Chris Chapman Racing 2010
3rd Place - CRMC 1300 Nationals - 2009
1972 - Rob North Trident T160 - 930cc
Knockhill 12th / 13th June - Chris takes first Outright Win
Thursday 10th June saw Jane and Chris hit the road early with a 485 mile trek up to Scotland in front of them, a long haul but arriving mid afternoon at Knockhill they were greeted by Knockhill Radio blasting some good music through the tanoy system which I think helped them in putting up the gazebo and setting up camp.
I followed later in the day with Jim Pipe and Ashley Barnett aboard detouring via Barnard Castle to drop my wife and daughter off at my sisters for the weekend and picking up my brother in law Tony Atkinson, eventually arriving at the track just before 11pm and surprisingly it was still light, we finished setting up camp, had a few beers then settled in for the night.
Friday was a late start as practice started at 2pm so a stroll around the paddock allowed us the time to catch up with a number of friends, during the morning Graham Redrup and Martin Pink turned up having opted to fly to Edinburgh and arrived just in time for a round of bacon sarnnies, the paddock filled up nicely which meant a good turnout for the afternoon practice sessions.
First session out saw Chris wander in after two laps with the bike sounding like a bag of nails, she’d popped the middle plug, on inspection all looked OK (perhaps I hadn’t tightened it) muttered Chris, so it was put back in and nipped up ready for session number two. Off Chris trundled and again second lap saw his arm up again slowly making his way back to the paddock. The middle plug was out of the head and hanging on the HT lead but missing it’s threaded section. Luckily Chris was able to unscrew the rest of the plug, again threads looked good so no helicoil required – just fit a new plug and problem solved.
Third session and at last both Chris and the North looked good and started to settle into a rhythm, a full session was completed, weather was dry, forecast for Saturday was dry and Chris liked the Track judging by the smile on his face.
One thing that we need to mention about Knockhill if you haven’t been before, put it on your list, the staff, facilities and track were top class with a number of people saying we ought to drag most English circuit owners and managers up for a weekend to see how a Race Circuit SHOULD be run, the only complaint that I heard all weekend was maybe the water in the showers was a little hot (we can all live with that)
The racing on Saturday got off to a great start with Chris running in the 1300 Multis first, one rider missing this weekend was Cormac Conroy who had opted to run up a mountain in Ireland, something about qualifying for the world championships so fair play and good luck to him, although I could imagine him running up Knockhill between races just for fun….. So the main competition was Ricky MacMillan who’s on form this season and Tony Rainford who is a master of late braking maneuvers,
Chris had obviously found a few good lines around the track and was running with the guys at the front, Lap times were under a minute and the dices around the track with Ricky and Tony were a joy to watch with any one of the three looking at taking the flag for most of the race. Ricky took the win 3secs in front of Chris with Tony less than 2 seconds behind.
Post Classics up next, Ricky was on the Kwaka so in a different class to Chris with Lea Gourlay, Mike Hose and John Dieterman Jnr chasing Ricky, for Chris the main competition was in the form of Paul Allender on his missile based TZ. Another great race with close battles again, Chris was able to pass Paul on a number of occasions but as soon as they hit the straights the missile flew past. Chris took 5th overall with 2nd in class, how close was the racing well 3 tenths of a second separating Paul, Chris and Tony on their fastest laps. Lea took the overall win on the X69 followed by Mike Hose and Ricky Mac 3rd.
1300
Multis next, Chris got a great start unfortunately Tony retired on
lap 2 which left Chris and Ricky battling it out like gladiators,
going into the hairpin for the last time you’d have put money on
Ricky crossing the line first but no…… Chris Chapman takes his first
outright win with the CRMC crossing the line just 0.096 ahead of
Ricky. Well done Chris and Congratulations on your first win with
the club (and boy did he have to work for it)
Whoever say’s classic racing is boring has never been to one of our meetings, so with celebrations out of the way it was back out for the Post Classics again. Lea had a disastrous start, stalling on the grid and eventually chasing the pack some 30 seconds behind, It was without doubt the ride of the day with Lea howling through the field barely hanging on to the bike. He took the flag in 2nd only 2.5secs behind Mike Hose and also setting the fastest lap of the meeting at 54.277, coming out of the hairpin for the last time he had a huge high side, held it, pulled two wheelies head butting the screen and smashing it on the second big wheelie. Just incredible to watch as many a mortal would have binned it at that point. Meanwhile Chris was at it again with Mr Allender crossing the line 5th over all but 2nd in class just 0.704 behind Paul. Another great race, great action and by now I’m thinking they way my heart is going I’m gonna need a pacemaker before the weekend is over.
Racing over by 3.30 which is unheard of, no serious accidents during the day, no one carted off to hospital, quite remarkable.
During Saturday we had also been joined by our very own Scottish Fan Club and evening entertainment in the form of John MacDonald, yet again increasing the tally of TR3OC members at a CRMC race meeting, The early finish though was planned as the Circuit were running a World Championship Qualifier for F1 Stock Cars, yes I know that they’ve got 4 wheels but it sure as hell beat the pants off a disco for entertainment value and there Junior Starter 13 year old Callum needs recruiting by the club, what a performer and great to see another club allowing youngsters to get involved, I spent most of the time with his old man Craig who taught me pretty much everything about Stock Car Racing to which I treated him to a paddock tour and a couple of beers, all in all a very satisfying day was had by all in the Chapman Camp.
During Saturday night the rain set in, nothing unusual for Knockhill, it wasn’t full blown torrential but I think the locals refer to it as Misslling Down, it was warm but the track was getting quite wet in places.
First race on Sunday was the "National Grass Tracking" event commonly known as the 1300 National, Chris was flying but I think it was on lap 3 that he decided to take an excursion across the grass and gravel coming out of turn one, Prompting ‘Ron the Marshal’ to start running towards the grass tracking snaking triple, amazingly Chris kept it upright and rejoined the track, opened the throttle with mud still on the tyres and headed straight through the gravel trap out of turn two, prompting ‘Ron the Marshal’ to start running in a new direction, needless to say at the end of the day Ron came wandering down the paddock waving his finger at Chris - our Ron doesn’t like picking up the triples, “Too bloody heavy!” So the excursion in to grass tracking meant Chris had dropped from 2nd to 4th and loosing around 20 seconds, Gary Thwaites took the win with Tony and Ricky taking 2nd and 3rd respectively and Chris 4th some 21 seconds behind the winner.
A slightly depleted grid for the first of the days post classics, Ricky didn’t make the start due to mechanicals and Tony the same, so the battle at the front was between Paul Allender, Mike Hose and Chris. Again the action at the front was fierce with Chris and Paul swapping positions several times a lap, Paul took the win by 0.370 seconds over Chris with Mike following some 4secs later for 3rd. Congratulations go out to Paul who took his first outright win with the CRMC, to say he was excited might be an understatement.
Next up was post classics again, no Ricky but Tony, Paul and Mike lined up at the front with Chris (where’s that pacemaker I need) Another great race with Tony Rainford taking his 1st win of the weekend, followed in by Mike Hose, Paul and Chris taking 4th which is a 3rd in class.
Only one race left which was the 1300 Multi’s and Ricky was back out for this one on the Triple. Chris, Ricky and Tony were at it again and some close dicing in the early laps, Chris eventually started to pull a gap on Ricky who had also started to gap Tony, Chris had settled into a very fast but comfortable looking rhythm and the gap between the 3 riders was ever increasing, I heard Graham Lawlor say over the loud speaker that Chris had just set the fastest lap of the day a 1.01.039 Not bad in the wet.
Coming in to the final lap the gap had grown to around 20 seconds when Chris came across a back marker in the hairpin, he decided to go under him and found out just how slippery the kerbs are at Knockhill when wet. Out went the back end and Chris laid the bike down in view of the flag and a sure 25 points went to zero points in a split second, both rider and the bike were ok and Ricky took the gifted win with Tony following some 9 seconds later for 2nd. It was a nice gesture when Ricky stopped to see if Chris was OK on the winding down lap, but I think the conversation was somewhat embarrassing for Chris.
So what do we take away from the weekend, some silverware and vouchers, a bag full of championship points and some very happy memories of the racing, the circuit and camaraderie associated with the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club, oh and the knowledge that Chris can tussle with the boys at the front.
See you all at Anglesey in July, where guess what! We do it all again……
John
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Darley Moor Photos now uploaded
Darley write up coming soon
Mallory Photos now uploaded
Mallory write up coming soon....
1st CRMC Meeting of 2010 - Pembrey 3rd / 4th April
2010 Chris gets off to a wet but good start at Pembrey - The weather was against us on both Friday and Saturday but Sunday saw the sun come out and a dry track. full report click here
The Paddy Fields of Pembrey
New for 2010
After 3 spills at Cadwell in October it was time to bin the rather second hand crash helmet and purchase a new one.
Chris sporting the New Arai "Legend" Phil Read Replica Helmet