Snetterton 2014

It's been too busy to get to see a race recently and with no bikes ready for the track, not so focussed on track days. So, when I had the opportunity to collect my fuel rank and a proper Termignoni race exhaust from Snetterton, a plan formed!

Before we get to the 1199, I'm going to show you some bike porn from across the paddock - grassroots racing.

Motostar

These guys are really cool. They're a proper part of the BSB paddock and this is where a lot of the young guys are introduced to racing at National level.

Motostar bikes are a mixture of two-stroke 125 and four-stroke 250 moto3. They're proper race bikes, built to race. Nothing that isn't needed to make the bikes competitive is on them. Components are every bit as special as those fitted to the litre racers. Preparation is incredible.





Data logging, proper suspension, billet brakes, but all on a bike that weighs 100kg or less. Each part is precision engineered to keep the weight down. It must be incredible to race something like that. Precision.

Talking to the riders, the 250 is the way to go in racing, but for enjoyment, the 125 beats all. I'd love a ride on one of these. If I weighed 60kg...

Next I dropped in on my buddies at JHP. They are supporting a number of riders in the TriOptions Cup, racing 848s and 899s. But today, they had two bikes in their tent: an 1199 Superstock Panigale and a Honda 250 Moto3, ridden by 2011 championship winner, Chris Taylor.


The preparation by JHP is incredible as always. Very glad Rick is looking after one of my 749s - it should come back spotless.


BTW, I really wish blogger would sort out a photo control. Pics hosted on Google, blog on Google and I have to spend ages hand coding a table??? I want to be writing rubbish, not coding. ...And I just found some more of this little guy, so more coding.

That front paddock stand is apparently proper HRC. Personally, I stayed well away. It looked like two old walking sticks for an old bloke.


JHP have machined up a bell mouth and shower injector for this bike. Really pretty.

Milwaukee Yamaha

Every time I go to BSB, I keep meaning to meet up with Stefano Caracchi, who owned the WSS team that Nannelli rode for. He also had Jakub Smrz in his first year in WSB, but more of that later.

So, I was wandering around the pits looking for Stefano (who is a very well respected data tech) and I found myself looking at Yamahas. I've always like them, so I took some pics.

Millsport Racing

Last years BSB team has swapped title sponsors and is now Millsport Racing. Last year saw a number of guys move to the team with Lee Johnston on the MotoRapido/Solent Scientific bike and those guys are now an established part of the new team with Millsport.

Millsport are a Ducati dealer from Northern Ireland and are helping the guys take the next step in BSB. Principally, they have brought Jakub Smrz from WSB to ride an evolution of last years bike and are providing a solid financial platform to move the team up. They're really nice guys too - very relaxed but professional. A pleasure to know them.

I know - you want cool stuff! How about this?

Most of us will just be saying 'ooh, shiny!', but there's something interesting here too. These forks are from the motoGp paddock. They feature new valving. Normally, forks have a needle, which can be adjusted into the fork to increase resistance, or out to decrease resistance. Oil flows past the needle and provides compression or rebound damping.

These forks use a different valve, like a barrel. It provides a more linear adjustment than the needle valve and allows a greater range of adjustment too. Whereas a needle valve provides twenty clicks, with only maybe ten being usable (too much damping or too little), this new technology provides forty clicks, all of which are usable. This means that the team doesn't have to change valving as often as with the older forks. Obviously, they're very expensive!

More cool stuff? Or more shiny? Will gold heat shielding do? Cool and shiny? See what I did there?  : )

So apart from enabling bloggers to post cheesy jokes, why?

Well, it reflects heat from the fuel tank and the air box. We all remember our physics - heat affects volume. So a colder air box and cooler fuel provides more air and fuel for the motor.

Talking of fuel,  the team have a huge freezer at the back of the garage. Fuel is kept cooled at a constant temperature (minus 15 degrees) in order to provide a constant calorific (energy) value per volume. This provides consistent fuelling despite the changeable weather conditions we get here, so the motor will perform in a consistent manner, giving the rider a more consistent feel from the throttle.

Moving to the tank: at the end of last year, the team experimented with moving the riders position towards the back of the bike, towards the centre of gravity - CoG. This allows for better grip from the rear tyre. The WSB team have developed a very different shaped tank, which I've seen pictures of, but sadly, I can't share them here. It extends downwards towards the swing arm and has a dummy front section, which may allow the team to run a much larger air box. Keeping the tank and pump very low on the bike lowers the CoG, helping the handling. Interesting.

This is the rear tyre from free practice on Friday. This (hard compound) rear tyre did two sessions, which equated to race distance, finishing in third. Looks pretty good to me!

The Pirelli tyre tech dropped in to talk compounds, pressures, heat and tyre warmers. From what I could understand, it was interesting, but very Italian and with many, many gestures.

Talking to the guys it's clear that there's a great sense of 'team'. Following Smrz's third place in Fridays practice, one of the guys said:

It's great to see some results. Now, we're working together really well and we're in a good routine.
As an individual, you do your best and you have an absolute trust your the rider, so when the team doesn't achieve it's goal, you feel like you haven't performed as an individual and you've let the rest of the team down.

Another said:

We've got a really tight team now and we're starting to see some results. I'm really pleased to see Kuba working so well on the bike.

It's clear that this sense of team comes with years of racing together and relying on each other to perform, but also from the sponsors who provide the backing to let the team buy what they need - tools, transport, storage - and to continually develop the bike.

So, what's it like in the pits? A whole lot calmer than previous years, that's for sure! There are concentrated bursts of activity around the time that the rider is due out.


While the rider is on track, the team is monitoring race radio and TVs in the pits to relay the information to the rider using pit boards. Everyone clusters around the TVs to watch the riders progress - where they are quick, held up in traffic, how they compare to other riders. Seeing Smrz move steadily up the rankings was very cool to see and it was great to see how the team reacted to it. Half way through FP2, Smrz came in to talk about the suspension setup with Wilf and the Ohlins tech.

Gio, the chief mechanic and chassis engineer,  changes the ride height and turns the preload up a quarter of a turn in less than three minutes. Incredible. The last picture above shows how high temperatures affect the electronics. The big fan, normally used to cool the rider, is used to cool the ECU.

The team chose not to change the tyre for this session in order to monitor wear over race distance. Very interesting to see other riders changing (soft) tyres midway through practice and still not get anywhere near Jakob. Awesome!

At the end of free practice, the bike is taken from the rider, put on stands, Martin checks and adjusts the hot tyre pressures, warmers are put on. The ECU is hooked up to the telemetry laptop and Gio uses a small torch to check around the motor for leaks and the rider debrief starts. All this happens in less than a minute - a very well co-ordinated and practiced team.

Immediately after verifying his position and taking his helmet off, Jakob talks handling with Wilf, Gio and the Ohlins guy. How the changes affected the bike, how it feels, how it performs. Wilf can compare the riders feelings with real data from the bike. In one corner, Smrz reports that the bike is diving at the front. Wilf can see that this is not out of control, in fact the suspension is just moving properly through it's range.

Earlier, I talked to Stefano Caracchi about Nannelli and Smrz. Stefano recounted how Gianluca used to slide the bike like a supermoto. He said that Nannelli would have been very successful in BSB, possibly being able to win the championship because he was so good on a bike with few electronic aids.

Stefano gave Smrz his first ride in WSB. He said that Jakob was the calmest guy he'd known, never having seen him angry. From the few minutes I spoke with him, that was accurate. He's a very calm, very professional rider and from what I saw, one of the good guys.

And the reason why it takes three minutes to change the ride height on a race bike... Preparation. After each session, the bike is meticulously stripped and cleaned.

Looks good!




Update: an excellent third place on the grid for tomorrow!! Well done team! 

Other things we liked at Snetterton

The Urban Cammo paint scheme making a comeback on this 'onda

And meeting this guy in the paddock:

North West winner Lee Johnston. A man with a three-year plan for the TT. It's a real privilege to know you Lee!

Thanks to Millsport Racing for putting me up. James, good work! Good to see you again.

If you've got this far, well done! Please press the 'like' button below if you... liked the post! It's fascinating to see what's happening in the pits and great to meet the teams and riders and great to be able to share it with you.

Ride safe.