British Superstock Championship - 2007 Race Reports

Almeria, Spain - 23, 24 and 25 February 2007 - STP Test Weekend

Well where do we start?

The Team flew out from Stanstead Airport on Wednesday evening. Well most of the team did: Matt was to join us on Thursday and Simon Woods and myself got stuck in traffic and missed the check-in by 5 minutes. The helpful staff at Ryanair refused to let us check in late, even though the flight was delayed by nearly 20 minutes. Even more frustrating as I had all the travel documents, hotel information and car hire documents.

Simon and I therefore had no choice but to stay at Stanstead Airport for the night, £93 each, and get the next available flight on Thursday. This, unfortunately, was not to Almeria but to Murcia, at an extra £50 each.

We had booked our car with Hertz, so thought there would be no problem changing the pickup location. But a call to Hertz Central Reservations brought the news that there were no cars available at Murcia, so we had no choice but get a taxi. Some 200km and 250 euros later we arrived at Almeria airport to pick up our car a day late.

We checked into the hotel and went straight to the bar for a stiff drink. While we were there Matt arrived, so at last all the team were together.

On Friday we went to the circuit, which is situated in the middle of a wild west desert. We arrived about 9 o'clock and unloaded the bikes from the crates. We had taken 2 of our old R1's and the new 07 bike, as we are still waiting to get our other new bikes. Apparently there is still a hickkup with the supply chain from Yamaha, and the MV is not ready yet.

For the first session we asked the riders just to familiarise themselves with the track, but Vic must have taken this too literally. On his 4th lap he decided to inspect the tarmac a little too closely and ended up in the gravel. Not quite the start we were all expecting.

The other riders completed the session and returned to the garage, thankfully all in one piece. Vic's bike was not too badly damaged, with just a couple of bent levers to change and it was ready to roll in the next session. As it turned out so was Vic.

The next session was to be spent concentrating on braking markers and building up the pace. I told Vic to "take it easy, don't end up in the muck" but he must have thought I said go like fxxxk. This time he lasted 7 laps until the bike said no more and a giant highside chucked him off and reduced the bike to spare parts.

We were getting a bit worried that this was sending out the wrong signals to the other riders, but we needn't have worried as Dean decided to use Rod's bike as target practice and ran straight into the back of him. Matt was the only one to return unscathed: he must have missed the briefing.

Meanwhile Vic returned to the garage and decided to sit out the rest of the day, as the pushbike had a flat tyre!

So at the end of the first day we were down by 2 bikes: Vic's and Dean's bikes required too many spares to be repaired at the circuit.

For Saturday it was decided to get one of the hire bikes for Dean and for Vic to share the old R1. Saturday went well with all the riders lapping consistently faster and looking good, thankfully with no more incidents.

On Sunday we asked the riders to push a bit and they all returned laps over a second quicker than the previous day.

The flight back to Stanstead was uneventful, apart from our security guard "Parky" convincing the flight steward that Vic's name was Michael Hunt and that it was his birthday. They duly announced over the microphone "Happy Birthday Mike Hunt" which went down very well!

All in all it was a very productive test and our first chance for everybody to work together. The riders swapped information and got on really well, so all looks very positive for the 2007 season.

See Forum postings.

Photos by Bob Cooley - Photos by Chris Hulbert

Monza, Italy - 11 March 2007 - STP Test Day

Bob Cooley's wacky look at the weekend

Strange isn't it, Victor can sleep on a plane, in a car, at an airport and on a floor but the night before he tested the new MV Agusta at Monza he couldn't even sleep in his comfortable hotel bed. Was it hunger, wind or excitement?

Unusually for team STP there were no dramas getting to the factory in Milan, nor even to the circuit which appears to be a part of a city. Having said that Jon had driven the van from Hereford to Dover and then down through most of Europe to Milan. Although it was only 700 miles, and he had only two hours sleep, he did go on about feeling a bit tired. But it was worse for those of us who had to look at him, we thought he was still wearing his sunglasses when he arrived, but he wasn't, they really were dark bags under his eyes that looked like new Ray-Bans.

Sunday morning arrived (a relief to some of us to see any morning arrive) bright and dry, even if it was a bit cold. Kev and new team man Steve Ellis made the last minute adjustments with the help and support from the GIMotorsport technicians. Victor mounted the bike at 10 o'clock and immediately made it look very tiny indeed. He even managed a nervous wave for the camera before setting off to explore the Monza circuit.

GI Motorsport had hired a double sized pit lane garage for the weekend, but still managed to fill it up with bikes. They are running 4 riders in either their domestic Italian Championship or the European Superstock 1000 series, plus they had their secret development Superbikes in the garage as well. It looked like each bike had 2 or 3 mechanics plus all the Italian press that flocked in to see what MV Agusta are doing for 2007. A bit of a special atmosphere all in all.

One of the most stupid things that happens in racing is you give a 21 year old a 170 horse power bike at a race track and tell him to take it easy. Better than that Victor's instructions were to "go steady, as fast as you can." No wonder we sometimes think that Victor gets confused. If he goes slow he comes back and was doing the go steady part, and if he crashes he says you told me to go as fast as I can.

After six 20 minute sessions and lots of adjustments to the suspension Victor was circulating half a second faster than when he came here in 2005 on the Suzuki. We ran out of time to dial in any more changes to the suspension but know that there is still a lot of scope to find time there. Also, the spies out round the circuit were coming back with reports that Victor was riding it like he was on a Japanese bike. It seems that the preferred technique on the MV Agusta is a smoother and more flowing style, one of the legacies of this type of chassis. We felt that with another couple of sessions there was another 2 seconds realistically to be found.

There is always going to be great excitement at the start of a new season, and with a new type of bike that has no established track record in the UK. I think that the MV Agusta is going to be a revelation this year and we can't wait for the tests at Snetterton to see how it measures up.

In the tradition of things going to ruin, we managed to get up to go to the airport an hour earlier than intended, just as well because we managed to get on the longest road in Italy that took us away from the airport. After 2 hours going the wrong way, and being spoken to by a nice policeman, we dumped the hire car without filling up with fuel, and ran to the booking in hall. Thinking we had got there by the skin of our teeth, the nice girl at the check-in informed us the flight had been delayed, we could have done a complete tour of Italy and Switzerland before our flight eventually took off.

Every team has at least one person in it who is the butt of all the jokes. At STP the same thing applies and Victor is the victim that suffers most. However, he is fighting back and by the time we go testing at Snetterton he will have perfect the 'Kevin strut'. Watch this space for the photos.

See Forum postings.

Photos by Bob Cooley

Snetterton - 23, 24 and 25 March 2007 - Official Test

Snetterton on a Spring day

The season is so close now and as a curtain raiser for the 2007 season all the teams, including STP made their way to Snetterton. We knew it would be cold and windy, possibly even wet and Snetterton didn't let us down, it was cold wet and windy, very cold, very, very cold. It was bleeding freezing. Common sense said we should pack up and go home, but we looked to Jon for common sense, and stayed.

We have one experienced senior rider (that'll be Victor to avoid any doubt), then we have Matt who has done a bit, and Rod (who's name is the easiest to spell) starting out on his career. So on a slippery track who do you think managed to keep it on the Island. Yes, it wasn't Victor, he managed to drop the MV Agusta at the beginning of the second session and rather worryingly just vanished for 30 minutes. At least Matt had the sense to crash near enough to the pit lane so he could walk back. Between Matt and Victor there was enough mud to grow a very large number of potatoes. Two lowsides to nil by mid afternoon, but all of that was to change in a dramatic way. Rod is a quick learner and encouraged by the crashes of his two senior colleagues managed to high side his bike into the Norfolk countryside. As Jon told me, a smashing time was had by all.

There's not much more to add really, we tried to get the riders to have their photos taken looking all mean and moody. Rod was very good and did the mean and moody look a treat. Shame he looks like a thug though. Next up was Victor and he doesn't have a mean and moody bone in his body so this was a struggle. At least we have a shot of him not grinning, that'll have to do. Matt couldn't take it seriously at all, strange really because he is a grumpy bastard on race day but just kept giggling like a teenage girl for the camera at the weekend.

Big Chris works as a graphic designer (it says Creative Head on his business card, but he's as bald as a coot) and has been charged with making Team STP Racing look the business this year. He has a design for the bikes, has selected the team clothing for the season and has just finished the design of the inside of the awning, and it does look pretty damn good. Chris brought a scale model of the display units along for Jon's approval and with a couple of minor changes, they should be finished in time for Brands.

Bob

See Forum postings.

Brands Hatch - 7, 8 and 9 April 2007 -

Well that was a weekend we won't forget in a hurry.

We had every possible emotion going (except jealousy). There was great happiness at being at the first round of the new season, we looked like a major player with the new awning, the display boards, the chrome furniture, the team clothing and of course the new bikes with their new paint.

Then we had the double whammy of despair when Victor came round Druids with the MV sounding like a box of spanners, followed half a minute later by the session being red flagged when Matt turned the Yamaha into a space craft.

Then we had anxiety trying to find out how Matt was before to our great relief the ambulance dropped him off with nothing more than a suspected broken ankle. At least we had nice surroundings of the new comfortable awning to sit around worried in.

But despair was not far away when Matt's bike came back to the garage in a hearse. The race engineers did a fantastic job on both bikes, particularly on Matt's breathing a new life into something that looked very sorry indeed.

A mention for Rod as well, he did a great job in qualifying 25th out of 55 in his very first 'Senior' ride. Well done mate, we were all very happy for you.

From anxiety to relief and back to despair again when the MV was stripped only to establish we didn't have the parts to replace the damaged bit. Then it was back to great joy again when superhero Mitch Mosley of Red Dog Motorcycles came to the rescue with a part taken from his own motorcycle.

Then we had a drink and forgot why we were ever there in the first place.

Starting from 28th (Matt) and 37th (Victor) on the grid we'd resigned ourselves to the fact that today we were unlikely to strike gold.

Good news greeted race day and thus great joy was experienced when Matt hobbled in with nothing more than a sprained ankle after all. He could get his boot on and as such we were all happy again.

Even morning Warm Up passed without incident and so a plateau of happiness was maintained.

Then we began to feel the tension as 3 o'clock came round and the Superstock Championship called.

Like football, racing is a funny old game. Victor made a flying start as Matt tried to join him 3 rows back after what he described as a sluggish getaway. No kidding. As things progressed both our gallant jockeys managed to overtake a few riders (to our great and emotional joy/surprise). In fact Victor had managed to work his way up 12 places to 25th when he and the MV took an excursion into a place not known to get the best from the bike. Great despair was experienced as he dragged the bike from the kitty litter and back onto the track.

Matt went steadily on his way up to a creditable 19th at the end. A good start might have seen Matt putting up a decent fight for points.

For Victor things got a little better for a while but in his attempt to get back from the brink he went into Druids too quickly and he was into the kitty litter again. So that was sad.

But on our roller coaster of a day, I was standing next to Jon the boss when the bikes came back from Park Ferme and we couldn't find any damage to the MV, what joy. Normally Victor brings a broken bike back after a little off, this time he crashed out twice with 20,000 people watching and the TV on him, and the bike was undamaged, more joy.

Rod managed to achieve a very rare thing. A lesson learnt. Making changes to the bike after morning warm up should be against the rules because they never ever work. And today was another example of this rule being proved right again. Rod decided after sleeping on it overnight, that the gearing wasn't quite right, warm up only confirmed his suspicions. So he changed the sprockets with the inevitable result, he chose the wrong ones. What this did was help Rod work his way steadily back down the leader board which was a great shame after a most creditable couple of days of practice and qualifying. Sadness was the resulting emotion.

So there it was, an emotional time was had (enjoyed) by all.

Roll on Thruxton with all it's surprises.

Bob

See Rod's report in the Forum.

Photos by Bob Cooley - Photos by Roger Barker

Superstock Cup results - Superstock Champ results - Virgin Media Cup results - British 125GP results

Thruxton - 13, 14 and 15 April 2007 -

Motorcycle racing is a personal experience for each of us. We come together for 3 days over a long weekend to enjoy the trials and tribulations of all that revolves around going fast on a bike. For the second weekend running we had the best weather in the northern hemisphere and rarely for Thruxton it was not only hot but also free of any prevailing winds. It's a shame therefore that I had the deadly man flu to share with everyone.

Free practice for Victor was better than at Brands while Matt was having a bit of a nightmare. Rod is continuing to impress on the R1 and was still smarting from the problems he had at Brands.

Victors first qualifying found him in 22nd place, 2.3 seconds off pole which is a vast improvement on the 37th place this time last week. Second qualifying saw Victor drop a couple of places to 24th 2.2 seconds off pole. Matt had managed to find a setup that suited him and he jumped to 20th, 1.8 off pole. Well done Matt.

Race day dawned even hotter than for qualifying, a lovely day for sunburn, and a hot day for racing. Victor was his usual amenable self all morning while waiting for the 12:15 start. In fact he had a determined look about him and couldn't wait to get out and show what he could really do.

As the lights went out Victor felt something not quite right with the bike, it felt like a drive train problem of some sort. In the hope that it was nothing to worry about he pressed on for a few laps making up 6 places until he just felt that the problem was too dangerous to continue with. A great shame as once again he'd knocked 0.6 of a second off his qualifying time on a bike that was not behaving quite as it should.

Now there is a good time to have luck, and there is a bad time. Just as we saw Victor pull out so Matt vanished as well, this time the Yamaha started getting too hot and as a precaution he pulled out as well. At least we have now got the bad luck for the whole season out of the way during the first 2 rounds so now we can look forward to a trouble free remainder of the season.

Well done to Rod for holding his end up, once again doing better than last time out and learning very quickly indeed.

Photos by Bob Cooley - Photos by Roger Barker

British 125GP results - Virgin Media Cup results - Superstock Cup results - Superstock Champ results

Silverstone - 27, 28 and 29 April 2007 -

Well done Victor for getting our first points for STP Racing on the MV Agusta. In fact well done Steve for making the bike go as well as it did, and to Stewy for cleaning it.

After Thruxton, which had our heads down a little bit, we were hoping that Silverstone would be a better experience for everyone. And apart from the minus 3 degree wind it wasn't too bad at all. Unlike Thruxton the Free Practice (why do they call it that, it's not free!) was on the same day as the first qualifying session which means everything has to be just about right from the word go.

This was going to be a tough one, even in the Free Practice session the existing Superstock lap record was broken so we knew this was going to be a very tough weekend indeed. Victor managed a very creditable 1:32.361 to put him in 16th place some 3.074 seconds off pole position.

A few tweaks (and a clean) later and the 1st qualifying session was on us. Why is it that you can go a full second quicker and drop back a place? Anyway by the end of the session despite going quicker Victor ended up in 17th place. The problem with 17th as opposed to 16th is of course that you go back one more row on the grid.

An old friend of ours came to visit during the day, former two times World Endurance Champion Warwick Nowland. He spent quite a bit of time with Victor going over all the figures and talking through where the bike was good and where it needed to be better.

Saturday saw our only outing, the 2nd qualifying session starting at 12:45. This time Victor took a couple of tenths off his time and moved up to 15th place, on the fourth row which was his best achievement this season. Hudson Kennaugh was blistering and took pole by 0.708 seconds which is like a country mile quicker than anyone else. Victor ended up 2.420 seconds off pole, allowing for that one fast lap his time was realistically 1.7 seconds adrift which again is showing real signs of improvement. Roll on the race on Sunday.

Once again the bike was stripped, prepared, re tyred and cleaned ready for race day. Even if I say so myself I think it looks a treat.

The race itself was quite eventful as usual, this time the pace car came out for a couple of laps, and then after 10 of the scheduled 15 laps it was red flagged and it was all over. This was Victor's strongest ride of the season so far and he did well to claim his 14th position. The tyre marks from one of the fallen bikes are on the fairing of the MV Agusta, just to show how close we came to nil points and a bent bike.

Apart from the racing, Chris the local MV Agusta dealer had a great time. It seems that Shakey Byrne was talking to Victor about buying one of the MV Agusta Brutales that was on display. Victor casually mentioned it later on and so Chris rushed off with the bike to find Shakey and let him have a test ride. In true Shakey style he put on a helmet and then wheelied the Brutale over the bridge and into the distance. He seemed to like the bike so it will be interesting to see who takes his cheque.

Once again the team were very well supported and the time, effort and money that has been put into it is beginning to show rewards.

Bob

Photos by Bob Cooley - Photos by Roger Barker

Virgin Media Cup results - Superstock Cup results - British 125GP results - Superstock Champ results

Oulton Park - 5, 6 and 7 May 2007 -

What a weekend we have just had at Oulton Park - the weather as always decided to play a part and kept everyone guessing until the last minute.

Monday was windy with scattered showers and kept the riders on their toes. Luke Jones GP125 was the first race on Monday afternoon and was a race not to be missed. Luke led for more laps than not and finished at the front for his second win of the season, putting him ahead by 4 points in the championship.

Dean Jones was next out in the Virgin Media Cup, but after qualifying 15th crashed out on lap 5. Dean's run of bad luck must end soon: he is a very quick rider who should be running at the front of the pack.

The next race of the day was the Superstock Championship and with Vic and Matt both on the fourth row we were all expecting a very good race. Sadly for Vic, his race ended on lap 2 whilst challenging for 13th place at the Shell Oils hairpin. Unfortunately he broke his wrist in the process.

Matt, who had a great start, was in 12th place when the race got red flagged and was restarted. This time Matt got an absolutely fantastic start and was up in 5th place by the first corner. He finished in 9th place and that's his best result this season so far.

The Superstock Cup was the next race, and Rod started from 38th on the grid. He had a storming ride and finished 15th with his first championship point and winning Metzeler Man of the Meeting.

British 125GP results - Superstock Champ results - Superstock Cup results - Virgin Media Cup results

Snetterton - 18, 19 and 20 May 2007 -

Like everyone else I was looking forward to Snetterton with great anticipation. Although Victor was unfortunately crocked following his Oulton crash, all the other signs were good. Matt was buzzing after his fantastic ride at Oulton and then we had the prospect of Warwick on the MV Agusta. In fact I was so excited I got there a day early (Thursday) and helped get the wigwam sorted.

Steve, Steve, Stewy and Kevin (does that sound like the Trumpton Fire Brigade?) had the bikes running nicely and so it was off for the Free Practice session. As usual the top 2 or 3 guys were straight on the pace and doing 1 minute 8 seconds straight away. For us to make any impact it's clear that we need to be arriving at the circuit with the bikes capable from this first session of getting straight onto it. But then we know this.

Matt was like a greased weasel and he posted the 7th quickest time so he had lost nothing since Oulton and clearly was brimming with confidence. In fact we saw him smile once so that is an indication of how cheerful he was. Warwick was taking a slightly more cautious approach, this being the first real dry session he's had on the bike, plus he hasn't been to the circuit since 05. Posting a 1' 10.714" on the 14th lap in this session he was confident there was more to come later in the day. So Free Practice ended with Warwick in a decent enough 20th place.

Some adjustments were made to both bikes during the interval before they went out for the first official qualifying session.

Everyone went to the chicane just before the start while I wandered off to the main back straight to see where Warwick was braking, the paperwork showed the bike was 10mph down on top speed which indicated he was braking early for the corner.

After just 4 laps the session was halted with a red flag incident, and somehow I just had this feeling that it was Warwick as he didn't come round for the 5th lap with the other riders. After a short while of suspense it came over the loudspeakers that Warwick was down at the chicane. Bugger, another broken bike and a waste of valuable track time.

Meanwhile Matt was riding like a God and finished the session in 8th place, provisionally on the second row and his best qualifying this season. Warwick had posted a 1' 10.677" before he crashed on his 4th lap which was a bit quicker than he went in the morning session after 14 laps so that initially looked promising.

When I got back and found that Warwick had highsided right in front of everyone including the anxious and tearful Kris, and he had gone to the medical centre. I was still not really prepared for what happened next. I arrived at the medical centre just after the x-ray had been taken, and Warwick told me he'd broken his wrist. A million things pass through your mind at that moment, the worst one being what on earth am I going to tell Jon. You can't turn the clock back or change anything, so you take comfort from the fact that nobody was seriously hurt and in a few weeks time we can pick ourselves up and move on.

I did try and persuade the Doctor to just give Warwick some tablets for the broken wrist so he could get back out and finish qualifying and race tomorrow. He seemed a bit reluctant and Warwick was shaking his head in disbelief at my perfectly reasonable request, but he politely declined my idea of tablets. So I immediately suggested that we give injections a go thinking that Warwick could just ride through the pain and start the healing process on Monday. Again, the Doctor was very polite and patiently explained to me that dislodging the bones would take much longer to heal. What finally stopped me coming up with another idea was that the Doctor could see me trying to get Warwick back on the bike, so he quickly slapped a plaster on his arm. That was it, game over, with a plaster cast on there was no way he could ride.

What was worse it that it was still only Friday, we had the rest of the weekend to get through yet. I made a very short call to Jon and trudged back to the awning.

All credit to Warwick, despite braking his wrist and no doubt aching a bit he stayed on all weekend to help and support, although he did sneak off without helping to take the awning down.

We had to wait until one o'clock before the second qualifying session but everyone came out to support Matt. Once again he rode like the wind and looked very spectacular backing the Yamaha into the first chicane. At the end of the session Matt had once again improved his times over this session to a fantastic 1' 08.694" just over half a second off pole position. Very well done Matt.

Jon had purchased a space heater to warm the awning up of an evening, but it wasn't a little humble heater, this thing looked like a full sized ride on steam engine. The children couldn't help themselves of course and it ended up with a full set of racing decals, trick wheels, a race seat, fairing and handlebars. Even the guy from MCN was impressed.

Sunday morning started bright and clear with the warm up session kicking off at 09.00. 4 laps in and Matt had a big off at the first corner, but not before setting the 7th quickest time of the session. With the bike back in the garage it was all hands to the pump getting it repaired for the race at lunch time. To their great credit the bike was bandaged up and caressed back into life. Once again we all tramped off to the infamous chicane to watch. Strange thing though, we didn't see Matt on the sighting lap, after all the qualifying effort and the work by Kev and the team to repair it, something mechanical cried enough and poor Matt never got the start. What a shame.

So it was Rod's turn to show the others how it should be done and after a race long struggle he did his best time on lap nine, Once more Rod is chipping big lumps off his time every session he goes out which again underlines the need to practice there beforehand. Interestingly Rod's 1' 10.9" in the race would have made him quickest in the Free Practice session at the beginning of the weekend.

So there we go, another weekend that has left us older, and perhaps a little wiser. Roll on Mondello.

Bob

Photos by Bob Cooley

British 125GP results - Virgin Media Cup results - Superstock Cup results - Superstock Champ results

Mondello Park - 15, 16 and 17 June 2007 -

I love Ireland, where the girls are so pretty and the food is wonderful, the countryside really is emerald green. Pity you can't see it in the fog, mist and rain though. My flight to Dublin was delayed 2 hours because of fog. When I left warm and sunny Gatwick and emerged 50 minutes later in Dublin it was like, well another country. My hire care was like a small car but only half the size and it drank fuel like a navvy. Still, the 20 minute journey from the airport to the track only took two and a half hours so that was a good start. It could only happen in Ireland, I got lost and found myself in the right place, the maps are crap.

When I eventually arrived Jon, Matt, Andy and Kevin were having a nice BBQ out in the rain, so I joined in for one of those unforgettable burgers that had been on the barbie for two hours. We've all had them at some point in our lives. Still, we talked about the weather clearing up tomorrow for Matt's first visit to the circuit.

Friday morning arrived, and it was still as dark and wet as the night before. Victor, Stewy and Simon also turned up to give Matt a hand, and Phil arrived on Saturday. They had special trucks that suck water off the track and they had been roaring around trying to make an impact on the torrential rain. At least there wasn't much in the way of decision making about tyres, wets were the order of the day for everyone. Matt did something in that first session he's never done before, he was slowest! Only need to find another 14.5 seconds to get on the pace. The good news at Mondello was that they gave us two free practice sessions so we had the chance to go slowest twice in one day.

The mark of a good rider is their ability to learn, and by the end of the second session with some confidence returning and a bit more familiar with the track Matt had moved up to 19th of 32 and only a little over 3 seconds off the pace. A truly superb job in foul conditions.

It was still wet and cold after free practice so it was back to the BBQ and a quiet drink. The world famous yellow space heater served us well, both warming and drying us.

Saturday arrived and although it hadn't actually rained overnight everything was still very wet indeed, this makes tyre choice a bit more of a lottery. Despite still improving his time by nearly a second in the first qualifying session Matt dropped to 25th position, still pretty good for a track virgin in the horrible conditions. An interesting addition to the grid was Sean Emmett who had shown very well in the first free practice session finishing in third place. I think the series has more credibility when riders of his and Glen's status join in so it was going to be interesting to see how he got on. As it happened the first qualifying session worked out pretty much as expected with a flying Kenny Gilbertson and then the usual suspects, with Emmett surprisingly back in 14th place.

Not surprisingly, the afternoon qualifying session 2 was in the wet, again. However after a couple of stoppages (James Edmeades went down heavily and he knocked himself out) the track began to dry out very quickly and a couple of riders managed to go better in the damp/wet conditions, Emmett being one of them, elevated to 6th, and Matt wasn't one of them eventually qualifying 27th. Still, when you consider the conditions, and the quality of the field, that is pretty good going.

Having spent 2 days and 4 sessions on the track, come warm up on race day it had turned dry, not nice, just not raining. A generous 15 minutes warm up gave Matt a chance to evaluate what the bike needed to be like for a dry race and Kev did the necessary adjustments.

The race was run in proper dry but still overcast conditions. The first corner was mayhem with several of the front runners going down like skittles. Matt rode consistently to finish in 16th place, so close to the points, but not quite making it. Again to put it in perspective, Matt was 2 seconds off the best time and less than a second away from ex-Moto GP man Emmett. A brilliant effort.

In race 2 Matt again improved his times by over a second to finish a very creditable 17th. 10 seconds covered the 8th to 19th position at the end so every place was hard fought for. Just to put a perspective on how good Matt's ride was, Emmetts best lap was 1' 45.20" and Matt's was 1' 45.27". Very well done to everyone at STP for a pretty damned good race weekend, and a special thanks to all the team members that turned up to help and support Matt.

As I walked out to the plane at Dublin Airport the sun came out, which was nice. We flew into cloud at about 30 feet and when I arrived at Gatwick it was raining!!

Roll on Knockhill, it's always nice up there.

Bob

British 125GP results - Superstock Champ results

Knockhill - 29 and 30 June, 1 July 2007 -

Knockhill, just the very word brings a shiver to my spine. I think it's possible that one of my ancestors might have been brutally murdered there and my genetic make up is stimulated into the fear reaction even now. Apart from that though I was looking forward to the nine hour drive in the rain to get there.

I have previously mentioned that this racing thing is an emotional roller coaster and this weekend was no different.

Friday, left home bright and early and exactly 127 miles up the road the pleasant Steve from West Coast Superbikes rang to confirm arrangements for the weekend. Steve owns the only MV Agusta dealership in Scotland and we'd invited him and his team along for the entertainment. This was when I first realised that I had left his passes at home, durr. So that was bad.

Nothing much else happened and I duly arrived at the circuit just after six in the evening. Free Practice (again I ask why they call it free?) had taken place and things were looking promising, which is good.

We had along the experienced Chris Burns this weekend, riding for the injured 'Vicar' who had taken the trouble to turn up for the team knowing he couldn't ride. Chris had put the bike in 7th place 0.5 seconds off pole. However he was less than happy and demanded a number of radical changes to the bike for qualifying. Matt was struggling to get a good feel for the bike but was getting steadily quicker.

At least the weather had held out and as midnight arrived it was still bright and dry. Sorry that should be light and dry, Knockhill doesn't really get dark, and then it gets light again!! So I thought I'd get the camera out and knock off some pictures for the web site. It was then that I discovered that I had driven 532 miles without the memory card in the camera. Not pleased.

Rod was out for his free practice at 5:30, this was his first visit so it was a question of familiarisation, ending up on a 55.0 for 31st position. Pretty good in the circumstances. Rod is another rider who just gets quicker all weekend.

As luck would have it Saturday morning turned out bright and dry with a nice dry track. I was beginning the get more than just a bit nervous at the prospect of getting a front row qualifying position. The time came and out they went.

Chris seems to bully his way out of pit lane rather like Steve Brogan does and was one of the first riders through to the hairpin. Everything was looking good and Chris was gradually building up the pace when the MV cut out, it restarted but clearly there was a problem so back into the pits. A quick once over failed to identify an obvious problem like a missing wheel and tyre or anything like that so he set off again only for the problem to repeat itself. And really that was it for morning qualifying, ending up a rather disappointing 27th. Still, if the problem could be diagnosed and fixed we have the second qualifying session in the afternoon to make amends.

Matt was looking really good on a circuit that he quite likes and moved from a gloomy 28th in Free Practice to 20th and over 1.1 seconds quicker and only 1.04 seconds off pole. Yes, one second covered the top twenty. Good work Matt.

Remember that I left my passes at home, so I went over to the BSB office hoping that they could see the problem in a sympathetic light and replace them for this event for me. Not a chance, they were not prepared to listen to any pleadings at all, if I wanted to get the team guests in their answer was to buy some more tickets. You can only hope that one day we will be asked a favour from them, and I wonder what response they will get. So much for goodwill.

Rod managed to go a second quicker in qualifying and moved nowhere which is frustrating for him, but early days yet.

Knockhill could not have been less kind to us. It stayed dry for the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon. About an hour before we were due to go out the wind got up and the dreaded clouds, big nasty dark ones started moving in. Edinborough vanished and you just knew what was going to happen next. And it did, for the next two days pretty much. 45 minutes before our critical qualifying session it rained, and rained, and rained.

For those that had a decent qualifying time in the dry session the wet qualifying in the afternoon was just practice. Having said that it was fantastic to see the MV get the fastest time of the session by over four tenths proving that the bike is now becoming truly competitive. The forecast was rain for the rest of the weekend so at least we knew that Chris and the MV would be a real threat in the race. A special mention to Kev and Steve for locating that little electrical problem and getting the bike out on time.

In Rod's second session he had the benefit of the rain like the rest of us, encouragingly though he was 24th quickest which was looking good again for the race tomorrow morning.

Saturday evening was interesting with a delightful visitor challenging Victor to some topless arm wrestling. Just for the record Victor lost due to some cunning tactics by his opponent, the distraction of breasts that close to him drained all the blood from his arms. Top girl, you are very welcome to come back to our awning whenever you want.

Sunday morning and it was still raining. Once more we were first out for the warm up session which once again saw the MV and Chris right up there finishing a close second to wet weather specialist Kenny Gilbertson. Once again Matt was showing consistent improvement on the Yamaha and was 14th in the session.

Rod had a stunning ride, from a grid position of 31st coming through to an amazing 19th by the end. For Rod at least it had to be considered a pretty decent weekend and very well done to him.

Chris thought it was a bit of a challenge to come from 27th on the grid to win the race starting just after midday. I felt our best chances were if the track stayed wet, but guess what happened? Unbelievably the track started to show a dry line, and once they hade done their sighting lap it was decided to keep the wet front in but stick the dry tyre in the rear. I didn't know this and thought Chris and Matt were out on wets all round.

The lights went out and by the time they all came round the hairpin at the end of the first lap, it started raining. Why, we had dry tyres in and it was officially a wet race. Instead of our two lads having made a great start they were pretty much exactly where they qualified, on the wrong tyres.

As it happened the race was red flagged after two laps as the conditions had rapidly become too dangerous to race in. Back in pit lane the rain bounced several inches off the ground for over an hour making racing impossible. It would ease off a bit then start again, dreadful.

Eventually the race organisers decided to scrap our race until later in the day, and to fit in with TV Schedules the Superbikes went out at the first safe opportunity. Then we heard that the Superstock Cup and the R6 Virgin Media races had been cancelled and we were re-scheduled to go out at the end of the day.

So we should have been racing at 12:10 and because of the delays had been told to expect to go at !7:50. So we waited and watched, and got wetter while waiting. Close to the time to think about getting ready to go we were finally told our race had been cancelled too. This was a fiasco and a disaster for us.

Knockhill, still makes me shudder.

Bob

Oulton Park - 13, 14 and 15 July 2007 -

Oulton Park

It rained a bit at Mondello, but then there is a bit of a history of rain there. But at Mondello there was no Cup race anyway, and we had decided not to take the MVs due to a shortage of mended riders.

So then we went to Knockhill, a fun place most of the time. We had a full house there with Rod on a double header in the Cup, Matt with his leathers dried out from Mondello and new recruit Chris Burns standing in for the injured guys. It rained again, but at all the wrong times making progress very difficult indeed. Then, for good measure the race conditions were considered unsafe and we didn't get to race at all. The good news is that we get two races at the Donington round.

Next up was Oulton Park, the scene of our greatest success and greatest tragedy last time we came here. Matt scored his first top 10, Rod got 'Rider of the Day' and Victor broke his wrist.

Never mind, it would all be different this time. Right!!

This was the first time we had Warwick running the show and with the precision known only in the Australian Navy the show got underway on the Thursday. I arrived late Thursday evening having been assured that everything would be in place and supper would be on the table waiting for me. What a fantastic start to the weekend I thought. Reality can be a disappointment sometimes though. When I arrived we had a pitch down in the cheap seats, rather like last time, and whilst the roof was up and the floor was down, there were no sides in sight. Could this still be Wednesday I wondered.

Never mind, at least the timetable for the weekend meant we had plenty of time to get everything running sweetly. The first time we go out on track is 3:30 in the afternoon with a 25 minutes free practice session (in the wet). Rod followed up at 4:30 also in the wet. Chris managed to get the MV round in 9th place but was unhappy with the fuelling again which makes the bike hard to ride. Matt was finding his feet with a steady 18th place. Rod was looking steady too with a solid 22nd position of the 41 riders. With any luck qualifying will be dry and we could then show what we could really do.

Saturday arrived warm and dry after all the rain we'd had for the previous 2 rounds. Chris last rode here 5 years ago and the circuit has had some changes since then, Matt of course was here in great form earlier in the year. From the start Chris just went backwards as the Knockhill settings proved to be wildly inappropriate so it became more of a track familiarisation session than a serious qualifying attempt. Matt on the other hand was beginning to enjoy the conditions and finished the session in an impressive 11th position just 1.5 seconds off pole man Steve Brogan who was half a second clear of everyone.

Rod's first qualifying was in cloudy/wet conditions but he managed to post a time good enough for 16th, excellent progress being shown by Rod.

Rod's second qualifying session was in dry conditions later the same day. Now this is one of those strange things, he went over 3 seconds faster and dropped like a stone down to 29th position. Clearly Rod was not a happy bunny after that.

The second qualifying session for Chris and Matt was really a reflection of the first session with Matt pretty much maintaining his position and Chris now having an off on lap 4 after finding a persistent misfire. Fortunately Chris was unhurt and the bike only needed a dusting down, but again valuable track and testing time was lost. Kev and his tem worked really hard to try and locate the mysterious problem on the bike.

Rods Cup race was at 3:50, apparently in sunny/dry conditions. What would be a good result from a 29th position start. I think Rod had resigned himself to the fact a podium was going to be a challenge, in reality breaking out of the top twenty would be pretty damn good. That said Rod got his head down and was riding smoothly and ruthlessly getting up to 16th at one point before being dragged back a couple of places towards the end. A very fine 18th place, so close to the points. Well done Rod, it's all a part of the learning process.

Race day was fun too for the championship. Sunday started dry and got wetter. Some of us could just imagine how things could get worse.

We were due to be the last race of the day, something we always appreciate. It was wet all afternoon making the conditions on the track very difficult indeed. This weekend we had the luxury of watching the ITV Sport repeat and live coverage of the Superbikes at the circuit. Even when it stopped raining the weather never allowed a dry line to appear, at least we knew for certain that it was a wet race.

As the riders went out for their sighting lap the rain started to come down, and it just got heavier and heavier. The race got underway and after 4 laps the red flag came out to cancel the race and for the second time in two meetings we never managed to get to race.

It's hard when that happens to take away positive things from the weekend. However there were many small things that happened away from the actual bike performances that look very positive indeed. No details at this time but as the year progresses and we learn more about racing at this level, and what it will take to race at the next level the more optimistic I think we should be feeling.

It would be rude not to mention some of the obvious changes. We now have Kris looking after the catering side of things and that worked really well, thank you Kris. Warwick's enthusiasm was infectious, Chris, Bob and Nigel, apart from getting wet had a number of startling realisations about the mountain ahead. We can see the top, we now need to plan the route to it.

With the cancellation of this race, we now have two double headers scheduled for later in the year, the Oulton round is now to be held on the Brands Indy circuit next winter (October) at the final round. I have no idea what the cunning plan will be if that gets cancelled too.

All things being equal Victor will get out on the MV at Castle Coombe at the end of the month and we expect he will go well there.

Warwick is off to Japan to ride the Suzuka 8 hours race with Phase One with team mate Glen Richards. We believe that Victor might be riding a wild card entry for the European Superstock round at Brands Hatch at the end of the month before the show moves on to Croft.

As if that isn't enough we shall be attending the MV Owners Club day at Cadwell Park on the 16th August.

Bob

Cadwell Park - 25, 26 and 27 August 2007 -

Cadwell saw the joining up for the rest of this season of X-Bikes and STP Racing in an effort to take the best from both teams and see if we could develop a strong challenge with the MV Agustas for the last few rounds of the Championship and Cup competitions. And so it was that the MV of Martin Buckles lined up alongside the MV of Chris Burns, both bikes having been prepared by Chris at X-Bikes.

Martin Buckles

Martin started the Free Practice session on his familiar #58 bike, and the familiar soft tissue shoulder injury not fully healed. That said, he'd been looking very impressive when we came here a short while ago on the MV Owners Track Day. Martins weekend got off to a flying start with a spectacular 5th place in the first session, less than a second behind pole sitter Jon Kirkham. Very impressive indeed. Martin also gave some valuable feedback that enabled Chris to refine the changes for the first qualifying session later in the day. Martin was also 3rd fastest through the speed trap in sector one so clearly the bikes are well up with the best in terms of power.

In qualifying one Martin quickly found another couple of tenths but such was the ferocity at the sharp end he ended up in 13th place. What was really unfortunate was the front end tucking in up in the wooded section which saw Martin land awkwardly on his bad shoulder again and taking a very hard impact through the straw bales. When the bike came back it looked quite extensively damaged with most of the things that should be on the right side completely missing.

Chris took the bike back to his workshop during the evening and it was worked on overnight, returning to the circuit pretty much rebuilt by 14:00 on Sunday, in time for qualifying two. How these guys have a big crash and then just get back on like nothing happened is, I guess what separates the people that write about it and those that do it.

After the accident Martin found over half a second to put him in the 1min 32 seconds bracket between John Boy Lee and Luke Quigley, impressive stuff but now relegated to 16th on the grid. Once again some good feedback gave Chris some ideas about how to find a confidence inspiring set-up for the race on Monday. But first we have the Monday morning Warm Up to deal with. This is supposed to be a quick 10 minute shake down to make sure the bike is race worthy following overnight fiddling. Although the overall times were slower than for the qualifying Martin showed great spirit with 14th quickest and a promise that the race would go better still.

Cadwell has what must be the most frightening start line in the world. The track looks about 2 metres wide with 4 bikes pretty much abreast, there is no room for mistakes here. Once off the line the next hazard on the thin track is the outrageously fast first left hand uphill corner. What the statistics cannot show is the drama of the race. Martin got a pretty decent start, and just as he was tipping in to the first corner at well over 100 mph another rider clipped him and he went flying off the track and over the grass. All I heard was a large cheer from the crowd as Martin skilfully rode half a lap on the grass before getting the bike, still upright and intact back onto the circuit in last place. From here on it was head down and bum up as he chased down the pack ahead. Martin managed a 32.751 which was the 9th quickest lap out of all the competitors that finished. What would the result have been had he not had that trip to the grass. Well done Martin, a shame you had to ride so hard for no result. Better luck as we go to a circuit many think will suit the MV Agusta.

Chris Burns

As always, Chris was buzzing with excitement at the prospect of getting on the bike and racing again. His enthusiasm for the job is an inspiration to us all. In the Free Practice session Chris was quickly into the 1 minute 34 seconds bracket but was still finding the bike a bit of a handful in many places round the track. Fastest across the Start/Finish line clearly the bike didn't lack power, and also second quickest through the first flowing high speed section showed that the bike had low speed handling deficiencies. Chris finished the session a rather disappointed 16th but with a lot of feedback to give. Back at the workshop all the finest minds we could muster put their collective wisdom into trying to sort the handling dilemma out. A radical solution was suggested, to lower the ride height of the bike both front and back so that it sat closer to the ground. Along with some other tweaks to the front and back that was it.

Qualifying one saw Chris improve from a 34.319 seconds to a 33.6, a whopping 7 tenths improvement although this dropped Chris back one place to 17th. However Chris was much happier with this set up and a few more adjustments, spring changes and thicker fork oil should see the job done. Roll on Qualifying session two tomorrow.

Qualifying two was clearly going to be very important for Chris who was languishing down in 17th place at the beginning of the session. The plan was to get a feel for the new set-up, come in and make any tweaks that time allowed, test those adjustments and then come in in the last 10 minutes to stick a new rear tyre in and go for a good time. With just 6 minutes to go Chris came in and the new rear was duly inserted. As in all good fairy tales the overnight changes, and the new tyre allowed Chris to find some good pace and he went over 1 second quicker to post 10th place on the grid by the end of the session. This is the best qualifying position we've had all year so naturally we were delighted, all of us except one person that is. Chris, being the pro that he is wanted to continue developing the bike until we found the next bit of time he needed to run with the guys at the front, so it was back to burning the brain cells and midnight oil to get an even better set-up. It was gone 11pm before the engineers called it a night, once again the forks having been dropped out of the bike and the ride height lowered again.

Race day Warm Up arrived, and it was very early with deep shadow on some parts of the track, plus it was colder than anyone had ridden all week end. Chris managed to get on the back of a group of three other riders including Glen Richards who is leading the series at the moment. Chris was able to stay with that group for the session which boosted his confidence immensely knowing that he could race at the pace of the guys at the front. As it turned out Chris was 9th quickest in the session just one thousandths of a second behind the talented Ben Wilson. Now we were all feeling good about the race to come.

All that was left to do was some routine tidying up and a quick engine oil and filter change and we were ready to roll.

Chris had experienced problems launching the bike all weekend so it was no doubt in the back of his mind as they lined up for the rather cramped start. As the light went out Chris immediately dropped back as the pack came past him and all the good work in qualifying counted for not much. By the end of the lap he was 17th and on lap 2 he was 15th. He then stayed in 15th which surprised all of us rather, and when he dropped to 16th we knew something was wrong. Eventually he pulled in to the pit lane to tell us that he had clutch slip right from the start and it was now bouncing off the rev limiter in 6th gear. As he only normally uses 5 gears at this track it was clearly too bad to continue. Taking the positives from this though, we know that Chris on the MV is very fast indeed through the quick sections of the track and a place like Donington would suit the bike better than Cadwell anyway. The bike is much closer to being set-up to a competitive standard now and all we can do is look forward to a great weekend at Donington Park.

Matt Whitman

Matt has been having a bit of a nightmare in the last few rounds, after fantastic performances at Oulton Park earlier in the year, then a fantastic Snetterton, things have become real hard work for him. So when in the Free Practice session the Yamaha expired on the first lap we new the weekend was going to be a tough one again. Poor Matt had to sit out the whole session until the bike could be collected from the circuit and brought back to the garage. It quickly became obvious that the problem was electrical, but pinpointing the failure was proving to be very difficult indeed. As a last minute decision with the Yamaha still dead and the first qualifying session looming we prepared the second MV for Matt. That must be a first, a dead Yamaha replaced by an MV Agusta!!

Qualifying one was interesting, Matt hated the MV, every single thing about it, he said the brakes were awful, the engine was rough and peaky, it vibrated and it didn't handle. Apart from that he finished qualifying in a distant last place. Best we don't explore that much more, save to say that Matt likes his Yamaha's.

While all this excitement was taking place the elusive electrical problem was traced to an obscure intermittent failure behind the fuse block. Then it went down to the dyno to see if the problem could be replicated only to find that the bike was about 15 bhp down on power. It turned out that the throttle position sensor (TPS) had failed and was tricking the electronics into doing daft things. The only way we could get Matt remotely competitive was to put him out on Rod's Yamaha, taking the best from both bikes in the process. As it turned out even Rods bike was way down on power too so Matt was on to something of a hiding right from the start.

In the final qualifying session Matt managed to get the Yamaha round five seconds quicker than he did on the MV but the lack of track time really took its toll and left Matt down in 30th position on the back row of the grid.

Morning Warm Up proved that Matt had a lot to offer, while everyone else was going slower, Matt's growing confidence on the track saw him go half a second quicker than in qualifying. At least that bode well for the race.

Matt got off to a flyer at the start and took six scalps on the first lap and another couple on the second leaving him in 24th place. By lap 10 he was in 21st position and was in 18th place starting the last lap. Three quarters of the last lap went really well and he was dicing with Peter Ward when it all ended up a bit dirty. Going into the right hander in the wooded section Matt tried an optimistic overtake and pretty much T-boned Peter and they both fell off the circuit. Always the gentleman Matt gave Peter and apologetic wave as he stepped over him to try and get his own bike running and off to the finish. Sadly it was not to be and Matt was classified as the last person not to finish. Matt's best lap of 1. 33.2. was still quite respectable and would have seen him just outside the points. It was again a whole second quicker than he had been all weekend.

Rod Lynn

Rod had a bit of a roller coaster weekend really. He started the Free Practice on the Yamaha, and finished the race on the MV Agusta. Unfortunately Rod went out without a transponder for the first session so no times were recorded. All we can say is that he looked quite quick.

Qualifying one saw Rod on the Yamaha getting down to some serious work, at the finish he was in 22nd position with a best lap of 1:37.7 seconds. 22nd of 44 it should be said which is pretty much where Rod has been all season really.

Between Qualifying one and two Rod indicated that he'd like to have a go on the MV Agusta that Matt hated so much, this worked out quite well as we wanted to get Matt back on a Yamaha and we could only make one good one from the two we had there. So for the second session we asked the mechanics to make the second MV as close in terms of set-up that we could get to Chris's #1 bike. For a number of reasons it isn't possible to make the bikes identical but what we did was close enough. So the first time Rod rode the bike he went a second quicker than he managed on the Yamaha after a season on the bike. Almost opposite to Matt Rod loved the bike and couldn't find fault with it. This goes to show the difference the personal preferences of riders can be.

Race one saw Rod improve his time again by nearly another second to a low 1:36. which again showed that the basic bike is not a million miles away, it just needs to be personalised for Rod, but we simply didn't have the time. At the end Rod finished a respectable 25th on his first competitive outing on the bike that he hadn't even sat on before this weekend.

Race two was a bit more dramatic with Rod being speared through the leg on the narrow start straight by another riders foot peg. Riding round in pain helped a bit as Rod finished the session in 20th, and very cross indeed. But as a first stab at riding a strange bike that someone else hated that was a pretty good effort and no doubt a great experience for Rod.

Although the results were not what we wanted we had a great weekend and I'd like to take this opportunity of thanking every one involved, without whose support and enthusiasm we wouldn't be able to go racing.

Bob Cooley

Forthcoming Meetings

At all these three-day meetings, the first day is Free Practice, the second is Qualifying and the third is the Main Race Day.

Note: All dates remain subject to change pending FIM/FIA calendar changes and MCRCB circuit inspection procedures.