2 Wins from 2 Starts and Lap Record Smashed at Oulton Park!

The team have an excellent weekend at a scorching Oulton Park

"I've always loved Oulton Park, but never really gone quick there.." Explains Lee.

"In the first race I got held up by a group of GP1 Bikes and struggled to get past them, I won the Supertwins race but was a little frustrated as I felt I was being held up."

"The 2nd race was probably the best race this season so far, I got a good start and again found myself stuck behind a gaggle of GP1 bikes, and was a little bit too patient with them, as Scot Adam passed me.

"The race was on!.. Scot managed to pick his way through the GP1 bikes and I chased after him, about 2 laps from the end of the race we were passed the GP1 bikes that were holding us up and were setting a good pace."

"I was comfortable behind Scot and could see where I was quicker than him, out of druids on the penultimate lap I got really good drive and passed Scot on the brakes into Lodge, as I crossed the start line I saw the last lap flag and got my head down.."

"I knew if I put in a good half a lap I could ride the rest of the lap defensive and make it really difficult for Scot to try and re-pass. When we got to Hizzy's and I was still in the lead I was confident I'd be able to hold the lead. I thought out of the corner of my eye I'd seen Scot miss the chicane, but wasn't sure so pressed on with the plan of riding the remainder of the lap in defensive mode."

"I crossed the line first with Scot just behind and saw on the lap timer I'd got into the 44's - which was even more pleasing as I'd broke the Supertwins lap record by 4.2 seconds!"

"Great days racing (The weather was a little too hot), shame the track was littered with cement dust as I'm sure we'd gone quicker!"

"Scot was riding like a man possessed, leaving darkies out of every corner, thanks for a great race Scot!"

"Big thanks to all the team, Mum & Dad, Stuart, Les, Jackie and Paul Noble for his ever entertaining company!.. And to top it all I won £10 on the lottery last night! Whoopee!!"

Highlights from Race 2 @ Cadwell Park

A Mountain to Climb at Cadwell Park!

After such bad weather at Snetterton, the team were hoping for a nice weekend at Cadwell Park, it was not to be (at least not until Monday Afternoon)..

"We'd got Dave Allenby (Ducati Specialist) coming to help us on the Saturday with bike setup and was hoping for good weather, but it wasn't to be and after 2 dampish sessions the weather turned bad and it rained all day" says Lee.

"So Dave basically set the bikes up how he thought they should be and I got out on the wet bike in the pouring rain to see how it felt. Its no secret that I've really struggled with the Ducati in the wet and after some big crashes in wet conditions my confidence it the wet has been completly shot!"

"The bike felt a lot different and it took me a while to get used to it, then Les Liney came past and I was determined to stay with him, the more I pushed the bike the better it felt and I actually started to enjoy riding round in the wet again!"

"When it came to our qualifying session it was really wet and despite getting held up for a couple of laps, and the session ending early due to a red flag, I managed to qualify top Supertwin and 7th overall in GP1 - I was really pleased with the progress we'd made in the wet."

"On the Sunday we had another qualifying session and unfortunately my visor was steaming up and I could hardly see at all, I really struggled and because the track was a lot less wet than the saturday session I slipped down the qualifying sheet."

"All day Sunday it was wet one minute, then dry, then hail, then dry etc etc, an absolute nightmare!.. When it came to our Superpole race the track was drying and the only option was Slicks (even though the track was soaking wet through the woodland section)."

"I made a decision to bide my time in the race, and hope that the track dried out a bit more before pushing too hard as it was a 14 lap race. I started steady and Les & Scot both pulled away from me, then by about lap 4 or 5 I started to winde up the pace and soon caught them and took the lead and finished 8th in the GP1 race."

"On Monday warm-up was damp so I didn't bother going out. Then our troubles began!...."

"When we went to change the wheels on the dry bike, Stuart noticed a crack in the right hand fork leg bottom. With no spare and only an hour before our first race the only option was to use the wet bike for the first race."

"When I went off on the warm-up lap I thought I could smell burning clutch plates, when the race started I realised I was right! I was lucky that I was half way down the grid as the bike barely pulled off the line."

"When ever I tried to open the throttle the clutch just slipped, to the point where I was probably only doing 50mph down the straights! But with the Supertwin numbers being low I decided to carry on and scrape as many points as I could, and just tried to carry as much corner speed as I could."

"The race seemed to last a life-time and when I got back was really supprised to find I'd finished 3rd overall!"

"So now we'd got our work cut out.. I wanted to run the fast bike for the final race, but the forks are different on the bikes, so it meant swapping the whole front ends on both bikes, without the facilities to do it!"

"It was all hands to deck, Dad, Les, Lou, Stuart and myself worked on the bikes and finally got the No.1 bike sorted. I now had a bike I could ride, although the forks were going to be too soft and I was convinced we'd not got them far enough through the yokes, at least we could race!"

"The race started and I was a bit sluggish off the line (After loosing the clutch in the race before I didn't want to burn another one out!), I think I passed Scot into Park Corner and was up behind Les, who took me a lap or so to pass (The wily fox that he is!).. I then caught a group of 3 GP1 bikes who were dicing, including my pal Angelo De Rosa."

"I was getting held up and despite one of the GP1 Riders making it hard work for me I knew I had to get passed them, heading into Park one lap Angelo made a move on the guy in front of him and I decided to pass the pair of them, I just made it round and was on the tail of the rider leading the group, I then passed him on the brakes into Mansfield and got my head down.."

"I then had clear track and set about trying to put a good lap time in, when I saw 35's come up on the dash I knew I must have broken the guys behind me and settle down to finish the race."

"I knew when I came into Parc Ferme I'd won the Supertwins race, but was amazed when an excited Dad said to me "You were 3rd in the GP1 race, you might even be 2nd as Peter Baker might be disqualified!" .. I couldn't believe it.."

"Sure enough there had been a couple of fallers in the GP1 race and Peter Baker was disqualified so I'd finished 2nd overall - my best result in the GP1 race!"

"I'd just managed to beat my own PB time, despite really struggling passing people and the bike not wanting to turn due to I think the front of the bike being to tall!"

"So a mental weekend, but all turned out good in the end! BIG BIG THANKS to Dave Allenby for his amazing wisdom, Mum & Dad, Stuart of www.silksandshoes.com, Lou, Darren @ DP Signs for getting the new fairings ready and of course Jackie for holding the fort at home!"

"Lots of work to do now before Oulton Park, but we'll be there and expect a fight, Paul Noble is dusting down his SP1, Duncan Gibson will be back, and Les is now right on the pace!"

Scarey Racing @ Snett!

Extreme weather makes for scarey racing at Snetterton

"I had to miss the Practice and Qualifying sessions on Saturday due to attending a good friends wedding (Congratulations Tony & Jo - great day!)" Explains Lee.

"I knew I was going to be on the back foot, with the rest of the field being up to speed (especially as the weather was good on Saturday) by the time I turned up on Sunday morning. Fortunately we had another qualifying session, unfortunately it was raining and I had no chance of getting a decent time - especially as we had problems with the wet bike and literally had to limp it round for 3 laps just so I had done the required 3 laps in order to enter the races."

"So with no quick laps this year at Snetterton and starting from the back of the grid I lined up on the grid for race 1 on Sunday. The rain had stopped and the track was dry, but there was a hell of a wind making riding really hard work."

"It took me a lot longer to get down to a reasonable lap time than I thought it would take, by half race distance I started to get going, by this point Les Liney and Scot Adam were so far ahead I couldn't even see them as I entered the back-straight. I then found myself behind pro-bike that was heavily blowing oil and it took me a lap or two to have the confidence to get up behind him and pass as I was certain he was laying down oil and was going to crash."

"I eventually passed him and started trying to work on my lap times, I started to see Scot and Les and could see I was catching them by a couple of seconds a lap, but with them probably 10 seconds ahead of me did not think I would have time to catch them."

"Suddenly I found myself on the back of Scot, I'd been keeping an eye out for the last lap flag and had not seen it, so when I caught Scot I planned to pass him on the next lap, but as we crossed the finish line the chequered flag was out! - Gutted, as I could have pushed and made a pass round the last corner. Still relatively happy with the race considering lack of track time and the weather and I set the fastest lap by 1 second for the Supertwins."

"Well chuffed for my buddy Les Liney who rode an awesome race and took the win, he's just getting used to the 1098 and I'm sure his pace will increase as the season goes on."

"Monday brought changeable weather and still the strong wind - that strong awnings were blow away and all sorts, it was very scarey down the back straight!"

"The first race started dry and I took the lead in the Supertwins and started to pull a gab, then it started to rain! Out on slick tyres I started to struggle, but pushed on, as soon as I saw the GP1 bike ahead of me leaving tracks in the wet tramac and a few of the front runners crashing out I really knocked off the pace."

I rode round expecting Les to come by (he'd got treaded tyres on) and sure enough he did, but I tried to hang on to him, then Scot came past. The following laps turned into an awesome race, with all 3 of us taking the lead whilst trying to work out how much grip there was. On the last lap I was in 2nd and planned to pass Les into Russels, but Les managed to pass a GP1 bike just before and I could not make the pass, but finished 2nd in the Twins."

The 2nd race started late and started spitting rain as we headed to the grid, with slicks on again I knew it was going to be hard work again. Scot Adam took the lead with me right on his tail, but all the time trying to feel for grip as it continued to rain in places on the ciruit. I was happy following Scot around and watching to judge the grip levels from his pace then on lap 7 as we headed to turn one there was a wall of rain, I tip-toed through turn 1 and headed for turn 2 where there was a wall of hail stones to greet us and the race was red flagged."

Well done to Les and Scot on there wins, a bit frustraiting for me as I know if we'd have had dry races I would have took the wins on Sunday and was aiming to push for top 5/6 in the GP1 races, but really glad to have come away from the meeting in one piece and a good lump of points."

Gutted for Duncan Gibson who had engine problems during testing and went home, I'm certain he would have done well at the weekend and the rest of us would have had to pull the pin to keep up with Dunc, especially when the weather turned bad!"

Great Weather & Results in Wales

Lee wins all 3 races at Pembrey, and sets personal best lap time in the process.

"I expected it to be a 3 way dice for the win, with myself, Duncan Gibson and Scot Adam - and from Qualifying it certainly looked the case, all three of us qualifed next to each other on the grid, with me fastest by half a second." says Lee.

"In the first race I got a terrible start and Duncan & Scot got away from me slightly, but on Lap 3 Scot out-broke himself and crashed at the hairpin taking Duncan down as well, which left me in a lonely race just clocking off the laps for the win."

"On the Sunday I made much better starts in both races and although Duncan put me under pressure in both races, he was suffering from grip issues and I managed to secure the win in both"

"Great weekend, lovely weather (If not a little too nice!), looking forward to Snetterton in a months time"

Problems at Mallory!

"The day started with the generator packing up. We need a powerful (5.5KVA) generator to power the starter for the bike, and in the end managed to scrounge power from the circuit. All this carry on mean't I'd forgotten to check tyre pressures and after qualifying found I'd gone out on a front tyre with way too much tyre pressure and a rear with not enough!"

"So we qualified badly, and started the Allcomers race from the 4th row. I picked my way through the field to 8th place, but as I crossed the finish line the bike started making a lot of noise, I knocked the engine off and rolled to a stop at the exit of pit lane."

"The exhaust header on the front cylinder had cracked and we thought we were out of the meeting. However, Dad & Andy put together a contraption to try and hold the header in place and we got out for the final race."

"In the race I got a bad start (as usual) put picked my way up to 3rd. I notice the leaders only about a second a head of me were having a dice and pressed on hoping their battling would allow me to catch them up. As I got on the back of 2nd place we started to catch back-markers and it always went against me, twice I was millimetres from crashing into the slower riders and basically ran out of laps to make any more progress."

"Busy now making sure we have a better weekend at Pembrey!"

Great start to the new season!

Lee bags 3 wins from 3 starts at the opening round at Mallory Park

"It was very cold and coming back from such a bad injury last year the last thing I wanted to do was throw myself down the track again." Explains Lee, "I did not expect to step on the top step of the podium this weekend once never mind all 3 times. Mind you, Duncan Gibson tried hard to stop me, I've known Duncan for years and he's certainly picked up the pace and a force to be reckoned with this year."

"We wouldn't have had it all our way if Scot Adam didn't have a nightmare weekend plagued with bike problems, I'm certain it will be at least a 3-way fight at the next round at Pembrey."

"Thanks to all my supporters at the weekend, including the usual team, also Tony @ Moto Corse and Stuart and his good lady from www.silksandshoes.com."