Considering everything that has been thrown at us this year, it was a major achievement just to even get any bike race action but thanks to the great organisational skills of all involved at Motor Sport Vision (The organisers of British Superbikes), we had a condensed 5 round, 10 race series for the Ducati Tri-Option Cup series.
Andy was more than raring to go for the season opener at Donington Park back in August,
Obviously, a lot later start to the season and plenty of racing to get through in 5 weekends.
“We must also offer a great big thank you to the orange army too who also had to give up their time in a lot narrower time frame than a normal season.”
Andy was burning the candle at both ends to get the bike ready for the first round, having discovered a faulty front head gasket during the final check over of the bike. This proved to be a very time-consuming job on the Ducati 959 Panigale. Having finished the rebuild in time, the team’s vehicles were then packed ready for round one at Donington Park.
Considering Andy had not ridden a bike of any description for 10 months, he put on a pretty good show, just a shame there were no fans present to see it (Due to Covid-19).
Despite some off-track excursions, Andy eventually finished the weekend with 2 great performances finishing 23rd in Race One and 27th in Race Two.
After a two-week break, it was on to Round Two where the circus travelled East to the Norfolk circuit of Snetterton 300.
Here, Andy faced more drama, this time off track with the good old English weather paying its part in trying to upset the smoothly ran series. Andy would wake up to a damaged awning and slight damage to his new Team Van. Fellow competitor Martin Thrower came to the rescue and let us set up Team ARB in his awning, following the strict Covid-19 guidelines put in place by MSVR, which I may add were policed throughout the whole season very well to help ensure we get race fans back next year.
Andy suffered a mechanical failure during first free practice, a broken gear lever bearing ending his session early. The team managed to repair that and also a misfire was detected and diagnosed as a faulty HT lead, on number 1 cylinder which meant a big overnight strip down to repair. Finishing touches completed Saturday morning just in time for qualifying. Andy had a good session and qualified in 27th place for Race one.
Andy managed to finish 27th in race one, even setting his fastest ever lap on the last lap, showing he was improving lap by lap, this on a used set of tyres as we ran out of time to fit a new set with the rebuild taking priority.
Race two and Andy would start from 29th but though sheer grit and determination, Andy battled through to finish 23rd.
On to Round Three at Silverstone National circuit which is a bit like Marmite to riders. Luckily, Andy
Likes the circuit but maybe not the surface as Pirelli brought a special compound tyre just for this round, which meant more expense, especially as the track surface was wearing tyres a lot quicker than normal.
First free practice and Andy pulled in, new set up required. No time to go back and test it so on to qualifying. More bad luck for Andy as his battery charger had failed thus the bike would not start! Eventually another team stepped in with a wheel starter and got Andy away, now with cold tyres and half the session gone. Also, during the session, Andy had no dash or quick shifter due to the battery issues. He still qualified on his own merit and would line up ready for race one the next day.
Saturday morning warm up and Andy was ready for action, battery and rider full of life. Unfortunately, the abrasive Silverstone surface shredded the rear tyre after 4 laps, back in the pits and new tyres fitted for race one.
Race one and Andy set yet another personal best lap time and managed to come home 27th out of 34 starters.
Race two and more new tyres, we have never fitted so many sets of tyres as we had this weekend, a very costly weekend! No dramas in the race though and Andy finished 29th and shaved more time off his personal best, leaving Silverstone over 2 seconds quicker than he had ever been before.
After another 2-week break, it was on to Oulton Park for the 4th round of the series.
The weekend started slow but the team soon got to grips with the bike and changed the gearing which sent Andy 5 seconds quicker during qualifying and a clear second faster than he’d ever been round Oulton before. Having qualified again, we altered the gearing once more for Race One but that was a futile gesture with Andy being ran off track through turn one on the opening lap. Andy clawed back a few positions, getting up to 24th place by the end of the race.
Race two did not end very either, having made up places yet again throughout the race and setting his fastest lap of the weekend, his best ever to date, Andy was unfortunately clipped by championship leader Josh Day who was challenging Levi Day for the lead.
That left Andy in a sorry state with broken ribs, damaged shoulder, and arm, not to mention damage to the bike and his riding gear.
Thanks to LS2 Helmets, Andy was able to turn up for the final round at Brands Hatch with a nice new shiny helmet. Luckily, he was able to race with his spare set of leathers too.
For the final round, we teamed up with Jimmy Buchanan in the paddock, hoping to gain a bit of knowledge off each other.
We came to Brands with Andy having very little knowledge of the circuit, having only raced there once before. That did not stop Andy getting stuck in though and by the end of qualifying, he had knocked 4 seconds off his free practice time.
Everything seemed ok as Andy headed out for Race One until a coming together with our new roommate Jimmy Buchannan put Andy offline and dropped back down the field. As the race went on though, it was clear Andy was in trouble. When he came back to the pits, we checked over the bike and found the suspension was loose, which was causing a very ill handling bike. So, another strip down overnight to rectify the suspension issue and the bike was back up and running again for Race Two.
Andy’s bad luck continued in to race two though, having completed the sighting lap, he pulled in after 1 lap with a loose seat unit, not what you want for a 10-lap race around one of the country’s toughest race tracks. So that was our 2nd non finish of the year and technically our first one for us to hold our hands up to. So not the end of season race we were looking forward to but plenty of positives to take away from the circuit.
The season in general didn’t turn out too bad at all, to say we wouldn’t have been racing at all only a few months previous due to this awful virus that doesn’t seem to want to go away.
The main two positives were that Andy remained upbeat during all the low points of the season, always keeping a smile on his face and secondly, he managed to improve on his personal best lap times at every circuit we visited.
The biggest challenge now comes trying to sort things out for another season in the Tri-Options Cup. The race schedule has been announced and it looks very exciting, even having a round supporting the World Superbike Championship at Donington Park, allowing even greater exposure.
We’ve had 23 times Isle of Man TT race winner John McGuiness join the series this year and a few more big names looking to join next season, so there is plenty of interest in the popular one make series.
Hopefully the Covid restrictions will be lifted by the time next season kicks off so we can start to see fans again at the circuits, so fingers crossed we see you all soon.
We would like to thank all our friends and families who have helped along the way this season, especially our main sponsors ATS Hire and Pitstop Motorcycles. Thank you to the pit crew Katy Holmes, Sam Brazier, Tony Jacklin and Kat James. Also a late addition to the crew, Dave Benoy and last but by no means least, Lisa Jackson, her bacon rolls are second to none and cheaper than a burger van!!!
Hope you all have had a Great Christmas and have an even better New Year from us all at ARB Racing.
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!
PS. New wheels for 2021!
