Classic Bol - 13/14 September

This year's Classic Bol d'Or will take place on Friday and Saturday, 13th/14th September, as part of the EWC Bol d'Or Paul Ricard event.

The Team will comprise of 2018 European Endurance Legends Superbike Cup winners, Peter Lindén and Hugh Brasher.

Preparations on the P&M GSXR1100 Suzuki are well underway and with only 4 weeks to go we hope to be ready to load by the end of the month.

The Team also compete at the ICGP race at Hockenheim on 8th/9th September, for the first time with the new BSR/Phase One TZ350's.

It's busy in the workshop....

See you at the Bol.

RB

Martin's funeral arrangements

The funeral will be held at 12 noon on Thursday the 19th of July at Risby Crematorium (West Suffolk, just outside Bury St. Edmunds, IP28 6RR, tel 01284 755118)

All welcome - no flowers or dress code

Bikes very welcome to gather at the Harley Shop in Black Bear Lane, Newmarket to form a cortege from Linda's house to the crematorium, to leave at 11.30. (CB8 0JT, tel 01638 445796)

Venue of the wake is the Krazy Horse Cafe, Empire House, Lamdin Road, Bury St.Edmunds, Suffolk, IP32 6NU (tel. 01284 749645).

It will be a Triumph Thunderbird funeral vehicle.

Humanist celebrant will officiate.

Regards, Russell

Martin Gelder died 2nd July 2018

Martin Gelder died of stomach cancer today.






















We understand that Martin had recently sufferred with stomach pain whilst on a Morini outing in Spain. On his return he cancelled several engagements including the Oschersleben WEC / 4 hrs classic weekend. After persistant pain, he sought medical advice but died shortly afterwards.
















We last saw Martin at Donington Park at the 4hrs classic weekend in early May. He was then in good spirits and enjoyed some high quality time with a lot of old friends.

Martin will be fondly remembered by hundreds of Phase One Endurance team members, riders, friends and supporters alike.



Martin started his support for our team by helping in the workshop in the early 1990s, quickly progressing to handling the team's PR, via the Phase One Endurance website and Race 24.
He will be remembered by most for being ever present at all of the World Endurance Events for a ten year period and providing in depth reportage and high quality images, from Suzuka to Le Mans, where no others were available. More recently Martin gave his support to the growing band of classic endurance race followers.
























Martin's genuine enthusiasm for motorcycle endurance racing (proper racing as he would say), combined with his photography and IT skills, brought this branch of motorsport to thousands who would otherwise have been unconnected, particularly after each event.

















Martin's legacy, via Race24 and its blog, includes the near single -handed creation and nurturing of a whole community that was previously unconnected and for that we thank him.

At Phase One Endurance we shall remember him as a superb motorcycle photo journalist, a true friend of the team and most importantly, a genuinely nice chap.

Our sympathies are with Martin's family and friends.


Russell Benney


We shall publish funeral details when we become aware of them.       

Pictures by Lida van Ham

Spa Francorchamps, race report

The team entered Hugh Brasher and Peter Linden for the two by two hours race at Spa Francorchamps over the weeked 30th June/1st July.

Due to the EELC regulations not being adopted by the DG Sports, the team's 2015 GSX1230 bike had to be used to be compliant. Qualifying was predictably difficult and was topped by the RC30s of the new Evo class. 

Peter Linden started both legs, quickly settling into top six positions in both. Leg one went fairly well, with the Linden/Brasher pairing finishing a creditable fifth, behind team Kaiser, who narrowly beat Linden to the flag on the Kaiser Kawasaki.

Leg two was a disaster for many teams including our own. We went out of 7th place with a set of split inlet rubbers, which led to further problems, which forced retirement with just 20 mins to go. Mertens went out with RC30 engine trouble, as did Team Edge on the Harris Suzuki. Roadrunner followed with a blown engine on their Bakker Suzuki and so did Walo/Tosolini on the Italian Honda 1000. But Perhaps the prize for the worst weekend went to Patrick Banfield and Cormac Conroy, who first retired the P&M Kawasaki with engine trouble and then went on to crash their RC30 and send Cormac to hospital with 9 broken ribs, plus a broken wrist and ankle. (He was however back in the paddock by Sunday afternoon, sporting his normal cheeky smile.despite the obvious pain).

In short, an unremarkable meeting, much diminished from its peak 3 or 4 years ago. Lets hope its back to proper endurance with a 4hrs race next year, as part of a championship, with Estoril and Italy joining the fray.

Thanks to all our team, sponsors and friends; sorry we could not deliver this time out.

Get well soon Cormac.

RB

EELC - 2018 Superbike Cup Winners !!

What a great achievement - Received the frame from P&M early February, built the bike, tested the bike, developed the bike, raced the bike and won the championship
... and all in 16 weeks. Absolutely fantastic and a credit to the team.!!


















After Oschersleben the points tally from the 3-race series was;

Phase One Endurance  74
Team Force                  40
Team Classic Suzuki    38
Lincs Classic Suzuki    33
Team 373                      31
Team BR Racing          30
BKS Speedworks         29
Allspeed                       24
Continental Motorradreifen DE 10
Sixtyniners                    4

Winning championships in endurance has always been about scoring at each opportunity, and that was almost what happened.!
















With just three races we had to work hard and use our best judgements on and off the track to score in 5 out of the 6 scoring opportunities. Let me explain.

The organisers (in their wisdom) adopted the mid-race scoring system used in the EWC. This is a system which awards up to 10 points for a team's position at mid-race distance. These points are then added to your race-end position to give you your total. The only one of which we failed to score in was the end position at Osch...

So, with the fantastic pole position under our belts (thats on rider aggregate) and fastest qualifying lap, Graeme Gowland, 1.34.4 secs, the team went into the race in a confident mood.

We were all worried about the weather though... 32 deg.C would be a lot to ask a tuned oil cooled engine to endure.

Both Gowland and Lindén settled into top 3 positions for the first hour and a half, crossing the mid-race 2 hours point in second place and almost scooping maximum points. All was going to plan. The pressure on the team had already eased as Team Force stopped, first with a split oil cooler and then with a heavily smoking engine. Shortly afterwards the "Continental" Yamaha FJ1300 threat also expired, also with engine failure. It was going oh so well, until, you've guessed it ...ours expired too... a big end failure at 2 hrs 40 mins.... game over.

But, thanks to the hard work at rounds one and two, the EELC Classic Superbike championship was ours.

Well done to all concerned, Team, Riders and Sponsors alike - enjoy the moment.

(NB; Gowland's record qualifying lap was achieved on the NEW CR3 CONTI...!! Congrats to all at Continental tyres for their first CR3 pole).

RB

Leading the superbikes into the final race !

The Donington Park round was extremely exciting, but for all the wrong reasons !

The Team were relieved to have come away with 4th position in the Superbike standings, and the lead in the Superbike EELC series. An early race crash cost the team 17 laps and despite some fantastic racing, particularly by Graeme Gowland, who posted the fastest absolute race lap of 1min 14.51 secs, a full 0.9 secs ahead of eventual winners Team Force, the team could not recover to a top position.










We should not just single out Graeme, as both Peter Linden and Hugh Brasher both raised their games and responded splendidly in the fightback.

The meeting started on Thursday last with a trackday to test some new items, including Conti's new 17" inch front tyres, plus more track familiarisation for Hugh. [as an aside, Conti used Donington Park to launch the new Mark 3 version of the 18" Road Attack CR race tyre, which we have used so successfully in the CR2 form for 5 years. The CR3 is now available to the public and will surely prove to be the next benchmark in competitive classic racing.]  Thursday's tests were very valuable as a new geometry set-up was found which was used in the race and proved competitive.














Saturday's sessions were very short and despite the best efforts of the organisers, the timetable was
in chaos by mid day.! However, enough time was found to do some further useful work on suspension, albeit leaving the full tank testing as late as warm up.
















Race day was fine and dry. The team had a great start and settled into P3 for lap one.The crash, on lap 3 from P2, which was not rider error, necessitated front brake, fairing and rear brake lever replacement. This took an overlong 20 mins, but equipped the team with a bike capable of fastest lap in the final hour.

The crash completely altered the team's race strategy (which had aimed to scoop the maximum mid- race points bonus) to one of simply abiding by the rules (40 mins minimum for 3rd rider and a max of 120 mins for any rider) and getting to the flag in an efficient manner.You can race as fast as you like but you cant make up 17 laps in 4 hrs.

In short, it was a fraught race in which we were very happy to go home relatively unscathed and still be in the lead in the EELC Superbikes. It now leaves the team only Oschersleben to show the true potential of this fantastic new bike.!!

Thanks to all team members, riders and sponsors for their support.......and in particular Hugh Brasher, Maurice Walcock, Graham Matcham of Conti, plus Lee and Ray Marchant of MES.

Marchant Engineering Services

Lee Marchant of Marchant Engineering Services (MES) has confirmed sponsorship backing for the Team for the 2018 season. Team Manager Russell Benney said "What a terrific vote of confidence in the Team following its great performance at Paul Ricard two weeks ago. I know that Lee was disillusioned by the cronyism of the organisers of the ECS championship, but his enthusiasm has been firmly reignited by the arrival of the European Endurance Legends Cup (EELC). As we now find ourselves leading the Superbike class after round one, we can expect some great exposure leading up to round two at Donington Park on 13th May. The EELC organisers have already shown themselves to be on a new level in terms of being media savvy, so I know that MES will be getting even more value for money this season.We are very pleased to welcome MES as sponsorship partners once again."








Lee Marchant " I followed the live timing and reports from the Paul Ricard race from the UK and just wished I could have been there. The boys did so well and leading at half distance was a highlight. The other was Peter's big push on laps 94-96 to try to retake third when he scored the team's fastest lap. Absolutely great. I am very happy to continue to sponsor the team in this important inaugural year for the EELC and look forward to some more close racing and great images"

MES have been enthusiastic supporters of the team for 4 or 5 years and were significant contributors towards winning the 2015 European Classic Series. The company provide general and specialist fabrication and maintenance services to a range of industries in Southern and Eastern England.

Paul Ricard - A great result !

Top marks to all concerned; we come away equal third in the championship and in the lead in the Superbike category!

The race was held in cold dry conditions with track temperatures around 9 deg. C ! In qualifying Team Force had dominated with Greg Fastre and Stephane Mertens setting fastest times in the daylight and the dark qualifying sessions. Our aggregated time (with three riders) had placed us sixth.

Qualifying was eventful - with a pitiful amount of track time devoted to endurance, every minute would count. For us, a troublesome gearbox required us to abandon the race engine and insert a mildly tuned engine originally built for the UK club race scene. However, despite being down on power it proved easy to use and returned the reliability that was just what the doctor ordered. We sincerely hope that the Donington Park organisers give us sufficient practice over the May weekend.

The race commenced at 8.00 PM, in pitch darkness, a first for the Phase One Team, but it went without incident. Team returnee Graeme Gowland completed a fine 65 minute session (now no 45min max stint rule) to hand over, in second position behind Force, to Peter Linden. After another 35 minutes Peter inherited the lead when Stephane Mertens crashed the Team Force bike heavily into a barrier at the end of the Mistral. He was uninjured. The bike was not so lucky. After a further 30 minutes Peter handed the bike to Hugh Brasher, still leading, now by some 20 seconds, from Roadrunner, Haquin and Taurus.

The EELC organisers have adopted the widely despised mid race distance points award system - one that, in this case, awards points to the top ten at the two hour mark. Rewarding fast (works) but possibly unreliable bikes was never part of what endurance was about. The clue is in the name; endurance.! Anyway, we scooped 10 points there, for leading at mid race.!


















So back to the race, after Hugh' stint we were 4th, but it was still all oh so close, each pitstop would drop you 3 places! Graeme returned another fine 18 lap stint to hoist the team back to third and set us up for Peter to challenge for the finish rostrum, however, we all knew it would be a very big ask. In order to optimise the rider times (max 120 mins, min for third man 40 mins) we had planned our compulsory 5th stop (another wacky rule by the organisers to penalise the Guzzi and Ducati entries) very late in the proceedings - so late in fact that it was almost impossible for Peter to catch third place by the line. We failed by 1 second and finished 4th. In doing so Peter set the fastest finishers race lap time of 2;22.9 secs. Not bad for an old boy ! The top six finishers were all on the same lap.

Because of the mid-race award, the team are now equal third going into Donington Park.

Congratulations on superb performances from Roadrunners Suzuki, Moto Bel and Godier Genouud. What a great race.

Our thanks go to our sponsors and team members for a superb job. See you all on 12th May for round two.

Race Results

Roadrunner Suzuki      96 laps   Suzuki
Moto Bel Guzzi           96 laps   Moto-Guzzi
Team Godier Genoud  96 laps    Kawasaki
Phase One Endurance  96 laps   Suzuki
Team Taurus                 96 laps   Suzuki
Japauto club                 96 laps   Honda

Photographs by Jacco Dijkhuizen and Martyn Watchurst

Off we go to Paul Ricard !

Round One of the new mini-series, the European Endurance Legends Cup (EELC) is being held over the weekend of 24th /25th March.

The team will be contesting all three rounds on its brand new P&M GSXR1100 Suzuki, which has just been finished in the nick of time - see the debut photos below.

















We are all excited and intrigued about just how well it will go; so far there has been no easy comparison with any known reference. All we know so far is that it has better brakes and is a darn sight lighter.

Perhaps our best experience will be to welcome back our old team rider, Graham Gowland, at Paul Ricard. We all met up again at our Valencia test and it seemed just like he had never been away. It will be great to have his friendly face and good humour around the classic endurance paddock.

Peter Lindén, Hugh Brasher and Graeme Gowland will make a superb team.

This race is almost all in the dark, starting at 8.00 pm and finishing at mid-night. Just up our street.

Thanks to all the team members and sponsors who have helped to build the new bike...now lets see how it goes......

2018 - The Plan !

I will just give a short summary for now, with more details later.

We have the race dates decided. See below for the list.

The technical specification for the new bikes is also in place - now it's just a matter of building something!

Hugh and Peter will be fronting up the team with a third rider TBA.

Main sponsor Sweatshop has reconfirmed and we are delighted to have the full backing of Conti once again - and this year on the brand new spec tyres!

The first test is at Valencia on the 9th - 11th of March, just 5 weeks away.

A brief summary of what's been going on:

• As predicted, the European Classic Series has finally self-destructed, with just Spa left as a stand alone event.
• A new unofficial championship has been launched, called the European Endurance Legends Cup (EELC). This will run over 3 races, Paul Ricard, Donington and Oschersleben.
• The Classic Bol is alive and well, again in September.
• The Italians are running an enticing 4 race series, but they currently haven't any decent classes to race in.
• We are building a new P&M for 2018, with more powerful engine, less weight and improved Beringer brakes.

Our race plan is:

Paul Ricard 4 hours, 24th/25th March,

Donington  4 hours, 13th May,

Oschersleben 4 hours, 8th/9th June,

Spa 2 x 2 hours, 30th June

Classic Bol 2 x 2 hours 14th/15th September

In addition, the team will do some ICGP racing on the new BSR Yamaha TZ350s, running Peter Lindén at least at Hockenheim on 7th/8th September, and at Interlagos in early December.

As a result on embarking on our new projects, we will sell another of our 2017 Peckett & McNab Suzukis. This bike is the machine that won at Imola last year. It is on Ebay and Racebike bits.

European Classic Series winning machine, ridden by Ian Simpson and Peter Lindén. Fresh from winning the Imola 4 hrs in 2017.

The motorcycle can be sold in whatever specification the purchaser requires (EELC, ECS, CRMC, Endurance or Sprint), with an 1170cc or 1230cc engine.

The present specification is for 2017 ECS;

Frame: P&M frame 148, owned from new. Built to Phase One specification in 2015, with alterations to rake and swinging arm pivot height, painted black, not powder coated.

Engine: Wiseco pistons, Megacycle cams, APE valves and springs, Salter head, Nova gearbox, reinforced clutch, high ration oil pump, etc,

Rolling Chassic: Ohlins worked Thundercat 41mm forks, Koni rear units, Moto Sachses ignition, Dymag magnesium wheels, 18 x 2.75 and 18 x 3.75. 300mm Beringer brakes with 14mm master cylinder and 34mm calipers. Lithium ion battery with total loss system, Ragged Edge bodywork, Racefit titanium exhaust system, 33/35mm Keihin RS carbs, single ATL quick filler, 22L BSR tank, etc,

The motorcycle has been refreshed ready for the 2018 season and can be raced immediately with no additional work.

The motorcycle can be supplied with additional engines and spares at cost. 

(that 'Kawasaki' tank can be re stickered 'Suzuki' if required!)

More details will follow soon.

RB