Testing at Silverstone: Racing
It’s the first official test session for 16 year-old Franco Bourne and his Kawasaki ZX-6R Junior Superstock race bike. It’s all about tyres reports team boss
I’d forgotten what a serious place the British Superbike Paddock is. It’s full of kids who think they’re the next big thing and their dads. They’re all in matching team clothing and no-one stops by for a bit of a yarn. The paddock atmosphere when you’re racing on the roads or in classics is loads better. Still, we did our best to lower the tone at Silverstone with a rusty van, unpainted bike and woolly hats for our first official BSB test day.
This was only Franco’s second time on the bike. He was out at Cadwell the week before, just to get used to it. We were changing things around to get him comfy. He did a 1:43 second lap, I said: ‘Fair enough Franco, but I can do 1:43 seconds round Cadwell on my old Kawasaki GPZ F2 bike.’ Fair play to the lad, he went straight back out and did a 1:37, and I certainly can’t do that on a GPZ.
After Cadwell we put the ZX-6R on Phil Crowe’s dyno, and when we’d dialled in the Power Commander it’s delivering 128.6bhp with a decent mid-range which is good power for a 600 and it was certainly fast enough at Silverstone.
We also fitted a steering damper because it’d been shaking its head at Cadwell. In fact a bloke found us in the paddock and said Franco’d passed him at Barn corner and then started down the straight fighting the biggest tank slapper he’d ever seen. Anyway, I’m hoping there’s no more money to
spend on the bike because judging by the way we got through tyres at Silverstone that’ll be what bankrupts us.
We started on the tyres we’d used at Cadwell and did a 1:00 dead, but the bike was sliding around all over the place. We stuck a new set on and he did a 59.4, but after 14 laps the rear was about shagged again. I couldn’t believe it.
He did a few more laps on that tyre but soon enough we were back in the queue at the Pirelli truck to get another rear. His times dropped to 58.6, and the Junior Superstock lap record on the National Circuit is 57.1 so we’re in good company, but the tyres were soon destroyed again.
It’s a control tyre so we’ve all got to run them, so why can’t they make them last longer? It seems like madness to me, but everyone seems to accept it. Pirelli are onto a nice earner. Before the first race we’ll do a track day at Oulton, and maybe another test at Donington, though at £350 in entry fees and £600 in tyres a BSB test is a bit of a luxury. Unfortunately the first BSB meeting at Oulton on 26-27 June clashes with the Barry Sheene Classic at Scarborough which is a highlight of my year, so I’ll be enjoying the atmosphere in Yorkshire and racing my Tigcraft KTM and the GPZ while Franco’s looked after by Ryan Higgins. And if you want to help us with tyre costs feel free to contribute at Franco Bourne’s Go Fund Me page.