BSSO round 2: Lydden – George Fileder’s Rookie’s Report | SPORT

Arriving at Lydden Hill midday Friday, we got set up straight away with my new SRP teammate Damon Yates.

This would be my first meeting on the SRP Lambretta, #229, pictured third from the left.

I was accompanied by one of our good racing friends, Daz. He would stay in our tent with his motorbike, which he would race on during the weekend, along with us.

The hornet’s nest, ready to swarm the track…

Crashed on the way

A message popped up on the team group chat, nothing out of the ordinary, only the fact Jeremy Crews’ scooter fell off the van! After the team eventually arrived, we got set up, and my dad (Rob Fielder) kindly fixed Jer’s scooter for him… nothing major, just an end can replacement. After that, I got all dressed up in my leathers and took my scooter down to get scrutineered; Keith Terry passed it with flying colours. Later that night, we got set up and went straight to sleep, as it had been one hectic day…

An early start

Saturday morning, I woke up at 6.30 am—and yes, that’s early for me! I was all showered and ready to go by 7.00 am. The riders’ meeting was scheduled for 8:30 am, so after attending that, I collected my transponder and got dressed in my leathers.

Qualifying was eventful, not doing too bad warming up the scooter. I started to get to grips with the difference between my old Vespa small frame. I noticed that I was getting beaten by scooters that I should be keeping up with. The gear cables had also started to stretch, causing my gears to jump and unsettle me, so I decided to finish my qualifying session one lap early.

Pulling off, the noise testers accompanied me; they all looked tired and annoyed. If I was listening to 5,000 rpm of old Italian shopping scooters, I’d be buzzing! But the bike passed successfully at just under 104 db,

Back at the tent, my father tightened my gear cables, and we were ready to race.

Race One

Race one, the sighting lap went as usual with recent rookie racer Ben readings in front of me he was the goal! Cheers, Ben. I was unable to catch him into the first corner as I couldn’t get to good terms with my gears! Slowly losing the pack at the back with Craig Sheffield and I believe to be Dave Billington closely behind. Not losing any places but certainly not gaining any, I decided to relax and try to become more comfortable on the scooter.

Dialling it in

After the first race I explained a few issues to Paul Baker, and he got straight on to finding a solution to make my bike more comfortable and efficient. After a conversation with Paul, it was just in time to watch the Supers race as I brought along my friend Charlee. He was quite impressed with the riding from Ioannis Chitoglou (John the Greek) he’s a fantastic rider and was dominating the grid along with his team boss David Bristow on their small frame Vespas!

Race Two

I got a good start and kept with the grid for a lap or so until they all buggered off…

Now I’d had a bit more time on the scooter; I noticed the jump from second to third on the Production Lambretta was dreadful and couldn’t comprehend it. It seems that the lower gear ratios on the Indian SIL GP200 gearboxes aren’t the best and you get a massive jump between the two gears. Along with the jump, I was getting false neutrals, and the gears all kept jumping in and out all over the place, so I pulled in.

Upon pulling in, I gave the scooter to my dad to give it a try and see what he thought. Not going fast (without a helmet on), he rode it about 30 metres and back to check that all the gears were fine.

Come in 229

I was just settling down, and all of a sudden, I heard the tannoy say “Number 229 and his mechanic need to attend race control” Let’s say my heart sank! Attending the race office, me and my father and were clueless. The clerk of the course explained that testing the scooter around the pits is not necessary, and if I wanted to test it properly, they would send me out with the motorbikes! My father wasn’t too keen on me going out with the big bikes, so we said our apologies and went back to camp.

Team orders

Later that night, Team SRP (recently reunited) had a gathering, and a few drinks were involved. Obviously, I can’t drink, so I wasn’t an active participant but I was there for the doughnuts! There was music on, but not too loud, and we quietened down around 9 pm. A little later, we were all talking and security decided they weren’t happy and sent us all to bed, which we all happily did.

Back in the office

The next morning, Dave Bristow approached the boss (Paul Baker), explaining that the clerk of the course was not too keen on the resurrection of team SRP. We were told to report to the race office (this isn’t going to look good on my CV, I thought). At the race office, he was just a tad upset with the noise and asked us to be polite and not make it again at any other race meeting, which I thought was pretty fair.

More feel needed

Jason Metivier showed up the night before and gave me a talk on my front brake, explaining that it was rather spongey. Not happy with it, Jason explained how I could get a lot more comfortable with a rebleed. The next morning, we rebled the brake and noticed that the master cylinder wasn’t great and probably needed a new one, which we fitted. The whole team helped and Dave Cann gave me a master cylinder, which got me out for the two Sunday races.

Chris Middleton styles it out in the background as John Woods races by

Back to the good stuff: Race three!

Getting a pretty good start, I was battling Gary Smyth, which ended up with a few clashes throughout the race. I thought it was pretty eventful and gave me a challenge to get past him. Going up the outside getting pushed out, going on the inside getting out braked, it was amazing and definitely the highlight of my weekend! Beating Gary to the line, I felt really happy about what I had done, considering I was not at all up to terms with the scooter. I noticed throughout the race my brake was rather sharp, but it was bearable.

#3 James McNally gets ready to overtake Jer Crew on his way to another win

Stock scooters final race

The last race of the weekend for Stock scooters had arrived. I got a good start but missed a gear, which put me straight to the back again, forcing me to play catch-up. Getting past Dave Billington and then caught Craig Sheffield, but Dave Cann was absolutely flying, so I just couldn’t catch up and relaxed for the final couple of laps.

I enjoyed riding the Lambretta as much as I could. On the last lap, one of the leaders got quite close to me which was fine, I pulled the front brake lever and the front end just juddered, causing me to lose a lot of confidence, I just slowed down for the remaining time.

#18 Jon Holt goes around the outside of #16 Chris Geyton

More important things to worry about

With that said, there’s a lot to improve before Cadwell Park, with a full month of GCSEs beforehand as well. It’s going to be full on work mode.

I’d like to say a big thank you to SRP for giving me a scooter to ride this season and just being a great bunch of blokes in general. See you all at Cadwell Park for the third round of BSSO.

#229 George Fielder

Images: Lee Hollick, Paul Naylor and George

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