YAMAHA FZ600 RACER
Spike finally races Nancy.
So, she finally turns her wheels in anger. What could possibly go wrong, Spike?
As the age-old saying goes ‘perfect preparation prevents p… err, pathetically poor performance’ and if the last 34 years of racing has taught me anything it’s that it’s very easy to make a tit of yourself if you don’t test and work things out before you go race. The expectation of riding Nancy had grown enormously, so as a treat I ordered up some new tyres from Avon. I was invited to the opening of Alf’s Motorcycles’ new showroom in Worthing and on the way decided to swing by Mallory Park for some shakedown laps. Mark from No Limits track days has been following the Nancy project and was generous enough to agree to her doing a couple of sessions on their track day. Queuing up in the advanced group waiting to go out surrounded by bigger, more modern tackle Nancy looked and felt like a tiny wee thing. Out on track I settled down and completed the first session without much drama. The power was smooth with no power steps or flat spots, the brakes bedded in and worked well, changing gear was occasionally difficult with a double lift required on the down shifts (race pattern, you see?) but the handling was the biggest issue. Tip in was good and powering out of the corners she worked well, however midcorner as I picked up the throttle the front wheel would judder, shaking the whole front-end. It seemed like the forks were locking up. Gareth had put in so much time and research to get them right, but I could tell something was wrong. Back in the paddock I could feel some ‘stick-sion’ in the forks. I took the fork tops off and took out the springs to allow me to move the suspension through its stroke to feel where it was sticking. After some fiddling around loosening the front spindle, this didn’t help but when I undid the mudguard brace and retightened it felt much better. The gear change was a simple issue of filing a small groove in the footrest bracket to give the shifting rod bolt some more clearance. Next session on track I knew I had cured the handling problem. Tipping into Gerard’s and picking up the throttle she was almost perfect – job done. Nancy was soon back in the van and off to Alf’s. Paul Firth and I had booked a track day at Croft the week before our first CRMC race event there, so it would be the last chance to get Nancy fettled for her debut race. To be honest, there wasn’t much to do, so I turned some laps on her, readjusted the gear lever and then helped Paul to get a few issues with his bike ‘Myrtle’ sorted. The two sessions on track illustrated that I could really do with a tweak to the forks as they were still a little soft on the compression side, so off we went back to see Gareth at Reactive Suspension. He really has been a tremendous help putting up with my constant demands and really helped with being able to implement my on-track feedback. The track days at Mallory and
Croft meant that it was time again for new tyres before the race – this time paying for the pair, it was a bit of a shock at £365 delivered; off to Acklams to fit, then it was time to go racing. We arrived at Croft Friday lunchtime, and the place was packed – the Classic Club is one of the larger racing clubs in the UK and there was little room anywhere, however we found a nice little space on the grass behind the beer tent: location, location, location, or so they say! It was going to be an interesting weekend, as I knew none of the front-runners, and had no idea how Nancy would perform against the other 50 or so FZS in the Junior Production class. We had free practice and three races to get through but the grid positions were determined from the 2015 championship finishing positions and ‘known ability’ so I had no idea where I would end up on the start grid for race
one. Practice went well and I was quickest, but ended up 12th on the grid for the first race. Race one went very well. I got a good start and I was up behind last year’s class champion Kevin Wholey for the first lap, then after he made a mistake coming out onto the back straight I passed him and pulled a gap which I held until the flag. In doing so I had set a new lap record and was two seconds quicker than anyone else on track too! Nancy was flying, handling was great – she was so much fun to ride. Race two, Nancy was where she belonged, on pole position. We managed a similar result to race one but with Kevin second again and me getting the quickest lap again. Nancy was just awesome! On the Saturday night presentation, she won five litres of Yamalube, which was just as well as our calculations showed, she’s a thirsty
girl and was drinking oil it like it was gin! Thirty years on the standard rings means she, like a lot of the other FZS, smokes on the over-run. The next day and race three, I was really enjoying racing Nancy and Kevin was pushing hard too. I made a schoolboy error while fighting it out with Kevin, missing the last lap flag. I thought ‘he’s pushing hard’ as we came to the end of one lap and rounding the hairpin I looked up expecting to see the last lap flag and it was the chequered flag: DOH! Next stop was Cadwell Park, but not before a further order for another pair of tyres; practice and four races on the abrasive surface at Croft and Nancy was ready for another pair of £365 shoes. Again we had warm-up, and I was placed fourth on the grid for the first race as that was my place in the championship, despite missing the first round. Again, Nancy was off like a rocket and I had a tussle with Kevin early on but ultimately took the win by eight seconds and Nancy had smashed the Cadwell Junior Production lap record by almost five seconds. Then things took a turn for the worse! I was on pole for the next race, but lost out to Kevin and was hot on his heels when Nancy’s motor let go with a huge bang and rattle as we entered the chicane. I could see oil in the belly-pan and it turned out that the number-three con rod had broken. Thankfully Paul Firth lent me ‘Myrtle’ for the last race on Sunday and came second despite starting 31st on the grid. So, despite the results it was time to go back home and wonder what to do about Nancy’s popped motor. There didn’t seem to be an FZ600 motor out there anywhere: even the similarly-engined Yamaha Radian is commanding strong money at the moment! Then, three weeks after Cadwell, Steve Fry (a fellow FZ racer) said
he’d bought a barn find (well, it had been outside for 10 years) but if I wanted the motor as-was it was mine for £100. Being in Southampton, he was as far from Harrogate as could be without being foreign, but it was worth the gamble. Fast-forward to getting the engine back home and it looked a sorry state. I gave it a basic clean-up, fuel was leaking out of the tank, taking the engine paint off, but there didn’t seem much front-sprocket wear, which I took as a good sign. Steve Mcnichol came to give me a hand and we planned to just bang in the barn-find motor, connect it up, change the oil, then hit the start button. Well, we couldn’t believe it, as it fired up immediately and sounded as sweet as a nut! So, with the motor well worth a punt, we then we dropped the motor out, gave it a thorough clean up and a right good coating of Frost Barrel paint – just as well I read the instructions, for a change, because although it’s touch dry in a couple of hours it actually takes five days to cure, so would only just be ready in time for Anglesey! Once we could handle the engine again, it was back in the frame, all connected up, and ready for Wales. The weather was forecast to be atrocious and for once it certainly wasn’t wrong: there was rain and high winds – I didn’t really fancy going out in practice on the Saturday but I’d not ridden with Nancy’s replacement motor, so I didn’t really have much choice! I did as few laps as necessary to check everything was holding together and really enjoyed blasting round in the rain as the Avons are awesome in the wet. By early Saturday afternoon the organisers abandoned racing for the day. Sunday was dry but very windy, I decided to start the first race and see how it went, making a decision to continue after a few laps. But I was enjoying a good scrap with Kevin again so stayed out. I had to remember this was the last meeting for me and Nancy and the last thing I needed was to have an ‘off’ as her prize draw was at Donington Park in a few weeks; with that in mind I settled for having a good race and second place.
Race two and all seemed to be fine for the first few laps but Nancy started to lose power in the higher rev-range, holding back along the straights, there wasn’t much point in continuing and possibly damaging the engine so I retired her to the pits. Sad, but a better option than popping another engine! Back home in the garage I found a kinked fuel line near the fuel filter, so that was an easy fix and I also fitted a new battery. Nancy’s new owner now waits for her at the big draw at Donington Park.