DISASTER STRIKES – the J1 model cam caps were the wrong ones. The holes didn’t line up and the forged areas were incorrect. Partly our own fault for not checking as thoroughly, but then it shouldn’t have been advertised as J! Immediately ordered another one, and received a full refund on the initial purchase, so all is not lost. The actual J model cam cap is now en route to us. Seems to be identical via the images. So fingers crossed it arrives promptly and is the part we need.
The top of the pistons have been cleaned and polished by the Silverback, as can be seen below. Spiffing job sir!
We are awaiting the head to return from the shop where it is currently being skimmed. Once this is back, the engine rebuild can begin in earnest, with new headgasket, and new rocker cover gasket going back in, alongside new plugs, fresh oil etc. Engine back in the bike, and she will then be taken to the dyno for some testing, so expect a post about that with some footage hopefully!
A big shout out to Gordon Wright, as he is now in a position to be back in the Elite 600’s fighting it out at Oulton, which is now looking a little unlikely for us. Go Gordon!
Next however, Sponsorship update – wheels are moving!
This will be relatively short, as things are still ongoing. Tonight I will be picking up the cam caps, which arrived late last week but I was too busy to go get them – bad Nath. The Silverback has taken the head off the engine body, and everything is now apart. Matty will be picking up the head soon and taking it to get skimmed to ensure while we have the bike apart that it will be going back together properly. While the engine is apart, Silverback has decided to have a go at doing the shims where needed for the cams. A new prospect for him, but it provides a great learning experience at this stage for my Dad, who is an avid home mechanic, and loves to tinker.
Once this has been completed, the engine can be put back together, which will require the proffered assistance from James Wilcockson – who is a complete chief. I’ll need to find out his favourite drink, I think.
Once this is done, we can build the bike back up, and get it onto the dyno, where James will adjust the fuelling to suit and get hopefully, a little more power out of the 600.
Will keep you guys updated, for whoever is reading this!
UPDATE 29/05/14 – got a few more snaps last night, please enjoy the following:
I get in from work, empty my bag, chuck the camera in, chuck my bike jacket on, get the bike out, grab my tripod, put my gear on, start the bike, set off – bike cuts out. Try again, bike cuts out. Sweating BALLS by this point. Turns out the spring on my side stand had popped off. Face, meet palm. I strip off gear, open garage, grab pliers and a bar, and struggle for 30 minutes against a strong ass spring to pop it back on. Finally it goes on. I set off, I arrive at the parents, I walk into the garage. And the below greets me. No help needed after all. The engine is already dropped out and under inspection.
As you can see in the image above, on the right hand side, one of our issues is a snapped lug within the head that held the left hand rocker cover bolt. The bolt is fully intact. So we believe this is repairable without too much effort, due to the area being low pressure. However, we believe due to the oil dispersal found at the time of the engine failing, that this lug snap was not solely responsible for the leak. We also believe that the leak was coming from the head. The head is coming off, and will be checked for flatness. Beyond this, we are struggling for funds for the season (ie. moving entry fee funds into repair funds) if anything else is required other than the rocker cover gasket and the head gasket to get the engine together again. This is truly racing on a shoestring!
All isn’t looking too rosy for MLR at the moment, but let’s see what we can do, who we know, and where we can get some help. We’ll get this engine sorted and get out again for Aintree on the 14th June.
If you know anyone that is adept with 2000 era motorcycle engines, and is willing to lend a hand, please let us know. Cheers!
Matty’s warm up session goes well. We make a decision to stay on the tyres that he is currently on – the wear is great and he isn’t losing immediate grip with them – no point in spending the money/wasting the tyre life at this point, especially as we arent running at the sharp end – yet.
The group overall is a little down – the confirmation of #6 loss has unsettled a lot of us. Matty has agreed to control Gordon’s pit board for his first race, so after getting Gordon down off the paddock stands, we all make a sprint for the pit wall. Gordon makes a good start off the line, and heads into Redgate looking well. We await for them to come past the start finish 1 and a half minutes later, and my live timing app is snapshotting as they barrel past the pits. But we haven’t seen #111. Did we miss him? No, he doesn’t seem to be on the timing app either. Oh dear. We get ourselves back to the HQ to see if he had been taken back. We don’t hear anything about it, and Matty realises at this point that this is what his brother, his mother, his father, his girlfriend, his supporters and friends go through everytime there is an incident on track. I believe he fully realises for the first time how much a worry it can be for us.
Finally, Gordon arrives back. He is relatively ok, and explains that he went down going into craner curves. A fast corner. The bike however, is not ok.
Owch. The onboard footage of another rider shows Gordon being missed by another rider barely as he slides across the track. A very near miss. Thankfully he is ok, and that is what matters the most of course. Gordon had changed into his older leathers (known as the cursed crash leathers) just prior to the race, to try to alleviate a forearm pump issue he was experiencing in the new leathers. It seems the curse decided to claim him. Good luck recovering and fixing it Gordon from us at MLR!
A little surprise for Matty, his girlfriend Lizzie turns up on Sunday! This provides a little boost for Matt, and his spirits seem to lift a little.
13:01PM – Race 3
Matty prepares for his first race, but is gutted for Gordon. The damage to the bike is pretty brutal.
The time comes along for Race 3. The bike looks good, we have re-attached his seat unit and secured it further as it was starting to vibrate under some cracking fibre glass. We have re-made his left hand end peg with a rounded head bolt and a few washers – the plastic ends kept spinning off as he increased his lean angle. Due to the bike not having any modification done specific to Matty (other than colour and rear seat unit so far), the bike was discovered on Thursday to be diving heavily onto the forks in the braking areas. This meant the forks were bottoming out, and then trying to rebound while Matty was still trying to brake. This caused the front end to judder heavily, which can be seen on the on board videos. We had a word with Gordon and Adam Shelton, and despite the actual fix being a case of buying the correctly rated springs for Mattys forks, (currently they are set for an 11 stone rider, Matty is currently sitting at 14 stone) – we added more preload, as can be seen below. He was already running a lot of preload, so we are now almost maxed out on the forks – which is no doubt causing an unseen issue in other areas, but the juddering was what was bothering Matt the most.
She is fuelled and ready.
He heads out on to the track, and lines up. We go to watch from the back of Redgate corner rather than the pits, or from Melbourne loop.
A few laps in he is doing well, his timing on the app looks good, 1:50’s in traffic and he is battling very well. It is possibly the strongest he has looked all weekend.
On this lap, or the next (can’t quite tell with the video), Matty smashes his best lap of the weekend out – a 1:49.6 recorded on the 5th lap of his race by the transponder. We all cheer – get in! Personal best!
The very next lap? Engine failure. *cue the Adagio for Strings soundtrack as Matty, in slow motion, falls to his knees amidst the life blood (oil) spilling from his engine*
Absolutely GUTTED. We immediately get the bike up on the stands, and strip her back to the carbs.
We have never really had to deal with mechanical failure before, so this is a new experience. We discover that the left hand rocker cover bolt is loose – assumption is that the lug inside has snapped off with the bolt. As it is a low pressure area of the engine, we decide to metal epoxy the bolt down to the head. The oil leak does seem to originate from here at this point. We allow it all to harden, and silicon fill a few areas for completeness. Multiple people are consulted for this, and the general response seems to be – see if it works.
There is still a small residue of oil appearing when the bike runs…at, or near, the headgasket. Utterly, utterly gutted. With an hour to go until the next race, we are faced with having to give up on Race 4.
Around this time, there is a tribute lap about to be held for Ian Allkins, lead by his wife Jade.
At the same time, our friend, Adam Shelton, is laid face down in the gravel, unconcious, only 30 feet away from us – his front brake had failed going into Redgate. A team of paramedics are tending to him, and the backboard is out. We haven’t seen him move in a while, and we are all heavily worried. Finally, someone is certain they have seen his arm move in response to the paramedics. He is loaded into the back of an ambulance. We still don’t know at this point if he is ok.
This causes all of us to choke a little, and everyone is silent for two minutes once the CB500’s have done their lap of honour for #6.
Gordon’s crash, Matty’s bike failure, a rider death, and Adam’s very visible crash aftermath after a bike failure – a very shit combination of events. The emotions are all over the place. We cannot imagine how hard it must be for others at the event.
We gather our things, and start to pack everything up. This takes a few hours of slog, and is possibly the least enjoyable part of a race weekend, not including any serious issues such as the above. Everything is finally packed away, and we load up into the van. I text James, Adam’s mechanic, asking for an update when they know something. Adam was only briefly knocked out, and is on his way home with James. Some good news at least. Matty and myself have discussions about the weekend – it is clear the stream of events has give him a solid knock in the wrong direction, and he is doubting his choices – who wouldn’t. At the end of the drive home, we leave all the stuff in the van, and chill in the front room with our girlfriends. We start to have a laugh, and I make sure he concentrates on the positive notes from the weekend.
Next challenge? Let’s find out what’s wrong with the race bike. And get her repaired. Then upgraded.
There was a heavily unfortunate delay to the start of Matty’s first race – a delay which, after the confirmation, made the whole weekend take on a very sad note. A rider in the CB500 class, Ian Alkins, regrettably lost his life due to a crash. From all of us at Matty Laws Racing, we offer our sincerest wishes and condolences to the friends and family of #6.
The delay unfortunately got under Matty’s skin – he was nervous and raring to go out (this time I remembered to put the video on) – however 20 odd minutes sat waiting to be released onto the track meant that the next race got called up, and Matty’s first race was re-allotted to the next slot. The warmers were put back on and we waited – hearing grim news that a rider was heavily injured at that point was conducive to a sombre mood. The race time approached once again, and everything built back up. Matty was quiet at this point – he needed to get out there and get battling to drown out the nerves he was feeling.
Davison turned up on the Saturday, and was a welcome grinning face around the paddock. The lad needs to be back on bikes! Abel will soon be on the bikes too, by all accounts. Ryan won’t be on bikes, but promised Matty some heavy sponsorship… Wink Wink.
The video stayed on for about three laps of the race, and decided to cut out. This was mostly due to me not regularly swapping out the memory card of the contour due to its awkward position on the bike. Something we will rectify for the next time.
Matt finished Race 1 in 26th place, and 8th in class. It is not normally Matts way to go backwards, but we are in a new class, with a new bike, and Matt was battling well – we were all very proud of his gutsy overtaking on the brakes at the melbourne loop – his sponsors Nige and Di, and Jack of Jacks Snaps Photography and various others were watching from here with us – we all immediately agreed that Matty was back. Awesome racing, kid.
In the discussion afterwards, the main feedback was that it was great to be back out there, theres more to come from Matty himself. He had a cracking battle with a 750 for a few laps, and afterwards was laughing and joking with the guy. Still terrible front end judder into corners however. Tyre wear looked good.
18:47PM – Race 2
Matty went out and battled again this time, but as the riders on the faster machinery started to get comfortable with the track, he could not keep his 24th place overall. He reported that the bike was feeling a little underpowered versus the other 600’s, which can be seen in the onboard footage. The suspension issues he was riding around, but definitely need to be looked at. Nevertheless he had a great race, and was battling with the same pack. He finished 27th overall….but 7th in class! So actually a stronger championship result than Race 1. Sterling effort, and we realise that the bike needs some work after this round at this point. The aim is to use any new sponsorship on the suspension, and various chats about the suspension are undertaken. We need fresh suspension and further than that, we require some good set up. We are starting to get our heads around it, but all of us are still learning. Great stuff though.
We finish the night with a family BBQ using the death inferno machine we had created on Friday. Gordon joins us, and we have a laugh and share some stories over some chicken, sausages and burgers. This is another part of racing – getting together with people and enjoying each others company. It is raining lightly but that doesn’t affect us enjoying ourselves. We get to bed after a few drinks and a bite to eat, trying to prepare for the next day.
We wake up in a slightly warmer tent (I have a wooly hat on) and begin the shower procedure. I walk back from the showers and pass hundreds of campervans, race vans and tents. There are absolutely tons of people here now, and it’s bloody brilliant!
I walk down to the HQ area from the camping area at around 8:00am, and find Matty pottering about. We get the “doors” (loose flaps) opened up and reveal the #193 bike (now, a 2000 J1 ZX6R, previously 675, previously CB500) (previously #18, previously #93) to the paddock for the first time in 18 months. What a feeling.
The parents arrive around 8:30am, and we all catch up with current events over a good brew. Silverback isn’t too impressed with my stand in crew chief efforts, and Mothergoose is hobbling about washing pots for some reason.
10:00AM – Warm Up
Warm-up. Just need to get some laps in, get settled for the day. His fastest lap is a 1:52.5 – we know he’s faster than that, so no heads are dropped. It puts him 26th in the table of 35 riders. His eye is in, he’s been out with the lads he will soon be competing against. Bike feels ok, though we are battling against a totally stock bike, that has been set up to a lighter rider. We knew this and expected it – the funds are going into the racing itself at the moment so we can gauge what is needed on the bike.
11:30AM – Qualifying
Qualifying is at 11:30am. The tyre pressures are checked again and set to the same as the test day. The bike is fuelled to the set amount we discovered on Thursday left him enough in the tank for a test of fuel if required. The warmers are on 25 minutes before qualifying.
She’s ready to rock.
Matty is nervous. It has been a long time since he has been out there with a transponder attached, and actually aiming to beat other people in a one shot sprint. There are 39 riders in his race (Golden Era), with 11 riders in his class (Super Sport). Matty’s bike is completely stock other than how it looks. We don’t know how this will compare against the others in class, but Matt is aware of the quality of his fellow riders too, with names such as Ian Popplewell out there on an R6.
He suits up, and mounts the bike. We get the warmers off, drop her off the paddock stands, I forget to turn the contour on (too much to worry about!) and a few slaps on Matty’s back. And he’s off to qualify.
His opening lap is a 1:53 or thereabouts (memory starting to haze a little now) and he quickly drops this to the 1:51’s consistently in traffic.
Matty finishes qualifying with a 1:50.2. This puts him in 24th for the race, out of 39 riders – and he is sitting 7th in class out of 11! Absolute brilliant for his first time back out in the saddle. He is also only 0.4 seconds away from the next 600 rider in his class. There is a relatively large jump in laptimes to the next 600 group, with Sam Nicholson putting in a 1:46.4 – 3.8 seconds from Matty’s. The fastest 600 rider qualifying time in his class is Mike Horberry, with a 1:44.3. So Matt is sitting at 5.9 seconds behind the current leader of his class. Quite a jump to make. Enough of that however, we keep Matty’s head clear. Great qualifying. Time to get into the races and make it count.
I wake up at 6:30am, with my bottom touching some large idiot’s bottom as he is moving around on the partially deflated blow up bed that we slept on. I am utterly freezing – my face is numb. Matty had decided the previous night that we didn’t need to close the tent. Sigh. I fall back to sleep briefly. Matty has gone for a cycle around the circuit and then a quick shower. I follow suit at around 7:30am.
The shower perks me right up – feeling ill mixed with a lot of effort in helping Matty the day before had left me pretty worn out. The sun is shining as I walk back to our little camping area, and life feels very good.
We know there is some form of super car experience day going on today at Donington, and of course we dive over to have a look once everyone is up and about – after a bacon butty of course.
Below is a section of what we see. Great stuff to be wandering down the paddock and pitlane hearing and seeing these things. Not a patch on the bikes, mind you, but still, as a motorsport and vehicle enthusiast it’s a great addition to the weekend.
During the afternoon, Gordon Wright of Spartan Racing gives Matty a talk through and a walk through of the track. This helps Matty focus on some areas of weakness on Thursday, and start to have his aims solidified moving forward for tomorrows qualifying. We discover that Matty has lost the end of his footpeg, and due to him requiring more foot space, we install the larger, flatter left hand foot rest so that his boot isn’t catching on the heel guard. That is about all the bike prep we complete, due to Matty having no issues as yet with the setup at his current pace. A thorough check, and we re-load the van ready for the inevitable rush across to the paddock from the holding area.
While we wait we construct, from an incinerator and chicken wire, a rather beautiful BBQ.
Look at the afterburner on that thing. Pyrotechnic beauty.
Once we get the go ahead after what seems like a life age of the earth, we rush into the paddock area and grab as much space as we can to save some space for Pitty and Gordon. We manage it, and everyone gets set up! Excitement starts to build heavily…it’s racing time!!
3:30AM – the alarm sounds loud and harsh. I should be groggy, tired, dead. My eyes snap open like twin gunshots. I am immediately awake. Clothes are whipped on, with some grumbling from the woman (who would be going on that weekend to complete some of the Yorkshire Three Peaks on behalf of The Group Company – well done!) for being a bother, and I’m downstairs. The lights are on. The van is mostly packed from the night before. The last few bits are thrown into the back. Abel and Ryan arrive. Ryan wishes Mary Mack could join us. Abel simply goes about offering purposely unhelpful advice and handing out scathing remarks. The weekend has started.
6:55AM – The drive down to Donington was swift. We time it almost perfectly – we roll right through the gates at 7:00AM and are rewarded with a prime position garage for the test day. Great stuff. We unload quickly, getting all the essentials out – the bike, teabags, chairs, tyre warmers, paddock stands. In that order.
8:00AM – Matty has signed on, no noise testing to worry about, and we end up playing with a frisbee ring thing in Donington’s temporary car park before having a delicious bacon butty. Good stuff! The excitement is palpable, it’s not even the race weekend yet but to be around the paddock, the bikes, a ton of other racers – bloody brilliant!
9:00AM – Three groups (essentially Inters, Fast, Faster) are put out for the day. The Inters go out first. Matty is in the “Faster” group, so is due out at 9:40AM. We have checked everything over, and the Continental Race Attack CS tyres are set at 29 front C (Cold), and 26 rear C. Matty goes out for his first session, and as he is leaving the pits, tries to adjust his clutch. He sets off. He comes back in a lap later – the clutch is slipping at higher revs.
We make a clutch adjustment, and also worry that he has recently put in totally new oil. The clutch itself we don’t believe is near the end of it’s life but we also aren’t sure of how long it has left. Slightly worrying. Big shout out to James Wilcockson (who is Adam Shelton‘s race mechanic) for having a chat through, sorting out the adjustment with us (which in retrospect is a tiny little problem, but it always helps to be re-assured by experienced guys!) and Adam himself for offering Matty advice.
Second session comes along, and the the clutch issue disappears. Perfect. Matty completes three laps to be sure and then comes back in to get his head back on properly – an adult choice from a growing racer.
Amazing how these little issues have a knock on affect. By the time the second session takes place, we have already contacted several people about clutch plates, transport issues, oil slippage, clutch adjustment and other scenarios. It’s been a while since we’ve raced, and it shows. Matty sets a 1:56.5 during the second session – we use this as our starting point for the day – Matty originally just wanted to be under 2:00. With our immediate goals already hit within two sessions, we set some new goals for the day. We want to break 1:50. Not an easy task with a relatively unknown bike (2 easy going trackdays so far to get used to race shift, and a bike that is not set up for Matty’s weight) on a circuit that is different to what he has raced before (GP Layout).
Matty knows what he has to achieve and gets out there for the next few sessions. We don’t alter the tyre pressure at all, or the suspension settings. We just let him ride it out, checking the pressures and wear constantly to see how we are doing. On the warmers, these were at around 32 front HW (Hot Warmers), and 33 rear HW. Coming in from each session, the track pressure of the tyres were at 30 front HT (Hot Track) and 30 rear HT.
In the next two sessions, Matty drops his time to a 1:54, and then to a 1:52. In less than 16 or 17 laps, he has dropped four seconds off his times, and is consistent with it. He has words with Gordon Wright of Spartan Racing, who is set up to help mentor Matty through this year with his riding. These chats help Matty focus on certain areas of the track, and the times drop again.
17:00PM – The last session of the day, and quite a few people have packed up to go home before returning on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Not us. We need to push more tracktime to keep Matty on the ball. His times are stuck at 1:51.5’s – consistent, but not where we wanted to be. As the lap numbers increase throughout the session, we see him hit traffic. 1:52. He clears the traffic and pushes. I hang out over the start finish straight waving my arms like a retarded lunatic. If we don’t hit the goal we set out to hit, Matty’s head will drop temporarily. We don’t need that. We want positivity all the way through.
I look to Ryan who is timing. We see Matty exit the last hairpin and hammer on the throttle, tucking in his tall frame behind his small screen and tearing up to the rev limiter in every gear. He passes Ryan and myself on the pit straight.
1:49.93.
Beautiful. Nicely done Matt. Nicely done. Racing – a strange state of mind meaning that a point in the distance decided on that day, that no one else is even aware of is matched by the reality of a situation, and we rejoice like we’ve won something as a team.
A swift phonecall back to the parents, Phil and Jackie (Silverback and Mothergoose) who are eagerly awaiting updates.
And then – time to pack it all away, and go and set up camp. One crappy bbq later in the night air, and some laughs, and we are all in tents. Matty forgets to close ours up. We wake up on Friday morning as cold as ice.
Matty Laws Racing 