Thruxton 2013

Yesterday (Thursday), I spent the afternoon at Thruxton race circuit with MotoRapido. The team were just setting up and it was a great opportunity to see the guys in a more relaxed environment before the stresses of testing and racing.

The first thing that gets your attention is the airfield in the centre of the circuit. During quiet periods, light aircraft are constantly taking off and landing.

As a result, the paddock is not the largest. Pit garages are in short supply and the larger teams get first choice. Teams running in support races are allocated space wherever it's possible to accommodate them and rely on tents and gazebos to keep themselves dry. There are two areas for motorhomes for riders and team managers - mechanics get to sleep in the trucks, if they're lucky!

Spread throughout the infield area are hospitality units for the teams and manufacturers. They range in size from a table with tea and coffee to something that needs to be transported in it's own truck.





The area behind the pits are stacked with race trucks, vans and pit scooters

Each truck is fitted out to the teams precise requirements with accommodation units and storage arranged exactly. 

Getting behind the scenes before business starts makes it easier to walk the pits looking at the more unusual machinery at the circuit. Like this sidecar unit: the engineering is incredible.

Back to Ducatis! Some of these pictures are not as well lit as they should be - I forgot my flash and it's pretty dark in those pits. This one is perfect tho!

Lee Johnston, Millsport Racing

Lee Johnston was with his Millsport Racing team members (running the Superstock bike). His fairings had been freshly painted and he was applying his sponsors logos and race numbers - you see it here first! Lee was complaining that he had got brake cleaner on him and that it had damaged his jewellery. I guess that's something to be careful of. Matteo's mechanics were on hand to provide considered advice throughout!

Lee uses a different seat to Matteo, with a deeper bump stop to keep his weight forward as much as possible.

Baloccio's Panigale R

The previous Brands testing post covered the number 2 bike in some detail. This is the number 1 bike that was safely stored in the team truck.

The 1199R has built-in GPS. The bike was wheeled out of the pits between rain showers to let the receiver see the satellites and learn which track it was at. Once that is done, the lap timer can automatically determine the start/finish line and start recording lap times.

Back in the pits, the airbox lid... hides two of these

Corse throttle bodies and injector harness. Custom, MotoRapido flow meters download data to the data acquisition module.

ECU and data acquisition live under the front fairing

This coolant expansion bottle was hand made by one of the team. It's beautifully made - every bit as special as MB Motorsports kit.

The preparation on both bikes is to the highest standards.

The atmosphere is much more relaxed the day before the bike has turned a wheel in anger and likely to get more relaxed as the evening progresses!

I don't have a picture that is good enough to publish that will illustrate this point, but the team logs everything. For example, Wilf (the team principal) walked me through the clip-on setup. Some riders like a 6 degree angle, others 6.5, the length of the bar is recorded as is the offset from the fork leg and the position and/or angle of each control on the bar. This allows the team to restore a bike correctly for a rider after an off.


Before I have to make the call between beer or interval session on the bike, some random thoughts from Thruxton. Firstly, Matteo and I share some similar tastes in music and this:

was used to set a personal best around the track!

Thanks to the guys at MotoRapido/Solent Scientific for hosting us again! It's a real privilege to get a good look under the covers of a top flight BSB Ducati. Fantastic!