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ROUND 1 Rowrah Klingon warriors are trailing a joint venture to take the moped-racing season by storm. The might of the Klingons and Acme racing are joining forces. The warriors arrived at Rowrah on Saturday morning eager to get set up early for practice. The plan was to test both bikes, pick the fastest and then spend the rest of the time setting up the KX 50 to see if the closed season mods have had any effect on the engine. Well that was the theory. The MT engine in the bike was performing well so it was left alone, however Keith and martin were late getting up to Cumbria from Basingstoke, so we had to wait until well into the day to compare both bikes. Most of Saturday was then spent with both bikes out on the track. The Klingon machine was about a second and a half quicker per lap, but the decision was made to ride the acme bike for the Sunday six hour race and the Klingon bike on Monday in the four hour event. Sunday saw Martin lining up on the starting grid in second place behind MT's R Nasty only to run across the track when the flag dropped and frantically trying to bump start the bike. The bike eventually fired but Martin was well down the field. It was eventually found out that the kill switch had been left off. Martins stint was finished off with a big off at the penultimate bend. Solid performances from Dean and Jason then left the bike climbing the field just creeping into the top ten.
Then Andy got on, I had just enough time to get some piccies of him on the bike when he came off in hairpin one after another bike took his front wheel. The crash has left him with another broken collarbone. The bike and Andy were hurriedly taken off the circuit and the race continued. The bike suffered little damage (a broken gear linkage) and was taken back out, Andy however was subjected to a two hour wait in Whitehaven hospital. When we got back, the rest of the team had got the bike back to a respectable finish of 6th in class and 15 points.
ROUND 2 Rowrah There was no reason to change the plan of racing the Klingon bike in the second race. Jason elected to start and got away in about 10th. With some blinding riding he got up to 4th overall. Dean and Martin followed and with consistent 1 min 03 laps and some retirements, Acme Warriors were for at least an hour in 3rd overall.
We all knew that it couldn't last. A series of mechanical problems would bring us down to earth. Firstly our trusty MX exhaust started to look like a teabag, sucking in air and misfiring was getting very loud. During a rider change we were warned of a potential black flag if unless we fixed it. So out came the exhaust paste, beercans and jubilee clips to patch it up. Jason also suffered a jumped chain and a long push to the pits. The competition at the top was so close, that all the pit stops put us well down the field. Careful riding to finish the race brought the bike back up to 6th in class again and another 15 points. Bring on Elvington.
ROUND 3 Elvington Saturday We arrived at Elvington, Saturday morning to be confronted by the Victor bomber at Elvington Airfield and what looked like hundreds of campers already. The camping field had not been mowed and would not have looked out of place in the African savanah. We pitched the tents and only then did the full horror dawn on us. The grass was seeding and spewing enough pollen to give an elephant hayfever. This was not going to be a pleasant weekend. As usual Andy and I were the first at the curcuit. Dean managed to get himself there just as the frame tent had been erected (funny that always seems to happen). The bike was unpacked and pushed out for practice.
Since the last race, the only change was a red/bronze paintjob to mactch the wheels. Martin and Keith also arrived just before practice. Dean took the Klingon bike out and all seemed to be going well until the engine siezed. The engine was stripped and the piston circlip had broken scoring the piston and barrel. A new piston was replaced and the bike was run again, only to come in shortly later not running. Pushing only revealed a hissing sound (looks as though some of the damaged circlip has busted an engine seal) this will be investigated later. So the decision as to which bike was out of our hands. All four riders got out onto the track for some practice. The track took up about a quarter of the Elvington runway and was laid out with cones, Blyton style. View from the track were postitive execpt for the daft double hairpin arrangement on the back straight. A long back straght was recording speed traps in excess of 80 mph. Saturday night, meal in the local pub and back to the track for beers. WHERE'S THE BLOODY BEER TENT ORGANISERS? Sunday Looks like its gonna be hotter than the Saturday with more pollen, it was making riding and spectating very hard gong. The bike gets away with Jason on board in 19th, however with consistent 1 min 26 laps, he was soon in the top ten and forth in class. Acme Warriors rode an almost perfect race, with only an adjustment to the gearchange and a spill from Martin on the main bend the main problems. With some consistent riding from Jason, Dean, Martin and Keith, a top ten finish overall and 4th in class looked achievable in the last hour.
Then 40 minutes from home our luck came in, Richard Head currently running in 3rd were seen pushing in, and it all looked terminal for them. We were only 8 laps behind and with the Acme bike running very roughly there was easily enough time to overtake them. Sure enough we did with about 15 minutes to go. The longest quarter of an hour saw us trying to stay ahead of the 4th place team in class, they were 2 laps behind and catching at about 1 second a lap. The only way we could get caught would be a breakdown or a crash. Martin brought the bike home without incident to 8th place overall and in many years of Moped Mayhem, Acme and Klingons first podium postion (if we had one) and a tankard for 3rd in class. 'The first of many'
Round 4 - Leconfield Race report Dean Scott, as Lucky Mascot can't be arsed Saturday Loaded up the bike and the left fork seal goes, feckin' great!! Arrived at the circuit & was amazed that a metro registered in Northern Ireland, fully laden got into the camp without being searched. If the Warriors are anything, they are determined, so out rolls the KX. We (I & Grease Monkey/Lucky Mascot) decide that the carb is the problem, so we spent lots of time...........changing jets, needle heights etc, with no solution. The bike gets to the power band and refuses to go any further. A few times it did and the SOB went like buggery. Result, Acme's bike gets ridden/thrashed again, as any good 2 stroke should be. Testing reveals a very slippery corner, and that was in the dry! Anyway, the usual masterful gearing setup ensures that the bike will always be thrashing top gear for as long as possible, that's right isn't it??????? Was it me or did there appear to be a sea of cones, & if there was a slippery bit why not arrange the cones so that it was avoided. Nah, that would be to sensible, as would decent circuits, a beer tent, intermediate tyres...blah, blah, blah. Sunday Race day, it didn't start off wet but boy did it make up for it. It started off with a wet track, it dried out and then it pissed down, mind you that's normal for here. Maybe it was just me or was there a lack of a certain team during these skill testing conditions? I mean to ride fast in the dry is pretty easy but in the wet, well that sorts the men from the boys. Anyway I'm sure we all have fond memories of those conditions. Flat out, banked over in top through rivers, knee down at the hairpin (Max never does that), etc, etc. Don't know about the rest of you but I was will impressed at the handling & level of grip, there's no way I would even attempt that on the road. Well we finished 17th overall, 6th in Class and are 2nd in the championship, 1st place after Elvington?......wait & see. The Warriors are coming out to playee ayee!!!! Before I forget, Jason seemed to think that the whole point of that race was to see who could fall off at the same corner the most and who could get as much mud as possible on and in the bike in the process, pay peanuts!
Round 5- Elvington Elvington Week before Haven't fixed the leaking left fork seal yet. Spare from Breadline ordered. Tuesday Andy has rebuilt MT engine put together with DT 50 piston. Successfully started it on Wednesday runs with no glitches up to 11'000 but it wont run off choke in the lower rev range, therefore running very lean, will have to adjust carb on Saturday practice. Team have taken a decision to travel late on Friday night so as to get most time out of Saturdays practice. Friday Dean arrives from Northern Ireland early and finishes off the bike including the fork seal. The Warriors set off at Nine In the hope of arriving at the site before the gates shut, no way. We get there at about one in the morning and the gate is firmly padlocked. We have a choice; all four of us kip in the car until morning or find another way in. No contest, and we set off down the road, next turning has signs, No access to Elvington Airfield, that looks interesting and sure enough we find our way onto the perimeter track and eventually the campsite, tent goes up and we have a couple of beers before bed. Bonus, we'll register tomorrow. Organisers, why do you shut the F*****G gate? Saturday Practice goes well, with both the Acme and Klingon bikes within half a second of each other. A plug chop on the Klingon machine showing a rich mixture. A smaller jet gives a slight edge but then the intake manifold on our machine breaks (quickly fixed with a new piece and some mastic) however this gives both teams plenty of ammunition for arguing which machine will be run.
The arguments go, the Klingon bike has been the least reliable, and the carb had fallen off in practice but it is faster by about a second and a half per lap. The Acme bike is the most reliable, but Keith had modified the notoriously fragile Weisco YZR piston against Andy's advice. The choice is made and we will run Acmes bike, with the doom mongers queuing up to have a pop when it all goes pear shaped. Time for some grub in the local pub and then onto the beer tent at the airfield. Race day Dawns with some light rain. Hangovers delay the preparation of the bikes, but we eventually get to the start on time. Our rivals in Class one of the Championship, Team Spirit are 10 points ahead and unless they have a disaster are uncatchable. Close behind (2 points) us are Wafty Crankers, who line up about five bikes from us at the start. Team Spirit are nowhere to be seen. The race starts and Jason gets away just in front of Wafty Crankers. We all watch in amazement then as Team Spirit come past and tangle with Armageddon racing on the first corner. They both go down and Team Spirit break a foot peg and get away last and have to pit. For about 10 to 20 laps, on paper, Acme Warriors are leading the Championship.
A close battle starts with Jason and the WC's, which lasts for 10, or so laps until WC's gave up and backed off. Things were looking very good with Jason passing over to Dean and Martin. With it starting to rain we were in 5th on the day and 4th in Class One. It couldn't last of course and when Andy took over from Martin, his stint lasted for about 10 minutes when he came in with the bike dead. Back in the pits, the damage became obvious. The back had fallen off the modified Weisco piston. A piston change mean the bike ran like a pig and the decision was taken to remove the Klingon engine and swap. Forty minutes later the bike went with our new engine, but by this time the WC's had taken our second place. We had to fight on with the engine bogging down beneath the power band and almost unridable. Luckily, Lucky Armstrongs also had a bad race and although ahead of us in the race, didn't have a large enough points gap to take our 3rd place in Class one. We finished the race with 10 points, and 3rd overall in Class One over the year. By far, Acme and the Warriors best ever season. It could so nearly have been second!! Wait for next year.
Championship Class One Results
Home, Klingon Warriors, 50cc GP Racing, Current Setup, Rules, The Warriors, Where it all Began, Results, Moped Racing Links
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