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Posts Tagged ‘thundersport gb’

Managed to overcome a difficult start to the weekend

We have passed the half way point in the season and the famous Brands Hatch Indy circuit was next to welcome the Thundersport GB Championships as spectators get treated to a full line up in the Termignoni Superstock 600 class.

I would like to say the weekend went very well and smoothly, but unfortunately, it didn’t.

From Cadwell Park, we made some big changes suspension-wise, in our constant quest to get that extra bit of grip.

Lack of grip exiting corners has been one of my weaker points this season so far, but after trying completely new, radical changes, I felt we improved greatly on getting on the gas much earlier, and much harder.

Although, this plagued us with chronic handling issues almost everywhere around the track. I did expect some teething issues with the new rear setup, but nothing this extreme. Gradually we began improving on the setup with a few tweaks here and there, and started dropping the lap times, but only three 20 minute sessions before qualifying simply wasn’t enough to iron out all the problems.

We went into the first qualifying knowing it was going to be an uphill struggle, as the pace was so fierce. Weather conditions were ideal, meaning lap record pace was reached after a couple laps. This wasn’t great for me as no matter how hard I tried to push, everytime I tried to string a good lap together, I would have a big moment almost putting me in the kitty litter. I ended the first qualifying down in 15th place.

After a night of discussion and debate, we made major changes to the damping on both the front end and rear of the bike, but as there was no practice sessions before the next qualifying, it was a bit of an educated guess.

The next morning we were greeted by cold, windy, overcast conditions, which unlike the first qualifying, was far from ideal. I went out for my 2nd attempt at qualifiying and instantly, the suspension felt much better. I managed to knock almost a full second off my lap time, despite the worse conditions. Although improving my time and position and qualifying well inside the top 10, the grid was decided by overall best times, meaning everyone set their best laps in the previous day’s qualifiying. This meant I was only promoted one position on the grid to 14th.

I felt fairly condifent for the race after making leaps and bounds forwards with the suspension. I made a reasonable start, but was instantly caught up in the messy traffic into first corner, losing a couple of positions on the run down into Druids harpin. I dropped down to around 17th, but I got my head down and pushed hard, but again, I was plagued by handling problems, and no matter how hard I pushed, I was constantly fighting to hold my lines. I eventually managed to squeeze a few positions back, eventually finshing in 13th.

For the second race we had to make some more big changes, as I still felt we were still a long way out in the first race, with struggling to turn in whilst on the brakes, hold a line on acceleration and get the power onto the track without spinning.

With some very much appreciated advice from championship leader, Seb Bulpin, we tweaked the damping on the front end, and with a turn of preload off the rear with some soft pressures in the tyres, which made all the difference. This time I had a fairly good start into 10th place before the first corner and had a good line ready for Druids harpin, but unfortunately, a rider up front made a mistake on the brakes, running wide and causing a chain reaction behind, and I ended up being caught up in someone elses mess. I dropped back a few positions, but found myself in a close battle for 6th place.

The race started to settle down and I was sitting in 9th place looking for an opportunity to pass when I was slipstreaming a rider in front of me coming onto the home straight, when without warning, he completely closed the throttle and pulled into the pits at the very last minute. I had to hit the brakes very hard, coming within millimetres of hitting his rear wheel and crashing at well over 120mph.

Again, because of a very bad manover on the other rider’s behalf, I was caught up in a mess that wasn’t my own doing and lost a position and about 3 seconds as a result.

Despite this, I finished in 10th place, which I’m happy with considering my lap times, which I dramatically reduced by over a second from the first race and was now into the 49’s, only 0.4 of second off the top 3 lap times.

Thanks for reading,
Greg #31

You can follow Greg’s progress on www.gregjames.co.uk or www.gtsuperbikes.co.uk.

Also, be sure to visit GT Superbikes online shop; www.gtsuperbikes.com

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the circuit of Pembrey hosted the opening round of the Termignoni Superstock 600 championship. With the weather delivering an early taste of summer as temperatures soared, it provided ideal conditions for some specatular racing throughout the Thundersport GB event.

We arrived at the Carmarthenshire circuit Thursday evening and began to set up and prepare for Friday’s testing. I spent the first two sessions getting comfortable with the bike, riding around and getting a feel for the track. The bike felt great right from the start, and I immediately started shaving my lap times, knocking on the door of the 1’01’s. We made a few minor adjustment after each session, making sutble changes to try and catch those few extra tenths. Unfortunately, on my fourth session out, I suffered quite a nasty crash at the Old Harpin. The back end locked up on the enterance to the corner and then highsided me on the exit, coming down very hard on the back of my head along with the bike flipping and landing on top of me.

The marshall’s were excellent and recongised the seriousness of the crash and red flagged the session immediately as the bike was still on the circuit.

The team worked extremely hard to repair the bike ready for Saturday’s racing, including trips back  to the Llantristant showroom to strip parts of other bikes. Although, I wasn’t feeling to great, as I suffered from quite bad whiplash, hip and ankle injures.

In qualifying, I intially struggled with my hip and ankle, finding it painful when trying to move around on the bike, but once I settled down and found a rhythm, it wasn’t so bad. As the session went on, I was starting to feel more pain each lap, and couldn’t match my testing pace, but still managed to qualify 13th, which I was happy with considering the circumstances.

Race 1 (Saturday)

I knew my first race was going to be very challenging, as I was struggling just to walk, and I had a 18 lap race to contend with. I got off the line fairly well, but was boxed out at the 1st harpin dropping me down to 14th. I started off quite slow, which allowed the group in front  to open a gap. As the race  started settle down, I was suprised to find I had much more mid-race pace than the group in front and started closing them down. Within 2-3 laps, I was on their tails, and started to make my way through the pack. I spent around 3 laps battling with them, unable to make a break, but eventually, I got to the front and had around 6 seconds of empty tarmac in front of me. I got my head down and started to gap the group behind, and in the meantine, was drastically closing the gap in front as well. By the last lap, I had shrunk the gap in front down to just over a second, but was too late to make a pass. I eventually crossed the line in 10th place.

Race 2 (Sunday)

Fortunately for myself, Sunday’s race format was slightly different from the previous day. Instead of one 18 lap race, it would now by two 12 lap races. This was better for me as I was seriously struggling with the injures I picked up in Friday’s crash and the longer race were proving very difficult.

This time, I had a better start, getting into 10th place through the first corner. I found myself in a battle for 10th place for the first few laps, but was trying hard to make a break before the group in front pulled a gap. I managed to make a break from the group behind and closed down the group in front. I knew I couldn’t spend as much time as I did in Race 1 to make my moves as the race was now much shorter, so I tried my best to cut through the pack with as little time as possible. On lap 8 I hit the front of the group, putting me in 8th position, but with no chance of 7th as he was around 8 seconds in front. I knew the group behind would be latching on to me, taking full advantage of any mistake I made so I got my head down I concentrated on opening up a gap. By the last lap, I managed to open up a 3 second gap which was reassuring as I was now really struggling to cope with the pain from my hip. I was still very happy to score my first top 10 in the new class, and achieved what I aimed to do before the weekend.

Race 3 (Sunday)

I come to terms with the fact I could no longer get the same lap times as I did on Friday testing with my injuries, so I had a talk with suspension expert, Chris Moore from MKW suspension and focused on making the bike easier to ride since I couldn’t ride as aggressively no more. It also helped me towards the end of the race so I wasn’t hurting so much.

This time, I had a lightening start off the grid, moving from 13th into 4th by the first corner. I managed to hold this for a couple of laps when two riders came past me putting me into 6th position. I held onto them for as long as I could, but I couldn’t quite match their pace. Then around mid-race, another rider passed me on the brakes into the first harpin. Again, I couldn’t match his lap time and he began to open a gap, but this is where the bike setup I went with paid off. I knew I couldn’t produce lightening quick lap times, so I focused on consistency and put in 6 laps within under 0.1 seconds of my fastest lap back to back. This allowed me to close the gap to him and on the very last corner of the last lap, I was able to take a big lunge up the inside to reclaim my 6th position across the line.

I would just like to say a massive thank you to GT Superbikes for providing me with a truely amazing bike and all my other sponsors who have supported me. Also, a huge thanks to all my friends and family would supported me over the weekend, helped to build my bike and gave me that little extra encouragement when I needed it.

Thanks for reading,
Greg #31