Castrol Oils and Eastern Airways are the new sponsors of the British F1 Sidecar Championship for 2008. With some good prize money on offer and several rounds clashing with the World Superside events, the series has attracted an incredibly competitive grid.

Round one of was to be held at Derbyshire’s Donington Park circuit, with the races run on the slightly shorter (1.957 miles) National circuit. Donington has an excellent mix of slow and fast corners, most of which are made technical to a degree by the undulating nature of the track, and some curious cambers.

For this event, additional complications and challenges were provided by way of high winds, freezing temperatures and snow. Nice.
Toward the end of the 2007 season we had increasingly become entangled in a downward spiral of handling problems with the bike. A few brief tests earlier in the week showed that while our hours spent on the problems through the winter hadn’t been wasted, a full solution was still some way in the distance. Like Africa or Australia maybe.

But on the plus side some off-season tweaks in the performance department seemed to be working even better than expected. Not exactly ‘more power than God’, but encouraging. All we needed now was a way to get round corners. A basic concept that most other teams seem to have good grasp of, and even take for granted.

PRACTICE & QUALIFYING
We ventured onto the circuit with a track temperature just above freezing, patchy damp and violently gusting wind.

After a long winter confined to tinkering in garages and workshops, inordinately enthusiastic teams were soon spinning off in all directions. We could only dream of having enough steering grip to induce a spin. This bike just wanted to go in a straight line, and the wind was providing more directional input than us. Maybe we should go drag racing.

First Qualifying on Saturday was cut short by 5 minutes, with the alleged earlier paddock announcement presumably carried away by the chill northeasterly. So while the residents of Melbourne village several miles away were possibly aware of this change to the programme, we weren’t. After our usual mid-qualifying brief we charged back onto the circuit just in time to be flagged back in. This saw us provisionally in 11th place behind… well just about everybody really. Or so we thought.

If the ‘one-change-at-a-time-and-measure-the-result’ law were English statute, the raft of alterations we made before our second qualifying would surely see us locked up. But we didn’t care; these were getting to be desperate times - especially the lap ones.

On a machine indifferent to our crudely excessive adjustments, we chopped and notched our way around for several laps. But by the time the tyres were warm (using the term relatively, like ‘the inside of an igloo’) it started to snow.
We had gone a little quicker – just enough to drop us to an all time low of twelfth on the grid.

Race 1.
With more bikes in front of us than a motorcycle hypermarket, we lined up on the grid.
A good hook-up off the line ensured we managed to drag our way up half a dozen places or so into turn one (Redgate), but as we skittered around the outside of the non-stop twists and turns at the back of the circuit, hopelessly off line, all and sundry came past. The straights enabled us to use our superior performance to pass a few teams, but it was ultimately fruitless and whilst we scrabbled around trying desperately not to become part of the frozen scenery, we then had it all to do again. We eventually settled on the tail of 2007 EuroCup Champion Ken Knapton, but we were losing too much ground around the long Coppice corner to make a realistic lunge before the finish. Still, a couple of prominent DNF’s lifted us to a lowly 8th place.

Race 2
A similar good start saw us up into 8th, and after many more hours of meddling with the myriad adjustments on a modern Formula one sidecar, we seemed to have a slightly better handling bike under us, at last. We managed to hold position at least, and when we eventually reached the straight we were able to draw alongside and pass Ken Knapton, out-braking first Simon Gilbert and then Dan Morrisey into the tight chicane. We made it all stick, and in a repeat manoeuvre the following lap managed to take both Steve Norbury and Brian Peddar. Both these teams are top World Championship contenders. This was better, and we were up to 5th place. Still struggling with right-handers particularly, we constantly were getting sight of the noses of various other bikes, and we had to ride at our defensive best. I already wanted this race to end when it started to snow. After a couple of scary big slides we eased off a little only to have Norbury and Gilbert blast past, still racing hard. Following them at a ‘safe’ distance down the infamous Craner Curves, both Norbury and Gilbert went into long slides, and eventually spun off together. We picked our way around tumbling passengers, dirt thrown onto the track and eventually Simon skilfully holding a reverse up the track without flipping over. As we passed, I could see red lights and flags at the next marshall post, stopping the race.
I suspected this was going to become an issue. The regulations state when a race is stopped, positions are taken from the last time the finishing line is crossed, with the person who caused the race to be stopped eliminated. Would they both be eliminated?
As it turned out, the race was stopped because of another incident, not this one. Non-the less, Steve Norbury was eliminated and Simon Gilbert wasn’t, so something of a political battle looks set to continue. We think they should both be eliminated. But then we would, wouldn’t we? Nothing personal.

Summary
A difficult weekend, mostly due to weather and handling problems, which we still haven’t managed to completely dial out. But it’s better, and with the fast Snetterton circuit host to the next round, we’re hoping for some good racing.
Given our desperately slow lap times, we came away an unlikely 6th in the Championship. Not ideal, but for 2008 this series is our practice and testing for the World Championship. To this end, the weekend was very useful.
Congratualations to our Team Mates Craig Chaplow and new passenger Danny ‘Evo’ Evanson (Team 73) on their solid finishes and clutch of points, now lying 4th in the F1 Cup Championship

THANKS
Special thanks to all organizers and marshals of the Bemsee Motorcycle club who stood for hours in the freezing conditions.
Big Thanks to all our 2008 product sponsors and helpers (in alphabetical order):
Agip Oils, Danger UK graphics, Daytona Boots, Goodridge UK, Lintek (EK chains), Louis Christen (LCR), all the Knights, Frank Thomas (Arashi Helmets), PAW Engineering, Ready Design, Rock Oil, James Lister & sons, JP Exhausts, and the O’Driscolls.

NEXT EVENTS (In red):

2008 Redline Superbikes Team 37 Calendar:

British F1 Round 1 March 22nd - 23rd Donington Park
British F1 Round 2 April 12th – 13th Snetterton
British F1 Round 3 May 10th – 11th Brand Hatch (GP)
Worlds Round 1 May 24th – 25th Donington Park (UK)
Worlds Round 2 June 20th – 22nd Sachsenring (Germany)
Worlds Round 3 June 26th – 28th Assen (Holland)
British F1 Round 4 June 28th - 29th Cadwell Park
Worlds Round 4 July 11th – 13th Sachsenring (Germany)
Worlds Round 5 August 15th – 17th Rijeka (Croatia)
British F1 Round 7 September 13th – 14th Snetterton
Worlds Round 6 September 19th – 21st Le Mans (France)