Adam Blacklock in action last year
News from our lad Adam Blacklock from his first round races in the British Supersport 600 Championship at Brands Hatch last weekend and it ain't good. As planned the new engine was slapped into the bike (a Yamaha R6 if you've forgotten) on the Thursday night ready for practice the next day. First off there was a charging problem. That was fixed and then the fuelling went all to cock. Of course in the old days you'd have re-jetted the carbs and all would be dandy but today you have to link the bike up to a lap-top and do all sorts of clever things with mapping.
After a lot of fettling it was decided that the best idea was to put the 'safe' engine that had been used for testing back into the bike. It wouldn't have the power of a new race engine but at least it would get Adam out in the race at a half decent pace. But of course this is racing and it's never that simple. The safe engine went sick without notice and when put on the dyno was only producing around 114bhp. You can't run the dyno at Brands later than 7.00pm so the team had to go up to Stevenage and work all night on trying to find out what was wrong. They never did.
Rather than send Adam out for a race with a missing 20bhp, the team decided to concentrate on next weekend's race at Oulton Park. It'll be another week of all-nighters hopefully with the end result of a fit and healthy 135bhp R6 race motor. We'll let you know after Oulton Park.
Original article below (from 21.04.11):
If you're nipping down to Brands Hatch this weekend for the opening round of the BSB championship (and looking at the weather forecast I can't see why you wouldn't be), then keep a look out for PH2's latest recruit.
Look into my eye... You will give me Smileys...
His name is Adam Blacklock and we've pinned our colours all over him for the season ahead, so keep your eyes peeled for the rider covered from helmet to toe in PistonHeads 'Smileys'.
(Shouldn't be hard to spot, he says he's trying to be near the front. Ed.)
Blacklock is only seventeen and is working his way up the professional bike racer's ladder. At the moment he's on the Supersport rung, racing an M8motorsport Yamaha R6 in the British Supersport 600 championship.
Young Adam has come up through what is now the accepted route: mini moto straight from nappies and then to Spain to race 125 'strokers. He went to Spain with his best mate, another racer called Scott Redding who is now in Moto2. (PH2ers will possibly have heard of him.)
We caught up with Adam this morning while he was on his way down to Brands in the team van. (Which is the most exciting way of telling you that ace(sic) PH2 contributor Colin Goodwin (Yonah) spoke to him on the phone... Ed.)
Yonah: Your background is two-strokes - how difficult has it been to convert to four-stroke 600s?
Adam: They've got two wheels and a throttle. They're just another sort of bike. The big difference was getting used to engine braking and to the difference lines that you need to take.
On a four-stroke you're squaring off the corner, aiming it, stopping it, turning and then getting it as straight as possible and opening the throttle. On a two-stroke 125 it's all about keeping up momentum so you take a more sweeping line.
When did you first ride a four-stroke?
Last year I raced in the Superstock 600 class and at the end of the season three rounds of the Supersport championship. It was a bit of a mix and match year but a very good education.
What's the goal for this weekend?
Well, tonight we have to finish putting the race engine together.
Isn't that an important part of the bike?
We've been testing the chassis in Spain with another engine and I entered a couple of club races and won both. We'll be good to go. Besides, there's a lot of track time at Brands. There's 45 minutes of practice on Friday evening. The same again on Saturday and then a 45min qualifying. Sunday is a warm up then race 1 and Monday race 2.
Daniel Cooper and then of course there's Steve Plater who's got masses of experience. I'm riding in the 'Cup' championship which is for people who haven't raced in Supersports before. It's a sort of add-on to the main race. There's a separate podium but if you came third in the race and first in the Cup class then you'd be on the podium twice. I'd like very much to be on the Cup podium this weekend. Within a couple of rounds I want to be well into the top ten overall.
*Not PHer Mr Will, although he is on a promise this weekend. (We expect.)
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