Ducati Tri-Options Cup. Round Two - Snetterton 300

The race weekend for Andy began with disaster as the good old English weather struck Thursday evening and blew Andy's Team awning over, damaging it beyond repair!

So two choices, pack up and go home or remain positive and stick it out. Luckily he chose the latter and thanks to fellow competitor Martin Thrower he was able to set up his pit garage within Martin's large awning.

Friday- Free Practice.

With the overnight problems behind him, Andy headed out on track for the only practice session of the weekend.

Unfortunately Andy's bad luck carried on with the gear linkage bearings failing, leaving him with a lack of gears hence time lost in the corners and exiting the corners. The wind was also a contributing factor hindering the bike, lifting it up through the turns.

The bike also developed an annoying misfire which was diagnosed as a faulty HT lead. Not an easy job to fix with it being on the front cylinder! So big strip down to reach the faulty component and have it replaced which included removing the radiators aswell as all the fairings.

This all reflected on Andy's best time of 2:17.333 on lap 4 indicated there was a lot of work to be done back in the pit garage. The work began Friday afternoon, carried on until late that evening then another early start Saturday morning.

Qualifying:-

Following an overnight rebuild, the finishing touches were put to the bike water added and the bike fired up in to life.

Final checkover done and bike all ready for the 9.40am start.

After yesterday's times, Andy was very concious he needed to up the pace to grab a good time to qualify.

Andy settled in to a good rhythm and had an excellent result setting his fastest lap of 2:08.727 on the last lap of the 20 minute session. This gave him a grid slot of 27th, ahead of some good riders.

Race One:-

After rebuilding the bike ready for qualifying, there was no time left to fit new tyres so this was done for the start of race one. Starting from 27th grid slot, Andy set off from the line and lost a couple of places after the first lap. As he settled in to his race pace he gradually clawed away at the guys in front of him and eventually overhauled Matt Flower and Andrew Howe, 2 riders he uses as a benchmark at each round. Any was certainly getting quicker as the race went on, proof in the pudding being setting his fastest lap on his lap one yet again. A time of 2:08.297 being the quickest Andy has ever been round the Snetterton 300 circuit.

Race Two:-

More drama was to unfold before race two. His fellow racer Martin Thrower suffered an unfortunate technical failure in race one which meant he was to go home before race two on Sundsy morning. So Andy and his pit crew assisted Martin and Daughter Amy with the packing up process.

That left Team ARBRacing.com to carry on old style with the bike and kit outside next to the van, no awning or shelter.

Luckily the weather remained dry for the duration.

Final checks done and the pit crew noticed the gear lever had vibrated loose so all hands on deck to fix the little fault which would have turned to disaster!

After collecting his helmet from the LS Helmet service crew, Andy began final preparations for race two.

For race two Andy started from 29th position so had work to do overhaul the riders in front this time.

From the off Andy settled in to a rhythm again but times were down compared to race one and Andy had a lonely race although his finishing position was 23rd, not too far away from a point scoring position.

So now the challenge is on for the next round at Silverstone in 2 weeks time. Andy needs to try and repair his awning and also purchase more new tyres due to a special track surface Silverstone has applied for the F1 cars!!

We would like to thank the teams loyal sponsors

ATS Hire

Pitstop Motorcycles

for all their continued support during these times and hope for more progress at Silverstone.

BSB Rounds 4,5,and 6. Snetterton.

Ducati Tri-Options Cup. Round Two - Snetterton 300