Freezing at Mallory Park
... and we’re at Mallory Park to race a 150bhp road bike. Is this a good idea?
is the new glorious mid-summer blast. Well it is for now. Good times on bikes come in all shapes and sizes…
THE SUZUKI GSX-S1000 sits on paddock stands, wheels wrapped in tyre warmers while the generator that’s powering them thrums in the background. The tyres aren’t the only things short of heat on this freezing cold morning. ‘Whose idea was this?’ shouts Pete Boast, racer and Bike tester, in greeting. Bike’s entry in Mallory Park’s annual Boxing Day Plum Pudding meeting is meant to be a bit of festive season fun, but unless it warms up a bit it might just be an ordeal. ‘An armchair by the fire and a re-run of Oliver seem quite appealing at the moment,’ admits Dale Fordham, hopefully blowing onto his hands. Dale’s one of Boastie’s north Lincolnshire mates, who’s here to provide support. And soup. The Plum Pudding meeting is made up of seven races and just three classes: solo motorcycles, sports cars and saloon cars. And we’re shamefully envious of anything with four wheels and a heater. Pre-race prep for the rider involved Christmas dinner the day before. Pre-race prep for Suzuki’s overlooked supernaked was only marginally more complicated. ‘We had a bit of fun at scrutineering,’ laughs Pete. ‘We’d drilled and lockwired the sump plug and the oil filler, taped the lights and fitted the sprocket guard, but I forgot about stainless hoses and a catch tray.’ Dale talks the bike past the scrutineer. ‘I think they let us through ’cos it’s Christmas,’ he grins. There have been further modifications to turn the GSX-S1000 into a race bike. Avon Rain Racer wets replace Dunlop D212s and removing the number plate and rear indicator mounting have given the bike a much more purposeful air. Oh, and they’ve turned off the ABS by taking the fuses out. ‘I’ve not ridden the bike before,’ says Pete, ‘and on some bikes the ABS is too intrusive to use on track, so it’s best to disable it.’ There is some concern about the chassis though. ‘I’ve heard the rear shock’s not up to much.’ He and Dale bounce on the bike and then shrug. ‘She’ll be reet,’ is the considered north Lincolnshire opinion. A rider walks past wearing a Christmas elf outfit over his leathers. Elsewhere in the paddock similar preparations are in progress. Practice for cars happens first, and then the bikes are called. Tyre warmers off (though they’ve
‘I got lapped, and I got beaten by the TZR250. I need to buck my ideas up. But I had a big slide out of Gerard’s and I don’t want to wreck the bike’
not had much effect), inner gloves and bodywarmer on. Heated grips would have been worth a second a lap today. The gaggle in the holding area reveals the full diversity of the entry. Normally a GSX-S1000 would look out of place on a race track, but the Plum Pudding competition is so bizarre that it fits right in. There’s a gaggle of scruffy sportsbikes: GSX-RS, Honda CBRS, Kawasaki ZX-6R and a Yamaha R6. At least three Honda CB500S, a Suzuki SV650, a Honda VFR400 and some Yamaha FZ600S (renegades from the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club), Seeley 7R and Honda 350 classic racers, plus a 175 BSA Bantam racer and a TZR250 Yamaha. It’s still very cold, and the track’s wet. To add to the hazards the sun’s come out to dazzle the riders on the start/finish straight. A circuit official, possibly after one too many festive sherries with his Christmas dinner, gives the riders pre-race instructions and then realizes that it’s just a practice and corrects himself. After a few laps of the tight 1.39-mile circuit Peter rolls back to the paddock. ‘I’m freezing,’ he shouts, and while Dale refits the tyre warmers Peter swaps his helmet for a woolly hat. How was it out there? ‘It took a while to get going, you think there’s no grip and then Aaron Staniforth comes past me round Gerard’s on his old CBR600 with his knee on the deck and I’m thinking “what’s he on?” The track’s wet, but it’s the cold makes you think there’s no grip. The bike’s got some go, mind.’ With barely time for a brew, the bikes are out for the first race. There are two laps of warm-up to try and get heat into the tyres. Boastie makes a decent start, but by the third lap he’s dropping back. Meanwhile, Spiderman does battle with Batman (both on Honda CB500S) and Father Christmas tries to get away from a Christmas elf (both Yamaha FZ600S). Aaron Staniforth on his old and well-used Honda CBR600F wins by ten seconds. Boastie ends up being lapped by the top three. He returns to the paddock shaking his head. ‘I got lapped, and I got beaten by the TZR250,’ he laments. ‘I need to buck my ideas up. But I had a big slide coming out of Gerard’s and I thought “No, I’m just here for a nice ride around. I don’t want to wreck the bike.”’ The tyre warmers go back on, this time with the added benefit of some woolly insulation too.
‘I stopped breathing but they managed to get me going again. I didn’t break a bone mind’
The car races and lunch break provide an opportunity to think about the big Suzuki. Launched in 2015, GSX-S uses the old and awesome GSX-R1000 K5 engine, but with revised cam profiles, lower gearing, lighter pistons and fuel injection changes. ‘It doesn’t just pull top gear from 3000rpm, it yanks it,’ said John Westlake in the June 2015 issue of Bike. When we dyno tested one in the December 2015 issue it produced 147.5bhp @ 10,750rpm and, while peak torque (78.9 lb.ft) comes at 9250rpm it’s already making 68 lb.ft at 5000. The fact that Peter’s been mugged by a couple of CB500S and a TZR250 is evidence that, on a damp track, he’s not able to make full use of the power output, but he is making the most of the engine’s prodigious flexibility and torque. ‘I’m using first gear for the hairpin, second for the Bus Stop, third for Devil’s Elbow and then fourth on the straight. Back to third for Gerards, and then I can hold that all the way through the chicane and the Esses, and then down two for the hairpin.’ That’s just six shifts per lap, allowing him to concentrate on throttle finesse to stop the 150bhp from spinning the rear tyre. Ah, but what about the traction control? Obviously the GSX-S comes from the factory equipped with the usual rider aids. Three-level traction control: highintervention, low-intervention and off. But disabling the ABS has turned the TC off too. Pity, it might have been quite useful in these conditions. While we slurp lunchtime soup Pete regales us with Mallory tales. ‘I last raced here in 1991 on a Kawasaki ZZ-R600 in a British Supersport race, but none of my stories from here are about winning, they’re all about crashing. I crashed at Devil’s Elbow before they put the Bus Stop in to slow you down. That hurt a bit. And I had a big one at Gerard’s. I hit the barrier and my helmet twisted up and the strap choked me. I stopped breathing but they managed to get me going again. I didn’t break a bone, mind.’ Richard Cooper, who’s racing for the official Suzuki team in British Superbikes
this year turns up on his push bike. He’s ridden the few miles from his home to the circuit and takes the opportunity to warm his hands on Boastie’s tyre warmers. For the second race, the track is drying. Peter’s eighth on the first lap, and looking really good on the bike. Exposed, but leaning forward onto the Renthal bars he looks like Eddie Lawson on an AMA Kawasaki super bike in 1981. Then the TZR nips past. And then crashes. Then a CB500 goes past. And crashes. And then a novice on a Yamaha R6 passes. And crashes. Peter comes in happy with seventh, an unscathed Suzuki and on the same lap as the leaders. ‘There were some people pushing hard out there. They kept falling off in front of me. The lad on the R6 came past me at the hairpin and he gave it big licks going into Gerard’s. I thought “ooh you devil”. Then he went down. ‘The only place you really stretch the bike is on the start/finish straight and coming out of Gerard’s. The rest of the time you can’t shake the little bikes because of the chicanes and the hairpin.’ And because the track’s now dry, the rear tyre (intended for wet conditions) is cutting up. It might not last another race. ‘What you want for this is something with not too much power that you don’t mind crashing,’ says Dale wisely. We look at the GSX-S that’s due back with Suzuki in the new year. ‘I think we’ll sit the last race out’, says Boastie. Smart move.
‘The TZR crashes. Then a CB500 crashes. And then a novice on a Yamaha R6 passes. And crashes’
THANKS TO: Suzuki, EMRA, Mallory Park, Avon Tyres and Tanya (for the soup).