Giving It A Miss...

After the run of bad luck and non-finishes in the first half of the season, coupled with some health issues that weren't going away I took the decision to miss the remaining races.

I also stepped down from my organisational roles with the BSSO and decided to concentrate on getting my health back to where it should be.

I had a huge amount of support from my fellow riders and had some wonderfully touching emails and messages.  I went to Pembrey, Lydden and Mallory as a spectator and managed to spend a fair time stripping engines and gearboxes for Chris Geyton!

The engine casing was repaired and the bike checked over for any other issues.

I spent the summer trying to relax a bit and get better.  I started cycling again and changed diet, and after some professional assistance started to feel much better by the end of September.

So half a stone lighter and feeling much better I decided to enter Cadwell as a last chance to be on track.  Unfortunately I managed to find myself banned from the race by the BHR committee which was a bit of a shock and somewhat of a storm in a teacup.  Its a whole subject on its own.... but lets just leave it that its now been sorted with a small apology from me and a big one back to me !

So I was allowed a race at Cadwell ahead of their committee meeting where I got the chance to put my side.....

I concentrated on just getting finishes.  The tablets I have been taking mess around a bit with balance, and after a summer off and the lack of track time, I really struggled with corner speed but the engine felt strong with good straight line speed so hopefully the mag housing problems are now cured!

This was the final round of the 2011 Championship and was my worst year yet !   Oh well...... its behind me now and I have 7 months to concentrate on health and wellbeing for 2012.

6 times back to back Champion Charlie Edmonds has retired so Group 4 will be wide open next year!

Cadwell Park....... only bad luck continues!

Sorry to have been so long before another update ........   but I have had a couple of months scoot free!


So...... after rebuilding the engine after Donington I was hoping for a bit better luck...  but alas... no!


We were racing on the full circuit and after a trouble free practice,   we lined up for race 1.  i was midfield on the grid of auto's and geared scooters at the right hand side of row 5.....  in front of me was fellow Replay Rider Rob Sumner, in front of him was Tony Rudd who was also behind his teammate - James Campen.


As the red lights went out I got a great start and went right at the edge of the track and was immediately past Rob Sumner and fast approaching Tony Rudd.  As I did Tony suddenly slowed and then the next thing I knew he had slammed his brakes on......  Bang!!!!!   nowhere for me to go but smack into him under almost flat out acceleration.  I didn't have time to brake myself and Tony was just launched into the air!


Watch the video below to see more!

I managed to stay upright after what felt like a pretty big impact but sadly Tony was headfirst into the track!  i slowed and saw him get up which I must admit was a pretty big relief!  I was now flat last but carried on and made up a bit of track space......  adrenalin was flowing for sure!


As I came across the start line at the end of the first lap I saw Tony on his feet having moved his bike so i breathed a sigh of relief!


As the last lap approached.... something didn't feel quite right.  There was a vibration and then shortly after coming over The Mountain, and going through the left right left flicks of Halls Bends the back end stepped sideways and there was a screeching noise and I stopped rather suddenly... but managed to stay somehow upright!

I pulled off to the inside of the track where a check at the rear end revealed the rear wheel at a crazy angle to the bike!  The rear hub had sheared and had an almost perfectly formed hole in the centre, leaving the nut attached to the layshaft!

How about this for something that could really mess up your whole day!? >>


I had to push the stricken bike down to the start line and await recovery back to the paddock!  Phil reaney obliged with the recovery van and after a lengthy delay I was back in the paddock!


The sheared hub was a source of amusement and interest to many people..... having such a failure certainly makes your bum tweak I can assure you that much!


Luckily Rayspeed had brought a couple of hubs for Chalky and I was able to borrow one of this in order to get out for race 2.


I went off to find Tony Rudd and make sure he was OK.  He was a little battered and bruised as was his scooter - which had a smashed headset and damaged hydraulic disc.   oops!


In the evening I did find a good use for the holey hub though!

Best use for a holey hub!?

Race 2 - well...... a smooth start!   If a little over cautious!


The scooter was still vibrating and didn't feel right at all.......   on lap 2 down park straight a misfire started, so I nursed it around to the track exit by the mountain praying it would keep going as its a chuffing hard push back up there and I didn't want two recoveries in one day!


Pulling up by the van the motor popped spluttered and died!


Game over!


I dejectedly started to strip it to check it out.  Sure enough the mag housing gasket was yet again blown out and the casing covered underneath in fuel......  i spun the flywheel off and sure enough, stair plate was hanging off!   After removing all the nuts by hand(!) the maghousing just pulled straight off too! No need for extractors here!


The cause was now clear to see!  There was a rather large crack in the crank casing on the transfer port behind the maghousing!

Rather Large Crack That Really Shouldn't be there!

I must have missed this crack on previous inspections, but at least it explained why I had been having the problem with the mag housing coming loose.  Previous engine inspections had been carried out with the barrel off the engine, so there was no tension on the casing.  With the barrel on the hairline crack opened right up ..... with it off you can hardly see it!


So....  bad luck continues - no race finishes!

Donington Park.... If It Wasn't For Bad Luck There'd Be No Luck! Part One

HHHmmmmmm   .... the week before Donington had been rather manic getting riders passes mailed out, last minute queries, questions and getting trophies and prize bubbly sorted out.

The van seems to become fuller every time these days as I had marquee, trophies, champagne, tee shirts and of course all the race gear!

I was amongst the first to arrive.......  to wind and rain of course!  I set up camp and the marquee and during the afternoon a steady trickle of riders arrived.  Saturday evening after cooking up tea inevitably the drinking started.  I blame messrs Geyton Day and of course Captain Howe for the fact that bed wasn't until well after 1 am..... and you know it must have been a lively night (!) if you are chucked OUT of John Howes motorhome because its late!


First scooter session was a 20 minute practice at 9.05am ..... erm..... yeh.... righto......  we lined up in assembly and were first vehicles on track to sample the full GP circuit.  Entering the circuit via the Melbourne loop and into the start straight I followed John Woods along the start straight into Redgate and bang.....  in a cloud of dust and gravel John went down.....  erm !  first bend!  oops!

Practice couldn't end too quick as it was obvious pretty quickly that the gearing was wrong ( a lot of people were immediately changing gearing !)  and above all ... a badly slipping clutch after a couple of laps!



So..... great start..... engine apart before the first race!  Dave Crampton had arrived and a nice leisurely engine strip somehow became a last minute rush as all of a sudden it was race time!  The floorboards weren't even on as riders came past to line up... so i only Just managed to get there in time!  But in the rush... the rebuilt clutch wasn't adjusted correctly and as soon as the race started it was slipping.....  did my best but it had just about no drive by the end...... oops.... another set of begged stolen and borrowed plates was cobbled together over the lunch break for race 2 and this time Sticky assisted in the final bit with 5 minutes to spare......

I'd hardly even spoken to anyone or seen around the paddock yet - just had myself elbow deep in clutches!

Race 2 it was obvious that the engine felt wrong and underpowered but couldn't find anything obvious except for quite a bit of oil around the casing underneath,,.......  hhhhmmm.....



Before our 3rd race - the last one of the day - we had a presentation of trophies and prizes for riders and officials... including the Unlucky Award for Charlie Edmonds after a very bizarre tumble just outside assembly where he fell off and somehow managed to break both the clutch lever and the brake lever and was unable to start a race!

Paul and Carl look anxiously around............

So after spraying some champagne it was soon time for race three.  initially the engine felt ok, then on lap 1 it started to vibrate badly and start to misfire......  game over really so i pulled off and with the engine racing and sounding pretty poorly It was turned off and put back in the van.......  after 3 years of finishes except for one fuel 'incident' and one accident I'd managed two non finishes out of three !

So all in all a pretty crap day for me!  

I wasn't alone though as the 2.5 mile high speed circuit took its toll on a few engines, especially the Adrenalin team on their Zips..... who hardly had a working engine between them..... although they did have shiny new paint jobs .....

With only a week before the next race at Cadwell Park the engine was quickly stripped to find that the mag housing was loose, the stator plate loose, and the mag gasket had blown out, slightly out of shape crankshaft and damaged main bearings..........   but why had the mag housing come loose again?  It had done this at Three Sisters last year!??

Donington Park - Preview

This weekend sees is one of the years biggies as scooters return to the legendary Donington Park circuit.

We will be providing support races to the fantastic Superstars International Series.  This is an international series featuring some awesome machinery, and drivers including ex F1 start Johnny Herbert.

I am hoping to make a return to the track after having to miss the Pembrey race.  I think racing around the full 2.5mm GP circuit on a scooter has to be an almost unique experience of a lifetime to follow in the wheeltracks  of the likes of Ayrton Senna and Valentino Rossi.

I have been fortunate to be able to put this event together after making contact with the organisers BARC two years ago.  We raced then supporting British Truck Racing and the spectacle of scooters impressed them so much they were glad to have us back again after I'd contacted them.

As always putting together a race meeting is a tough job, with lots of ups and downs and seemingly endless hoops to jump through.  But its all sorted now and the riders are most definitely well up for this one.  Stuart Day and John Howe will be making their first appearances in 2011 and will be hunting down the front running bikes.

Guy Topper is on top form currently aboard his super quick DJ250 'Cooler' but at Pembrey and Mallory he was joined by stablemate Doug Turner also riding a heavily developed 250.  Multiple champion Charlie Edmonds will be looking to keep them in check despite a cc and power disadvantage.  No doubt the likes of James Campen and Chris Geyton will also have ideas on being the front running Group 4 scooters!

Meanwhile the auto's of Josh Brown, Craig Bewey and Joe Ravenscroft will be giving chase too and no doubt be looking very fast round Donington.  The bigger cc auto's of Scott Chapman and Keith Terry will also no doubt be picking up their fierce on track rivalry as they also chase down the pack.

Its going to be a biggie!

Pretty much everything is in place now, just missing one thing to make it perfect.

Pembrey - May 20/21st Sitting It Out

Pembrey is a chufiing long way down to deepest South Wales.... 245 miles,

After Mallory I was still struggling health wise so decided to sit this one out from a racing point of view and just go watch.

I arrived Saturday Morning after a good journey down ( apart from a talking to by the constabulary for apparently using a bus lane to get into the supermarket )

The VMCC meeting was not well supported with many people opting to stay away.  We still had 31 scooters across two grids though!

It must be 20 years since I went to Pembrey last, and I had forgotten just how crap it is for spectators.  For the racers the main problem first off was the very blustery wind which seemed to be coming from all directions at the same time making things very inconsistent.  Rain was in the air too.

I parked up with Chris Geyton who \i was going to help over the weekend.  Chris had just taken his newly built engine down to Replay Scooters for some dyno testing and was puzzled by the results which showed a major drop in power from the regular dyno used by SRP to develop the engine.  Its was even more puzzling as once on track Chris was just flying.  He was right on it and was up with Charlie Edmonds for the first few laps and matching his lap times.  Race 2 was wet and Chris was all over Charlie as they both tried in vain to chase down the super rapid Group 6 monster of Guy Topper.

The wet 2nd and 3rd races really made me wish I was out there as I always do so much better in the wet! Although watching race 1 in the wind gave me no such desires !

The auto races were great to watch with Scott Chapman and Keith Terry swapping places in a right old ding dong.  Once Scott had his bike fully sorted though he was away in race 3 and mixing things with the fastest of the zips.

The changeover between races is really quick at Pembrey and with a lower entry more of the VMCC classes were combined, meaning less races overall.   So we had negotiated an extra race on Saturday to give us a 3 race day.  The races were 10 laps long so these were long races all weekend and some of the riders were looking a bit jaded come Saturday evening!

Saturday night was best described as wet and windy!   I'd eaten my burgers and bacon so went down to the bar with a few of the other guys .  A nice evening ensued with the usual scooter  and racing chat and assorted garbage being spoken and worlds put to rights.  Of course the heaviest wind and rain was as we came to leave the bar and walk back to the van......  so 10 minutes was spent waiting in the foyer for the wind and rain to die down before making a run for it!

A sleepless night ensued kept awake by wind and rain before Sunday broke to reduced wind ( well - a bit ) and a strange yellowy gold thing in the sky!

Sunday saw Guy Topper and Doug Turner flying away again on the Group 6 bikes, Charlie Edmonds again being the fastest of the Group 4 bikes, with Chris Geyton and John Woods both having a right old tousle......  but as I watched from the hairpin I heard the tell tale click from Chris's bike of another broken gearbox...... just like he did at Mallory as well!

Oh well.... overalls on and gloves on to help sort things out!  Chris stripped the race bike whilst I stripped the spare engine to get the gearbox out of it. We ended up having to swap everything including the layshaft due to the damage.

In the last race Chris's motor had gone right off......  60 laps over the weekend had taken its toll I think.

This was the first time in 2 1/2 years that I had been a spectator and it was kind of nice not to have the pressures that a race weekend brings.  The journey home continued my hate / hate campaign against Wales when I caught a speeding ticket.  Nothing to do with Wales is ever good for me it seems.....  bloody place!

Hopefully I'll be on track for Donington Park next weekend........   My least favourite type of circuit but its an experience to ride the classic full GP circuit as ridden and driven by heroes like Rossi and Senna.

Mallory Park - Easter 2011

Well..... Mallory Park at Easter seems a long while ago..... Maybe that's because it was !


I havnt updated the blog for ages now..... Apologies..... But a few months of illness and other pressures have meant I have not really had the time nor inclination to update if I was brutally honest !


We had a successful test day in early April, with the main changes to the scooter being the new paint job, a new Guy Topper designed and built exhaust, and a new Dellorto carb. A few other changes included a new Jahspeed race seat which looks great !


So....... With gearing modified with what was learnt on test day it should be close to spot on..... Which it was.


unfortunately in the run up to Mallory I had a very stressfulntime and was feeling pretty I'll really so was not in the best frame of mind for racing.


First race I got a great start, but then after first couple of laps drifted back as fatigue quickly set in really. A good tousle with new rider James Lancaster was good fun.... James is also on a Replay tuned and prepared bike. His bike has a little more BHP on the dyne and James being young whippersnapper of course he only weighs 4 stone so he was carrying good straight line speed.

I was parked up with Chris Geyton who will be riding under the Team Replay banner this year whilst SRP is in 'sabbatical '. We wholes away the time between our two races by stripping his engine to replace broken gears! Chris had actually managed to complete the race despite having Two broken gears. I stripped the spare engine to extract the gearbox whilst Chris stripped the race engine to allow us to swap them over and get him out in race two. The change went smoothly in the warm sun and of course as always attracted the interest of spectators keen to see the insides of a broken engine!


in the second race I had a (thankfully rare) mechanical gremlin and the gear cable slipped and it lost me first gear as I tried to select it on the start line! I had to pull away in second as it wouldn't select so naturally I was eaten up off the line by the rest of the pack. Adrenalin kicked in and I put my head down and quickly caught the tail enders back up, and on lap 2 went back past James Lancaster through the Edwinas chicane. This was to be short-lived though as up to the hairpin I still could not properly select first gear and then as I progressed on even 4th was tricky as the slop in the cables just seemed to get worse.


There was no real option but to cruise round and just get a finish and collect some points.


The meeting proved pretty interesting for the spectators as some unusual faces were having superb days. Guy Topper was absolutely flying on the cooler 250 and was phenomenally quick leaving the rest of the field trailing by a country mile........ And Guy also had a major hand in preparing Doug Turners group 6 bike which was also going extremely well propelling Doug up to the front. Also notably fast was John Woods on the blue SS 90 which has really come on now John has it setup right.


So overall for me a disappointing start to the season really, illness and stressful times had conspired to mean that I was not really mentally in the right place for this racing malarky. :-(

Replay Scooters New Web Site

Replay Scooters new web site.


Rich Addison has created a new web site for Replay Scooters with a page for the Replay Race Team.


This year the Race Team will consist of myself, Rob Sumner, Dave Crampton and our new young rider James Lancaster. Hopefully we will be joined at some time during the year by returning Ed Hocking as he recovers from injury. Also running for this year as a Replay guest rider is Chris Geyton.


check out the new site and team page at Replay Scooters