M and M Racing - News

Brands Hatch 12th & 13th April 2008.

So, that’s it, the season has started for me. I had minor knee surgery 4 weeks before Brands, so I was not expecting to be at full speed however, Saturday (the first day of the two days racing) turned out to be a belter of a day.
The weather forecast for Saturday was sun and showers, but the day was great, it only rained once and as the club took a lunch break when it happened, it meant that I had 4 DRY RACES.
The usual bad starts for me, I don’t know what to do about it, but whatever I do I somehow get it wrong, inside the pack or around the outside or even trying the normal racing line at the first corner, it makes little difference, blocked in or out!!
I did have some great races, even a duel with number 27 in my last race of the day (power-bike final), I think he passed me twice and I managed to get by him three times, all in one race! GREAT FUN.
My lap times were consistent in the 54 – 55 second bracket, with a new best lap for me of 54.49, so I was quite happy with my day.
I have had a slight change of attitude towards racing, having realised that not everyone can be a front runner, I have accepted that I will only ever be racing for fun, and as such I have relaxed into getting the pleasure out of racing and stopped pressurising myself to finish higher up, I race as fast as I can and just see where that leaves me at the end of each race, I also do not race if I don’t fancy the conditions on the day.
Sunday, turned out to be a wet day, with the frequent showers that were predicted. I tottered around in open qualifying as it went from the dry start to rain/wet during the first 3 laps, and I had Slick tyres on.
The wheels were changed 2 or 3 times more during the day, inter’s, then wets etc, but I didn’t go out for all 4 races, in-fact I only went out for the open class qualifier and race, it was just too wet, I decided, if you are not going to enjoy it, then don’t do it.
Due to my new attitude towards racing and attending race meetings, I was pleased with the weekend, enjoyed Saturday on track a lot and made the right decision about the conditions on Sunday.

Pre Season - March 2008.

We are finally ready to take the bike on track again, it has been 4 X Months since our last race in 2007 (Thruxton), and the repairs to the bike after the massive crash have only just been completed. The list of damage is below:

1) ECU blown up (new US spec ecu purchased)
2) Front fork leg bent and seals blown (new fork leg outer, seals and oils)
3) Fairing seat unit smashed beyond repair (spare seat unit used and painted)
4) Front fairing damaged (spare fairing used and painted)
5) Belly pan holed (spare belly pan used and painted)
6) Seat sub-frame bent (bent back into shape with heat and persuasion)
7) Engine fault found (slipped valve timing pulley)
8) Foot rest hanger broken (gilles replacement found)
9) Rear brake pedal broken (gilles replacement found)
10) Silencer bent beyond repair and link pipe (spare link pipe used and second hand silencer ebayed)
11) General electrical tidy up, new main loom and rewire all additional electrical items into the new loom.

As you can imagine, this has not been a cheap winter. Thank you to Tony (my brother), for keeping the bike at his and working his way through all the damage, replacing, repairing and repainting as he went along, I have said it before, but, I could not continue to race if it wasn’t for Tony’s continued support. I promise I will try not to crash so much this season as I did last year.