal Air Force Motorsports Association, Royal Air Force Central Fund, R-Tech Welding, Ragged edge racing, Stahlwille UK, Talon Engineering, Witham group and individual sponsors:

Symon Woodward: Mick Abbey tuning.

Andy Green: New Era Restorations