The Whilton Mill 8 – Scooter Endurance Racing | FEATURE

After last year’s biblical Whilton Mill, all the stars aligned for our return and it stayed warm and dry for the whole meeting. Much to the relief of all who survived last year!

If you’ve missed our previous features on British Scooter Endurance Club events do a Google search for ‘SLUK Endurance’ or use the search feature at the top right of this page.

Cheap motor sport

Now into its fifth year, BSEC has gone from strength to strength. The regular teams have become more competitive and professional (except maybe #81 United Colours of Bemberton) and the standard of machines and riders gets better every time.

One thing BSEC has done is to open up scooter sport to more riders than ever before. That’s down to its easy entry requirements (just a classic scooter, a full bike licence and protective kit is needed).  It’s also down to the friendly paddock, the cost of entry and the amount of track time each team gets. It really is the best value motorsport around. You’re looking at around £80 per rider for a team of four.

New riders

One other thing BSEC has done is to encourage riders onto scooters for the very first time. The sport has various ex and current pit bike riders who had never even looked at a classic scooter before finding scooter endurance. An example of this is the Southern Monkeys. A brand new team made up of a group of bike-riding lads in their mid-twenties. They’d heard about it through Henry from IDK Racing, built a Lambretta and had a great first meeting at Whilton. They finished 13th overall and came second in Club Class. They were nice lads as well.

Rave Team

Making his track debut at this event was young rally-going scooterist, Connor Ludewig. Riding for the #70 Independent Idiots Rave Team (their after-race party coined that nickname), Connor fitted in well with one of the unluckiest but still most enthusiastic teams in the paddock. Their smallframe racer was sidelined on Friday (again) due to a split fuel tank and another issue so they were forced to use their spare, much slower PX.

Another rider making his debut was sprinter Adie Horrocks. Any fears that he could only ride in a straight line were quickly dispelled. Riding for Team #3 ‘Also Hornet Racing’ in Pro Race Class, he looks like being a future track star as he set some quick laps during the race.

Race day

Another beautiful day greeted me as I exited the Tranny (that’s van rather than cross-dresser). An 8:30 am rider’s briefing was followed by a quick 30-minute qualifying session, shorter than usual, which means you only get the chance to send two riders out. Luckily all teams had two hours of practice on Friday evening. Track time is one thing you’re not short of at BSEC events.

Le Man’s start

34 classic scooters lined up on the grid for a 10 am Le Man’s start. Machines ranged from Vespa PXs to small frames, Lambretta Series Ones to GPs, Vegas to a beautiful Moto Rumi.

Keith waves the Union Flag and the riders sprint across the track to claim their scooters and ride en masse into the first corner. It was a fairly clean start with only one novice rider falling at the first hurdle. The race was on though and the clock was ticking. Eight hours to go.

Tougher than the TT?

I was talking to Stuart Day in the grandstand between riding stints, he put things into context, “It’s tougher than the TT. They only do six laps and about 230 miles. We’re doing closer to 300 on something built for going to the shops 60-odd years ago.” I’m sure series organiser, Keith Terry can confirm or deny that, he’s ridden in both.

Scooter endurance isn’t easy on man or machine (just for clarity there were no lady riders at this meeting). You may think riding a couple of hundred miles to a rally is tough, eight hours of an endurance race is much harder. I’m writing this five days after the event and still nursing a large patch of raw, skinless arse cheek caused by the seat on the #4 London Lambretta Club scooter I raced. I often ride to rallies on a SIP race seat and never suffer that pain.

Team Vespa

#15 Team Vespa on the ex-Norrie Kerr SS90 got off to a flyer and led for pretty much the whole race on their Egig-powered 170, built and modified by team manager and rider, Dave Delaney. Damon Tunnicliffe was also back on the team and riding very well.

#6 Hornet Endurance and #41 SRP Essex were giving them a run for their money though. Foster 56 on the confusingly numbered #58 Lambretta had a good start as well and were up the front for a while. As were #96 Squadra Corse Swarb 96, although a couple of crashes and maybe a tech issue meant they finished in 33rd place.

London Lambretta Club

Our team started in eighth on the grid and team boss, Jerry got us up to sixth in the first hour. He set our fastest lap of the day with a 1:02.395 on lap 47. Bearing in mind, London Lambretta Club is a small team riding what was once Jerry’s commuter scooter, the Club Class machine runs a TS1 250 and we were 7th fastest on the day. You can compare fastest lap times on the image above.

Clutch trouble

Just before our fourth rider change (our team of four all did one-hour stints at a time), Sam Round indicated he had a problem and brought the scooter in. I was ready and waiting to go out for my first hour but the clutch was slipping badly. The cable was quickly slackened off and I took it out but it was still losing loads of power, I did one lap and took it back to the pits. Jerry quickly set about the scooter and it looked like we would have to put a new clutch in. Our track position was being eaten away. Then a stroke of luck, there was a red flag incident (not lucky for the injured rider). It gave us some time to think and with some more adjustment, we were back in pit lane ready to start from the back of the grid once the race got underway again.

Hornet Endurance

Team Vespa were still romping away in the lead and they looked unstoppable. Hornet Endurance were also looking good, despite John the Greek not being there. Dave Bristow had drafted in three fast lads, Albert Lohff (sub-1-minute lap), Stefan Menke and Steve Conneely. Stuart Day’s lovely black and white S1 was also in contention for the lead.

Walking wounded

Another red flag saw Irish lad, Billy Maynard crashing out on the #50 Gasworks SRT machine and heading off to hospital with a fractured collar bone. He was in good spirits when he came back, despite being due to start a new job two days after, having a holiday for the following week and crashing in his wife’s helmet…

John Woods also got taken out on the start/finish straight, he suffered a broken thumb. John was riding for Keith McNally’s team, #207 Valley Scooter Club, along with Justin Price and Mark Saunders. It was good to see Justin giving it some on the 154cc Barone-powered smallframe.

We’d like to wish any riders injured over the weekend our best wishes for a quick and full recovery. Thankfully the crash count was way lower than the 74 we had in the wet at Whilton last year.

The final countdown

Having raced in all but one BSEC event since it began, I must admit this meeting was my favourite so far. The race action was fast and furious. Mostly good, clean riding from everybody. The last hour in particular was nailbiting according to those watching trackside. Personally, I wasn’t able to bite my nails because I was busy holding the Lambrettas handlebars.

We’d been sitting in a comfortable fourth place for most of the race (a crash from Jerry in the fifth hour cost us a bit of time though) and as I took over from Sam it looked like we were likely to stay there. Team Vespa was out in front with Hornet Racing and SRP biting at their heels. We were in fourth place a few laps behind and I wanted to ensure we stayed there. I did my best to put in some consistently good laps and watched the clock counting down on the start-finish straight.

With less than two laps to go, Team Vespa came past me. For a few seconds I decided to try and get back in front, then the sensible part of me thought “There’s no point, they’re in the lead” so I backed off to a more comfortable pace, probably sensible because Damon is quicker than me. The chequered flag came out and the crowds went wild (or the hundred or so people stood watching at least).

Anybody who finishes an endurance race deserves applause and admiration, it’s brutal.

Close but no cigar

After the race, it turned out that Team Vespa had been forced to come in to change a set of front brake pads and had dropped from first to fourth. If I’d just been able to hold them at bay for a lap and a half we’d have been on the podium! They took a well-deserved third. We settled for first place in Road Class and fourth overall and the team were happy with the result.

Hornet Endurance took the race win, SRP Essex second and Team Vespa third.

From a rider’s point of view that was an epic race, only a shame it wasn’t on the telly…

Thanks to the sponsors

Events like this one are made more affordable thanks to the generosity of sponsors. On behalf of everybody in BSEC, I’d like to thank AME Auto, ScooterLab, ScooterNova Magazine, Thanet Area Scooter Spares, AF Rayspeed, the Vespa Club of Britain, Ezpress Signs, Properly Protected and Lee Hollick Photography.

I’d also like to thank Keith, Mikey, Bev and Kirsty for all their hard work to make sure we get out on track. Also to Ellis for doing the live commentary (despite the frustrating tech issues), all the marshalls and paramedics who are there to sweep up the pieces and the track staff at Whilton Mill.

LLC – what a team

Thanks to Jerry for building an awesome engine. Aside from a minor clutch issue, it was faultless, fast and lovely to ride. Also thanks to the other riders, Tommy and Sam. Great consistent riding from everybody. I’d also like to  thank Bryan for keeping the scooter fuelled at rider changes, Bones for doing all the running and Maria, Linsey and Gin for looking after the pitboard, timing and hospitality (putting the kettle on and giving us snacks).