Eglington &
Moores lead Class C Endurance Championship
April 3, 2005 - This was the first
round of the KRC Endurance Championship. I was looking
forward to a good race after joining Moores Racing for
the season.
The Moores team are established as one of the top
endurance teams in the UK and it was a real honour to be
invited to be part of the team. The riders for 2005 are
Tony Jimenez, James Hurrell and myself. The rest of the
team, and most important, is made up of the long serving
and very efficient pit crew.
The team is competing on a 2004 Yamaha R1 supplied by
Moores Motorcycles with some backing from Yamaha. The
bike runs a standard engine, for reliability, with a
Devil exhaust system and power commander fitted. It has
modifications to the swing arm and forks to make wheel
changes quicker. Apart from that it has all the normal
race prep done with R&G crash bobbins, DID chain, NGK
spark plugs, lightweight Hyperbolt screws in places and
runs on Motrax oil. The suspension has revalved forks
and a race rear shock. The riders are kitted out with
Hein Gericke leathers from the Reading branch, Oxtar
boots and Uvex helmets.
Saturday Practice:
We all arrived at Snetterton on Saturday for a track day
of testing. Everything went well. James had his new
Suzuki GSXR1000 out to test and was putting in some good
lap times. We had previously done a three day pre-season
test at Almeria in Spain so we knew the bike was working
well. With no incidents the pit crew prepared the bike
on Friday evening while the riders got their kit
scrutineered. Then it was off the hotel for a meal and a
reasonably early night. My goals for the
race were to stay on the bike and do what was needed for
the team to do well.
Sunday Practice and Qualifying:
Tony took the bike out in the warm-up session to scrub
in the new tyres, and then went out for the first
qualifying. I was out for the second qualifying and the
pace car came out so I eventually only got four laps
without it with some reasonable lap times but a bit
slower than I should have been. James took the third
session and put in some top lap times to put us in
fourth spot on the grid.
Sunday Race:
James was assigned to start the race, the first time he
had done any endurance racing or a Le-mans start. No
problem to James, he was quickest across the track and
first away in the lead for the first lap. James pitted
at the end of the first hour to hand over to Tony.
Tony went out on well worn tyres as we had a tyre
problem that meant they were only good for about 45
minutes. Even still, Tony did a great job to keep our
position and came in at the end of his session to hand
over to me.
The rear tyre was changed to a brand new one and out I
went. My session was ok, but I felt a bit flat and my
lap times were a bit off but enough to keep us in the
top three by the end of the session. The only problem I
had is that I used my new gloves which bleeding caused
blisters on my right hand and by the end of the session
I was struggling a little to hold onto the bars.
Tony was out next, once again on worn tyres, so he did a
superb job to stay consistent and keep us in the top
five.
The rear tyre was changed again when Tony handed over to
James. Once again James was right on it and kept us up
in the top placings. It was obvious by his lap times at
the end of his session that the tyre had gone off so it
was decided to change the rear again for me to do the
last session.
We also had a problem with fuel and a slightly early pit
stop meant that I had to try to make the fuel last 10
minutes longer than before. So, my session was the last
and I started off keeping the revs 2500 rpm down to a
max of 11000 to conserve fuel. I was riding a lot better
than the first session on the brakes an in the corners
and even keeping the revs down my lap times were better.
About half way through my session the pit crew showed P2
on the board and indicated to slow down. I knocked off
another 1000 revs to 10000. Down the back straight I was
running half throttle with the Speedo only showing 162
mph, instead of the normal 180. The low fuel light came
on and I indicated this to the pit so they could get
ready for a fuel stop. It was so close to the end of the
race and after four laps I could see the
‘starter’ on the gantry ready with the chequered flag. I
was hoping to make it to the end but coming through
Corams I could see that the flag was not out yet and the
bike started spluttering. With no option I pulled into
the pits, the team dumped in a few litres and I charged
out, just making it out a few seconds before the flag
came out. We had enough of a lead to hold our second
place, and first in class.
Overall it was a great weekend and a superb team effort.
A great result for the team and especially for James and
me being the new team members. I’m looking forward to
the next round at Brands hatch and especially the
following 24 hour race at Snetterton.
Special Thanks
A special thanks goes to the whole Moores team, managed
by Roger Walton with a pit crew of Phill Haynes, Andy
Od, Nick Davey, Stefan Tass, Dave Peach, James Haynes,
Roy Hood and Martin Childs. The timekeepers were Karen
Tass, Emma Jiminez and Candice Haynes.
There was also a good turnout from Moores Motorcycles
and
hopefully they all had a good day out.
My thanks also to the following sponsors of the Moores
Racing Team:
Moores Motorcycles
Yamaha Motors
Bikestyle – Bickers Plc
CEM, the state-of-the-art energy management company
Devil Exhausts
NGK Sparkplugs
Hyperbolt
Dunlop
Oxtar boots
Hein Gericke Reading
Champion Stands
Ermax Screens
Harris Performance
NWS
Uvex Helmets
DID Chains
Motrex oil
R&G Crash Protector.
SUMMARY & RESULTS
Qualifying: 4th place
Class: 1st place
Overall: 2nd place
Championship Points in Class: 25 = First Place
Championship Points Overall: 20 = Second Place
HIGHLIGHTS:
NEXT RACES:
Round 2 21 May Brands Hatch GP Circuit
Round 3 25/26 June Snetterton 24 hour
Round 4 31 July Pembrey
Round 5 1 October Donnington Park
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