Email: info@spellfameracing.co.uk
Below are a few short summaries of the races in this year. To jump to a section, click it below.
Anglesey
Snetterton
Pembrey
Snetterton
Cadwell
Mallory
Silverstone
2008 was our inaugural year in bike racing. The rounds included, Anglesey, Snetterton (twice) Pembrey, Cadwell, Mallory and finally Silverstone. We finished 8th in class which was a pretty decent result considering that we had a DNF and one disqualification and were running 750s in the 1000 class
This was our first ever race and our first ever time at this track. The circuit was the coastal track and it was bitterly cold in April. The air was very clear and you could see the north Wales mountains in Snowdonia. It was so cold that there was still snow on the peaks and a freezing wind was blowing off the mountains right across Anglesey.
As with pretty well all our races there is a track day the day before so we spent that day learning the track.
On the Saturday there was practice, qualifying and then the race itself. Richard is always a bit quicker than me in qualifying and we came 15th out of about 32 teams which were a mix of the 600 class together with the unlimited class that we were in.
We had decided that the fastest qualifier is the one who starts the race. The start is a Le Mans start with the rider running across the track whilst the other team member hold the bike, he then jumps on the bike, starts the engine and revs off. Richard is dead good at this and he always starts the race first in our team and makes up a few places in the first few seconds of the race.
Each rider does 30 minutes and then swaps the transponder between bikes and another 30 minutes is done by the second rider and this goes on depending on how long the race is.
The safety car was used several times due to folks falling off.
The result was that we came 8th. Which was brilliant!!!.  But NOT! We had been disqualified. Oh bugger!Richard had had a bollocking in qualifying for some yellow flag infringement . He then had a two minute penalty in one of his stints for overtaking on a yellow flag, and then the coup de grace came when I was three riders behind the safety car and when it pulled off I overtook before I had re-crossed the start and finish line (by about 10 foot).Â
We weren't happy, but at least we had proved that we could be competitive and if we hadn't had the two minute penalty and not been disqualified then we may have been up to 7th!
It was wet on the Friday trackday. So we had some good practice on wets which we needed.
I was going pretty well and getting some reasonable times in and then suddenly I fell off at the Esses. For the life of me I don't know how I did it. Richard reckons that I may have just touched a white line.
Anyway the bike was not badly damaged although I wrote off my helmet with a big groove in it. I had broken my footrest and gear lever but I was able to fix them pretty quickly and was out by my next session.
On the Saturday we qualified about 23rd out of about 35 teams, but we had a good race and ended up 7th in class which on a fast track like Snetterton is really decent as we expected to be slaughtered by the big bikes.
The weather was the big problem at this race. At Anglesey and Snetterton it had threatened to rain for both races but had held off.
On the ACU test day on the Friday we had great weather and had put in some competitive times. On the Saturday it was very grey and it was threatening all through practice and qualifying.
It started raining and Richard set off on wets, but it stopped raining so we had a very stressful 30 minutes where I had the wheels off and on about three times as the track was drying out but the sky was looking black. In the end I left the wets on and with the rules that were in place at that time I had to do all my sessions on whatever I started on. A little bit of rain did arrive but mostly it was dry and I almost scrubbed the whole tread off my Metzeler wets.
We qualified 16th out of about 26 teams but we didn't progress as much as we had before and finished 9th in class.
This was now July and I wasn't able to do the practice track day due to holidays. My wife has still not forgiven me for forcing us back from hols one day early so that I could race. I have to say I really appreciated her flexibility even if she was not happy about it.
The track day had been full of incidents and had been closed for half a day as a track dayer had been killed on the start finish straight. It certainly makes you think.
The race day was very gloomy, but we managed to qualify in the dry at about 17th out of 35 teams. The race started dry and we thought that we would be lucky based on where the clouds were scudding across the sky so I kept my drys on. Then just as Richard was coming in it bucketed down. I had to go out and teeter totter around for 30 minutes in drys! Going down Rivett straight it was like being in a power shower, you couldn't see more than 20 yards in front of you and the bikes were hidden in clouds of spray. T certainly made your braking point difficult to spot. Pretty stressful and I was so glad when the pit board said "IN".
Richard had changed to wets and went well. I looked for my wets and couldn't find them. Richard had used my wheels (as we both have GSXRs albeit different years. I put his wheels on and then found the brakes didn't fit. I have radial calipers and he didn't, but luckily a K5 would fit a Y but not vice versa although we found out later that the brake pads were only sweeping 60% of the discs!!! I had to change the discs over and only just finished by my turn.
We finished the race 5th in class, which was not bad at all. But was a bit galling that we were only 1 second behind Rawlings Racing and I had apparently been making 2 seconds a lap on them so with one extra lap we could have got 4th! Still a pretty good result and it shows how rain evens up the power differential.
At last, great weather. Both the track day and the race day were dry. It was a great weekend. Nothing particular of note. We qualified in 18th place out of about 30 teams.
We finished 8th in class and it was good to beat Rawlings Racing after Snetterton.
This race was on a Sunday and we hadn't been to the track day on Friday so were a bit rusty. We qualified in about 16th place out of 25 teams. Richard started first and was lapping at slower than usual times as his gearbox was playing up. I then went out and put some pretty decent laps in until suddenly I lost the back end coming out of the Devil's Elbow and couldn't save it and threw my bike down the road after only 8 laps. I was ok but the bike couldn't be fixed and we were a DNF. I was really pissed off as all that effort and no result. I subsequently found out my rear tyre was 15 psi too high. Unfortunately I increase the pressure when it the bike is on the trailer due to the groove that the bike sits on on the trailer is slightly too small and deforms the tyre. I just forgot to check the pressures. Tosser!
The last race of the season.
Richard had just bought the bargain of the century with a K5 GSXR1000. So we expected great things of him and at least get 2 seconds a lap due to the two fast straights on the National circuit. It didn't turn out that way. We qualified about 20th out of 26 teams which was not that good. Also Richard got hit in the eye as he set off as he had his visor up at the start. It actually made his eyeball bleed. We knew he had a problem as his lap times were just awful and they didn't recover until his last session. Well when I say recover he still was only able to beat my best lap by 0.02 second!!!