All pictures kindly taken by Kerry

Anglesey Costal 1.55 miles

27 July 2008

Race 7; Race for grid position FE; 6 laps

As normal with club racing, there is a qualifying race to set the starting positions of the races over the weekend.

I (Phil) was on pole, Liam was on second (due to championship point standings), and Giles and Steve were not far away. Our old friend, Dennis Sholicar, on his super quick FZR1000, was back on the scene and was given 12th.

Liam and I had just put a new rear tyre on so, when the lights went down, I started off at a less than normal frantic pace i.e. slow. I was soon shocked; before the Hairpin on the fast straight Dennis had passed us and was gone!

It was then left for me and Liam to fight it out for second and third place. I’m sure we must have passed one another two or three times per lap, though it was great fun and scary at times, this was not helping us catch Dennis.

At one point we caught a back marker just after the Banking, Liam went to take him on the outside as he was about 1 metre from the edge of the track, I held a tight line out of the Banking but as I passed the backmarker on the right, Liam suddenly swerved to the right side nearly taking me out, if I hadn’t had swerved myself we would have been swapping paint and insurance details!. I had a quick glance at Liam as if to say ‘Shit! That was close’.

On the final lap I passed him before the fast right hander (Church) and Liam never did his normal ‘win it or bin it’ move into the Hairpin, so I passed the finish line only 0.6” in front to take second and Liam took third.

Race 15; Race for Championship points; 6 laps

In the first race Liam pointed out that he was catching up to me, leading up to the Hairpin, he thought it was down to me braking early but I pointed out that I was in fact at 10,000 revs in top gear (red line at 9500) and was simply holding it to the stop and over revving the engine. With this in mind I dropped the rear sprocket back to 41t from the 42t fitted, hoping this would drop the revs and not lose too much on acceleration and save my engine such hard abuse.

Dennis, even though he finished first, was deducted 10 seconds, due to his jump start, (that’s why he caught us up so quick!) and so was positioned fourth. I was first, Liam second. Giles had had a braking problem so was placed 10th and Steve, still trying to get to grips with the FJ Racer and its slipping clutch, was in 17th.

With no tyre issues I made a good start. By the second bend (Banking) Dennis had taken Liam and was behind me before Church., I put my head down and, not looking back, nailed it on the back straight towards the Hairpin. The ‘Fudge’ was still pulling to 10,000 revs (must have been doing well over 150mph, up hill) but it was really shifting and I was now braking harder due to the faster top speed for the tight Hairpin.

After about 3 laps I had a look behind only to find that Dennis was only about 100 metres behind, still too close for comfort so I got my head down again. The only moment I had was a slight power slide coming out from the Banking, very controllable and not too worrying.

On the Fifth lap I had another quick look behind, only Dennis was there and still a good distance behind, so I did the last lap knowing that Dennis would have to ride like a racing god to make that ground up so long as I didn’t mess it up. I did a clean lap with no mistakes to finish first both on track and in class.

Liam had got fourth on track but third in class (but as Dennis was not taking championship points it meant 2nd place for points).

Giles had got an excellent 4th and Steve 5th.

It transpired that on my 5th lap I broke my own lap record set last year with a 1’15.34” lap, total time of 7:38.43 for 6 laps

Liam had made a best lap of 1’17.19”, this is a 1.7” second lap faster than the last race in May so a great improvement.

Giles was lapping around 1’22 same as last race while Steve was doing 1’24 at over a second faster and this was with a slipping clutch.

Race 25; Race for Trophy; 6 laps.

Decided to take the spare FJ Racer out instead of my Yellow FJ Racer. This would give it a shake down as it had not been used in anger all season.

Got a good start only to get Dennis pass me on the fast straight leading up to the Hairpin. Caught him up on the braking only for Dennis to have a moment which looked like he lost the front end., I took avoiding action only to find my bike went dead. Thought I had perhaps hit the ignition switch so after a quick check and dumping the clutch again, it didn’t start. I put up my arm to warn others only to have Liam pass me on the outside of the Hairpin ‘On the grass’ trying not to fall off and get back onto the track without hitting any of the other riders.

I watched the remainder of the race from the Hairpin. Liam had got back up to fourth behind two 400cc bikes (these bikes are quick so don’t let the cc make you think otherwise) while Dennis was ahead in front.

Lap three, Dennis came past with his bike popping and farting, he was in trouble, he gave me a quick wave as he new it was over for him and me.

Liam was like the ‘dog and the rabbit’ with the 400cc bike, and with some brilliant out-breaking moves into the hairpin took second. On the final lap Liam did another ‘win it or bin it move’ against Tim Bradley to finally get first on track and in class. In doing so he had knocked his best time down to 1’16” ‘AMAZING’.

Giles got a excellent 3rd and this meant his first well deserved trophy. Steve got a fantastic fourth and took another .6 second off his best lap. Well done lads.

Other races; Power Bikes

As normal we all entered the open class of Power Bikes. It’s a great opportunity to get more track time in and have fun with the faster bikes. Liam got a great 10th place on the last race while I was out with the broken spare FJ.

Also worth mentioning was that Giles did a 1’20” lap in the last race, a massive 2 second improvement onhis previous best time.

Phil 'Doc' on his Yellow FJ Racer, ..... hoping Liam isn't going to make his 'win it or bin it' move before the next bend

Liam 'Corky' number 32 making the FJ look small, ...... whilst hunting down Doc

Giles 'Mr Toad' looking cool ..... but inside that helmet is a different story

Steve 'Who' ...... thinking "if only my clutch wasn't slipping I'll have those other FJ boys"