Mixed bag at Brands…
The weekend of the 21st & 22nd may saw the Bonhams Classic series move to Brands Hatch (GP Circuit). The weather on Saturday morning was amazing. We awoke to the distant sounds of small generators kicking into life and the smell of sizzling bacon and wafts of coffee penetrating the pits.
Andy Molar had rebuilt the Manx after Pembrey, the debris that we found in the Sump was identified as the main shell starting to disintegrate and this was ready for business.
Practice commenced and Chris (Toffa) soon noticed an issue with the clutch. Without warning the clutch disappeared, that is to say the leaver could be retracted back to the bars without effect…! No I am sure you realise that this is not a good thing and that most ‘mortals’ would pull in and look at the root cause. However Toffa realised that in order to get a decent starting position he had to carry on and ensure that his speed and engine revolutions were perfect in order to shift up and down the gearbox. It is testament to Toffa’s skill that he could ‘ride around’ this issue and remarkably obtain a 6th place with a time of 1:47.973 for the start.
This gave us time to review the setup and after adjusting the free play and ensuring that the cable routed correctly we were confident that we had solved the issue.
Race 1:
Not a bad start but within a lap the issue was back…. Great…..! Toffa battled hard throughout the race until the penultimate lap where he unfortunately ran out of tarmac in ‘Druids’, Toffa sat the bike up and travelled into the gravel trap and managed to scrub most of the speed off before the bike dug into the gravel and ended his race. The bike wasn’t badly damaged and Toffa suffered no injuries, however the gravel was EVERYWHERE… time to strip the bike!
Race 2:
Without the knowledge of Andy and the support of the Team we had this ready (and gravel-free) in time… Phew..!
Toffa got a good start but the Leading pack had been able to get away from Toffa. All was not right and lap times began to increase as the bike struggled to find top speed causing Toffa to make time up in the corners. Toffa had a great race considering the issues and was able to battle past Mike Russell and had a great battle with Chris Palmer, swapping places throughout the race and enabled him to finish in 5th.
Race 3:
We looked at the bike between races and realised that the front brakes were over adjusted, with this sorted we settled-down for the start of race 3.
Toffa got a great start and with the Molar Manx singing without issue Toffa made it up to the leading pack and was able to hold on for 3rd… cracking job!
Race 4:
The weather was beginning to turn and spots of rain were falling intermittently over the circuit. We waited for out last race of the day.
With the track just about dry Chris had a shocking start, we discovered later that he had ‘cooked’ the clutch on the start which took a few laps to ‘come-back’. Not deterred Toffa began to make up places until we were sitting comfortably in 6th. Then the clutch issue returned…. Again Toffa was forced to maintain corner speeds and time the shifts through the box in order to ‘bring her home’. We finished in the points which after the undulating fortunes of our weekend at Brands are not something to be scoffed-at.
Many thanks to:
Andy Molar – Molar Precision Engineering
Raceline Photography
All the sponsors for making this possible
The next round is at Mallory Park with another four rounds to be contested.
Best Regards,
Alex
