#(up on the podium) leon update time.

[eclown4hire]

orange!

[racingliners]

Life In The Fast Lane Chapter 18 - 2023 Race 13: Italy

Rating: Teen & Up

Warnings: None apply

Pairings: Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s); OFCs & OMCs

Work Tags: Re-write of a previous work; not beta read; dual/multiple pov; mentions of IRL current and past F1 figures; Eventual romance; friends to lovers; found family/work family; actual family; occasional swearing; racing drivers and their various shenanigans; how to handle pressure (and how not to); with a sprinkling of the power of friendship; tags will be updated as work progresses

Chapter: 18/57 Word count: 4.5k Summary: Celebrations and mixed fortunes aplenty at the temple of speed.

I just wanted to do a little note to say that it's been almost a whole year since I posted this first chapter of this mega re-write project over on AO3, and I am so incredibly grateful for all the support on it thus far. I really cannot begin to say just how much it means to me, so thank you, and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter!

Thursday 31st August – Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

The whole paddock had been invited to McLaren’s 60th anniversary celebrations, which kicked off at precisely 5pm (Andrew’s insistence on perfect timing was impeccable as ever). Small champagne flutes had been arranged in neat rows on a white tablecloth at the entrance to the three story high motorhome, with more tables on the first floor dedicated to canapes and light bites of food.

The TV screens on the walls alternated between slideshows and video clips from all of McLaren’s most notable races (Sophie’s podium in Shanghai and victory in Hungary were prominent features), while every McLaren team member was dressed in vintage style uniforms. Short sleeved white button up shirts that had McLaren’s 60th anniversary logo on the front pocket, with papaya and sky blue stripes running down the left front. Sophie had once again gone to the effort of having her nails painted orange, as well as wearing her hair down for the day with a papaya fabric headband fixed in place.

“Between the two of you,” Nathan, who had found Sophie and Nico on the top floor about ten minutes ago and had stayed for a catch-up, gestured to both of them with a loose hand. “Hardly anyone is going to be talking about Ferrari all weekend. I’d avoid Gianluca at all costs, he’ll be pissed.”

“Oh, I’m sure the Tifosi will make up for it tomorrow!” Nico said with the same bright grin that hadn’t left his face all day. His promotion to Red Bull for 2024, for which he’d signed the contract on Tuesday, had finally been announced that morning. And Sophie, as well as being a happy participant in McLaren’s anniversary celebrations, was also set to match Lella Lombardi’s 13 race starts on Sunday (assuming mechanical reliability stayed on her side).

“Anyway, I have to go and do a quick interview, but save a spot for me on the quiz team!” Nathan called over his shoulder as he made his way toward one of the sets of stairs in search of his press officer.

As part of the evening’s festivities, the team was putting on a McLaren themed pub quiz. Andrew had barely signed off on the idea, but Martin had managed to talk him round claiming that there had to be something about the weekend for the team to enjoy. Since they were coming into it knowing that they might not be quick enough to score a single point come Sunday.

When Nico and Sophie made their way downstairs, Mark was still in deep conversation with Sophie’s mechanics. He seemed to have them all enthralled by tales of the old days, both on and off track judging by the loud laughter that would bubble out of the group every so often.

The quiz was the last event of the night after all the speeches and presentations, and Leena’s team of herself plus Chris, Paul, Amir and Leon wiped the floor with everyone else. Sophie’s team that included Nico, Nathan, Ben and Aaron came in second with Mark’s team of mechanics in joint third.

“For once, he finishes in second place,” James said in mock teasing in Ben’s direction, much to everyone else’s amusement.

“Ah, but if it had been a Red Bull quiz, I would have won.” Benedikt retorted with a wide grin as he got up from his chair. As the drivers began to disperse for the circuit car park, either heading back to their luxury mobile motorhomes or hotels, Ben intentionally hang back by Sophie’s side.

“I saw your helmet when I came in, you and Max did a beautiful job.”

“Thank you!” Sophie grinned, it had been a small weight off her shoulders knowing her helmet design for the weekend had turned out as well as she had hoped. “Max was great though, he’s doing my helmet for Singapore as well, and he even managed to work in a tribute to Lella at the last minute.”

“Oh really, I didn’t see it?”

At that Sophie insisted on showing Ben the two display helmets that had been painted in the same designs James and Sophie were running for the weekend. James’ was mostly the same as normal, bar the number 12 being painted on in a vintage style, with each of McLaren’s title winning years going around it in gold foil.

While Sophie’s helmet followed her usual pattern of stripes on a plain base, the colours had been switched for papaya and sky blue stripes on a white background, all of which were filled names and races. On the white background was the name of each McLaren team member, the first orange stripe listed every one of McLaren’s race wins, the middle blue stripe had the names of every single McLaren driver, and the second orange stripe featured all the races Sophie’s father had taken part in as a mechanic. And up at the top, encircling the number 16, was all thirteen races contested by Lella Lombardi.

“That’s really beautiful Sophie,” Ben said with a small, soft smile as he carefully set the helmet back down. “Has your Dad seen it?”

Sophie didn’t get to say that he had, as when Edward Morden and Charlotte Stewart got up from the table in the corner they’d been sat at with Martin and started making their way towards the door, Benedikt suddenly looked like he didn’t know where to put himself.

“Matt and Annika will be looking for me, I better go.” Ben said shyly, his eyes darting between Sophie and Edward. “See you tomorrow.” Out of nowhere, he put a gentle hand on Sophie’s shoulder and leaned down to kiss her cheek. Something that took them both by surprise as they gawked at each other for a couple of moments, before Benedikt very quickly darted away.

All Sophie could think about for a couple of minutes was that Ben’s aftershave somehow smelled like the mountain air he called home.

Sunday 3rd September

“Everybody eyes front!” David, McLaren’s team photographer, called out above the bubble of chatter emanating from the gathered team members. They were all stood in the warm sunshine in front of the motorhome, dressed in their neatly pressed uniforms with the management and drivers stood front and centre while the rest of the team were roughly arranged in rows behind.

Andrew had been in attendance for the whole weekend, and was less than impressed with the fact that his cars had qualified in ninth and tenth. But for a brief few seconds no one seemed to care about what little race pace they were going to have as the whole team fixed bright grins on their faces and smiled for however long they were told to. After all, 60th anniversaries weren’t very common in Formula 1, and everyone felt like they wanted to make the most of it regardless.

As expected the team had been under more media scrutiny than normal, with questions asked if whether McLaren would be able to fix their car problems before the regulation change in 2026, how was Sophie going to bounce back after her difficult race in Turkey, and would it be better for James to cut his losses and try to get a seat somewhere else? It had been a pleasant surprise when some journalists decided to ignore all of that, and ask questions about McLaren’s historical achievements instead.

Ferrari however were still the main attraction for the tens of thousands of Tifosi that had filled the circuit grounds. All of the grandstands were filled with red for as far as the eye could see, and the reception that Giovanni and Teo got on the drivers parade was almost deafening.

Sophie was stood with Nico and a still sheepish Benedikt, who had pulled Sophie aside after the driver’s briefing on Friday and apologised for kissing her on the cheek out of the blue. Admittedly, Sophie hadn’t felt uncomfortable by the encounter, just surprised at the display of apparent affection. But she accepted the apology none the less, and insisted that they were still on good terms. Still friends.

“And now, onto the birthday boy,” Lise from German TV was conducting the interviews on the drivers parade, as the flat-bed truck slowly trundled through the chicane at the end of Curva Grande. “How many seconds would you like to win by? 26 maybe since that’s how old you are today?”

Benedikt puffed out his cheeks and let out a bright laugh, but now that Sophie knew him better she could see the very small hint of shyness behind it.

“I think any win would be nice today,” He paused to adjust his cap and wave at the crowd that didn’t seem too interested in him, but it didn’t appear to phase Ben in the slightest. “I love coming to Monza every year. The track is amazing with how fast we get to go, so getting to race here on my birthday is quite a privilege. Hopefully we can keep up the pace we’ve had so far in practice and have a good day today.”

With his beaming smile and how tall he was standing, it wasn’t hard to tell that Benedikt had secured pole position by three tenths of a second yesterday.

The truck had now exited the second Lesmo, and was surrounded by tress on both sides on the way down to the Ascari chicane. The warm, bright sunshine dappled through the leaves onto the driver’s faces as they quietly chatted amongst themselves since there were no fans to wave at.

“Definitely nicer than what it was like last year.” Sophie said aloud to no one in particular.

“It’s like home.” Ben said quietly, but with a small smile as he looked up at the trees. Sophie had been referring to the weather, but she had to agree that the parkland in which the circuit was situated was incredibly beautiful.

“So that’s why you left Zürich for the countryside, not enough trees?” Sophie asked, slightly teasing. Ben let out a light laugh and went to reply right as Lise appeared at Sophie’s side with her microphone in hand. She asked about both McLaren’s big anniversary, and Sophie’s latest career milestone. All Sophie felt she could do was put on a warm smile and say as she had done so many times over the weekend of the honour it was to be a McLaren driver, and that while the team was expecting today to be difficult they were still going to work hard to deliver the best result they could.

“How are you such a natural at this stuff?” James asked under his breath once the drivers were off the parade truck and walking back to the paddock.

“Well, when you spend the majority of your career having to defend your right to simply be on the grid, not scoring points suddenly isn’t the worst prospect in the world.” Sophie said with a frown, sounding a lot heavier than she intended. “Sorry I didn’t-”

“It’s fine Soph,” James said, briefly flinging an arm round her shoulders and even flashing a small smile at her. “I’m sure that if you ever take something out on me and mean it, I’ll know about it.”

“I think having Andrew looming over my shoulder the whole weekend has put me on edge.” Sophie finally said under her breath once they had some distance between themselves and their fellow drivers.

“Yeah…” James paused to scratch at a spot on his jaw. “You and me both.”

“Go well today Sophie.” Nico said quickly, appearing at her side out of thin air.

“You too, allez!”

“Allez!” Nico beamed back, fist half raised in the air for good measure, and he squeezed Sophie in a warm side hug before jogging over to the Red Bull energy station with his press officer.

Katie and Richard had been lagging behind their drivers the whole walk over, giving them space to have a conversation just themselves, while Sophie and James found themselves in a semi-comfortable silence while the sun continued to beat down on the circuit.

“I’ll try and give you a tow at the start, like Leena suggested this morning.” James said as they walked back into the motorhome and made for the stairs.

“If I end up in front I’ll do the same for you.” Sophie said without too much thought. As Martin had very plainly put it in the morning briefing, good teamwork was going to be essential today if they wanted to score points. Neither James or Sophie had any kind of problem with that.

“Let’s just hope we don’t end up plum last.” James sighed through gritted teeth as he patted his teammate’s shoulder.

Mark didn’t realise that he had been chewing on his thumbnail until he caught a glimpse of himself on the screen showing the global feed, stood at the back of Sophie’s side of the garage in between Vanessa and Richard wearing a soft grey polo shirt with the McLaren speedmark logo embroidered in white on the left. He quietly scoffed at himself and tucked his thumb into a fist which he gently tapped against his chin instead, as his eyes were fixed on the screen that showed Sophie’s onboard camera as she made her way through the formation lap.

As a mechanic, Monza had never been one of Mark’s favourite tracks purely because of the high chance of carnage at the narrow first chicane – anything from a broken front wing endplate to having a wheel and suspension ripped off the car and the race being over before it got started.

The team’s mechanics took their seats in the garage, having made their rushed return to the pit lane as the cars started to line back up on the grid. All Mark really wanted was for Sophie – and by extension out of the love he still held for his old team – James to make it through the first lap unscathed.

Mark was clenching his fist so tightly that as the start lights began to illuminate, he could feel his skin pressing hard against his gold wedding band.

The start lights went out quickly, but that barely caught anyone off guard as the cars sped out of their grid slots in perfect formation. Carotti and Mitchell both got a tow off Schmitz who had already firmly planted his car on the racing line to have the optimal turn in point for the first corner. It was clever, as it meant the second Red Bull would either have to take to the grass or brake early to stay on the road.

But Mark didn’t care about any of that when the front runners started to brake. It was always the worst concertina effect of the season at Monza, and while Sophie and James made it through cleanly, one of the Haas cars and both Aston Martins came out worse for wear as one went right into the back of the other. Jones was out of the race immediately, while Nichols was able to continue despite dropping to the back of the field with a puncture and no front wing. Curva Grande offered a brief pause before the second chicane, quickly followed by the two Lesmos. James and Sophie were still running in their starting positions, with Sophie staying tucked in her teammate’s slipstream to try and pull a gap on the eleventh placed Alpine behind right before the safety car was brought out.

Mark, Vanessa and Richard all exhaled in relief at the exact same time.

“She’s fine.” Vanessa said, lightly patting Mark’s arm in reassurance. “Why does this never get any easier?” She added in quick succession, and just about managed to take a small sip from her drinks bottle.

“If I ever find out the secret to dealing with it, you’ll be the first to know.” Mark said with a slightly strained chuckle as he pressed his radio headset against his ears to hear the exchange between Sophie and Chris on the radio.

“Remember to keep heat in your tyres for the restart, and James will give you a tow to try and keep Vasquez behind.”

At the mention of Sophie’s teammate, Mark quickly glanced over to the other side of the garage to see if Natasha was alright. As with every race she had attended, she held station next to James’ trainer and like Mark had her eyes fixed on the screens above. He thought about going over for a reassuring word when Mark’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and as he suspected it was a text from Mary asking if Sophie was alright. It must have been so busy at the airport that she hadn’t been able to stop by one of the bars showing the race.

He quickly texted back saying that Sophie was still in tenth place, and that the safety car was nothing to do with her. Mark reluctantly put his phone back in his pocket once he’d hit send, if Mary was busy then she wouldn’t be able to send more than a quick reply.

It hadn’t been the easiest decision to only attend a handful of races together, but with how much money they had put into Sophie’s career they weren’t in a position to be able to take any unpaid time off. And it was better for Sophie to have at least one of her parents in the back of the garage than neither of them.

“Are you alright Mr Knightsbridge?” Richard asked. At some point Mark had started chewing his thumbnail again.

“I’m fine.” He stuffed his hands firmly in his pockets. “And I’ve told you to call me Mark.” He affectionately scolded the press officer, gently nudging him with his elbow and a small smile for good measure.

“Sorry, old habits.”

The race restarted on lap 10, and while Sophie and James had initially pulled away from the Alpine behind, they were both undercut at the first round of pit stops which dropped Sophie out of the points. James tried as hard as he could to stay in Vasquez’s DRS, but it was no use. The McLaren, despite its rather stunning all over papaya vintage livery, just didn’t have the straight line speed to keep up.

Meanwhile up front nothing could phase Schmitz, who after nearly losing the lead at the first corner had went on to build enough of a gap to Carotti behind to retain the lead after his first and only pit stop, while Mitchell was in a permanent scrap to stay in third place ahead of Martinez in the second Ferrari.

There was a loud hiss in the garage on lap 42 when Watkins and Martens banged wheels as they went side by side through the second chicane fighting over fifth, both cars were unscathed until there was a burst of carbon fibre shards at the braking point for the first Lesmo and both cars seemingly had punctures. The incident brought out the virtual safety car, and both McLarens were called in for a fresh set of mediums. It dropped them out of the points, but Mark assumed that Amir’s thought process was with the rest of the grid on old hard tyres it would be easier for Sophie and James to make up places.

It was such a good idea, that about four other cars as well as Watkins and Martens were also called in for fresh tyres.

When the chequered flag fell at the end of lap 53, Schmitz won the race by twelve seconds while James and Sophie came home in eleventh and twelfth, not even close to tenth place.

A wave of disappointment crashed across the garage as mechanics and engineers looked at leach other with a mixture of defeated and resigned expressions. It was a feeling Mark knew well as he pulled his phone back out of his pocket to text Mary and Will the race result while Vanessa and Richard went down to parc fermé to wait for Sophie.

When Sophie finally returned to the garage after being weighed, she looked as glum as everyone else felt. But she still clasped hands and bumped fists with her mechanics and engineers before she handed Vanessa her helmet and made a beeline for Mark.

“Well done sweetheart.” He pulled his daughter into his arms for a tight hug, and kissed the top of her head just in case she needed it. “You did all you could, I’m proud of you.”

“It didn’t feel like it. I really thought Jan was going to get me on that last lap. If James hadn’t given me DRS…” Sophie trailed off with a sigh as she stepped out of the hug and fixed her team cap on top of her head. “I need to get these post-race interviews out of the way.”

“I’ll head back to the motorhome then.” Mark had very briefly contemplated offering to help with the derig of the garage, but when he remembered he was wearing trainers instead of steel toe-capped boots he decided he was probably better off keeping Vanessa company while Sophie went from interviews to the post-race debrief.

The only plus side from the day that Mark could come up with was that at least McLaren were holding onto fifth in the constructors standings by a country mile over Aston Martin. But what good was fifth when the whole garage wanted to be first?

“Hey Sophie!”

Everyone looked over their shoulders to see James call out and even jog to catch up with his teammate. Mark didn’t get to hear the full conversation as Sophie and Richard veered off in the direction of the press pen while Mark and Vanessa walked back into the air conditioned McLaren motorhome.

It was like déjà vu in the media pen for Sophie, as for the second time in seven days she found herself going through the racing driver’s book of excuses trying to explain where her race went wrong. Her only saving grace was that this time it was more to do with the car, and not her.

The debrief wasn’t much better. Almost everyone was down about the fact they’d converted a double top ten on the starting grid into nothing. And the added pressure to at least score points on the team’s anniversary weekend only made the atmosphere in the engineering trucks worse.

The car just simply wasn’t fast enough. Good cornering speed was no use on a circuit that was predominantly fast straights. Leena and Martin tried their best to find parts of the weekend that had gone well, and by the time the briefing was over the air amongst the team felt only marginally lighter.

“We’ve got a week off before we head out to Singapore. So get some rest, have some quality time with your families, and we’ll go again.” Were Martin’s parting words before he dismissed everyone with the best smile he could muster. Chris, who had been sat on Sophie’s left, puffed out his cheeks and let out a long sigh.

“Thank god we don’t do triple headers anymore.” He said with a shake of the head. Adam let out a grunt of agreement from Sophie’s right. Truth be told, she was grateful for a week off from racing as much as everyone else. Even though she was going to be jumping right into heat training with Vanessa to be as ready as she could be for Singapore.

“See you guys on Tuesday.” Sophie said to her engineers and they exchanged pats on the shoulder goodbye. Everyone would be back at the factory next week for more meetings and debriefs to go through the data from the weekend with a fine tooth comb.

When she got up out of her chair after gathering her things, Sophie saw James holding the door open for the last few stragglers. The two teammates ended up being the last to leave.

A part of Sophie felt frustrated. This was the seventh race where James had finished ahead of her on the road. And granted she had finished just over a second behind him, and Sophie knew that if she had managed to get ahead of James, she wouldn’t have managed to finish higher than eleventh either. She was just annoyed that she couldn’t give the team something to cheer for.

“Are you going to be at that sponsor photoshoot tomorrow?” James asked, stopping completely when he’d reached the bottom of the stairs, right in front of the door that led out into the paddock. It was operated by a push button, which was why it hadn’t opened automatically at their presence.

“The one in London?” James gave a small hum in reply. “I think so, I know I have a photoshoot tomorrow. I can double check with Richard if you’d like.”

While Sophie and James had already featured in many a sponsor campaign since January, their photoshoots had mostly been on completely different days due to their schedules, and the fact they lived in different countries. So she wasn’t surprised at James asking to check if for once they were going to be in the same place outside of a circuit or the factory.

“It’s fine, I just wondered if you wanted to grab some food after?” James said as he scratched behind his ear. “It’s alright if you don’t, I won’t be offended.”

Sophie huffed out the smallest of laughs at the implication that hanging out with her teammate completely outside of work was such an awful prospect. Even though Sophie assumed it would be at some ultra-exclusive restaurant which wasn’t really her cup of tea, she did still genuinely like James. And her feelings towards him had thankfully felt less complicated than they had back in Budapest. Because even though they got on well, had the odd mutual interest (unsurprisingly, vintage cars), and that Sophie felt she could trust him completely – something in the back of her mind told her they could never be anything more than teammates.

“That would be really nice.” Sophie said in quick reply.

“Great,” With a bright smile James pressed the button to open the door, and stepped out into the paddock. Sophie fell in step with him almost immediately. “I’ll see where I can book a table, but feel free to bring Vanessa along if you want a wing woman.”

As they crossed over to the motorhome a faint drizzle started to fall from the sky, it took everyone by surprise as they looked up at the faint grey clouds. No rain had been forecast until the late evening.

“See you tomorrow then.” Once inside, James made a couple of long strides over towards the stairs while Sophie headed over toward the table Mark and Vanessa were sitting at. Sophie knew they probably wouldn’t see each other at the airport, with her flying commercial and James on a private jet.

“See you tomorrow!” Sophie called out, and watched her teammate disappear upstairs.

* * *

2023 Italian Grand Prix Classification

1st - Benedikt Schmitz (Red Bull) - 25pts 2nd - Giovanni Carotti (Ferrari) - 18pts 3rd - Alistair Mitchell (Red Bull) - 15pts 4th - Teo Martinez (Ferrari) - 12pts 5th - Daniel Jakobsson (Alpine) - 10pts 6th - Marc Pavard (Mercedes) - 8pts 7th - Erik Braun (Audi) - 6pts 8th - Nico Dumont (Alpha Tauri) - 4pts 9th - Nathan Watkins (Mercedes) - 2pts 10th - Cristóbal Vasquez (Alpine) - 1pt 11th - James Hewitt (McLaren) 12th - Sophie Knightsbridge (McLaren) 13th - Jan Martens (Audi) 14th - Aidan Glover (Williams) 15th - Evan McKinley (Williams) 16th - Antonio Lima (Alpha Tauri) 17th - Owen Nichols (Aston Martin) RET - Leon Bauer (Haas) RET - Tadashi Sato (Haas)RET - Aaron Jones (Aston Martin) Fastest Lap - Nathan Watkins - 1pt

2023 Championship Standings after Round Thirteen

Drivers Standings

1st - Benedikt Schmitz (SUI) - 226pts 2nd - Giovanni Carotti (ITA) - 189pts 3rd - Nathan Watkins (CAN) - 166pts 4th - Alistair Mitchell (GBR) - 144pts 5th - Cristóbal Vasquez (ESP) - 128pts (8th - Sophie Knightsbridge (GBR) - 61pts 10th - James Hewitt (GBR) - 45pts)

Constructors Standings

1st - Red Bull-Honda (AUT) - 370pts 2nd - Ferrari (ITA) - 285pts 3rd - Mercedes-AMG (GER) - 276pts 4th - Alpine-Renault (FRA) - 187pts 5th - McLaren-Mercedes (GBR) - 106pts

[llantrisantscc]

LMP Round 1 - 4th Jan 2017

Happy New Year! Time to get together and have some racing, at last. Quite novel that we were the first organised club race for 2017 in south Wales. Not much has changed class-wise in the club calendar this year, a rule tweak here, a change of tyres there. Tonight’s LMP class changing from unglued PRS to unglued Slot.iit F22s being a good example. The biggest change to the calendar is we have re-arranged our class running order. We are still aiming to do 30 lap heats, one in each lane, for all drivers, but we changed the sequence in which each class was raced in any given round. Apart from anything else, this now allows one driver to attend every other week, which (as most of us married racers appreciate) will keep the significant other happy! Quali in Green was nice and tight tonight, with quite a lot of sledging going on beforehand! There was only one gap measured in 10ths. The other gaps measured in hundredths. One driver in particular was ribbing another about times, then got up and put in a great final lap to pip the guy he was ribbing by 2/100ths – his euphoria was short lived as he realised he had therefore put himself in the faster group. Whoops. So then we teased him endlessly about a famous “you can come last in all heats and still win” controversy of 2016. And boy, do these things look fast.

The group of two, Russ and Martyn , got off to a good start with some tight racing but it all went phutt when Russ crossed the line and Martyn’s car stopped – oh oh! A lot of head-scratching and a heated debate later reasoned that the fault must have been with the lane relays not liking having so much time off. We did a load of test and it all looked good, so we cracked on. We could have re-run the heat, but seeing as Russ was on lap 30 and Martyn just a lap and a bit behind, we decided to average out Martyn’s last few laps. I can’t show that heat yet, as I rather cleverly left it on the club puter which is locked in it’s new cupboard! I’ll update and post the XL files next week. The next time out for these two saw the heat stopped and started afresh – an incident occurred which totally blocked Russ’ view of the track – fair’s fair, so we started from scratch as we weren’t too many laps in. The result saw Russ have a good run in Red, with Martyn giving him a good race for the first 10 laps, then fading as his car developed a bit of a problem – building a brand new car and using a guide with old braids on is a grade 1 schoolboy error. Worthy perhaps of the Gear Stick End Award? Not this week, the competition was too stiff. H5 saw new braids installed and a much happier car, although a few silly offs in the first half of the heat saw Martyn drop away, although an off by Russ in the second half saw Martyn try to come back. It was a shame, as the times were pretty close and the gap was not varying by much when the cars were staying on! Russ got his best times in this heat, with a flurry around 8 seconds dead and a batches getting into the 7s. The final heat for this pair had some good cat and mouse in the outer lanes, with Russ in Blue just preventing Martyn from lapping him by 6/100ths of a second – a great honour not to be lapped by Yellow when you are in Blue.

Meanwhile, the gang of 3 had some fun too. H2 saw Steve in Green and Leon in Red have a false start, much to everyone else’s amusement, whilst Craig in Blue got a shuffle on and enjoyed some clear track. After catching and passing Craig, Steve then had an off – never a good idea when only two marshals in attendance, and also bearing in mind one of the clubs catchphrases “DON’T CRASH BY A carp MARSHAL”, allowing Craig to narrow the gap. All the while Leon was in the slipstream chasing first Steve and now Craig. This was pretty much the pattern for the rest of the heat, with Craig having an off and Leon hopping on his tails. The end of the heat had a reasonably tight spread of Steve from Craig from Leon. If only he hadn’t jumped the start, he would have had those pesky Jones boys! Last session before tea had Craig (Green) and Steve (Red) swapping places all heat long – boy it was close - Leon was again on the pace, shadowing them in Yellow, finally trailing the boys in by about 5 seconds. However, Craig took the win by 3 tenths from Steve – close stuff. After tiffin, Leon put up a brave heat in Blue – “race the lane, not the other drivers”, whilst Steve and Craig once more went hammer and tongs. They tripped over each other on lap 19, but apart from that, there was barely a second between them all the way. For the last heat, Craig flew in Yellow, leaving Steve (Blue) and Leon (in mid-grey) to battle it out. Steve got second by about 3 seconds from Leon at the end – a great run for Leon tonight, and he even got a special award!

Same old faces on the podium, plus Rhod Gilbert turned up whilst filming his "Work Experience" programme - we gave him "Thing at the end of Gear Stick of the week award" for his efforts.

[sbknews]

New Post has been published on Superbike News

New Post has been published on https://superbike-news.co.uk/wordpress/phillip-island-official-test-last-chance-to-get-ready-for-worldsbk-2019/

Phillip Island Official Test: last chance to get ready for WorldSBK 2019

WorldSBK and WorldSSP teams will have one last chance left to make their final preparations ahead of the 2019 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season opener.  In fact, from 18th-19th February riders will be taking to the track around Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit for two more days of Official pre-season testing, just a few days before the Yamaha Finance Australian Round will take place at the same venue from 22nd-24th February.

The Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK will head Down Under with a lot of confidence after a strong winter period that saw reigning World Champion Jonathan Rea come out on top during both tests held at Jerez and Portimao. Testing some new items introduced on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR, the Northern Irishman was pleased with his overall pace and showed off to be ready to defend his crown and hunt down his fifth back-to-back WorldSBK title. Providing reassuring feedbacks to his crew, Rea has also declared to be feeling stronger than ever with his green machine this year. On the other side of the garage, his new teammate Leon Haslam didn’t need a long time to get reacquainted with the WorldSBK machine, as he also had a strong pace over the winter.

But the real revelation of the winter period has been Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team). The British rider closed in second position the two-day test held in Portugal and he declared to be ready to fight for the podiums in every race weekend this year. Sharing the garage with Lowes, Michael Van der Mark also has his goal set high for the new season after a promising performance during the winter tests. Making their debut in WorldSBK, the GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team also showed off a good potential at the previous off-season tests. Joining the field with 2018 WorldSSP champion Sandro Cortese and veteran Italian star Marco Melandri, the supported Yamaha WorldSBK squad hope to make a further step forward with their YZF R1 at the official test ahead of the season opener.

For the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team duo Chaz Davies and Alvaro Bautista, the Official Winter Test at Phillip Island will hold a lot of importance as the two days will be their final chance to fine-tune the all-new Ducati Panigale V4 R ahead of its first-ever WorldSBK race. During the winter tests held at the end of January at Jerez and Portimao, Bautista impressed everyone with his quick familiarization with the WorldSBK machine. Coming from an extensive career in the MotoGP™ paddock, the Spaniard was already third at Portimao after just a few outings with the red machine since he has joined his new team. Taming the new Panigale V4 R too, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team)will race at Phillip Island for the first time this year, meaning that on the two days of testing he will also be working to learn the new layout. For Eugene Laverty, who starts his seventh season in WorldSBK this year, time will be precious at Phillip Island as he still looks to find a good base setup for the Ducati V4 R of Team Goeleven.

Joining the battle for 2019 are not just the green, blue and red machines. 2019 will also see the return of the German manufacturer BMW. The BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team took to the track for the first time with their competitors at Jerez and Portimao, impressing with their quick progression over the four days. Tom Sykes, who made the switch to the team managed by Shaun Muir for 2019, set the sixth fastest lap time at the Portuguese race track and gave positive feedbacks on his BMW S1000RR. The same happened with Markus Reiterberger, who returns to WorldSBK after becoming 2018 STK1000 Champion. Working next to the BMW engineers at Jerez and Portimao, the German rider looks forward to making other steps forward with his WorldSBK machine during the Official Winter Test at Phillip Island.

HRC will also return to WorldSBK this year as they will support the Moriwaki Althea Honda Team in 2019. All eyes will be on them at Phillip Island since we still haven’t seen Leon Camier and Japanese rider Ryuichi Kiyonari take to the track with their Honda CBR1000RR SP2. Rumors say that the team has been testing behind closed door in Thailand, and now at the two-day test in Australia we will finally be able to see where they stand as they will be facing their rivals for the first time. For Honda rider Alessandro Delbianco (Althea MIE Racing Team) this will be the first time riding at Phillip Island since he will make his debut in WorldSBK this year. The 21-year-old will take advantage of the two days to continue his approach with the new category, his new bike, and the new race track.

Heading into his second season in WorldSBK, independent Kawasaki rider Toprak Razgatlioglu also impressed during the four days of testing at Jerez and Portimao, and at Phillip Island, the Turkish Puccetti Racing team aim to make a further step forward as they will be receiving here their final 2019 updates for their Kawasaki ZX-10RR. Also, Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) and Spanish rider Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) will work hard during the final two days of Official Test to improve the setup of their ZX-10RR ahead of the first round of the 2019 season.

WorldSSP teams will be back into action at the Official Test in Australia. At Portimao, Jules Cluzel (GMT 94 Yamaha) set the fastest lap time despite still recovering from the injury he suffered in Qatar last year. The Frenchman closed 0.573 s ahead of Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), who aims to bring the MV Agusta back to victory in 2019. 2018 runner-up Lucas Mahias will ride alongside Japanese rider Hikari Okubo for the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team this year. As he aims to claim back the WorldSSP championship title this year, the Frenchman will work hard alongside his crew to be ready for his first round aboard the green machine.

Don’t miss the Official WorldSBK and WorldSSP Winter Test at Phillip Island. Follow the live timing and catch up with all the reactions and highlights at WorldSBK.com.

World Superbike

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LMP Round 10 - 21st November 2017

Apologies for the late report - job transition and birthday sort of got in the way.  7 Racers turned out for the penultimate round with Leon missing for babysitting duties but as he has already won the class it meant a potential points grab for the rest of us - or an outing for next year's LMP's for testing.

Anyway - short but sweet - here are the results...

RichP (having tied up 2nd place) decided to bring out his 2018 Ninco Audi which was well ahead in it first heat before it decided to chew up its gear a couple of minutes from the end allowing the field to swallow it up.  This was the entire drivetrain from his very successful Avant Slot Pescarolo  but it would appear the Ninco pod has subtly diffferent drive train dimensions and the gear was stripped very effectively.

Rick showed the sort of speed that would have seen him challenging Leon for top spot if only he had turned up for enough rounds.  But fastest lap of the night wasn't Rick's - in fact Rick couldn't get near his class record and was pipped by James who put in a perfect 7.000 - one tantalising thousandth of a second away from joining the sub-7 second club.  However James leaps up the fastest lap leaderboard leapfrogging Leon into third place.  RichP retain second overall but as his Pescarolo is gone he has a whopping 9 tenths to find out of his Ninco.  Plenty of closed season testing needed there!

Mike worked quietly away to take the final podium place and we welcomed Jason who put in a decent time with RichP's old MG Lola.  It's a decent first marker.

Only James improved on his previous best carving a massive 0.923 seconds off his best time and surging from 8th fastest to 3rd fastest.

As we already know Leon and RichP can't be caught but Keith is now under serious threat from Rick IF Rick can turn up to the final round in 2 weeks' time.

Clive and Mike have a straight race to decide 5th and 6th.

Gareth is assured of 7th with the other placings due to not enough rounds being attended and not enough points scored to trouble the leaders.

I have updated Leon's reliability chart but it's too big to grab off my laptop screen so I will leave that to him to present with the final results in a couple of weeks.

[sbknews]

New Post has been published on Superbike News

New Post has been published on http://superbike-news.co.uk/wordpress/kawasaki-to-unveil-all%e2%80%91new-models-for-first-time-in-uk-at-2018-motorcycle-live/

Kawasaki to Unveil all‑new Models for First Time in UK at 2018 Motorcycle Live

Kawasaki Motors UK have introduced a tantalising assortment of new models to the 2019 line-up and they are set to break cover for the first time in the UK during the upcoming Motorcycle Live show at the NEC in Birmingham, held from 17th to 25th Nov.

The all-new Kawasaki Ninja 125 and Z125 will thrill A1 licence holders. Our latest addition to the supersports category is the next level Ninja ZX-6R with a legendary 636cc capacity engine, plus a revised Ninja ZX-10R range with higher peak power of 203ps. Keeping in the theme of more power, our updated supercharged Ninja H2 unleashes an unbelievable 231ps!

In addition to new models, we will have four time World Superbike Champion and Ninja ZX-10RR rider, Jonathan Rea visit our stand for a book signing to celebrate his newly released autobiography. Don’t have a copy of Rea’s autobiography? Not a problem, you can purchase one from our stand!

Hot off the podium, the first female to win a motorcycle racing world championship and Ninja 400 rider, Ana Carrasco will also be present for a signing session along with reigning British Superbike Champion Leon Haslam. To celebrate Haslam’s triumph, renowned artist, Billy Art will be at the Kawasaki stand creating a fine artwork of Leon Haslam during the event, giving guests a rare chance to see the master pencil artist at work.

This year Kawasaki plans to maintain the title for ‘Best Manufacturers Stand’ at Motorcycle Live, taking our dealer showroom and garage inspired stand to another dimension with outdoor inspired features.

Are you a Club Kawasaki member? Perfect – you will be given VIP access to our members only area on the stand, allowing you to take a breather with a hot cup of tea or coffee and refreshments. The VIP area will also give Club Kawasaki members exclusive access and a premium view of our world famous racers during their interviews.

If you are racking your brain thinking of the perfect Christmas gift for a loved one, or you need another piece of green clothing to fly the Kawasaki flag, we will have you covered with our clothing and merchandise shop at the Kawasaki stand.

Riders skill and helping to encourage new motorcyclists into our gratifying world is immensely important to us at Kawasaki, hence we will be dedicating a section of our stand to share information about our Kawasaki Rider Training School KRTS program.

Kawasaki stand location at the event – Hall 3A, Stand 3G10 & 3G15.

Find out more about Motorcycle Live 2018 here – https://www.motorcyclelive.co.uk/

See you there!

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[llantrisantscc]

Didn't we have a lovely time, the day we went to DiSCA

Three club members competed in Rounds 3 & 4 of the DiSCA GT3 Euro series in South Manchester this past weekend.

Craig was one half of the Demon Slot entry, well known visitor and W&W stalwart Phil Field being the other half, and me and Leon formed the Llantrisant entry.

As it was so far away, we drove up Saturday, with late entrants Demon Rosso (Keith and Ben Clements), and had a few frames of pool and a stroll around Weatherfield before being true athletes and preparing for the following days racing by getting hammered in the hotel bar. Much hilarity had by all.

Next morning, a good stodgy breakfast and off to the club. South Manchester slot racing is set on the upper floors of a big old industrial centre, Houldsworth Mill. On arrival, we had a good old session of " I don't know, Mr Wentworth told me to come and say 'there's trouble at mill' ". The club room is spacious and airy and is home to the old Llany wood track. Plenty of pitting room, but a little tight on getting 11 racers standing side by side on't podium. Not too much of a problem for the skinny one's like me, Leon, Mark W and Nick "the practicer", but a bit of a squeeze for those of a more rotund physique.

The day runs like this - free practice, during which your best lap is your qualifying time, followed by race 1, a short break, then race 2. The races are an hour each - both drivers must drive and the changeover must occur between 25 and 35 mins into the race. The non-driver must Marshall at all times, so changeover is a strict sixty seconds, monitored by race control. Driver walks to marshalling post, Marshall leaves and goes to drivers podium. The whole event takes a lot of organising, its amazing how much Gary and Alex have to prepare beforehand and do during the race - they cope admirably and don't flap with all the interesting challenges us bunch of idiots create!

As you'd expect, there is a load of banter flying around, the racing is very serious, but most of us really enjoyed the atmosphere. Race 1 was a bit of a mare for the Llany team - we lost drive with a slipping gear, so even though Leon fixed it in double quick time, we still lost about 20 laps. This knocked us from 7th to last but one. With about 18 minutes to go we got smashed off the track at the end of the straight - sadly scuttling our wing into the Armco. We had to pit and re-stick it. Took a while as both tags that go into the body were bent quite badly. Glued on, and off we went - bog last. And managed to stay there till the end!

In between races we had a good chat and it was apparent that Leon was having a good run, but I was over driving it and coming off far too much. Plan B - keep a cool head and get the laps in. Race 2 is a reverse grid, so we started on pole! Lead for a whole lap and then the faster guys started to get their act together and put some laps on us. The plan worked well - by getting the laps in we were in 7th at the change over. As we went in for the change fairly early, we had a few teams pass us in the 60 second change over. Leon took over and got his head down, as the rest started to pit, we climbed the leader board again.

As things settled down toward the last quarter of the race, we were in a very comfortable 7th position. Demon Rosso were a fair few laps ahead and running well in 5th, Crewes Missile were 6th and Leon was reeling them in, whilst one of the Quorn teams were quite a few laps back, but going quickly. I was able to give Leon some race updates and he used the info to reel in and pass the Crewes boys.

As we went into the last few minutes, we were running a lap down on 5th place Demon Rosso and a lap and a bit up on the Quorn lads. With 90 seconds to go, Leon had an uncharacteristic off at the end of the straight - the Quorn boys started gaining. Decided not to mention this, but concentrated on feeding Leon positive info, making sure he could keep calm and get his good laps in. It worked, he got 6th in the bag - with a little more good fortune and concentration, we may well have got 5th. To be honest, getting 6th in race 2 felt like winning the Henley 24 hour race!

All told it was a great weekend and our heartiest thanks to Gary, Alex and the South Mancs team and all the helpers  for putting on a very enjoyable event.  Special mention for the "Hopeful 6" Quorn gang, I know we gave you stick, but without your fault finding and assistance during track build, the event would not have run so smoothly.  We give Gary and Alex a lot of stick during the build up and race (good natured of course) but if those two didn't have the eye for detail and character to stick to their guns when there is a gaggle of racers arguing a point, then the event would lose some of it's polish and not leave us with the great feeling we all seem to have at the end, regardless of our result!

We were all a bit tired getting home, but it was well worth it. Can't wait for the Rockingham race! Get your views and photos (not to mention corrections!) up Craig and Leon.