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The bioethanol powered Ducati was progressing well at Croix in June with a 4th, then a 3rd, then 2nd in the warm up and then - a startline crash put paid to the weekend! Some good pictures though, and as usual some great racing in the BMCRC Minitwins series. Next, we return to Snetterton on 5th July.
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Although the £1000 ebay Laverda did prove itself to be faster than most of the Suzukis every time it ran, it was always going to struggle on fast circuits against the top SV 650s. Running the Laverda did prove several things:
1. Bioethanol (e85) is an excellent fuel for racing bikes.
2. You don't need to spend thousands buying a Suzuki, reworking the forks, changing the rear shock, fitting a race exhaust and fitting new discs to run near the front in Minitwins. Just get a Laverda 650 Formula!
3. Russ Joyner can still ride a bike fast and his bike preparation is superb.
4. To actually win a Bemsee minitwin race you need to be near the 72bhp limit, which the Laverda was about 10 bhp off.
So, team Inzane has upped its game and developed a 2003 Ducati 800SS race bike. Once again ebay produced a suitable donor bike, which Russ has hand crafted into a gorgeous and unique racer clothed in a lovely piece of QB Carbon Desmosedici bodywork. It is still heavier than an SV, but it looks great.
The stock motor loves the e85 and was much more powerful than the Laverda on the dyno - straight up to 70bhp with the homemade exhaust.
With expert setup setup help from Baines Racing on the Friday, the Ducati qualified 2nd in a field of 39 on Saturday and finished third in its first race! Russ did even better in race 2 by pipping championship contender Peter Molloy by 0.1s to get 2nd. More to come!
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( 3 / 981 )The Laverda is now the second fastest alternatively fuelled drag vehicle in the UK! Impressively, Russ put the 650 Laverda "into the 11s" as they say in drag racing with 11.96s at 110.97mph.
Fastest was the Bike magazine Triumph 675 which team Inzane rider Russ Joyner put "into the 10s" at 10.87 at 128.46mph, making him fastest on the day.
This will be on "fifth gear" during its next series, although Tiff Needell might fail to mention that fittingly he was beaten into fifth place!
Click here to get the official aeracing results
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( 3 / 2886 )We thought Snetterton would be a challenge as the high speed track does not play to the Laverda's strengths but we were rescued by the rain. A full grid of 40 (we were joined by 39 SV650s) meant that two 8th places in the dry were excellent results, but we were stunned when Russ added a 4th and a 2nd in the wet. This has elevated us to 4th in the championship. Bring on Cadwell 26/27 April!
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( 3 / 2120 )51 Suzuki SV650s and 1 biofuelled Laverda 650 Formula lined up for the first BMCRC Minitwins meeting of the year at Brands hatch. Dodgy weather made for difficult tyre choices but some spectacular racing. Russ brought the Laverda home with two 6ths, a 7th and an 11th to put us in 9th place in the hotly contested BCL Watches series. "Game on!"
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