TrackCRAFT Race Track Tuition - Alan Lygo goes back to school - Aug 09
TrackCRAFT Race Track Tuition is a unique and effective approach to working with riders of all abilities totally focussed on improving performance and results. Working together and sharing their wealth of experience are Mark Linscott whose CV includes British TT F1 Champion in the nineties, two times Cock of the North champion as well as World Superbikes and World Endurance, finishing 10th overall in 1991 after serious injury dropped me from 2nd in the title hunt, more recently National Endurance Junior and Masters champion with two different teams 2007-9. Race partner,Mike Dickenson, has a wealth of regional and national South African championships to his name and has appeared in World Super Sport. From 2001 Mike ran a reknowned race school in ZA as well as managing teams and riders at the highest level. Over in the UK, he joined Mark and nailed the 2008 & 2009 National Masters Endurance titles with an impecable record in preperation and reliability. The two men are supported by Mike's wife, the understanding and knowledgable Sarah.
TrackCRAFT start working with riders by establishing and managing their expectations. Once agreed there are a whole range of ways in which TrackCRAFT can start chipping away at making competitors quicker, smoother and more consistent.
Before Session One and the TrackCRAFT team analise the quickest riding lines and it is made clear that they are looking for consistent lines and improved corner speed, using the full track width and ways to utilize the nature and charackteristics of the circuit they are working on.
For me there was an opportunity to clarify on track rider communications and how did that quickshifter work? It was over 30 years since I last rode a race bike in anger at Snetterton and that was on a Yamaha TZ350 so my learning curve with TrackCRAFT would be steep.
Post session debriefs where an active discusssion between rider and coaches on identifying recognised areas for improvement, as well as where some hard work was required were prioritised and reinforced by Mike. A task list was established and agreed before venturing out again and it was agreed I would pick up my pace whilst preserving the quickest lines around the turns and straights of the track. Much time was spent identifying best placed braking, turn in, apex and exit points.
As I gained confidence and pace, I was encouraged to maximize the rev range but I needed to cover the speedo up after seeing 150mph + on the back straight running into the Esses. Mid morning and the coaches worked hard together to point out which parts of the circuit made a significant contribution to slashing lap times and making smoother and quicker times more likely.
Session three, for me was all about correcting my over eagerness to grab a handful of front brake and scrubbing speed which would take weeks to get back again. My huge chunks of lost time could be replaced with a bit of 'shutting off' or a small feathering of the lever which would be enough to stabilize bike and rider around that particular part of the circuit before cracking on.
What worked well for me was that after the lunchbreak I had the support of Mark who was quick at diagnosing where Mike had taken me, it may have been a different coach but it was the same strong message for riding and performnce improvement. The two coaches have a professional understanding of the psychology of racing and were clear and correct in identifying where what went on in my head could affect my riding.
Whilst I had the benefit of borrowing Mark's 2007 R1 which makes 173 bhp (his 2009 version shows 186 at the back wheel) riders will use their own racebike as TrackCRAFT will offer solid advice over setting up your bike for the rider, circuit or conditions and are bound to save you time before leaving the garage and heading for the track.
As well as working with riders such as me who have no ambitions to race at a competitive level, TrackCRAFT have worked with championship contesting Hottrax Motorsport teams; Freaks of Nature Too, First Form Racing, NR Racing and In the Dog House - all with significant effect. Freaks rider Mark Whiston is typical in his feedback abouth the positive effect TrackCRAFT have had on his performance both on and off the track;
"I was really looking forward to my time with Mark Linscott and Mike Dickenson because my team mate Dave Stewardson and I had booked some coaching time with TrackCRAFT Race Track Tuition. So much anticipation and excitement that I felt like a kid again about to take my bike test, nervous does not even begin to explain how I felt and I have to say that they are very perceptive and they had weighed us up before we had even got out on track (In fact I think they watch all the racers on the track).
Mark & Mike are superb instructors and structure the day in such a way as to encourage the best from any rider. I cannot say enough good things; I would defiantly do it again"
TrackCRAFT will work with any racer or serious trackday participant, and at any venue and the very reasonable costs are set once the rider's needs have been established.
Contact TrackCRAFT via their website www.track-craft.com Or if you want to discuss face to face, call 01332 611801 or 07831447166
How did Macca do in The Ardennes?
Even at Silverstone last September, when Macca announced his retirement from the Hottrrax Motorsport championship as outgoing champion I was not fully convinced we has seen the last of the Ginja Ninja. At the Awards Dinner in February I asked if an ACU license had been applied for and received a fudged answer (should have gone into politics Mark) – so it was no real surprise when I was texted by MSH to say he was on his way to Spa and the weather forecast was for wet weather (naturally, this is Spa in the Summer months)
XZ Racing had entered a late seventies vintage Honda CB1100R with riders; Mark Smith Halvorsen and Herman Verboven – instead of using my own waffling words this is the transcript of Mark’s text messages throughout the weekend:
Text One
Early free practice times put us 5th out of a field of 77, with Macca's time of 2:59:6. Due to a crash in another class, Macca's qualifying postponed until 8.35 this evening. Team mate Herman 'the German' Verboven posts a similar 2:59: in his qualifying session, but the field has now upped the pace and we sit in 15th. To be followed by Night practice. Amazing what you can get a 29 year old bike to do.
Text Two
Following the team briefing this morning, the grid was announced. With 70 starters and 8 non-qualifiers, after last nights practice, we are 10th on the grid. A few warm up sessions today, where we are making minor adjustments and getting things ready for the first half of the race. It Starts at 7.30 this evening and runs until 10pm. We then have the second part tomorrow, for an hour and a half during the afternoon. Crazy or what?
Text Three
The start at 7.30 sees Macca piling down to Eau Rouge in the pouring rain - on dry tyres - no wets allowed! Its dark and its wet, but the first lap sees him in 7th. Splashing his way round, the team change tactics as the XZ Racing Honda climbs the leader board. The big man pits after 75 mins in 3rd and hands over to Herman who is due to do equally as long to finish our racing tonight. Ominously, after an alternator failure earlier, the bike has to be bumped to start it on the way out?
Text Four
Unfortunately the local weather is still prevailing. Still, we have until 3.30pm. You’re not in a half bad spot though eh?
Overall 8th - without the blown fuse we would have been on the podium. What a circuit, what a weekend. And God gave me my water wings back. Gotta go, there's cold beer waiting. Good night.
As I was in London staying with friends I was able to blag a laptop and watch the weekend’s racing via ris-timing.be – at the conclusion of Race 1 the XZ Honda finished a ball breaking 5th place only 10 seconds down on podium placed local ace Stephane Mertens on a Team Bike entry. Further down the huge field was Graham Wade (11th) on a P&M Suzuki, Team Glam (James Clarke/Geoff McMullan/Kawasaki) were 12th, two places ahead of Steves Boam and Clark on a Harris Suzuki. The Brit pack was rounded off by Mario Costello + Mike Edwards peddling an Eric Offenstadt framed Kawasaki.
Race 2, held on the Sunday, saw Team Bike finish fifth with Macca & Co in a useful eight, Brits Mark George/Steve Dobbie/Harris Kawasaki, the two Steves were in 44th place with Graham Wade + the Costello/Spike entry further down the field.
For XZ it would appear a good weekend but competitive riders are never satisfied with their performance, to quote Macca – “we would have been on the podium out of 71 starters if it wasn’t for the blip with the 10p fuse. On the other hand, the bike stopped half way up to La Source, so I could quickly (that’s exaggerating) push it back to the pits - on a 7k circuit, that perhaps is very lucky.”
Definitely one for next year I think……right back to the tennis at Wimbledon
Ps – also worth pointing out that in the ICGP race (350 TZ Yams and stuff!) our own Ian Simpson won from Luke Notton, Guy Bertin, Chris Bishop, Bruno Kneubuhler, Richard Peers-Jones and Steve Clarke on the first 250 past the flag – a good day out for the Brits
What's the story Dave?
Whilst doing some research for another project over winter, I fell upon two photos of Dave Railton I had taken in pre season testing in March 1988 (good grief that's 21 years ago!) - the story behind the photos is;
2008 Pre Christmas Racecar Testing
Whilst the majority of the UK are shivering and going about their business – motor racing drivers are still out there, on track and braving the elements testing new cars or modifications in readiness for the 2009 season. Unlike bikers, who probably put their bikes into hibernation over winter whilst a proportion of car racers are a dedicated lot and the season goes on.
The four wheel world is different from that of bikes and many young aspirants see this as a viable career path, rather than just a sport, hobby or passion. These are the drivers who, with varying amounts of talent and funding will be seeking advice and testing (courting) with new teams with a view to starting off in the best possible position next March.
With teams, cars and sponsorship in place they will be back on track mid February testing around the circuits of GB. Spotted recently at Donington and Rockingham were little gems like Josh Hill (grandson of Graham) moving from Ginetta Sports into Formula Ford with the Jamun works team, receiving advice from father, Damon. Henry Surtees has been guided by father John and is now seeing International F3 as the next step to success. Other nippers hoping to score an indelible mark on the 2009 racing scene includes much home grown talent; Ben Barker, Tim Blanchard, Wayne Boyd, James Calado, Adrian Campfield, James Cole, Garry Findlay, Ollie + Sam Hancock, William Herron, Callum Holland, Chris Malliepaard, Ollie Millroy, Josh Mulholland, Ollie Oakes, Nick Percat, Chrissie Palmer, Will Stevens, Dean Stoneman, James Theodore, Ollie Webb, Luke Williams, Jordan Williams, Nick Yelloly and first time in a racing car – Ryan Singleton, younger brother of Richard in the family run Formula Renault.
Further down the pit lane Honda are making a return to BTCC and testing a variety of high calibre candidates including a returning Piggy Thompson from WTCC. Also around is the 3m tall Matt Neal trying new bits on the works Vauxhall alongside team mate Giovanardi. Throw in the evergreen duo of Simon Hadfield and Martin Stretton who get to renovate and test the most amazing cars in the world, people like Barry ‘Whizzo’ Williams, Marc Hynes and Andrew Kirkaldy passing on their expertise to younger pilots and the place is busy.
2008 F3 Champ Jaime Alguersari – moving into F2/GP2 in ’09 is out and about supporting fellow Red Bull sponsored colleague Daniel Ricciardi who takes over his seat at Carlin Motorsport. Drivers like Super-Oz Brendon Hartley, Oliver Turvey, Sam Abay, Sergio Perez, Steven Guerrero and our on Nick Tandy will be looking to knock on the F1 testing door within a couple of years.
To round up I must mention the sterling work being done by UK manufacturer Ginetta with MD Lawrence Tomlinson at the wheel in testing various models for domestic and international GT forays, ditto the works Aston Martin being peddled by Stefan Mucke to great effect.
HMRC Officials at Work
The less said the better........
Hottrax Heros in the 2008 Nationals
How did the Hottrax riders do on the national stage?
Clearly the most important motorcycle championship in the UK is the Hottrax Motorsport Racing Club endurance series, however few of us realise that some of our regular riders are fortunate enough to be competing at other levels both home and abroad.
Jovial but rapid rider Pete Jennings appeared on board the championship winning GBMoto R1, his day job is crew chief with Rizla Suzuki who have vastly improved this year to guide Tom Sykes into 4th place within BSB and team mate Atsushi Watanabe further down the table whilst landing bronze position in the manufactures championship.
Also appearing on the same bill as BSB were Welsh Superstock 1000 pilots Phil Bevan and Rod Lynn who also enjoyed considerable kudos in endurance racing with race winners Co-Ordit
Racing and Sweatshop Moores. Part of the Co-Ordit mob was Notts rider Richard Cooper who was part of the BMW works endurance team racing at world level and winning their class. The diminutive Cooperman must have been one of the busiest racers on the planet as other weekends between March and October saw him racing or winning in Superstock 1000, Rob McElnea’s Henderson R1 Cup where he struck a singleton win and finished 7th overall and nailed a brace of wins and no less than three second places in the KTM Super Duke R Battle making third in the championship all his own. On his spare weekends Pidcock’s white van man charged around Darley Moor as if he owned the place winning both legs of the annual Stars at Darley bash as well as testing more development Beemers than you could shake a stick at on his days off!
Moores' man, appearing at Cadwell, James Hurrell also saw service in Superstock 1000, whilst in Supersport 600 HMRC runners Craig Fitzpatrick notched up 13th overall with a highly creditable 1st in the Cup; the rapid and personable Jenny Tinmouth was 7th in the Cup and other regular riders appearing included Ben Wylie, Jon Railton and Sam Neate.
As well as Cooperman, Phil Bevan and Danny Brill made their presence felt in the Henderson R1 races and bike journo Bruce Wilson joined Coops in the KTM Super Duke R Battle during 2008. It was a real pleasure to see Maria Costello racing in a wide variety of settings, in addition to HMRC Mario was also at the Manx, TT and other demanding strips of tarmac around the UK.
Other regular Hottrax riders have a racing life outside endurance racing, Moores men Jim Agombar and Tony Jimenez are both very accomplished competitors on the classic/historic scene and there will be others including young chargers. Keep an eye out for Fred Russo and Tom Young who have been campaigning Honda CB500s all season and moved up to R6 Yams fairly recently – 2009 should be a successful time for them.
At World Endurance Championship level, most of the HMRC jockeys probably wished they could participate but only Alex Cudlin and Richard Cooper obliged. Other people making one off appearances of note included the man from Cork, Declan Swanton and Keith Pringle – if I have left anyone off the list of incredibly talented people, to me all riders are heroes to appear in Endurance Racing. 
Super dooper Cooperman
Guernsey Kart Club Hillclimb in Alderney, Channel Islands – September 08
As part of my wife's birthday present this year, I had organised a short trip to one of the smaller Channel Islands – Alderney, to appreciate the flora + forna whilst we were staying at Jez (nephew) & Sandrine's (French wife) house on the Cherbourg peninsula in France. Jez’ place is 80 miles from Le Mans, the village hosts the final round of the French Supermoto championship and has an international Moto X track within a couple of miles – perfect……
Much of my time was invested in sitting on a sunny terrace with an aperitif or two reading Sir Ranulf Fiennes’ autobiography – which included reference to Hugh Brasher’s father Chris. Fiennes rose to many incomprehensible challenges along the way including a series of events called Eco Challenge, Chris was penciled in for one such appearance but failed to make the starting grid on that occasion.
We travelled from the small but picturesque port of Dielette via St Peter Port in Guernsey where we had to alight and go through customs to get back on the ferry again. I could have met up with friends in SPP as I have lived on Guernsey and been a frequent visitor over the past 35 years; Mick Cataroche – former Airport Fire Chief, wife Sue, John Bichard + Victoria avid petrol heads who commentate on motorsport events or those two brilliant people who are part of the GBMoto set up and HMRC scene; Katy Lowe and Sarah Ozanne but time was short.
Imagine my surprise when we arrived at the Alderney harbour and alighted from the Victor Hugo ferry to the sound of racing engines!
Unsurprisingly there is much rivalry between the largest two Channel Islands ~ Jersey and Guernsey and once a year the Guernsey relish the opportunity to perform on nearby Alderney which boasts a population of less than 3000 people and measures approx 1.5 miles x 3.5 miles. The island does have a beefy hillclimb course and a fair old straight to charge up and down on which go together to comprise this annual two day feast.
Dry and bright conditions hung around both day’s racing and the programme shows a healthy mix of four wheels (from special saloons to F1 clones), three wheels and two (125 to above 1000cc).
These people taking part are not shy, many are accomplished engineers (a must living on an island) and their equipment is the very best you can buy. Mike Dean, now competing in a motorcycle engined single seater was pushing the Top 12 National hill climbers in the UK up until last season in an F1 derivative and top 250cc Honda man Phillip Gillou regularly thrashes England’s top two stroke people at national level. All from an island boasting a 35mph speed limit!
2008 8 hours of Oschersleben
Any other queries, feel free to drop me a line on alfonso@moto-endurance.com
Alfonso Lygo