Elvington - June 2001

Saturday 23rd June 2001

Initially we spent time learning the track dodging the cones, the weather was pleasant and we looked forward to a dry weekend. At first most of the bends were pretty tight, this suited our bike well, as the morning progressed the cones started to retreat and the speeds started to increase. For most of the weekend the track was getting wider and wider. It is impossible to check lap times when the track is changing all the time, so we didn't spend much time looking at the clock this weekend.

We were happy with the bike so we just enjoyed riding around a new track, by mid afternoon we decided to weaken the mixture, this did improve things a little but other than that we didn't touch the bike. By the end of the day we were happy, so stuck with the setting we'd used all day. Our tyres were taking a battering, Elvington certainly is grippy! We were still using the 5 speed gearbox, if we go back to Elvington we really need to use a 6 speed box! The bike was in top gear for a long time on the straight, but through the chicanes there was plenty of gear changing going on.

Sunday 24th June 2001

A good days racing, we kept the bike going all day, we did have several accidents, but managed to keep the bike on the track. It was disappointing that the track became so fast, by the end of the day both of the large chicanes were being taken flat out and the tightening bends after the left hander at the end of the straight could be straightened out without any difficulty. The track design was good, but care needed to be taken when overtaking, maybe it was safer that these bends had been widened. After the race we were gob smacked when looking at the tyres, our rear Bridgestone BT39SS was almost slick, there is hardly any tread left!

It was also interesting running the opposite direction to normal. Usually the left-hand side of our tyres wear slower that the right hand side, Elvington gave us an opportunity to balance the wear on our tyres. 

By the end of the day we were running 18th overall and 6th in class two. Altogeter we did 181 laps. We have had another great weekend and look forward to the next round in August. Even though Elvington is very flat and we're racing around cones we'd enjoy racing there again. (If the owners will let us!?!?!???!?).