BSSO Scooter Racing 2008

Welcome to Donington Park, home of BSB, Touring Cars and of course Britain’s round of Moto GP. A track with more history than Max Mosley.

With most of the scooter racers arriving on the Saturday night, a good party atmosphere buzzed around the paddock. Too much infact, as some of us only went to bed after 1.30am, cheers lads.

The biggest solo grid in the past 6 years saw 37 go out to practice and it looked and sounded great.

Practice went ok, and then we had a long wait till our race was called.

RACE 1

Out on the grid, I must admit it looked spectacular. 38 on the grid, 34 behind me. Turn 1 was going to be fun. The lights went out and I got a blinding start and head briefly until Charlie selected 2 gear.

After a couple of corners, the field spread out and the frantic diving underneath and elbowing died out. Two people who didn’t have good starts were Jams Campen who stalled on the grid and had to bump star it and Stuart Day who selected 1 gear, pulled the cable through the nipple and had to race with only 3 and 4. James race ended a few laps later when he fell off and Phil Bevis came off trying to avoid James. Stuart faired better but his clutch took some abuse in the process. Meanwhile at the front, Ralph Saxilby, Guy Toper and Charlie Edmunds were setting an electric pace with Ralph the eventual winner, but Guy holding the fastest lap, closely followed by Charles and John Howe. Yes, Donington is a horse power circuit; my zip was pulling 14,200 down the straight and could have done with an upgear. At the end of the race we had 30 finished out of 35 starters. 8 of who were lapped which is still impressive.

Must mention Jon Uffindel finished the race with his Zip engine held together only by the belt and outer casing.

1 Saxilby, 2 Topper, 3 Edmonds, 4 Howe.

RACE 2

Tony O’Brien was not racing this weekend but taking photo’s instead and had been performing a rain dance whilst in our pit garage so he could get some interesting shots. Well sure enough the sky darkened and the odd spot appeared on the visor as we sat on the grid waiting for the lights to go out. I had fitted the 3.50/10 rear to upgear the zip in a vain effort to keep up with the Lambretta’s After a kangaroo start, I was third into Redgate and held my own down Craner only to be mugged by a gaggle of Group 6 bikes at the bottom of Craner. I could keep up with Clive Preston’s Lambretta on the straight but the lad’s good on the corner’s and soon pulled a safe gap. As the race went on, the rain got heavier and heavier, then the field stated to get smaller. The list was long and distinguished, Race 1 winner Ralph dropped it coming into the start/finish straight, a corner that caught another 3 more out. Redgate also caught 2 more.

Considering the number of novices, and the weather conditions, to have 27 finishers out of 34 starters and only 1 novice faller, they all did very well.

1 Edmunds, 2 Day, 3 Campden, 4 Howe

SIDECARS

RACE 1

With only 7 sidecars entered, they were as usual sharing the grid with the Vintage Motorcycle sidecars. However, only 5 made it out onto the grid.

The Simpson’s outfit was amongst the motorcycles within the first lap with John Howe following. Meanwhile Ed Hocking was banging fairings with newcomer Chris Taylor, but all the bashing did him no good as he was forced to retire on lap 5 of the 6 lap race.

Ralph moved his way up the field to 2 position and John Howe’s sidecar developed a mechanical problem and didn’t sound too healthy when he finally took the flag. A good first race for newcomer, Taylor.

1 Simpson, 2 Remnant, 3 Taylor, 4 Howe.

RACE 2

Due to the bad weather, the second race was cancelled as was the rest of the meeting.

With scooter racing biggest grid to date, let’s hope this is only the start. Next meeting is at Three Sisters on the 10 and 11 May and the solo grid is already full, with reserves.

John Woods #52