Members racing thread

[mak]

IanUAE said:

So last Friday saw the 1st race day of the season for UAE bike championships (600cc Supersport, 600cc Superstock and Ducati 959 Twins). We are racing our new to us Ten Kate built CBR600RR in the superstock class and have signed Tell Technologies as our title sponsor.

We won our class in both races and finished 2nd overall to Mike Edwards (959) in race 1 and won race 2 overall. Happy days.

Living the dream there mate, whenever I see the UK pictures of club racing on hear its pissing it down and there's no Lycra clad attractive women hanging about either . That's a serious team investment you have running there, and yes I do no its not club racing

[CaptainSlow]

Is there any race series in the UK that is semi competitive on older bikes, say 70s or 80s? Ie a bike version of the gentlemen's classic car racing?

[Jazoli]

CaptainSlow said:

Is there any race series in the UK that is semi competitive on older bikes, say 70s or 80s? Ie a bike version of the gentlemen's classic car racing?

Have a poke around the Bemsee or NGRacing, CMRC and Thundersport pages, there's quite a few clubs racing older stuff.

[moto_traxport]

Jazoli said:

CaptainSlow said:

Is there any race series in the UK that is semi competitive on older bikes, say 70s or 80s? Ie a bike version of the gentlemen's classic car racing?

Have a poke around the Bemsee or NGRacing, CMRC and Thundersport pages, there's quite a few clubs racing older stuff.

If you want the atmosphere of racing without actually racing then CRMC do ‘parading’ )bit like a gentleman’s trackday) in the middle of their race days. You need an eligible bike and other paperwork. Their big event for this is always early August at Donington.

[IanUAE]

mak said:

Living the dream there mate, whenever I see the UK pictures of club racing on hear its pissing it down and there's no Lycra clad attractive women hanging about either . That's a serious team investment you have running there, and yes I do no its not club racing

The team owner (who is also the rider) has been very good at getting sponsors over the years and we have invested this money back into the branding of the pits, bike, leathers etc.

The ladies are part of another team whose rider is female (she finished 3rd in class in race 2).

I am very lucking in that both teams I help (TMR and MSK) go about their racing seriously but want to enjoy their racing.

[StuB]

IanUAE said:

I am very lucking in that both teams I help (TMR and MSK) go about their racing seriously but want to enjoy their racing.

So many people get this wrong IMHO. Taking stuff too serious sucks all the fun out of so many things,

[graeme4130]

StuB said:

IanUAE said:

I am very lucking in that both teams I help (TMR and MSK) go about their racing seriously but want to enjoy their racing.

So many people get this wrong IMHO. Taking stuff too serious sucks all the fun out of so many things,

I totally agree. It’s safe to assume that none of us are getting a GP call up, so just enjoying it is the main thing

[stew-STR160]

graeme4130 said:

StuB said:

IanUAE said:

I am very lucking in that both teams I help (TMR and MSK) go about their racing seriously but want to enjoy their racing.

So many people get this wrong IMHO. Taking stuff too serious sucks all the fun out of so many things,

I totally agree. It’s safe to assume that none of us are getting a GP call up, so just enjoying it is the main thing

Speak for yourself...I was expecting a call to take the #2 Honda seat...

[graeme4130]

stew-STR160 said:

graeme4130 said:

StuB said:

IanUAE said:

I am very lucking in that both teams I help (TMR and MSK) go about their racing seriously but want to enjoy their racing.

So many people get this wrong IMHO. Taking stuff too serious sucks all the fun out of so many things,

I totally agree. It’s safe to assume that none of us are getting a GP call up, so just enjoying it is the main thing

Speak for yourself...I was expecting a call to take the #2 Honda seat...

[CaptainSlow]

How does it work with the higher level racing teams re rider payments?

At what level does it switch from the rider paying the team to the team paying the rider? Or does it depend on the team? The reason I ask is that I saw an advert for a ride in the Ducati based BSB support championship for the cost of £22k for the season...I always assumed the rider would either get a small fee or at least not pay for the ride at this level.

[George29]

CaptainSlow said:

How does it work with the higher level racing teams re rider payments?

At what level does it switch from the rider paying the team to the team paying the rider? Or does it depend on the team? The reason I ask is that I saw an advert for a ride in the Ducati based BSB support championship for the cost of £22k for the season...I always assumed the rider would either get a small fee or at least not pay for the ride at this level.

People in BSB are paying to ride. Not many get paid at all.

Also the Ducati championship isn’t that high level. There’s some really fast lads at the front then some fairly slow people at the back. Don’t really see the point in it myself.

[graeme4130]

George29 said:

CaptainSlow said:

How does it work with the higher level racing teams re rider payments?

At what level does it switch from the rider paying the team to the team paying the rider? Or does it depend on the team? The reason I ask is that I saw an advert for a ride in the Ducati based BSB support championship for the cost of £22k for the season...I always assumed the rider would either get a small fee or at least not pay for the ride at this level.

People in BSB are paying to ride. Not many get paid at all.

Also the Ducati championship isn’t that high level. There’s some really fast lads at the front then some fairly slow people at the back. Don’t really see the point in it myself.

Yeah, agree with George. Ducati Tri options is kinda like a token series put on by BSB with payment to them from Ducati
I'm good mates with the lad that won the championship this year, and he didn't take a penny from it, but was lucky enough to have a sponsor that paid for his bike and entire season costs.
I think pretty much every other rider in that class is either providing their own bike etc and running themselves, or paying a team for the season at a cost not dissimilar to what you've been quoted
The economics of BSB racing are as said above, most riders are bringing money to the teams, even quite a few of the 'big names' too
There's really very few riders that are actually taking a salary, and for most of the really good riders, not having to bring cash is a good deal. Typically, a very good rider in SST1000 would be paying his tyre/fuel bill at least (Circa £2k/round) plus accident damage, and there's only a couple that take any form of salary in SST1000
I know of a rider in the Superbike class, who's bill for his team this year was a few Hundred £k. Luckily, he has very well off parents

Edited by graeme4130 on Wednesday 18th December 16:46

[IanUAE]

A bit of a late update but we raced in Dubai a couple of weekends ago. The rider stuck the bike on pole position but crashed out of 2nd place on lap 3 of race 1 (at ~100 kph), which resulted in twisted forks / top yolk amonght other damage. We rolled out the bike we retired from racing duties and swapped the wheels, fitted bodywork, bled the brakes, changed the battery and just managed to get him out for formation lap.

I told the rider to take it easy and get used to the bike...... From last place on the grid he finished lap 1 in 3rd place and went on to finish 2nd overall and 1st in class. Riders hey, any message goes in one ear and straight out the other.......

This weekend I am off to Bahrain for round 3 of their championship, where we will have 6 riders racing in our team.

[graeme4130]

IanUAE said:

A bit of a late update but we raced in Dubai a couple of weekends ago. The rider stuck the bike on pole position but crashed out of 2nd place on lap 3 of race 1 (at ~100 kph), which resulted in twisted forks / top yolk amonght other damage. We rolled out the bike we retired from racing duties and swapped the wheels, fitted bodywork, bled the brakes, changed the battery and just managed to get him out for formation lap.

I told the rider to take it easy and get used to the bike...... From last place on the grid he finished lap 1 in 3rd place and went on to finish 2nd overall and 1st in class. Riders hey, any message goes in one ear and straight out the other.......

This weekend I am off to Bahrain for round 3 of their championship, where we will have 6 riders racing in our team.

Good work that guy. I bet your heart sank as a pit crew when the bike came back in pieces ?

[mattrg]

My ACU licence arrived this week! looking forward to a bit of racing next season :-)

[graeme4130]

mattrg said:

My ACU licence arrived this week! looking forward to a bit of racing next season :-)

Good lad, what you racing ?

[graeme4130]

So my racing budget's going to reduce somewhat for 2020 as my 13 year old son is going to start racing on big tracks on a new Ninja400 we've just had built by MSS this month.
He's got his ACU test on Feb 16th at Brands, and we're off out to Cartagena for 4 days of testing before his season starts in March.
It'll be good to have him on big tracks as after a few years of racing mini motos then a Metrakit 50 and later a KTM65, he's looking forward to actually riding on big tracks instead of glorified Kart tracks

[mattrg]

graeme4130 said:

mattrg said:

My ACU licence arrived this week! looking forward to a bit of racing next season :-)

Good lad, what you racing ?

Think i'm going to start with a bit of EMRA in the CB500 class. Should be a bit of fun, maybe a round of two of no limits on my CB too.

[datsunman]

mattrg said:

Think i'm going to start with a bit of EMRA in the CB500 class. Should be a bit of fun, maybe a round of two of no limits on my CB too.

Good stuff, will see you on the grid. (Race No 211).

[IanUAE]

Update time:

Thursday January 9th: Fly to Bahrain
Friday January 10th: We have guest rider, the first female Saudi bike racer. Pre-race track, 1 after noon session then rain so rest of the track day is cancelled. Circuit cancels the race day as no rider has wets or street tyres (everybody was on semi-slicks)
Saturday January 11th: Flight back to Dubai cancelled due to rain and flooded airport
Sunday January 12th: Land in Dubai at 7am, home, shower and straight to work.

Thursday January 23rd: Fly to Bahrain
Friday January 24th: 4 of the usual riders + same Saudi female racer. No rain this time and we finished with a 3rd and 2nd place trophy in the 2 races. As soon as race finished head the airport with Saudi female racer.
Saturday January 25th: Arrive at the Dubai Autodrome at 05:20 foe tech inspection. We finished both races 2nd overall but 1st in class, with the Saudi female racer winning the rookie award in the both Ducati 959 races.

We have 2 more rounds to go in Bahrain and Dubai and there is talk of the next rounds being Dubai on a Friday and Bahrain on Saturday, which will then see me fly to Uganda for work on Feb 23rd.....