Thursday 29th May

No practice on Wednesday due to an incident during the solo's session.

Sidecars out for first practice Thursday evening.

Rain Wednesday night left the roads through Glen Helen damp and a cloudy evening all over. We had been for a lap in the van in the afternoon to see where we could lose a few seconds, Mark and Wayne were keen to get out. Leaving on start line, they were timed as 2nd at Glen Helen behind Moly, and 3rd at Ramsey. As they approached Waterworks it was wet and from Guthries through to the Bungalow it was very wet, slow traffic in front and the spray from the outfit in front meant they're speed had dropped down as low as 50/60 mph. This wrecked they're lap being one of the fastest to date, but they still managed a 104.069, lap time of 21.45.166.

Wayne wanted to keep the engine fresh so they only did the one lap. After a short delay at Quaterbridge, due to a medical emergency with a spectator, some of the remaining sidecars went out for a second lap.

Weather good for Fridays practice and they are due to be first out again.

Tuesday 27th practice

Perfect conditions around the course, a couple of outfits missing due to mechanical problems, however, an awesome looking grid of slideys!

Wayne and Mark  cleaned and re-fueled and the bike was ready to head off. The sun was low again but the course was totally dry, mountain clear and a very busy turn out with the crowds.

The team wanted to do 2 decent lap times tonight but an incident at Kerimore meant that lap 2 was halted, red flagged and the practice session was ended. A passenger on outfit 35 took a tumble and is being treated in hospital, not too serious, thankfully! 

Lap 1, however, went very well, although they were held up a bit, the boys saw a 107.493 from standing start. A lap time of 21.03.600.

With rain forecast for Wednesday evening, we'll get everything ready and hope it blows over before the start of practice!

 

 

First practice, Monday 26th May

After a rainy couple of days, we finally managed to get out for practice. Very sunny evening which poses it's own problems for the riders. Low sun across much of the course meant that the team had to work extra hard concentrating on the roads. Wayne just needed to run the engine in and bed the tyres in, so kept it around the 12 thousand revs for the first lap, a quick stop at the Nook with Teddy to adjust the chain, then back out for a second lap at around 14 thousand revs. Mark settled in well and Wayne happy with the bike and first time out, rolling across the start/finish line with a time of 104.53. 

Bike number 29, Tony Thirkell and Nigel Barlow, had an incident at the end of Sulby straight and unfortunately passenger Nigel ended his practice session in Nobles with a broken ankle! Tony and bike ok. 

Weather permitting, back out tonight and give a bit more gas!!!!

Simon Andrews

Condolences to family and friends from us all at Real Racing. :(

Wayne's journey, TT update

Wayne arrived Wednesday morning on the Island, safe and sound, less can be said for the caravan which had a difference of opinion with the ferry, the ferry won! (Sorry Carl!) Anyway, the bike is fine!!!! 

Arrived in the paddock and set to making camp! With the garage awning up and Wayne settled in, time to get the bike ready. Teddy's been helping with the meticulous cleaning process and the two of them have started prepping the engine ready to load it into the frame. (Teddy, friend and chief in the paddock workshop of Real Racing!)

Mark, passenger, and Sarah Wells, the mrs, arrive tomorrow. First practice is on Saturday. 

The Echo did a write up last night about the Silverstone result and there will be a spread for the TT preview  in tomorrow's echo. (23rd May) (Many thanks Mike Yeind, international journalist to the stars!) 

The passenger in the picture is clearly not the regular one, but another lap would be good!!!

Buy the paper and keep checking in, I'll be updating on a regular basis.

Bring on Bray Hill!!!!!

 

 

 

Silverstone International report

Arrived Friday evening, lovely circuit, great set up, all the bikes garaged. 

Went out Saturday morning for qualifying, we did a 1 min 19.663, for a 3rd F2 and 8th overall. Never seen or raced on the international circuit before and a lot of the other teams had been there for Friday test/practice day, so all in all a good start. Track was a bit greasy so took it steady for first few laps until we got settled in. 

Race 1

Good start, was 3rd place into first bend from 4th row and settled down, stayed out of trouble, finishing 3rd for a good first race.

Race 2

Steady start, had a good dice with the F1 outfit of Kev Cable. Was a good safe ride and had a respectable 3rd place to end the day.

Sunday and race 3

Started on row 4 on the outside and got away well, everyone on the noise today! Got down into 1.16's, should be in 1.15's except very windy along back straight, all against you. Started in 9th place overall and finished in 7th overall with with an F2 finish of 2nd place.

Race 4

Again, row 4, good start, pushed our way up the front and everyone else was gunning for it now! Running as smooth as we could, keeping a consistent pace and getting in the 1.15's. Had a couple of back markers just in the power on places so made it a bit tricky to pass and challenge for the win. However, a great result, 2nd place, and a safe, steady race. 

We had a brilliant weekend, thanks to Mark for doing his job so well, and for Lynda (the wife) Sarah (Marks partner), Stu (Marks dad) and Louisa, (our little princess!) for all working so well together as a team. 

Great to see Clive and Carl. Glad you could make it, hope you enjoyed your day!

See you all at the 2014 TT!!

Brands Report

Wayne and Mark hadn't managed to do a test day so this was a good time to see how they worked together! With a dry track, they went out and the duo set the best time for pole position, so, in the first race, a win was the perfect test result for them!! As the British lot were racing that weekend too, it meant that the day was delayed slightly, and race 2 was postponed to sunday morning. The weather had changed and a wet track meant a that a 5th place for race 2 wasnt good enough so they opted for a set of intermidiate tyres, which saw another win on race 3. The last race of the day, the track had dried in places but they stuck to the inters as it was damp in places, the grip was good, and they hung on to a sound lead until the last but one lap and pipped at the post by another f2, so 2nd place was the result!

All round, an awesome first time out for the new partnership, all working well together. The bike running well, Wayne and Mark talking and working well together and happy with weekend results. Roll on Snetterton!!

 

 

Snetterton Report

Saturday morning qualifying saw Wayne and Mark as fisrt F2, and in race 1, continued to take the lead and finished in the the number one postion for the f2's.  Race 2, on dry track, with the duo on a high from the first win, they were determined to continue the pace and it paid off to take another win! 

Sundays weather held off despite the report of rain, and a good start, leading for the first 2 corners, until the powerful F1's crept up on them, and took the overall lead. However, as the leading F2, they continued to push as hard as they could, as it seemed all the teams were doing on sunday, and despite a hard battle with the second place team, Wayne and Mark managed to fight till the end of the race to take the win.

Race 4 and they gassed it from the start, knowing that the other close, challenging teams would try to stop the quadruple win! They had made a few adjustments to the gearing and set a stratergy to enable them to hold off the competition and it made it all worth while as they took 'WIN 4' of the weekend! Bettering they're times by almost a second!

Mark worked so well in only they're second meet together, and proves that, as a team, Wayne and Mark have a winning formula!

Pretty sure that 4 out of 4 aint bad!! See you at Silverstone!