Oulton Park , 14th July 2001 MRO National Cup First of all, I'm absolutely gutted that the Manx Grand Prix was cancelled, I was that close to doing it and it felt like the welcome mat was pulled from under me as soon as I got to the front door......two years of effort, lots of expense and all my spare time, and twenty years dreaming of doing it, before I finally pulled my finger out, seems like for nowt. The only consolation is hopefully I'll be quicker next year with another years experience....which I suppose is never a bad thing.....felt like I was in with a great chance in the Newcomers........... After the gearbox problems I had at the Jurby round, I stripped the bike and took the engine to Graham 'Sugsy' Samuels .........he stripped the box and found that there was a couple of gears broken.........the 'dogs' had broken off, apparently a common problem, I was lucky that the broken parts hadn't lodged in the spinning gears and wrecked the engine, and chucked me up the road.......which is always an experience I can do without......... Sugsy fitted a second hand standard gearbox that I bought from a mate........I built the bike back up and had it all back together on the Thursday night (12th).....didn't have time to test it, although I did ride it to the end of the lane and back, and it worked, so loaded it in the van, ready for the off to Cheshire the next morning. I didn't book the boat till I knew I was definitely going to be able to go, and when I tried the only boat I could get was the 0900hrs to Heysham ...... wanted to go to Liverpool, but that was full......Decided on going to Scarborough for the Cock of the North races after Oulton to cheer all the Manx boys that were competing there.....Dave Molyneux and Karl Ellison, Nick Crowe and Darren Hope, Nigel Beattie and Chris Palmer......so loaded the Scooter in the van to make its mainland debut, thought that it would be handy to get around Scarborough on with all the traffic....... may as well make a weekend out of it........ Was supposed to be doing this event with Juan (Kinnish).....I was going to do the New ERA Superclub round at Snetterton, but was only going to have four races over two days and the thought of the six hour drive down to Norwich was putting me off a tad........so when Juan suggested that I do the televised MRO National Cup round at Oulton Park on the same weekend with him, I thought that would be the better (and more convenient) option. So, I cancelled my New ERA entries and applied to do the MRO, was informed that I wouldn't be guaranteed an entry, as all the registered MRO riders would have first option.......shite! Just to be on the safe side, I entered both the Supersport 600 and the Powerbike Classes........just in case the SS600 class was oversubscribed. As it turned out I was accepted in both classes, then Juan dropped the bombshell.......... that because he had done so well at the previous Superclub round at Cadwell Park, and jumped up to 2nd place in the Championship .....he was going to go to Snetterton!.........bollocks. Had nobody
organised to go with me, as Ann had gone on a girlie holiday.........
There was no way I could do it on my own, as even though you
ride on your own, its definitely a team sport, even unloading
the bike from the van would be dodgy by yourself........ and
was considering cancelling till Graham 'Geller' Gell jumped
in again at the eleventh hour to Caught the 0900hrs ferry to Heysham..........added another hour odd on to the Journey and arrived at the track around 3 o'clock.........set the awning up and watched the rest of the track day that was in progress......found out that the scrutineers were scrutineering bikes for the Saturday......dead handy......saved a lot of messing around and queuing up in the morning.....so after that, the bike was back in the awning, up on the stands, tyre warmers on, all fuelled up ready to switch the genny on in the morning........we were well organised. As this was my first MRO (Motorcycle Racing Organisation), you had to qualify in the top 40 to be able to race, which is no mean feat in itself as this level is one step down from British Superbike....so I was under no illusions of grandeur. For this trip, I had set myself three targets... .......First one was to qualify for both races, second was to try and finish in the top 30 and the last one was to try and get into the 1 min 45 sec lap bracket.......I've been using Juan as my yardstick......as he is a year ahead of me and he did his first MRO at around the same time last year, I wanted to try and do as well as he did.....and he managed to do all of the above last year when he managed a best lap of 1'45.38 and finished 27th. I've been to Oulton twice before, the first one was raining and the second time was a track day, both last year on the R1 and the fastest lap that I had managed was a 1' 52, so getting into the 1'45's was going to be a hard task. Had my brand new bodywork on for this meeting, it had been signwritten up with the 'Bikes 'n' Stuff' logo.....as Richard Hocking from Bikes 'n' Stuff has helped me out a hell of a lot, thought that if I got on the TV camera it might get noticed...... Saturday Got up at around 8 o'clock, the sun was shining and because the bike had already been scrutineered, we were in no rush, although I still had to get my gear checked.......Today I had two 8 minute practice sessions, one for each event I had entered, then two 20 minute qualifying sessions, and if I managed that would have two 11 lap races. Had an old set of tyres on for the practice sessions, as I was saving the new set I had brought for the qualifying...............Decided on buying a pit board as I would need to know what lap times I was doing.....and went out in my first practice session at precisely 9:16am.....(it runs like clockwork here you know)......Had about 4 laps and was familiarising myself with the track, and the tyres were not instilling a lot of confidence, not to mention that I hadn't ridden for three weeks and was testing the new gearbox, which seemed to be okay............. but was still gutted on the last lap when Geller swung the pit board over the pit wall and it said....................1' 56. Second practice session faired better and I felt that I was going better, confirmed by Geller when the pit board said 1' 50, .....was still way off the pace with that though... although the gearing was wrong and I wasn't getting into top gear............this obviously wasn't helping .....you have to qualify with a time that is no greater than 10% of the third placed qualifiers time which I was expecting to be around the 1' 38 mark, so add to that the 10% (9.8 seconds) and I would have to be doing 1'47.8..............just to qualify..........so I was way off the pace. Straight after practice we whipped the wheels off and went and got the tyres changed to the new ones, used the scooter to get from one end of the paddock to the other, everybody seemed to have them, some even had their own scooter trailers....all painted up in the same colours as their scooters....a great idea.......I was trying to balance with wheels and tyres over my shoulders ....... had it turned around within the hour and we were ready to go for qualifying.......felt that I was under no pressure though, as today was all about achieving my targets.........I knew the areas that I was slow, and these were the areas was going to have to push a bit more to get my times down........Island Bend, Knickerbrook, Druids and Lodge were where I was struggling ........still I hadn't been here anywhere near as many times as the other riders. Went out in the Powerbike qualifying and thought in 20 minutes I would manage around 11 laps, which was the race distance, so I had measured the amount of fuel I had put in to see how much I had used afterwards. Scrubbed the tyres in for the first couple of laps and on the third lap, Geller swung the pit board out and it said 1' 50, next lap round it said.....1'49.....getting quicker......was still rolling the throttle all the way round Island bend and couldn't get Knickerbrook right for the life of me and was losing drive going up Clay Hill, but on the left hand kink before Druids, I felt I was pretty fast through there....... was not bad on the brakes into Lodge Corner, but was still shite around it and through here was where I was probably losing the most time. Carried on though and Geller kept swinging the board over.........got a nice surprise when he indicated 1'47 then the same again........ then 1'46.....whey hay..........before I knew it the session ended and I was officially timed at 1'46.06 and qualified 35th on the Powerbike grid......was quite happy with that, nearly achieved two targets in the one go.......Found that I had used just over six litres of fuel, so topped it up and was ready for the next session. Went out in the Supersport 600 session and warmed up for a lap, then going over the start/finish straight got my head down and started trying, you don't get to see the pit board till the 3rd lap as its not worth bothering with the first lap and on the end of the 3rd lap you can see the time you posted on the previous one (2nd lap). Anyway went past Geller and the board said 'Lap 3'.........felt like I was going okay as was the bike, until I got to Foulston's Chicane........caught two riders in front of me on the brakes and nailed it on the exit........suddenly the bike screamed its nuts off..........first thought that the gearbox had gone again, then it dawned on me that the chain had come off .........coasted to a stop and pulled onto the grass.....was sitting on the tyres watching them whizz by wondering what Geller was thinking.......and praying that I had qualified with the only flying lap I had managed (lap 2). The Marshal's handed me my chain, and I saw that the split link had come off again..........bloody thing, I had wired it up an' all. Was vanned back to the paddock and I must say what a slick operation they had going, before I knew it my bike was back in the awning, on its stands and my chain and helmet were handed to me.............top blokes. Went to the pits to try and find Geller, but we must have been like two ships in the night, walking down different lanes in the paddock trying to find each other (it was pretty chocca).....eventually found him and he reckoned he had me at 1'45.7 on lap 2............. confirmed officially at 1'45.3, so that cloud had a silver lining.......another target reached.....fettled the bike ready for the Powerbike race......had some spare split links so lashed one on and double wired it.....went to check where I had qualified............. found that I had nabbed 31st spot, with my only flying lap.......not bad. Sat on the grid in 35th spot for the Powerbike race....11 laps, and had a warm up lap...practiced a start and felt that it pulled much better off the line, maybe it was just me cos I haven't tried one for a while........settled on the grid and the lights went green, a bloke alongside me on a ZXR750 nearly wiped my front out as he swerved across me and I had to throttle off which didn't help......decided on going around the outside of a few at the first corner and managed it but didn't get the drive down Denton's to Cascades, then the same bloke barged past me again.......twat.....didn't want to get involved in any fairing bashing so sat behind a group of three for the first lap until it was red flagged when we got to Deer's Leap. Had another warm up lap, this time 10 laps......same again happened, didn't make up that many places but managed to get past a few and had the bike popping off the limiter in top gear at the left hand kink after Clay Hill.... caught up with some here, found it difficult to change direction, go from one side of the track to the other, brake heavily and go down two gears all at the same time, passed my pit board and it said 1'47, the next lap round it read the same........ then it said 1'46, which it said for every lap till the end, crossed the line and I was well pleased to finish without getting too much out of shape anywhere, was pretty knackered and a little disappointed that it looked like I had done no better than a 1'46 (officially 1'46.29).......didn't know where I had finished so went to check the classified results and found that I had finished 22nd......was well pleased with that......even though there had been some that didn't finish that were faster than me.....but to finish first, first you have to finish, as they say..........all three targets reached with a race to go. Was looking forward to the Supersport 600 race as I felt that I was getting the hang of it......settled on to my spot on the grid.....31st, had a warm up lap and then back to the grid and stayed there for ages.........must have been a problem in the timekeepers office as we had to switch our engines off.......eventually got the all clear and was informed of one more warm up lap and a 10 lap race.....didn't bother me in the slightest.........the lights went green and we were off, got a pretty good start in the circumstances and made up a couple of places, cresting Hill top after Foulstons, I could see the leaders at Knickerbrook, out braked a bloke into there and set about someone else, next lap round did the same thing, felt that I was getting the hang of this corner at last, down two gears and aim for the rumble strip on the exit....was improving every time I went round it........ and going over the line after lap three Geller indicated 1'45.... nice one, got my head down and started to catch two geezers that were not too far ahead, made ground up on them at Shell Oils Corner and Foulstons, and most other places on the brakes, but was still shite around Lodge, couldn't get this corner right and lost a couple of yards, went over the line and Geller had 1'44 indicated......you beauty, the two blokes were still ahead and I ground the left hand side of the fairing down again going around Cascades, hoped to try and improve my style this weekend, but was having trouble doing so, only touched my knee down a couple of times, but I've got standard clip on handle bars on, and I think I'll have to replace those as they are too high. Geller indicated 1'44 again as I completed the 6th lap........and going over the line the bike hit the limiter, thought that it jumped out of gear, snicked it up again and it popped off the limiter again.....don't know if that was me not concentrating or touching it with my foot without knowing, anyway, let the two in front get a few extra yards on me, so set about making that up and was doing so.....rounded Shell Oils Corner and was in 5th gear as I approached Foulstons Chicane.........Had been taking it in 3rd gear as it was too high in second.........so stamped on the lever and it went into a false neutral.........the engine went silent and it put me into the Chicane way too fast, as anyone will know if its happened to them, had a split second to make up my mind, knew that I wouldn't make the tarmac'd run off point and if I tried to make the corner I would have no run off at all......went for the safest option of straightening the bike up and braking really hard...........and headed for the grass in the middle of the chicane and aimed for the tarmac after the grass...........braked that hard that the back wheel came off the deck a couple of foot, so had to let go before I got to the grass, thought that I had scrubbed off enough speed to be safe, but a couple of yards into the grass the front end tucked under and threw me off................The Crash Protector Mushroom dug into the soil and flipped the bike and it landed on its arse and.......got up straight away and the Marshals were already at my bike........helped them drag it to the tyre wall whist effing and blinding......don't know how I lost the front, was well annoyed......it had smashed the fairings and seat unit, bent the sub frame, broke the exhaust, bent the exhaust bracket, broke the front fairing bracket and snapped the rear brake hose.........was wondering what Geller would be thinking this time......was well pissed off, only three laps to go till the end of the day and I had been going pretty well and pretty steadily and had no hairy moments all day........bloody typical. The Marshals said that the bike nearly landed on top of me and couldn't believe how high the bike went for such a low speed crash......typical again.... Got vanned back to the pits again, only this time in pieces...........but the bike didn't look that bad when we pulled the broken bits off...........only hoped the forks would be straight (turns out they were).........so loaded the van up with the bike and all the gear and went to get the classified result...... I had been up to 21st spot and was timed at 1'44.55, but I reckoned it would have been quicker had I completed the lap, but live to fight another day........I would have been well pleased with the whole day had the bike not jumped into neutral.........its amazing how something like that can put you ten or so yards off line.......still couldn't understand how I never saved it. Buggered off to Scarborough to catch up with the Manx Boys and give them a cheer.......would have been a top weekend had I stayed on, but it was a goodie nonetheless....started to stiffen up more and more as the weekend went on......mainly my ribs and neck. Scarborough is a bit of a scary track and its not the place to jump off ....that's for sure.......might try it myself sometime soon........get this crashing palava out of the way first.......... Caught
the ferry back to the Island on Monday afternoon, really calm
crossing...........unloaded the bike and kit and started work
on it straight away........had the sub frame straightened
and all the brackets that were either broken or bent, put
my spare oval carbon silencer on and a new stainless steel
braided rear brake hose.........nearly ready to Next up is Jurby on Saturday 21st July...........not too sure what to do after that........but I've put an entry in for the Ulster Grand Prix Newcomers race, on August 18th......have to get some roads experience in somewhere along the line........Trying to get booked on the Steam Packet to Belfast was a nightmare..............But, that's another story....... So, tune in next time for another very exciting, jumping off, rib aching episode of..............................Tommy Clucas Racing
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