IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PACE
Looking back: 2018 season review.
You win a championship by going as fast as you can, when you can; but things are never that simple.
Ritchie started off like he had wings at Donington Park, winning 4 out of 4. Even at Oulton Park – in the race he finished – he was so far ahead of the competition. At Cadwell Park, he was unstoppable in three out of four. Finishing second place in one race that was started, even after protests from all the riders that it was too wet along the back of the circuit. They all raced on slicks and dry tyres for 6 nail-biting laps; I don’t know how those lads stayed on.
The high-point over the Mountain, before it all started to go downhill.
After that round everything started to go backwards. It was like one of those nightmares when you’re trying to run as fast as you can but your legs aren’t moving. We were going nowhere, fast.
Some people thought we were crazy. Asking us why push the bike to the limit to win a championship, when we didn’t have to? Well, that’s not what it’s all about for Ritchie.
Some long evenings and weekends were spent chasing oil pressure issues
that we couldn’t seem to solve at first.
The main reason was, we hadn’t built a bike together just to turn up and ride round for points. Ritchie wanted to race his bike and get the best out of it; it’s a proper performance machine that’s had a lot of time, and quite a bit of money spent on it over the last three years to make it go the way it does. It would be madness not to ride it for the purpose it was built – speed, handling and ultimately winning races.
It’s the long hours spent on it that made Ritchie ride it at the pace he did this year… to do all that work justice and win races.
Crashes on two bikes over one weekend at Brands Hatch took a huge amount of time,
fibre-glass, filler and paint.
True, he’s been on the floor a few times pushing his bike to compete with some of the GP1 Classics and he’s been successful as an outright winner quite a few times.
He takes crashing well – part of the game – learning from it all the time, but the real killer for him this year has been the mechanical failures at Oulton Park, (Oil pressure gauge leak) Mallory, (Cam chain tensioner) Anglesey (Clutch) and Cadwell (Battery failure) not really down to crashing out. In fact, it was a mechanical fault that caused him to crash at Brands Hatch when the fuel line seal popped and spewed petrol all over his back wheel in the wet! Unlucky? Well maybe. We’ve tried our damnedest to eliminate mechanical faults, but we seem to have been plagued with them all year.
Crashes and DNFs hounded us all year, it was like missing over two meetings
when you totaled it all up.
The clutch breaking at Anglesey was a total surprise as we’d installed some new performance plates to prevent a failure – and then, when we stripped it down, we had a big-end failure to deal with…what are the chances of that? In total, we’ve lost 125 points as a result of mechanical DNFs.
Points that would’ve had him leading the Championship – not counting the crashes –from the beginning to the end. Fate wanted us to work for it.
Lap records at Brands Hatch and Mallory Park kept our spirits up even though,
overall, they weren’t particularly good weekends for Ritchie.
It’s not all been bad though…we’ve all enjoyed seeing him cross the line more times as a winner than any other rider. He’s set pole in his class at almost every round, often achieving the fastest lap – sometimes going faster than the GP1 Classic bikes – and breaking two lap records. The most satisfying being the lap record from our home circuit Brands Hatch, the other was at Mallory Park.
We even got to meet British Superbike Champion and racing legend Chris Walker when we stopped for breakfast at his dealership while our Dymag wheels were being repaired.
We’ve proved that we can build a Kawasaki ZX7-R that’s pretty close to the Superbikes of the time, and that was important for us too.
Wiseco Piston Inc, our main sponsor ran a feature on us because of this.
They have been fantastic with us. When you think of the major teams that they support in motorcycle and car racing in the US – and all over the world for that matter – they have treated us exactly the same. We are forever grateful to them for the help, advice and support they have provided.
We were delighted to have been featured alongside some of the world’s best race teams
on Wiseco’s website and blog.
Ritchie’s crashes and technical problems may well have taken their toll throughout the year, but it was going as fast as he and his bike could go, whenever possible, that won him the Championship for the second year running. He had to ride hard to make up for the lost points. Nearly every weekend – and some very late nights in the week – between races was taken up repairing and preparing the ZX7-R. But, it was always race ready and looked great on the start line, no matter what had happened to it at the previous meeting.
Scrubbed up nice again, our ZX7-R always looked like a winner on the start line.
When it came to final round we didn’t have a hope in hell of retaining the Golden Era Superbike title. So, what did we do about it? The answer was that our Ritchie would only do what he’d done all year: continue to ride it as hard and fast as he could. If it meant crashing trying, then so be it – he had nothing to lose. He told me that he wasn’t scared of crashing at Snetterton – he knew he had a job to do and would go down trying if necessary. He never gives up. In a way we thought, “Well we’ve made it hard for ourselves all year, now it was time to make it hard for the others”.
I still find it hard to believe that he turned it around and won it.
It’s tough for Jordan Watling’s team to take the defeat, but you can never write off Ritchie. Once he gets a sniff of a victory, he’s like a Doberman chasing an escaped convict; eager and determined ‘til the end.
On paper, you would’ve put money on Jordan winning it; Ritchie defied the odds.
Catch him if you can; Ritchie managed to stay on the pace all weekend
at Snetterton even though he was riding his spare machine.
Although finishing may well be important, you still need to push that little bit harder at times to take hold of the advantage when you can. So, you see, to win a championship – in my view– it really is all about the pace… from the very start and right to the end. The good thing for me about the way the championship was won, was that it wasn’t down to a DNF or a crash, it was all down to who rode the best, and who wanted it most on the day.
After the meeting at Snetterton, long after the howl of the racing engines faded, there was a calmness about the place. I could see Ritchie having a minute or two on his own looking down the pitlane. I didn’t disturb him. He told me later that he was remembering his first ever race there on a GSXR 600 over 10 years ago. The memory of it lingers with me too, he won his first trophy there; first novice across the line. Since then he’s won many more and this being our last race of the season, in the Golden Era Superbike championship, it seemed fitting that it was here – like we’ve all come full circle.
In summary, I’d like to say how much we’ve enjoyed our racing weekends. Ecstatic one minute, full of despair the next – it’s a rollercoaster ride that’s all part of the sport, and it gets into your blood like no other.
We’ve had the pleasure of sharing garages with our friends Vince Carlton, Ash Thompson, Drew Plaskitt, Martin and Zac Stanier – and their families. It’s been good watching Ash improve in the 600cc Golden Era Supersport Class and finish a well-deserved 4th place in his championship this year.
Peace at last. Our ZX7-R take well-earned rest in pitlane after the final round.
We’ve had a great time with ThundersportGB for 3 years. The staff, scrutineers and the marshals – the orange army – have been awesome and we’ve made some good friends along the way. We’ll see you all again next year, when we hope to attend a few meetings as a wildcard.
In the meantime, Ritchie needs some time to think about what he would like to do in the future and we’ll keep you posted. It may be the end of our competing in a championship for a while, but it’s not the end of Team 71.
Thanks to everyone for your support.
Bernie Thornton – Team 71
