Congratulations to Fiona Moor for defeating daughter Siobhan Moor in the final of Supertwin ET and Chris Mott in the final of Supertwin Top Gas defeating Les Harris. Finals to be run at Extreme Performance Bike weekend mid October at Santa Pod.
(Note this is not a NAST Championship round).
On Sunday September 27th 2015, more than 30,000 smartly-dressed gentlefolk in over 400 cities will straddle the saddles of their café racers, bobbers, scramblers and other marvellous custom motorcycles to raise awareness and help fund the cure for prostate cancer. Our very own Tim Boutle will be doing his bit by riding his CX Turbo and parading in the pits (as usual!) dressed very nattily in a pin-stripe suit.
To sponsor Tim in his moment of elegance click on his picture above – yes it is Tim behind all that hair.
Entry forms available -
http://www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk/docs/2015_Entry_Form_Doc_26th_27th_Sept_NAST.pdf
Due to only one ‘bike in Gas which meant this class was missing (Motty forced to drop his entry) the spotlight was on ET as the saviours of Supertwins at this event. Saturday was a good day for all the racers and Tim outshone on his CX with the number one spot with a 0.057 run off his dial-in, Pete a close 2nd with a 0.074. SCR pulled out all the stops and rewarded the competitors with a fourth qualifying round (unfortunately due to rain on Sunday this set the scene for Monday eliminations as there was no further qualifying runs for ET). Team Elysion were out in force, as always, with Fiona, Giselle and Siobhan with Kieran, Mike and Cary set to meet them in the eliminations. 
Other NAST members were having a good day with Dave (the hat) Smart running his first 180 mph and another PB 7.866 and 183.11 on the turbocharged Suzuki in Comp. ‘bike.
Pete Le Gros also ran PBs with the ever improving Sledgehammer 2 Funny ‘Bike, 8.246 and 171.71 mph.
Saturday: After a quick riders meeting and a demonstration of how the NSA start tree worked (from the top a red, single stage light and green and another red at the bottom – more of that one later). The pits are very laid back and surprisingly quiet due to Phil Steele lashing anyone who dared to start an engine (even a road ‘bike on one occasion – however it was a supercharged Triton on Dutch plates!) outside of the curfew hours of midday to 5pm.
Tim had a very busy day as he could not resist a bargain and had entered one of his fleet of CX650cc Turbos and for a few extra pounds his Triton. As we were guaranteed 6 runs at least on each machine Tim did not spend an awful lot of time in the pits except when his Triumph engine decided to leak oil.
Lauren was busy catching up on her sleep while Cary was preparing for his first ride by devouring a huge beef burger and cup of hot chocolate. Despite the lack of traction on the start line Cary was busy trying not to wear out the front tyre by wheelying at every opportunity.
After burning out on the very abrasive track surface (new slick required soon Mr. Furlong) Robbie had some very entertaining starts with the Honda sliding from side to side in a controlled manner? but the gearbox gremlins that saw him lose in the semi-finals 2 weeks before in Round 3 were still there and most of the day (8 runs in all) the air-shifter had difficulty in locating all 6 speeds.
Coming soon – Saturday night and Sunday morning.
http://www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk/docs/2015_Entry_Form_Doc_Open_Sport_Nats_Bikes.pdf
Being the first weekend of August a trip to the South West was in order so having packed some cucumber sandwiches and lashings of ginger beer we ventured forth in the early hours of Saturday morning. Having already been woken at 3 am by the mice in the workshop setting off the alarm and a 6 o’clock start with the prospect of traffic jams on the M5 this was going to be a long day. The motorway was extremely busy even at that early hour and the inside lane was one long snake of caravans hurtling towards the cliffs of Devon and Cornwall – luckily we were only going as far as Somerset. Despite the large amount of traffic there were few problems and on reaching Junction 23 I waved goodbye to the holidaymakers as I was off to do something far more exciting but first I took a detour around Bridgewater after misreading my route notes (no SatNav for me).
Eventually on reaching Westonzoyland airfield it began to rain but never mind there was a warm welcome from some NAST members – Cary, Lauren and Tim – who had also been up early to make the long trip from the South (they having left their coast far behind and the only sea I saw was a short glimpse on the run down the M5 after Bristol).
The rain was not holding up proceedings as a BBC film crew were very capably doing that despite the drying track. Dominic Littlewood of the ‘One Show’ was interviewing Henry Body the 82 year old Douglas flat twin racer who was having to hang up his leathers as the ACU do not think he is fit to ride due to his hip replacement, one eye and pacemaker! After a few demo runs up the runway to prove them wrong it was our turn.
Round 3 saw an increase in NAST competitors for what is traditionally a wet weekend for the start of the summer break for most schools. The forecast was not very promising for Sunday especially but as the weekend went on the weather was the least of some competitors problems.
An earlier than normal start on Saturday to avoid holiday traffic saw me arrive at SCR sandwiched between Wild Bunch ‘Time Traveller’ and Motty and the Harley at the ticket booth. No sign of fencing or marquees due to cancellation of ‘Global Gathering’ for 2015. Scrutineering and paperwork done the track was in use so at 10.15 we elected to line up with 8.50 and 9.50 ‘bike for our first qualifier at 10.30. With a blue sky and tail wind, conditions were looking good, and as we waited all that could be heard was the sound of mop on tarmac – the second car down the strip had left an oil slick for half of the quarter mile! Despite firing up several times Kieran’s Kawasaki refused to turn over on the starter when it was time to move along the pairing lanes so he pushed it back to his pit. With the first run completed the autopsy began on the current ET champion’s machine. The battery was fried and on dismantling the starter motor it was discovered that some windings had shorted and the Kawasaki was going nowhere.
Second qualifying round began with yet another oil down quickly cleared by Shakey crew. This also saw the Gas’ bikes playing games with Robbie’s jump start resulting in no data which caused Motty to red light and then Jo with a blinding .007 reaction and 1.38 60ft but unfortunately crossing lanes to shut off.
Tim had brought two of his CX turbo Hondas to the meeting and graciously lent one to Kieran so he could make the third and fourth qualifying sessions. By the end of the day Tim was number 1 qualifier in ET and Motty in Gas with ET and speed.
First round of ET saw Pete Harrison with a .058 reaction defeat Steve Moor who had a problem with a very slow run on the Buell. Cary was handed the win with Kieran still learning to ride the CX resulting in a red light. Tim had a bye while Fiona Moor lost to the ever improving Ian Felstead on the Aprilia with a better reaction of .049. The Gas ‘bikes elected to complete their semis at this time with Motty on a bye and despite being in front all the way Robbie lost to Jo Brookes when changing into 5th gear, found and got stuck in a false neutral, and could only watch as she passed him at the 1/4 mile.
Semi-finals in ET saw the master Pete Harrison beat Ian who was asleep on the line? and Cary did the same to Tim to keep his championship hopes alive.
In the final of ET Cary pulled out the stops to defeat Pete and in Gas Motty, with a .09 reaction out-ran an off form Jo to add more points to his dominant position in the championship.
With the NSA out in force at SCR last weekend several Twins racers suggested a visit to Westonzoyland before Round 4 so send off an entry (don’t have to join the NSA to compete).
Round 3 race report to follow soon.
18/19th July 8.50, 9.50 bike and NAST Qualifying Saturday:
10.30, 12.00, 14.30 and 16.00.
Sunday eliminations:
Round 1 – 11.00, Semi-finals – 12.30, Finals – 14.00.
Don’t forget to sign-on the separate RWYB sheet if you want to do extra runs after qualifying Saturday or when finished racing on Sunday.
Some Long Marston memories of July meetings when the sun always shone and ‘bikes ruled the strip (well sometimes)!
