Round 1 - KRC Endurance 2004 - Oulton Park

April 10,2004 - This was the first round of the endurance series back at Oulton Park after the disastrous end of last season here. Friday practice (track day) was luckily dry for most the part and we all got a one or two dry sessions. Mark, the new rider, went out in the afternoon in the wet on dry tyres and did exceptionally well. The bike was running ok although bit flighty on the handling. This is probably the circuit as much as the 98 design of our R1.

Qualifying didn't go that well as we normally qualify mid field but ended up near the back in 36th place. I did the first qualifying in the wet with the circuit starting to develop a dry line towards the end of my session and ranging from 10th to 16th fastest. Mark was out next and the track was starting to dry properly but he was still on wets. Shelley did the 3rd session, still on wet tyres but on a dry circuit. Most teams were by now on dry or intermediate tyres so the lap times dropped considerably leaving us near the back of the grid. Not much of a problem though as with such a long race the grid positions are not critical.

Mark got off to an excellent start and being one of the fastest of the line made up 8 places. He maintained good consistent lap times to finish his session in 26th.

I was out next and had a trouble free session, apart from a few laps behind the pace car and came in at 19th.

Shelley was out for the 3rd session and had a good steady ride doing better lap times than she had expected. We were in 21st place at the end of the session, and at the halfway point.

Mark's second session went well and with consistent lap times brought us back up to 18th place.

My second session (the 5th hour) also went well with no incidents, other than missing our in board, and finished up in 15th place overall.

Shelly did the final session with a very consistent ride to bring the team home in 18th place.

Overall we finished in 18th place, only two laps behind 15th so it was a good team result. We were 8th in class.

Once again out pit crew did a fantastic job. The bike at the end of the race had a sheared engine mounting bolt and was weeping oil through the left-hand crank case cover that was almost ground through.

We are all looking forward to the next round at Bishopscourt in Ireland where we hope to finish in the top 15 overall.

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