Hottrax Motorsport Racing Club Motorcycle Endurance Championship
words and photos by Alfonso Lygo

National Endurance 3 Hours

Graphic UK (Dean Skipper/Basil Bannayi) made the most of the dry in the early moments of qualifying to earn pole with 64.171s just in front of Jimmy Storrar Racing (Neil Garnham/Steve Neate) - Steve enjoying his first endurance race since Le Mans back in April racing under the Hottrax Motorsport banner. Front running outfit TM72 (Andy McKnight/Jonty Dixon) topped out the top 3 only 0.8 sconds shy of pole. Last year's champs Sweatshop (Hugh Brasher/Mick Godfrey) were an uncharachteristic sixth on the grid after missing the last round at Cadwell as Hugh was enjoying fatherhood and coping with sleepless nights!

Wet weather specialist Ryan Peters was caught out right at the start , Ry standing in for a damaged Ryan Myler after a Cadwell spill joining John Blundell in the Tango and Crash camp, dumped his R6 at Copse on the first corner of the first lap of the race, loosing valuable time and rejoining in bottom spot. Sweatshop stamped their authority in the early stages with fast lappery in the worsening track conditions, they had built up a handy 30 second lead over TM72 Racing with Jimmy Storrar and Louth Bikes National chasing in their wake. The weather was master of the first half hour - Ducks Cross Racing went missing around the same time as 1491 Endurance (Andy Pulling/Ian Cooper) and with both bikes recovered the teams faced a rebuilding task to get back out there, a challenge too steep and the teams retired after 20 and 13 laps respectively. Stablemates to Ducks X, Cross Ducks (Mike Eglington/Russ Horton) were experiencing adhesion problems - a common cry along the length of the pitlane as riders and teams got their heads around the challenging and unpredictable weather conditions. Experienced birthday boy Mike Eglington decided to ditch the tyres from his R6 and fit the wheels from the stricken Ducks X machine, improvisation being at the very heart of endurance racing.

At the half way point Sweatshop were leading by three laps in front of TM72, which saw Andy McKnight using team manager Eric Chitty's 750 Suzuki which would be used by Gary Buck in the afternoons Junior Race (hopefully). In third spot overall was Jimmy Storrar's team an undecernable 0.2s ahead of the first 600 team of Louth Bikes (Shaun Hooson/Ralph Naden), Pit Stop Racing (Peter + Marc Dilks), fatblokeracerwear (Andy Rouse/Colin Norris) which saw Norris racing with a crook leg following an off in Fridays testing. Spark Endurance (Shelley Pike/Robert Knoyle) had been as high as fourth were back in 7th ahead of polemen Graphic with Dean getting to grips with National man Matt Layt's Suzuki 1000 K10 which was on loan for the weekend. RAF liveried Roundall Racing (Pete Gibson/Simon Allen) were sharing the same lap as a resurgent Tango & Crash recovering from their early spill and time loss.

For the final hour Sweatshop continued to construct a comfort break over TM72 with top 600 plot; the Pit Stop brothers just down the road and pushing hard to maintain a respecatable distance over the lads from Louth who were on the same lap as the Jimmy Storrar duo. fatblokeracerwear completed the top six and felt comfortable with a couple of laps in hand over T&C and Spark, Graphic were ninth on the road and within striking distance of the two 600 bikes a lap ahead of them with thirty minutes of the race to run - that was the challenge.

In the closing stages the weather was deteriating further and Sweatshop's Godrey pitched in with sub 70s lap - quicker than most trackday heroes in the dry, amazing stuff from the Silver Fox. At the end of the 180 minutes Sweatshop won the race by a considerable five laps over fellow 1000 opposition TM72, who finished with a jumping chain on the borrowed Suzuki. Jimmy Storrar, a team only put together just before practice with two very experienced and talented riders, were third in class ahead of Graphic UK and the charasmatic BMW S1000R of Enviro (Danny Cheevers/Roger Titman/Steve Wong) which was ridden by all three riders. After missing Cadwell, two times winner Sweatshop are in third spot of the championship just four points down on Graphic UK who are six points adrift of the ultra consistant TM72 Racing who have posted a trio of runner up spots, this trio have a mountain of points lead over the rest of the field.

In the 600s it was a massive round of applaus to Nottingham's Pit Stop Racing who won their class and were third on the road ahead of Louth Bikes and fatblokeracerwear joining them on the podium. Spark Endurance were delighted with a well deserved fourth sandwiching the highsiding Tangos with stablemates Roundall Racing, Spark finishing a slender one second ahead of T&C. Speed n Spares (Dave Etherington/Richard Clarke) finished seventh in front of a weary Cross Ducks Racing, unclassified were team mates Ducks X and 1491

Junior Endurance - 3 Hours

Early morning qualifying was a closely contested affair for the seventy one riders chasing pole in wet and unpredictable conditions. Snetterton winners AV-IT Racing (Andy Carpenter/Marcus Langford) were fastest in 71s a tad ahead of Insignia (Rob Loveday/Einar Torlen)

and Cadwell winners TM17 (Gary Buck/Ash Rothwell). In the closing stages of the qualifying session Bucko's Fireball cried enough necessitating the loan of a 750 from fellow Throttlemonkeys TM72. A similar fate affected Racing Snakes' Ian Charles who was loaned a 600 to replace his broken GSXR 1000 to partner Peter Carr on his 'sit up and beg' 750 Suzuki and Michelin Power Cup leading light Ady Allsopp was one of a few 600 pilots who would be classed in the litre class for the three hour encounter when he partnered R1 mounted Martin Townsend in B & M Racing.

In a race that started in heavy rain, we saw AV-IT's Marcus Langford shoot off with B & M's Allsopp plus Insignia's Einar Torlen chasing hard in the unforgiving dense spray. Copse was taking it's haul of fallers in the first hour with the track that was beginning to form a dry line, that combined with standing water was making tricky conditions for the racers. One victim of was Martin Townsend who lost the front of his R1 at Brooklands dumping him to the ground and B & M down the order to 32nd spot, Townsend would set about repairing the R1 whilst Allsopp attempted to get back up the standings, at the same time Suzuki man Steve Callahan also uncharacteristically gave best to Copse ending Team TAR's aspirations for the day.

Conditions were improving to the point that Allsopp was now dipping into the 67 second laps. At the 60 lap mark AV-ITs Marcus Langford's times began to tumble as he wrestled with a rear tyre totally unsuited to the variable track conditions and he was being hunted down by new to series Triumph Challengers Dales Racing (Will Sawyer/Richard Steadman) and BLDS (Bill Lilly/George Harvey) with TM17 gradually loosing touch with the leading trio.

A couple of fallers required another appearances of the pace car which had the effect of bunching the riders up for around twenty minutes, giving rise to a blight of carefully implemented pitstops. Dales Racing made the most of this and their 600 was a lap ahead of class mates BLDS with 1000cc teams Ridgeback (Mark Clark/David Stolliday) and Insignia on the same lap, TM17 and early leaders AV-IT were rounding off the top six. Apex Racing, with a garage full of corporate guests in attendance, had a major off with Adam Woby at the wheel, requiring a long wait to recover the all important transponder before Nick Matthews could continue. After the pace car came in a dry line had appeared, albeit under black clouds. Making the most of a clear track were the top three litre machines of Insignia, TM17 and AV-IT all doing their best to de lap themselves and get back on terms with the leading 600s of Dales and BLDS - given that Ady Allsopp's 600 was currently the quickest thing around, this would be a tough call. Indeed on the two hour mark the heavens opened as the TLS Timekeepers confirmed that the two 600s of Dales and BLDS still reigned ahead with one and two laps in hand over the four 1000 teams of Ridgeback, Insignia, TM17 and AV-IT, the third placed 600 was DNA Racing (Dan Jennings/Adam Parsons).

In the third and final hour Langford showed that with the right rubber he was well up for it and was soon in second spot on his bright yellow AV-IT machine, two laps down on Dales but this did not matter as they were in different classes. Whilst Dales were first on the road with thirty minutes to go they luxuriated in a two lap cushion over the next 600 of BLDS who held the same gap over DNA Racing, the next 600 was MC Racing (Richard Payne/Jason McKinnon) back in 14th overall. The challenge for the 1000cc was hotting up with AV-IT on a charge only 30 seconds ahead of TM17 and strategists calculated a win for either would hinge on the rider changes in the final thirty minutes, Banzai (Rupert Thompson/Ben Jenkins) were the third placed thousand twenty seconds ahead of Ridgeback with Insignia in seventh place overall. With fifteen minutes left on the clock Dales looked sorted for a class and race win but AV-IT made their final pit stop allowing TM17 to leap frog into top spot with little time difference, Langford tried a little too hard on his immaculate Fireblade and was pitched off at Copse loosing him a certain second and dropping him out of contention down to ninth spot on the road. At the same time Ridgeback were putting in some very fast laps, indeed much quicker than TM17 and BLDS; at the end of the totally unpredictable three hour race we had Dales, who's brace of Triumph 675s never faltered, take the flag with a three lap lead over the resurgent Ridgeback who finished top thousand team over BLDS who were 22 seconds adrift and only 5 seconds ahead of second in class TM17. Banzai and Sherwood Suzuki (Carl Dodwell/Sean Everett) were next litre teams ahead of third in class DNA in seventh overall. The next eight places were all in the 1000cc class and included Old and Bold fifth in class ahead of AV-IT, Marcus restarting after his late off at Copse.

Where are they all in the championship running? 600 first round winners DNA are 8 points ahead of Cadwell top men in blue, JR Racing with the Ducati mounted LA Stone people in third a single point ahead of MC Racing - don't forget BLDS Couriers who have had two second places after a DNF at Snetterton are just around the corner in fifth. 1000cc teams see AV-IT still at the top of the tree despite an indiscretion at Silverstone over the well run TM17 with surprised but delighted winners at Silverstone; Ridgeback in third. Several teams are well in contention and not far away including Banzai, Sherwood Suzuki and Insignia, the next round is Oulton in July where many of the teams and riders are yet to visit and test.