Following an excellent two day test at Valencia, where all objectives were achieved and which involved Peter Lindén, Hugh Brasher and Ian Simpson, it all came to nought at Vallelunga!

Serious deliberations

Peter Lindén and Hugh Brasher qualified in third spot behind Team Taurus (44), with Giorgio Cantalupo and Sandro Caprara and the fast charging Team Scuderia Officine (333) with Samuele Sardi and Emiliano Bellucci.

Long queues for the scrutineering

After 25 minutes Peter Lindén led and built a 4 second lead by stop 1, at 43 minutes. Hugh Brasher returned to the track in an even better position, leading by 18 seconds.

At stop 2 and stop 3 the team held a steady 3rd position, well in touch with Scuderia Officine, who led.

A mid-race stoppage, due to a bike fire on track, turned into an Italian farce. No pace car, nor parc fermé were available and all bikes returned to their pits awaiting instructions.
These can in town crier fashion with the organisers making the rules up on the hoof, contradicting each other and making no coherent sense… poor Segale suffered a 1 minute penalty for wiping the screen!

Anyway, farce over, our race resumed… but not for long. Hugh Brasher pitted with 45 minutes remaining with a broken gearbox! It was a real shame, as Peter Lindén had scored the race fastest lap and absolute class record whilst chasing for the lead after the race stoppage and Hugh Brasher had delivered a 1 min. 54 sec lap and was displaying top form!

Fastest lap trophee

Next week off to Paul Ricard for round one of the FIM European Classic Series.

Ian Simpson and Peter Lindén will join forces on the Sweatshop Phase One bike… and this one really does count!

See you in the Provence next week.

RB

Golden memories, James Ellison on the No 3 Phase One bike

Testing this year will be at Valencia. The team will have two days on track over the Easter Monday and Tuesday, 28th/29th March. Technically, there is only a modest amount  to do, but for the riders it will be very important to get up to speed before the 1st round of the Italian championship the following weekend.

Probably the biggest change to the bikes is the new fairing and headlight set up. Last years lamps have been brought inside the fairing in order to try to give a better aerodynamic presentation and possibly improve top speed, which was down by some 8/9kms against the competition at the end of 2015.  a new replacement for the gas discharge light will also be tried. The team will also need to put some hours on the new tanks and mounting system, which is as yet untested.

After the test, the truck will travel to Vallelunga via the Mediterranean ferry which crosses from Barcelona to within 40kms of the circuit on the Italian coast. Practice is on Friday 1st April and the 4hrs race is during Saturday evening.

Peter Lindén and Hugh Brasher will ride at this event.

Just two weeks later the team are out again at Paul Ricard for round one of the European Classic Series. Riders at that race will be Peter Lindén and Ian Simpson. Last year the event attracted crowds of over 25,000, with the 4hrs classic endurance as the headline event.

Ian Simpson leads Peter Lindén during the SA TT Classic Series at Zwartkops

See you at Vallelunga

Peter Lindén scored four straight wins in the SA Classic TT series held over the last two weekends at Zwartkops and Killarney. Linden fought off challenges from Graeme Van Breda and Rod Gray at both events to come out on top of the 33 bike field. This was Peter Lindén’s first visit to South Africa, and riding the same Sweatshop Phase One Suzuki GSX1230 on which he finished the ECS Aragon 4 hrs race, he mastered the conditions quickly and matched the pace of the locals at both circuits.

In each of the races there were two classes; the pre-1983 and the pre-1989. The series champion was determined by the rider achieving most points, irrespective of which class he competed in.

Races one and two which were at Zwartkops, on the outskirts of Pretoria and were not easy affairs, with local star Rod Gray making forceful challenges, finishing within a couple of seconds behind Lindén in each.  They finished one and two in both pre-1983 races. Bill Simpson scored creditable thirds.

In the pre 1989 races, circuit specialist Noel Haarhoff and Graeme Van Breda made it a one-two in each leg , with Gavin Ramsey holding off Ian Simpson, on John Wheatman’s XR69, for a pair of thirds. Ian finished fourth with Ian MacPherson in fifth.

At Killarney the battles resumed, this time with Linden being pushed all he way by Rod Gray, who finished just two second down in race one.  In race two the challenge was weaker after Gray crashed on the slowing down lap of the first race.

In the second pair of pre-1989 races Ian Simpson and Graeme Van Breda scrapped tooth and nail right to the line, with Van Breda taking the honours on both occasions.

Peter Linden received his trophy from outgoing champion ( and Phase One team mate ) Ian Simpson at the post race prize giving, which coincidentally was on Lindén’s Birthday … a great present after a faultless performance.

Final Championship positions

Peter Lindén             P&M Suzuki    GSX1230             56 points
Graeme Van Breda   Suzuki              GSXR                  52
Rodney Gray            Suzuki Katana  GSX1100             48
Ian Simpson             Suzuki XR69    Bandit 1100         42
Noel Haarhoff          Suzuki               GSXR750            36
Gavin Ramsey          Suzuki              GSXR                  36
Bill Simpson             Suzuki              GSX EFE 1100   30
Alan Duffus             Yamaha             TZ750                  27
Fergal McAdam       Suzuki Katana  GSX 1100            26
Ian Mac Pherson      Suzki                 GSXR                  22

Snippets –

Oil – anyone who imagines that classic bikes are bad for oiling circuits really should have seen some of the many classic car races held over each weekend. With no sump catchtanks and hard racing it really was bad.

Austin Healey- Anyone interested in 3-litre Healeys would be interested to know that there were at least four of the Chatham family at Killarney, including old man John, of DD300 fame. Those who remember John Chatham cars on Pigsty Hill in Bristol will probably be aware of DD300, the Healey that John Chatham campaigned for decades from the early 1960s until it was sold just five years ago. It was THE most famous racing 3000.

Temperature – both races were held during the current South African drought and heatwave, which saw race day temperatures in the low to mid 30 degree Cs.

Marchant Engineering – Ray Marchant performed excellent mechanic duties alongside Russell at both meetings

Meercats – running across the circuit at Zwartkops – a genuine hazard

Continental –  Big thanks to Graeme Matcham for the supply of the tyres which astounded the local racers who had not seen grip like this before

Next – Valencia test 28/29th March

Next weekend the team will race in  South Africa for the first time, competing in the first two rounds of the South African three event Classic Series.

The first two races are at Zwartkops and Killarney over the weekends of 30/31st of January and 6/7th of February. It’s not endurance, but it will be great to see Peter Lindén up against similar machines in the pre 1983 category.
Competition will come from a host of local stars, plus Ian McPherson and Ian Simpson, last year’s series winner.The event is organised in the UK by Mick Grant, who has shipped a dozen or so bikes from the UK.
TT star Bill Simpson will also be racing an XR69 Suzuki.

Interest in the races started when Bill Simpson spoke of what good events they were during last season. The team had been looking at competing again outside Europe for a while and these events fitted the bill perfectly. As an aside we had considered Philip Island but dismissed it as our bikes were out of class (the organisers allow 17″ wheels , slicks and post 82 engines), New Zealand, but our timing seemed wrong and Japan, where we could be in class, but emails were never replied to. 

Thirty team members sat down on Saturday evening to celebrate the successes of the season. The Lamb Inn at Spaxton put on a great traditional Christmas Dinner, but the special Venison and Stilton Pie still won over!
Furthest travelled were Peter Lindén, Ian Simpson and Bill Simpson, from Sweden and Scotland respectively.

We all enjoyed the opportunity to have a good talk away from both circuit and workshop and what was especially good was to introduce key sponsor Lee Marchant of Marchant Engineering Services (MES) to some of the local team members who don’t go to races and also some of the new starters.

The evening was capped by an exclusive UK airing of “The Peter Lindén Show”, a charity picture show presented by Peter about his life in fighter jets and with racing motorcycles.
As they say, a good time was had by all.

South Africa

The Team will travel to South Africa for the first time, in late January, to contest 2 rounds of their three event Classic Series.
The first two races are at Zwartkops and Killarney over the weekends of 30/31st of January and 6/7th of February. It’s not endurance, but it will be great to see Peter up against similar machines in the pre 1983 category.
Competition will come from a host of local stars, plus Ian McPherson and Ian Simpson, last year’s series winner.The event s organised in the UK by Mick Grant, who has shipped a dozen or so bikes from the UK.
TT star Bill Simpson will also be racing an XR69 Suzuki.
Last time Bill was on the same grid as Peter was at the 1985 Production TT where he beat him convincingly – a fact that he would not let Peter forget at last weekend’s dinner!
More on South Africa to come -….