Brands, October 2001
An early rise at 6:30am to go over the bike for a final time, before donning my leathers and proceeding to scrutineering for the safety side of the preparation to be completed - no problems there, just the usual comments from the scrutineers about wishing all the bikes were prepared the same as this one, and the usual “…are we going to stay aboard? Shame to scratch it…” remarks. Back to the awning to run the bike up to temperature, check for leaks and put in 5 litres of fuel.
Practice went smoothly with no problems apart from the bike feeling a bit spluttery after 10,000 rpm - which suggested the ambient temperature had increased and we would require going down from a 188-185 main jet size to 185-182 for the first race, plus I also checked the powervalves which are critical on the Honda RS 250. After the changes the bike felt noticeably crisper throughout the whole rev range.
Race 1
I was on the 3rd row for this race and was directly behind the newly crowned champion of the 250 GP class Andy Denyer. I had the idea, as you do, of getting a good start and trying to tuck in behind him…as per usual these ideas rarely work out and I bogged the start as everybody and his dog scuttled past me into Paddock bend. I hurtled (or was that turtled) into Paddock really wide, which allowed me to tighten up the exit and get the bike upright earlier, then get on the power a lot quicker. I drove the Honda clean underneath six people and stayed tight on the white line into Druid’s for the 1st lap. I surprised myself by getting up to about 8th so quickly.
Everything was a blur as I quickly disposed of the other competitors including my good friends Alex Symon, on pure power out onto the straight, and Simon ‘Arkwright’ Price into Druids after three laps. For 2 laps I tussled with Simon Gates who was a new face to me and I was impressed with his riding. He cleanly passed me and in turn I passed him back several times. In the end I got rid of him using back markers to block him into Clearways, which made him have to take the long way round……
The leaders, meanwhile, had made their escape and had pulled a 4 second lead. I believe I could have caught Andy Denyer, but not Vince Whittle. However, fate played into my hands and gifted me a 2nd place when Vince’s Crank gave up the ghost after 4 laps, and so there you have it - my first pot in the GP 250 class. I returned to the paddock to be greeted by Kim and the kids cheering loudly and looking as pleased as punch.
We checked over the bike & found no problems other than that the humidity had crept up and I decided to drop the jets one more size, from 185-182 to 182-180 - again this made a crisper feeling to the engine. It was also noted that the rear tyre was cattled, so we put a shiny new Dunlop medium compound onto the rear of the bike, the only problem with that would be that I would have to scrub it in on the warm up lap - which I wasn’t so keen on.
Race 2
Finishing second meant second place on the grid and my first time on the front row in this class. As we pulled up to the start line for the warm up lap I looked around and there was no sign of Vince Whittle, so there were only three of us on the first grid positions, Andy Denyer on pole, me, then Simon Gates. We were flagged off by Jeff row by row which is the norm for the warm up lap, and I shoved the bike forward with my feet then snicked it into gear when it was moving so as to save the clutch. No problems with the new tyre and the bike was revving cleanly. Came up to the line for the start, took a quick look behind and watched the lights.
Holding 9000rpm, slip the clutch and we were away, well sort of. As the front wheel rose in the air as the bike accelerated and I changed up, my bike started to veer towards Simon on my right. Unfortunately his bike was drifting to the left and we locked handlebars, neither backing down, not wanting to loose any time knowing how vital the first corner is. We managed to stay aboard and separate somehow (speaking to him afterwards he said he thought we were both off). We had both lost a few places and Denyer was into the lead. I had the hump by then and came round the outside of ‘Arkwright’ at Paddock bend, steamed straight up the inside of a couple into druids, then hammered it down to Graham Hill bend and up the inside of Simon Gates. I saw Denyer going into Clark curve and went hard in fourth into Clark, down one for clearways and up onto the back of Andy. I produced a lovely drive out onto the straight and slip-streamed him up the main straight, and when he hit the brakes I was still on the tank….
After that I thought just keep your head down as he’s going to come back pretty quickly with that famous ‘take your front wheel away’ move (you’ve been Denyer’d) that Andy has the reputation for, never having witnessed or been on the receiving end of it I didn’t want to hang around and find out. I kept wanting to look over my shoulder but just thought “what’s the point? he’s just waiting for the last lap”. After about 6 laps I started to think “hey, perhaps he’s trying as hard as he can but if he does come past I’m going to stick up his butt and mug him on the last lap into Druids or Graham Hill”, but it never happened and when I came round to the bottom of Paddock waving to the marshal and the family etc., he was just coming into Paddock…. 10 seconds behind WOO! HOO! How cools that????
The marshals were doing their nuts, none more so than Karen, Mary and big Dave. Denyer came past without so much as a wave (sourgrapes possibly, or just pissed off !) I pulled into the off ramp and Pixie was standing there giving it the David Bailey impression ( without the height ). First to meet me was Colin McCready, Andy Davis, his pit bitch and Rik Ballerinni which meant a lot to be honest…. I had a few tears in my eyes after that, the first win since I last raced a GP 250 bike (Harris Rotax 250 EMC). Eleven years ago. The boys said that was one of the best races that they had seen for a long time…….WOW. What an end to 2001 or was it??????????
That evening it was decided to enter the Powerbike race the following day.
Sunday
The bike didn’t feel too good in practice and was reluctant to pull, despite being lean on the main jets. So we went up to 188-190 sizes for the qualifying. How a bike can change in such a short space of time - that just shows how fickle a Grand Prix 250cc bike can be.
Qualifying
We managed about 6 laps and a misfire appeared, which we traced to a faulty spark plug. (doh!)
Powerbike Race
We had qualified last on the grid and the only 250cc bike, despite very little time on track. So it was going to be hard work for sure. I had an appalling start, getting boxed in, but the bike was running a lot better than previously. I had a tremendous scrap with Mark Kingston on a blue and yellow R1 and Zak Barry on his ex Chris Walker Suzuki GSXR750, and finished a creditable 23rd out of 35 starters, with my fastest lap ever around the Brands Indy circuit of 50.84 seconds.
The bike had been lacking drive the last few laps and we wanted to know why, “but hey!!!!!! That can wait…..”.
