|
|
|
Final Rounds of British Supermono - Cadwell Park 6th/7th October
if you are visiting this page via a search engine, please click here for the full website.
|
|
|
|
Gordon always gets off the line like a rocket!
|
Well this was it; Gordon’s last meeting with me, the last round of the Supermono Championship, and the weekend that I handed Gordon over to his new owner ‘John Corrin’. John was coming over on the Saturday to meet Gordon for the first time and see him in action too; lots of Gordon’s special friends and supporters came along also to see him off - it was going to be an emotional meeting for me as well. Having seen him right through from a concept, salvage machine, strip and rebuild right up to getting on to the rostrum I had put a lot of effort and energy to get him this far. |
|
As I haven’t a van at the moment Steve McNichol took most of Gordon’s spares and tools in his van and Dr.Love (Jody Lovett) took Gordon and his own race bike to Cadwell for me.
|
We hired a camper for the weekend, just some 25 miles from Cadwell, Duncan at Motorhomes UK gave us a good deal, please click on the photo to visit their site - because so many guests were coming it was going to be nice to have somewhere to cook, make tea/coffee and get out of the rain should the worse happen, even my Dad came to cheer Gordon along. We all arrived the Friday evening and had time to set up and get Gordon through technical inspection on the night to save time in the morning as we were the first session on track. Most of the work had been done to him but there where a few little fiddly job to do before hitting the sack. Cadwell was the last meeting for a lot of rides for the year consequently people were likely to be a little cavalier, thus it would be a good meeting. |
|
As per normal we only had two 10 minute sessions on Saturday – one timed and one untimed to sort things out before the first race later that day. Session one went ok with no dramas to go on about, however it was so different to when I was going round there on ‘Bill’ the previous week! Session one was untimed and I was one of the quickest out on track so things looked good for the race, I just needed to push a bit for a good time in session 2 as this would dictate where we would sit on the grid for both races. Right from the off in session two I knew Gordon was unhappy; when you closed the throttle then opened it again - say coming out of a corner he would hold back, splutter then blast off with a big surge. Not the ideal thing when you are on maximum angle of lean a spluttering machine, however there was no time to pit and look for a fault I had to find some clear track and do the best I could. |
|
|
As it turned out my time put me in third place on the grid only 0.12 off pole; if the spluttering had cleared up I could have easily gone on pole, never mind.
|
Back in the awning the fault was quickly diagnosed, Steve pulled the fuel tank off to discover the airbox was full of fuel as the carbs were flooding. On closer inspection some aluminium swarf had found its way under the float needle, a quick blow out and cleaning Gordon was running perfectly again. During the practice I had also noticed he was jumping out of 4th gear all the time, Roy from Slipstream explained the stock gear boxes are not designed for the power Gordon is now putting out and the dogs in the box wear quickly. The only thing I could do was change the gearing and rev him higher in 3rd then quickly go to 5th, not perfect but there was no option other than drop in another engine that I don’t have!. |
|
Before we knew it they were calling our first race, and with the warm up lap behind us out went the red light and we were off into the first corner. Gordon’s ace card is how he gets off the line, maybe it’s the standard first gear but he rocketed away to get the holeshot. Then as expected, Mark Lawes blasted past on his Pami BMW on the back straight so I did a bit of danger braking into Park corner to retake the lead. I led onto the start/finish straight but Mark came past again, this went on lap after lap and a good race finish for the spectators was on the cards. |
|
|
|
That is, until the end of lap 6 when I was leading coming out of the chicane and I had a big slide. I had an idea I had oil on the rear tyre so I eased off until I had time to look down to see if I could see anything, as I came on to the start/finish straight I looked back and there was smoke pouring off the rear of Gordon, bugger, I had to pull off the track immediately. There was oil everywhere so I had to sit out the rest of the race. |
|
Mark went on to win with Nick Chadwick in second. Back in the awning it wasn’t immediately obvious where the oil was coming from but after taking the airbox out the problem was discovered, the cam chain adjuster had come loose and was hanging off, only the airbox was keeping things in place. A minor miracle the chain didn’t jump the sprockets that would have blown the motor up very easily. We fitted a new rear tyre, tided Gordon up ready for the next day's racing, then settled down with a nice meal for the evening. |
|
|
|
Sunday there was no official practice available but with Gordon having
broken down the organisers allowed me to do a few laps to test him out. On
returning to the awning there was still a small oil leak, but we could not
track it down so we prepped Gordon for the race. When they called us for race two we warmed up Gordon and went down to the warm up area before going onto track, Steve notice more oil from under the oil tank, it looked like the tank had a small crack in the bottom only showing up when things got hot. No time to do anything now just see how it was after the warm up lap I told Steve. On the line after the warm up lap I jumped off the bike and looked to see if the oil leak was bad, it was just weeping so I thought I would give it a go as this was the very last time I was going to race Gordon. |
|
Lights out and off we went again, Gordon blasting off the line to take the lead again! At the end of the back straight no one had past me so I thought I would keep my head down and try to pull a small lead before the next straight. Only thing was I forgot how long we were held in the warm up area and Gordon’s tyres were not quite up to temperature, as I went into the Goose Neck I lost the front end and slid off the track. Clearly Gordon was not happy and bounced around bashing himself to bits! Race over, again. |
Just like at Snetterton he was completely destroyed, all the body work gone, subframe bent, exhaust flattened, rear sets broke, even the front calliper had been snapped off! |
|
|
Once again, back in the awning we all commiserated
with each other, - Gordon went out with a bang! He was leading the race showing everyone what he was made of.
|
|
His design brief has been completed. Gordon has come from humble origins and with lots of work and a reasonable budget he has maybe not won a Championship but has made the rostrum a few times and has mostly been reliable for the whole year, barring the odd technical issue that was generally human error. In my book that’s a job well done Gordon. Many thanks to everyone who was involved, all his special friends, helpers and followers, I hope you enjoyed the ride! |
|
|
Thanks for all your help Phil - I know it was under duress - that'll be
why you rode all the way to Cadwell from Southampton |
You can visit Gordon's personal site by clicking here:
or visit the blog by clicking here: |
