The Story of Team Wildcard Racing

The
following is my story of how I got involved in motorcycle racing and
is in diary form. These are basically just notes to remind me-a sort
of blow by blow account of all of it, including the boring bits.
It
is Nov 2002. A friend of mine has just asked me out of the blue if
I would be his passenger for side-car racing next season. Tim has
been racing for twenty odd years, all old classic and vintage stuff,
he even got a 5th place on the Isle of Man GP this year, although
he has never raced sidecars before.
Well,
I couldn’t say no could I? Later that day I remembered the couple
of times the previous year when I had gone to watch Tim race and ended
up marshalling. I particularly remembered the several really bad accidents
involving sidecars. I suddenly regretted my rash show of bravado and
felt decidedly shaky Tim told me a couple of weeks later that he had
the loan of an Ariel outfit for the season and so it was all on.
By
Christmas the plot had thickened. Tim has a Rudge 250 sport that he
used to race but now has too many other bikes to ride. He told me that
as I was coming to the meetings anyway, I might as well race the 250.
And
so the story begins:
I
was lucky that I had Tim to explain the ins and outs of the official
bit, mind you I still got quite a few things wrong. First step was to
join the VMCC because you have to belong to a club before you can send
away for you ACU racing licence. The VMCC have their own racing section
and it was their meetings that we were going to enter the coming season.
Once joined I could send off for my ACU racing license. To get a racing
license you have to belong to a club as I said, you have to have a medical
and to start off as an intermediate novice as I am you need to have
a full bike license.
Once
this was in motion I could spend a bit of time looking for the clothing
etc. that I would need to race. You have to have a one piece leather
race suit of at least 1.2mm thick leather. I managed to find an as new
suit for £225 and spent another £20 getting it altered to
fit perfectly. A fully approved ACU gold stamped helmet cost £185,
gloves £35 and some second hand racing boots £20. The suit
was fully armored except for the back, and so I brought a separate back
protector for £30.
During this time the ACU sent back my application form for the first
time as the club had forgot to sign it. I sent it back to the club to
sign and send on only to get it back a couple of weeks later as by this
time my credit card had expired! After putting in the new details and
sending it off again, I finally received my license at the end of Feb.
That
was actually quite a moment for me, to hold my racing license in my
hand brought reality one step closer. I told my mate Phil about what
I was going to be getting up to. Now Phil is a hard core biker who originally
built my chop and has built lots of specials. He immediately offered
his services as spanner man, which I knew was going to make the whole
thing much more possible. Early Feb and I go up to Tim’s place
to have a quick look at the Rudge and then take it home for the season.
I borrowed a trailer from a mate and set off for the nether regions
of mid-Devon. The bike is in the shed with stuff piled on it and looking
a bit sorry. We spent a while clearing a space and then took the engine
out and I took a few notes about timing and other spec. and what needed
doing before the start. Then the bike was on the trailer and I was away.
It
was yet another moment (there have been several already) to see the
bike in my garage, and to actually sit on it. I had quite a list of
jobs to do. These included setting up an oiling system for the valve
guides, lapping in the head and valves, new cables, new chain and sprockets,
new oil pipes and petrol line, setting the timing etc. It must be said
at this point that this was the first British bike I had ever worked
on.
Very different to the big Jap fours I was used to. I phoned Phil
and arranged for him to come over that coming weekend to look over the
bike with me. I had done the engine and put it back in by the time he
came, so we decided to do the timing and fire her up before doing the
other jobs. The night before we did the timing we had a couple of beers
and watched this side car racing video I’ve got. I suddenly had
another reality check, a bit of a panic, and I thought I was getting
in to something I couldn’t handle, and may well lose my bottle.
It was bad and it pissed me off.
The
next day we did the timing, filled the oil tank and cranked the oil
around a bit and wheeled her outside to the lane beside my house. Tim
had given me instructions on how to start her- petrol on, tickle the
float, push start in first or second, clutch in, drop the clutch and
keep pushing for a few seconds then clutch in and vroom she fired up
first time! It was amazing. After a couple of minutes warm up I jumped
on and away up the lane. It took off like a rocket. You could tell you
were on a real racer. I barely stopped in time to turn around at the
top of the lane. Back to let Phil have a go and that was it.
All the
worries of the night before vanished in a cloud of castrol R40. It felt
good, really good. I knew then and there that I was going to go out
on the track and have a great time. It lifted me up. Me and Phil hugged.
Phil was hooked. I knew he would be too jealous to watch me race while
he stayed in the pits. He went home after that weekend and joined the
VMCC and by the next week he had had his medical and we were sitting
in my front room filling in his ACU application.
Feb 14th. I am on a coach to London and the mobile rings and its Tim
and he says that I must send in to register the Rudge because he has
heard that the 250 class is over subscribed this year and it will be
on a first come first serve basis. After I put the phone down I was
really worried, I would be gutted if I missed the chance to race.
Then
it hit me. My genuine reaction was panic at the thought of not being
able to do it. I knew for a fact then that I was 100% committed to do
this. As soon as I got back I sent off the reg. Form, and found out
the next day that I had got most of the information on the form wrong
and had to send a covering letter the next day!
The following weekend Phil came over again. I had rigged up the valve
stem oiler and we did a couple of other things and then tried in vain
to start her for most of the day. We redid the timing, stripped the
carb, realized we were bumping in the wrong gear, all in vain until
we finally remembered the valve stem oilers. I hadn’t restricted
the pipes enough and they were pumping gallons of R40 straight into
the head. Well, we got there eventually, although we only had enough
time to run the bike up the road and back. It is amazing just how much
time you can spend getting a bike race prepared. The Rudge wasn’t
far off ready anyway, yet I have still managed to spend countless hours
working on her. It is now the middle of March and I think the bike is
just about ready.
I was sent my racing number last week. 54.
I have put the numbers on
the bike and it looks great and it feels good to have my own number.
I have sent off the money for the first race and we are going up to
practice at Mallory with Tim a week on Wed. Got my second hand racing
boots through the post last week and they are fine. I am now fully kitted
out for racing and so is Phil.
Had
to buy 50 litres of Methanol for practice. I had a hell of a job getting
any anywhere but in the end I got some through a racing fuel supplier.
Very expensive so I hope that Tims mate is there on race days to buy
it off ‘cos apparently he is quite cheap. Sent off for a couple
of rear sprockets to be made for the Rudge a couple of weeks ago and
they arrived yesterday and I have fitted one and it is fine. Spent this
morning lock wiring the nuts and bolts.I am getting very excited now.
I keep wondering just how good or bad I an going to be.
So now it’s the weekend before practice and we fired up the bike
on Sunday and warmed it up before running up and down the hill a couple
of times, only to find oil blowing out everywhere and getting all over
the back tyre! Had a bit of a panic on for a while but I think we have
got it sorted, although there is no time to test it now because Tim
is picking the bike up tomorrow. We recon that the catch tank breather
was way too small and was causing crank pressure and oil was coming
from the crank baring as well as the catch tank. We bored it out and
put an air pipe in so hopefully that should sort it. I think there will
be quite a lot of oil leaks anyway, but hopefully they will stay away
from the back tire.
We are off tomorrow and it has just started raining
for the first time in three weeks! Up to Tim’s early in the morning
and we set off for Mallory, arrivingat lunchtime. As we got there we
could see a load of classic cars out for practice , it was very exciting!
Got our passes and in to the pits. Primed up the Rudge and had problems
starting. After close inspection I noticed that the piston was cracked.
Tim said to take it out anyway but we said no and took the engine out
in the pits and inspected the piston and it was cracked right through
to the gudgeon pin so that was the end of that.Went out on the outfit!
Very fast, very scary, and extremely hard work. I found it really hard
to pull myself over from one side to the other on the tight hairpins,
really exhausting I actually fell out the back of the platform on the
way through the bus stop and just managed to hang on to the rear grab
rail as Tim gunned it down the main straight.
I was flapping about on
the tarmac and hanging on for dear life while Tim was oblivious to the
disaster unfolding next to him. I could see gerards the long flat out
right hander fast approaching, and knew if I didn,t make it back on
the platform and over the back wheel in time then we would both be off
on the grass. With a Herculean effort I managed to flop the top half
of my body back on to the platform like a seal struggling out of the
water onto the rocks, and just clambered over the back wheel in time
to enter gerards. When we finally returned to the paddock, Tim turned
to me to ask how I got on, and was amazed to see me with my new leathers
all torn up and one boot worn through. “ what happened to you?”
he asked in all innocence. . I must admit I was quite glad when Tim’s
brother said that he wanted to do the next couple of races!
All
in all we had a great day out even if it was disappointing not getting
the Rudge out on track. On the way home Tim phoned Mervin Stratford
to see if he would sell his bike to us! Needless to say he wouldn’t,
but he did send down a Honda piston and a set of instructions for fitting
it. We also picked up a load of Tim’s old spares when we got home.
Two days later we had the Rudge running again on a standard piston which
we had to do the valve cutaways on ourselves as well as some other profiling.
We decided to run with that for Mallory as it was only a week away by
this time.
Feeling as ready as we could I hired a van for the weekend and we set
off on Friday lunchtime with the bike loaded up along with a box of
spares, a tool box and all our camping gear.
We were the first to arrive
at Mallory and we had to wait over an hour for the track to re-open
so that we could go in! It took us an hour to put the little tent up
because it was so windy and cold. We managed to stay out of the pub
until 7pm but that was the best we could do. Tim had met Eddie at the
track earlier and they had gone off to look at a monster Vincent outfit
to buy, so we had arranged to meet them in the pub later.I was feeling
a bit nervous and stuck to my plan of only having one pint of shandy
for the whole evening while Phil was in the more fortunate position
of sinking several beers that night. We met up with Tim and Trevor and
the others later on but by this time we had watched a great video in
the pub showing all the top crashes at Mallory and so by the end of
the evening I was feeling even more unsure than before.
I was grateful
to get back to the van for a good nights kip.
Unfortunately
I hadn’t realized just how cold it was going to get and I spent
most of the night awake and shivering. I was glad to get up at 7am and
I am sure Phil was too. Strangely enough I had lost all my worries overnight
and was now feeling fine and ready to go .We got the Rudge out of the
van and gave it a once over and then put it in line for scrutinieering
and went to grab a coffee. Had a bit of a shock when the scrutineer
said he couldn’t pass the bike because of the lack of a rear chain
guard! In our rush to get the Rudge ready we had completely overlooked
this crucial piece of kit.
The old bodge-it mentality kicked in as we
brought a plastic number plate and cut it to size and drilled it, and
with the help of a couple of cable ties it was back to scrutineering
this time to be passed.
Next step was up to the officials office to book in and to pick up the
transponder for the day. These are the little gizmos that you fix to
the bike and they are used by the officials to give an accurate readout
of your lap times and speed for any given race. Then it was back to
the scrutineers to have leathers, gloves, boots and helmet checked.We
started the Rudge and with a last handshake it was off to the pit exit
for practice.
Somehow or other I had managed to get my timing a little out and I arrived
at the pit exit just as the marshals shut the gate for first practice
and so I had to wait at the gate for 15mins until we were finally let
out. I couldn’t stop the engine as I wasn’t sure if I could
start it again on my own so it was a long 15mins.
Second practice was
for the bigger bikes and that was a little worrying but as soon as the
gate was opened I was off - and stalled it just outside the gate!
A
quick word with the marshals gave me permission to bump start the bike
on the exit lane and join the track for the practice session. Mind you
this was easier said than done but I eventually got it going and did
at least two laps before end of session!
The bike didn’t feel too hot I must admit, but at least I got
out and ran it. It was not long after this that my first race came up
and I was fifth on the grid so I got to the pit exit on time this time.
The rules state that you go out from the pit and do the rest of that
lap to line up on the grid, then when everyone is in place you do another
warm up lap and line up on the grid again. You then wait for the checkered
flag to start the race and off you go! It didn’t take long for
me to realize that the Rudge was not going very well at all.
It was
coughing and spluttering to start with and this got worse and worse
as the race went on. The bike also started shaking really badly and
I was tempted to retire from the race but I decided to keep going, if
only for the practice. In the end I came in 17th out of 30 starters
but I must say that there were 10 dnf’s so I only just avoided
being last. The good news was that I did have a successful finish within
the allotted time behind the winner and this counted as a successfully
completed event and so I had my ACU card signed. Only nine more to go.
We looked at the bike to see if we could make it go better for the second
race and were shocked to find that three out of the four engine bolts
had sheered and two were completely missing. The engine had moved so
much on it’s mounts that the timing was way out.
Frantic borrowing
by Tim from other racers found us enough engine bolts to put it back
together and it was off on the second race. Unfortunately I only managed
to complete one lap before the bike died and I was left stranded at
the hairpin. I sat out the rest of the race with the marshal and eventually
got the bike back to the pits . What had happened this time was the
tappet adjusters had worked loose and one of the push rods had jumped
out. By this time I had learnt that you need to do everything up really
tight!
I had also noted that the bike was still running poorly. We did change
the plug cap and fit the exhaust better and then it was time for the
last race of the meeting, the novice race. Because of my poor performance
in the first two races, I had the pleasure of being first
on the grid for this race.
The bike was going slightly better this time,
at least it wasn’t coughing and spluttering as much, however it
was still very slow. I did feel that I was in a proper race for the
first time that day though, and really enjoyed the whole thing. I even passed somebody! When I pulled into the pits all I could do was say
to Tim “ tell me I didn’t come last “ Well I didn’t
come last, and due either to some computer error or else the strange
logic of the handicap system which as yet I haven’t figured out,
I was given first place! This earned me 15 points!
Driving
back from Mallory we had plenty of time to discuss preparation for the
next meeting.
I needed to make the Rudge go better and quicker. Phil
had been offered a Bantam to race by Tim’s brother Trevor, and
he needed to get that down to us and worked on as soon as possible.
We had four weeks before the next race at Lydden which sounds like a
long time but goes really quickly. Luckily for Phil, Tim was going to
see his brother the next week and so the Bantam arrived and Phil could
get to work on it. He also had to register the bike for racing with
the VMCC and get his own racing number, which turned out to be 196,
one below Tim’s. I stripped the Rudge engine and tried to lap
the valves in a bit more (with Phil’s help ) but the seats were
pretty shot and it was not perfect. I also got a different barrel and
had it bored out to take the new piston from Mervin . It was slightly
tricky to fit due to the smaller gudgeon pin size but we had a little
bush made to fit the small end of the con rod and eventually got the
motor back together in time for Lydden.I hired a van to take us and
the two bikes to Kent for the weekend and off we went.
………
a long time has passed since I wrote the above, but I will try to re-cap
as best as I can. Lydden was a disaster for me and I only got one practice
lap in before terminal engine failure. I think it was at this meeting
that me and Phil were up most of Sat. night trying to straighten my
valves with a hammer on the frame of an agricultural trailer! This set
the scene for me for the rest of the season and the whole of the next
one, being dogged by constant engine and gearbox problems.. The last
race of the first season I came 17th again and I vowed that could never
again happen, it was too embarrassing ! Before the srart of the next
season, Phil was offered racing no. 53, one away from mine, and he jumped
at the chance and so now we have team numbers.
By the end of the third season I had finally got some reliability and
things were starting to come together. I finished my last race to date
in forth place with points for third. I get extra points for the rudge
because it is rigid, girder forks and this puts me at a disadvantage
against other more modern bikes in my class.All this time, Phil had
been going from strength to strength wringing more and more speed out
of the old bantam. During our three seasons of racing our times have
been extremely close, with the rudge usually finishing just ahead, but
this trend was reversed on our last meeting at Cadwell where Phil got
consistently faster times than me. We are hoping to enter both bikes
for the 250 race next year, and finally get to race each other on the
track. I am also hoping to finish building a new rudge 250 for testing
next season.
My son Jedd has been coming to all the race meetings with us this year. He happily sleeps in the van and roughs it with the rest of us. We hardly
see him race days, he just looks after himself and hangs around with
his mates.
Terrible
news. We lost Tim on the IOM this year. He was riding a 350 aeromarchi
in the junior classic and lying third at the end of the last lap when
a tragic accident took his life. It came as a terrible blow and is bringing
tears to my eyes writing this now. His funeral was held in his paddock
and we had the honor of starting his race bikes and giving them some
welly as they carried the coffin in and again on leaving. My little
rudge joined in for the first part until it threw a push rod. How fitting!
I have now brought the rudge for 2500 and I am going to get Tim’s
name written on it before start of next season.
Tim was one of life’s
great people, and we will miss him terribly , and we have both decided
that it will be Tim’s memory that will spur us on for all the
years of racing to come.
Phil
has been given the bantam and has a few more ideas for even more speed
next season. We have both learnt a great deal in the last three seasons,
I have particularly learnt a lot about single engines cirra 1937! We
soon realized that racing wasn’t as easy as we thought but I think
we are starting to get the hang of it now.Just found out that I have
been placed eighth in the 250 championship this year! That was better
than I could have hoped in the circumstances, and I am really happy
with that.It is now the beginning of November and I have just returned
from a days drive picking up a load of 250 Rudge parts to add to the
collection.
Next Sunday me and Phil are going to the AGM with the aim
to vote on a few issues relating to neat seasons racing.
So
here we are again, it is near the start of the 2007 season.
I have missed
out last season but I finished 9th in the 250 championship after a very
bad start and two missed meetings. We have already been to practice
and the two Rudges are going fine although the two bantams blew up.
Both suffered from heavy detonation with mine blowing a huge hole in
the piston. Turns out it was all down to a change in fuel! That was
an expensive lesson to learn. Last season I got both the Rudges up and
running and Phil races my one. He won the 175 bantam championship last
season and has been offered a ride for the season on a fast 125.
The
result of this is he is going to ride my 125 as a spare for the season
and I will ride his bantam. Sounds like it will be an exciting year!
So
it is now Jan. 2008 and before I tell you about the coming season I
thought I would recap on the 2007 season. I raced Phil’s 175 bantam
all season and only had two dnf’s. I managed a couple of third
places and even beat Mike Powell once! This was enough for me to win
the 175 Bantam championship, which means that Phil’s Bantam has
won it twice in a row. I finished 5th in the overall Bantam championship.
I had some success with the Rudge as well, with another third place,
finishing 6th in the 250 championship.
The promised 125 never materialized
for Phil so he raced my Bantam for the season which was a struggle for
him as it isn’t as fast or reliable as his. Never mind, he still
managed to finish 9th in the championship. At the end of the season
he was offered the number two Bantam to ride next year, and this time
it is happening because he has already got the bike!
So
on to this year then.
I forgot to say that at the end of last season
I brought a BSA C15 racer from one of the club members who finished
2nd in the championship on it in 2005.
I have spent all winter stripping
the bike down and getting to know it. By tomorrow it will all be back
together again and ready for testing. We are going for a track day on
the 2nd Feb to Cadwell Park to test my C15 and Phil’s new Bantam
and also take my NC30 out for a blast. I haven’t even looked at
the Rudge yet but I have a few repairs to do to it as well as a general
strip and rebuild before practice in early March. The second Rudge that
I so painstakingly built hasn’t really turned out to be useful
and I am thinking of breaking it back down for spares!