GETTING READY TO GO FOR 2018
THE FINISH LINE IS NEVER THE END.
We can’t believe the season is almost upon us again already. Last year we won the Golden Era Superbike Championship; our lovely bright-yellow ZX-7R was displayed for all to see at the NEC, we all had a great night and celebrated big time at the presentation awards…now it’s time to start it all over again.
Both hands firmly on the trophies
A winning line-up, Nice to be with ThundersportGB’s finest at the NEC.
A night to remember, a full-team turn-out at ThundersportGB’s presentation awards.
A sterling performance this year from Martin Stanier puts more silver on the table.
The Crew ’Dem - Sophie, Chris, Liz and James - turned out to be a real blast and made for a very lively table.
A drawing for Drew, we whipped up a scribble to show our thanks and appreciation for supplying us with Ritchie’s second support bike.
Actually, we started as soon as we got back from the final round at Donington Park. When we looked at all the spares we had lying around in various places, we thought we could easily make another bike.
Ritchie found a frame, rear shock forks and a swingarm for a good price and we got cracking on bike number two.
It soon starts to look like a bike when you get the engine and pipes in place, but a few cold and very late nights in the garage followed to get it ready to test at Donington - it was worth it though.
The engine was created from most of the good parts from the broken motors we’ve had. (Painful reminders from a luckless 2016 season.) The cylinder liner that was cracked from the snapped valve was replaced with a liner from a block that suffered our first engine failure back in 2016! Never throw anything away, you never know when you might need it.
Lapping in the garage.
All the top end was from another engine – we’ve had that many, we even can’t remember where it came from. Anyhow, we lapped in the valves and used the cams from our very first engine. Then we stuck some new Wiseco pistons and rings on to the existing rods and a crank we had lying around, and that was it; another motor to go.
Another handsome motor for the 2018 season; built from the ground up.
When we ran it the first time though, it blew a seal on the water pump and dumped water straight into the engine. We drained out the oil and it looked like Baileys Irish Cream! Didn’t smell like it though. So, did we have a spare water pump lying around? Damn right we did. It was an easy fix and we were pleased, because we thought the new liner seal might not have gone in properly.
Having a ZX7–R road bike has its advantages when you have to run-in a race engine.
We installed the motor into one of our road bikes and it was nicely run-in going back and forth to work. That was huge fun… and it sounded great too!
While we were finishing off bike number two, we took our championship-winning bike down to our local circuit, Brands Hatch for a shakedown on the 17th February and found that we were still having oil pressure issues.
Still not feeling well, low oil pressure is giving us a few headaches on the main bike.
We’re going to have to take it apart again to find out what is going on with it – it’s never been the same since we had a big-end failure at Anglesey. On a lighter note our long –time friends and sponsors, R&G Racing in Alton, sent us a few products to test: tank knee-grips and knee-sliders, thanks fellas, we like these very much. They even match our waspish, yellow Kawasaki.
Ritchie the scratcher – before and after: Thank you R&G Racing for sending us products to test at Brands Hatch.
With a smart-looking second bike ready to go for ThundersportGB’s test day we took it up to Donington Park for a good run out; it was perfect – apart from the weather. Track temperature; minus 2!!! It was so cold all the bikes in our garage were having trouble starting, including ours. Once we got the bike warmed up though, it ran faultlessly all day.
Ritchie with the shivers, while the engine warms up.
We were really happy as Ritchie managed a 1:14.6 lap time by the end of the day – not bad on a cold track, on a bike he’s never been on before – using last year’s part-worn tyres.
Well, it was one hell of a year and we’ve made another video to recap what was our most successful season in road racing so far. We hope you like it. It wasn’t easy, but then it wouldn't be racing if it was. However, it was a whole lot of fun at the end, or is it just another beginning?
Whatever, we can’t wait to start and we’ll be ready to go on March 23rd for Round 1, Donington Park. See y’all soon!
TEAM 71
Thanks again to all our friends and family for their support and to all our sponsors: Kais Suspension, R&G Racing, Wiseco Piston Inc, Race Winning Brands, CP-Carrillo, Opie Oils, Nova Racing Transmissions, Holbeach Tyres and Cradley Kawasaki.
