Moores
takes 2nd in Round 1 of HMRC Endurance
It was the opening round of the new HMRC Endurance
Championship. Moores were competing in the Supersport
600 Class with riders Mike Eglington, Tony Jimenez and
Jim Agombar looking for their first win of the season.
Qualifying was going well; with Tony setting out first,
but the first disaster of the day struck when Mike went
out for his qualifying session. Unfortunately, he got
the pace car. As he was coming into the top of
Russell's, slowing down for pace car, one of the Uprite
Racing riders went straight into his backside at speed.
He pushed Mike onto the grass and although the Uprite
rider crashed, Mike managed to stay upright - just. The
impact was so severe, he sustained a puncture and the
wheel buckled - beyond repair. Mike nursed the bike into
the pits where the team changed the wheel and put on a
new, but cold tyre. Mike had to scrub the tyre in and
had lost most of his qualifying time. Jim went out and
had a great run, with no incidence, and we ended up
qualifying 7th.
With nothing for it, the team set out preparing for the
race itself. Jim had a brilliant LeMans start, putting
us 4th in the first lap. The team were optimistic, then
Jim disappeared. Minutes later we saw him pushing the
bike in. After only 1 lap, the front end had locked,
nearly throwing Jim off. The pit crew were manic trying
to find and resolve the problem. It looked like the
culprit was too much fluid in the master cylinder and
after a few more frantic moments replacing the tyre as
well, Jim was back on track with a whole lot of work to
do to catch up as we were now dead last and 12 laps
behind the leader.
At 1.00, Jim had to pit again – the front wheel once
again locked. The team thought they had sorted out the
problem, but on removing the wheel, saw that the disc
had warped from some intense heat caused by a spacing
problem. Once again, the pit crew replaced the entire
wheel with a new disc and were hopeful that the problem
would now be solved. With so little time left to his
session, it was decided to send Mike out for his first
session. We were now down by 23 laps and there was still
some trepidation as to whether the problem was resolved
or not.
Mike had a solid run, pulling us up from last to 11th
position overall and 5th in the Superstock 600 class.
The commentator for the day said he was “thrilled with
Mike's ride”. Tony took over the reigns at 2.15 and rode
at a brilliant and steady pace to keep us on target for
moving into a podium position. M2 and Moores changed
position several times, but we still needed to overtake
two teams to take home a pot.
Jim was put in the saddle at 3.00 with the arduous task
of trying to overtake Viking and Farside Racing to gain
us a podium position. He was quickly into his stride but
M2 were still nipping at our exhaust pipe, so it wasn't
going to be an easy ride for him. Jim's lap times became
increasingly faster with a best lap of 1.14.1, enough to
pick off 4 other teams bringing us to 6th overall and
2nd in class. With 2.5 hours to go, it was going to be a
thrilling but nail biting finish to keep the other teams
at bay.
Mike took the saddle again and rode consistently and
smoothly to maintain our position at 6th overall and 2nd
in class. Tony decided to let Jim go out for the last
session as he felt Jim would have the best chance of
catching UKRM.
Jim overtook Phoenix, then Kawasaki Newcastle, still
chasing UKRM, reducing it to a 1-lap difference with
only 10 minutes to go and the commentator was ecstatic.
As the clock ticked down, Jim gave it his all, but there
just wasn't enough time to make up the now less than 1
lap difference, but he took the chequered flag to give
us 2nd in Class and 6th overall – an fantastic result
given the initial problems and effectively starting from
last place.
It seemed like every other word out of the commentator's
mouth during the day was about Moores Racing and his
words and complements were justified. Not only did
Moores take a resounding 2nd place after being at the
tail end of the pack and finding out in Park Ferme that
the swingarm had also been damaged from the morning's
rear-ender, but they won the Best Prepared Bike and the
Best Presented Team trophies – a brilliant and
unexpected end to the day.
The team was ecstatic and are now chomping at the bit
for Knockhill, where they'll be looking to lead the
Class championships.
Special thanks to the pit crew, the support team and
Moores Racing Fan Club – as ever the foundation of the
team and a thumbs up to Jim, making his debut with the
R6 team in superb style.
Mike also extended his thanks to KBC Helmets who are
sponsoring his helmets this year and said: "This was the
first race where I used the KBC. It was brilliant and
fit like a glove. I would recommended it to anyone."
Thanks also to Moores Racing sponsors Moores
Motorcycles, Leo Vince, Motorex, Bikestyle, NGK, DID,
Hyperbolt, R & G, Champion,
CEM, Green, Ermax UK, Oxtar and Talon for their
continued sponsorship of the team in 2007.
For more information about the HMRC Endurance
Championships,
click here.
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