BSSO Pre-season shakedown
The BSSO had two official 2018 pre-season test days available for its members, to track test their race scooters and give them a shakedown.
Paul Green checks out the pre-season test days, and brings us the team scoops to be expected for the 2018 race season.
Abright but cold and windy Mallory Park and a very wet Cadwell Park hosted the tests a week apart. This year promises to be another interesting one for the BSSO race series and its followers. With separate ACU British Championships for geared and automatic scooters up for grabs for the first time there’s some strong interest from riders eager to take a crown. But spectators and racers will have to get used to some new different sounds from the on track action with the arrival of the Scomadi Cup Championship.
A little like when hybrid engines were introduced to F1, the high pitched screaming engines of some machines will be replaced by the flat lower tones of four-stroke automatics as the new class gets itself established. There has been good interest in the new class and Scomadi has set aside up to 20 identical race prepared machines at a special subsidised price, with the series winner in for a brand new machine.
The Scomadi series, like the Production class before it, has attracted both new and experienced riders who can race this series on more economical and similar machines, making the costs of racing much more manageable. Long time racer John Woods was looking good at Mallory on the distinctive bright orange #52 machine; Gary Peacock was also testing one at Mallory. Zak Tingle has found the temptation too much to resist and is also returning to racing on board a Scomadi and
was undeterred by a fall at Cadwell in the rain as he found the limit of his tyres. Zak has the talent to be a frontrunner in the class for sure. Shaun Fairhead has also switched from Production Class for his second year of track racing.
A new team has been formed by Scootopia to contest the 2018 Championship. Scootopia has supported the Production Class since its inception and the growing brand has now put together a full race team with some very experienced riders including Mikey Bonett, Graham Tatton and late addition Tim Simpson. The machines are unusually based upon SX Lambrettas and have a very classic look with the riders in matching leathers. Graham Tatton will be aiming for the Production Class while Mikey rides a more powerful machine in the new Group 4 Evo Class. All riders were looking strong on the test days and with the support of engine builders JB Tuning and management from Andy Barnes they could be a force to be reckoned with.
Strangely this year the test days saw an absence of some of the potential championship contenders with rumours of secret testing, new engines and a veil of secrecy over the 2018 intentions of some riders. Chris Geyton of SRP was up front about his intentions though, with his Group 4 scooter fully rebuilt along with all the SRP machines resplendent in new paint jobs for this year. Chris has been a long-standing competitor in the class and will certainly once again be at the sharp end this year.
Along with veterans Dave Delaney and Stuart Day the SRP team are the most experienced on the grid and will be joined in 2018 by the very talented Lee Bamber who rode a
geared scooter for the very first time on the test day aboard the SRP Production class Lambretta. Lee was somewhat bemused by the handling of a Lambretta but his natural skills have seen him as a front runner in both motorcross and automatic scooters so I’m sure he will soon work his way to the front of the production class. Dave Delaney will be riding a legendary Vespa SS90 and he now has a second one available straight from long time mentor Norrie Kerr!
Lee Bamber is also competing alongside Warren Wilkinson under the Wilkinson Racing banner to compete in the first ACU British Automatic Championship and will be one of several riders taking the opportunity of the extra classes now available to ride more than one machine.
At Cadwell we saw two familiar sights from the Chiselspeed camp… Chris Cook returns to compete for the whole year and looking mightily fearless and quick in the conditions. With them was a familiar sight to many in the form of leathers belonging to the legendary Brendan Mcnally. However, the long hair trailing from the helmet and slight build meant it was an imposter – none other than Maca’s daughter Nikita who was having her first track experience on the Chiselspeed Zip. Her championship motocross experience was obvious and she absolutely loved her day. Although there are no immediate plans to do a full season she will definitely be back again to race properly and who knows, we may get to see her in action on a geared Lambretta and she will certainly be a quick newcomer.
A rider hoping to have some better luck on a geared scooter is Steve Wright who was riding his classic Group 6 Special Lambretta but it is now resplendent in a new paint job and will run with Team DSC support. With head spanner man Darren Scott on board, Steve will surely be able to cure the reliability issues that have dogged him in recent years.
So with the close season out of the way we are still none the wiser as to the 2018 intentions of some top riders, but the Scomadi Class looks like being off to a great start and Scootopia is bringing full race team structure and classic race styling to the grid, throw in the established LCGB supported Lambretta Production championship as well as a brand new VCB Vespa Production championship and we have the makings of another great year of scooter racing. www.bsso.co.uk
Words & Photographs: Paul Green Extra images: Tim Simpson and Lee Hollick