In a tough weekend's racing Russ Joyner secured third in the BMCRC Minitwins championship. Russ hounded the Team Diablo 666 bike of Piers Hutchings all the way; scoring three third places behind Piers in the first three races, but it nearly all slipped away in the fourth and final race of the weekend in a dramatic twist.
In this, the final race of the championship, Russ snapped his gearlever on a kerb during lap two. It was really gritty riding to hang on (shades of Rossi at Assen this year) and still finish 5th; just enough to give Russ, bioethanol and Team Inzane a well deserved 3rd place in the Championship. Phew!
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( 3 / 3191 )Team Inzane entered a Laverda 750 in the final round of the Thunderbike UK championship at Brands Hatch GP circuit on the 28/29th of September.
The bike was one of the two 1999 Laverda Formulas originally raced by Russ Joyner and Geoff Baines first as stock bikes and then in Sound of Thunder in 2000. We are grateful to John Chennels for lending us this historic race bike - the ultimate track Laverda - and letting us race it in anger for the first time in nearly eight years.
As a nod to our e85 biofuel race bikes, we ran the bike on the 99 octane e5 blend sold by some UK supermarkets.
As a "wild card" Russ had to start at the back of the 28 bike grid for the first of four races and worked his way up to 10th place, getting a feel for a bike he had not raced since 2001. From 10th in race two, Russ put it on the podium with a 2nd place. This put the Laverda on the front row for Sunday's races and some great racing ensued with Simon Peyto, Garry Budgen and Phil Read putting up a fight but unable to deny Russ a historic double win.
Laverda fans: click the picture and savour the moment:
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( 3 / 3047 )After five consecutive second place finishes Russ cracked it with a win at Snetterton on 14th September.
The sweet taste of victory mingled with the sweet smell of e85! Click picture for gallery.
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( 3 / 3386 )Qualifying in second at Cadwell was a good start and a wet sixth place actually disguised an excellent performance with Russ testing some new wet tyres and getting faster throughout the race.
Race two saw Russ get on the pace and a fifth place finish, with the commentator announcing the fastest lap to Russ; this unfortunately turned out to not count as yet again the race was stopped early. Even without this Russ was now second fastest, within 0.1s /lap of leader Glynn Davies.
Sure enough, race three saw Russ in second when the race was stopped after three laps. From second on the reformed grid Russ won the race on the road, pipping Peter Molloy across the line by the customary <0.1s. Celebrations of the first win for the bio-fuelled Ducati proved premature as BMCRC were running "WSB" (aggregate time) rather than "BSB" (first on the road) rules! Russ followed up this second place with another second in the final race after battling back from a poor start.
Michael Neeves from MCN deserves a special mention for putting in a really good ride in the Thunderbike UK race on the Inzane Ducati. Starting from last on the grid he rode up to fifth out of 25 starters!
MCN took some excellent pictures to add to our usual Racing Lines race shots: click the picture to view the gallery
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A new two into one underseat exhaust was hand built and fitted to the Ducati for this round. If you are interested in one of these contact Two Wheel Technics under "Links". It its lighter and more crash worthy than the twin exhaust set up - as events were to confirm...
After qualifying on the second row for race one, Russ ran in fourth place until a rear master cylinder fault caused the rear brake to drag - check out the spectacular glowing disc in the gallery! This resulted in a DNF and consequently a back row (37th place) start for race two.
Russ carved his way up to 9th giving a third row start for the third race in which he set the fastest lap of the meeting and missed out on a win by less than 0.1s from Championship leader Peter Molloy. A rather mixed weekend ended with an unfortunate crash out of a comfotable third in the final wet race.
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