Round 1: Brands Hatch

“You can’t win the championship in the first race, but you can lose it”

It’s felt like a long time since we packed the vans up after our final race of last season. Winter has come and (hopefully) gone, and Spring is on its way.

Although we’ve not been racing, there’s been plenty going on. Our new crew chief, Simon, has been working hard to get the bikes ready and Keith and Ben have been pre-season testing in Almeria.

All that preparation came together on last weekend, when the team met at Brands Hatch. Straight away there was a buzz in the air. Everyone was excited to be back together and getting down to the business of racing. The vibe on race day is so important and our team is brilliant at getting a good energy going in the garage.

We are again competing in the Hottrax Endurance series, but there are a couple of key changes. Last year we qualified on Saturday and raced on Sunday, this year we are doing it all on Saturday. The other big change is to do with the changeover’s during the race.

So, qualifying time came. Keith went out first and was followed by Ben’s 20 minute session. We knew we’d done pretty well and when the timing sheets confirmed we were first in class we were over the moon.

There wasn’t too long to wait until the race, so we slipped in our team meeting, agreed our plan and were raring to go! When the lights went out and Ben jumped on the bike, we were off! Our timings were spot on, we brought the boys into the pit bang on schedule and by stint 4 we were not only first in class, but 3rd overall.

You never take anything for granted in bike racing, and how true! In the fifth stint, we were sitting pretty when Ben indicated he had a problem with the bike and we knew we had to bring him in. We’d got a puncture! Some quick action from Simon and Jim saw a wheel change and Ben ready to go back out in 2 minutes. Two very scary minutes!

We were back on track, 8 seconds down and hunting down our lead. Ben finished the stint and it was down to Keith to bring the win home. No pressure then! A series of really focused, fast laps followed and by 15 minutes in we knew we were back in front. With 5 minutes to go we proudly put P1 on our board and let our lead rider know he was riding for the win. In Team Traction Control tradition, we got the team on the pit wall for the last lap to see him home.

A FANTASTIC start to our season. Awesome riding and now everyone is gagging to get back out at Snetterton in a few weeks. ^SM