The 2011 season is finally underway starting with Chris once again aboard a Molar Manx. Chris will be campaigning the Molar prepared machine in the Landsdowne Classic series.
The first round was held over the weekend of 29th and 30th April at the Pembrey circuit. The weather has been fantastic and it was with ‘everything’ crossed that we headed down the M4 corridor towards Wales.
The weather ‘fairies’ were with us and the hot, dry spell stayed with us throughout the whole weekend. Qualifying saw Toffa hitting the ground running, achieving a lap time if 1:08.235 which was 1.246 seconds off pole position to give him 4th really turning heads in the process.
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Race 1 (8 Laps) was a return to reality, with the weather making the track conditions perfect for racing the mêlée into turn 1 saw Toffa back to 10th. This spurred him on to recover lap by lap and claw his way up to 2nd, if only we could have had a couple more laps as I believe he could have clinched first place, Toffa was lapping at 1:06.883… but that’s racing and a podium is a podium and not something to be ‘sniffed-at’!
With morale running high we awaited the second race, this again proved to be a ‘no holds barred’ scrap. Toffa kept his head and brought the Molar Manx back home in 3rd with a best lap time of 1:06.830. Suffice to say the mood in the camp that evening was most jubilant.
We awoke on Sunday to a perfect sunrise and conditions were better than the previous day, which is something that you don’t usually associate with Pembrey…! Pre race prep and warm-up proceeded without incident and Toffa lined-up to see what he could achieve in race 3. As the lights went out we saw Toffa once again struggle to get a clean start but being the professional that he is this didn’t faze him. He kept his composure and rattled-off consistent laps again in the 1:06’s with the fastest being a 1:06.480, testament to his smooth style. I am please to be able to tell you that he finished on the podium once again in third, cracking job!
So the last race of the meeting, during warm-up the Molar Manx wasn’t sounding ‘crisp’ and the race proved to be the hardest of the weekend. Chris later reported that there was a very large flat-spot and distinct lack of power out of the corners. However Toffa rode around all of these and was able to post a fastest lap of 1:06.809 and somehow able to gain another third place. We discovered that we lost a pilot screw from the carburettor and when the oil was drained a considerable amount of metallic debris was discovered on the magnetic sump plug… a rebuild is required.
The results and consistency are testament to Toffa’s riding ability (not forgetting the build quality of Andy Molar’s Manx Norton) but also shows how suited he is to Endurance Racing… we can’t wait for the Bol d’Or…!
Next race is held over the weekend of 21st and 22nd May at the Brands Hatch GP Circuit. I will send out a post race update after the event.
So what else is happening…?
The 1974 Kawasaki Z1R machine has finally arrived at Darvill HQ. The plan is to test this in its current state, Dyno the engine and then decide on the best approach to the conversion needed to turning this from a short circuit race machine into a Darvill Endurance winner.
Many thanks to:
Andy Molar – Molar Presicion Engineering
Raceline Photography
All the sponsors for making this possible
Best Regards,
Alex Aitchison
