Scooter Endurance – Whilton Mill 8-hour | SCOOTER RACING

BSEC Whilton Mill 8-Hour Coronation Race brought to you with the support of Northampton General Hospital A&E

The long wait since the last BSEC endurance race at Teesside in September was finally over. As the sport grows, regular entrants were joined by several new teams keen to experience the excitement and adrenaline rush of throwing classic Italian shopping bikes around (or down) a twisty track. 

Unfortunately, a lot of riders took the throwing bit literally in what proved to be seriously tricky conditions.

Us bunch of SLUKers took the overall win at Teesside last September, with the conditions also being tricky – aka wet, but to repeat that feat would be a real challenge given the calibre of opposition.

German opposition

Timo Drack’s rapid TD Customs team had travelled over from Germany again to defend their win last time out at Whilton Mill. Their TargaTwin beast was rumoured to be kicking out over 40bhp, which would prove to be both quick and a real handful on the slippery track. There’s a photo in the gallery further down with lots of broken parts of this scooter, it ended up lighter than it started for sure!

When I was following Yo Leila (the only female rider competing) the back wheel was spinning up and snaking on the straight as she tried to get the power down. Interestingly she was also the only female entrant to pick up the Man of the Meeting trophy, deservedly so as she rode superbly on the beast. Balls of steel these German girls.

Full gas

Another couple of teams crossing the water (The Irish Sea) were BSEC regulars and top lads the Tuatha De Danann Race Team who were joined by a gorgeously prepared Series 1 from the Gasworks Race Team, both teams proved to be really competitive.

Best laid plans

SLUK Racing had made some excellent winter plans to build a new frame to house our race-winning Quattrini motor to allow Sticky to retire his legendary Underdog SS90. However, the plans may have been excellent, but they didn’t turn the pile of bits into a rolling chassis in time and so we had to rely on the ever-dependable Underdog to haul our sorry arses around the track again. What an honour and a pleasure it is to ride that scooter as well.

Sticky and Sam had done a great job checking and prepping the motor again with a change of gearing for the tight, twisty circuit. A session of tinkering by the team sorted all the remaining jobs ahead of a few runs on Al’s dyno at Diablo Moto and we were ready to rock n roll.

Precision engineering

Thanks to Scooter Center for sending over a new Over Rev back plate last minute for our ignition and to Timo for delivering it for us. A swift bit of hacksaw action and it was fitted in the pits ready for Friday practice.

Keith Terry and family, with Mikey Bonett had organised a few hours of practice on the Friday afternoon which would be followed by a scooterist go-kart race (as if there wasn’t enough rubber on the track already).

I shot over to join the fun after work and joined the team getting set up alongside 40 other teams, this was going to be a busy track.

Confidence boost

Sticky took the first practice stint and then it was my turn. I had waited two years for this moment, as in practice two years ago at Whilton Mill I got the red mist, high-sided and ripped the ligaments off my shoulder, time to try to put the demons to bed. A slippery track didn’t help, but after a steady start I started to gain confidence, sadly a red flag called an end to not only my stint but the whole practice as the rider had suffered injuries requiring the ambulance to take him to hospital. No ambulance at the circuit sadly meant no more practice.

I had to make a hasty exit myself as I had to shoot down to London for a gig…. more rock ‘n roll!

The scooterist kart Grand Prix was fun by all accounts with plenty of sliding around and splashing through the puddles adding more rubber to an already treacherous track. In fact, a couple of spins and collisions meant a few more injuries and sadly one rider unable to race the next day.

Saturday morning and after a few hours kip I arrived at the sun-soaked, tropical oasis of Whilton Mill, who am I trying to kid? It was a dreary grey Northamptonshire sky that started dropping wet stuff on us during the rider briefing and continued to do so on and off all day. The photos don’t really convey just how wet this meeting was.

What a clown

30 minutes of qualifying was a lottery, as a few got fast laps in before it became too wet, which meant the grid had a few surprises, with the Rushden Lambretta Club’s Lui CP135 flying around to grab 3rd on the grid. Unfortunately, Iggy dropped the scooter on his second lap, on what was a dry-looking corner. That messed our qualifying up because the rain started to fall again. Sam put in a few damp laps to keep us in contention on the grid. To be fair to Iggy, about 10 riders came off on the same corner in that session (it really was treacherous), however, an off is an off so he still had to wear the clown suit!

Race time

It was finally race time, in front of the cameras streaming live on YouTube, (check out the whole 8 hours if you missed it). With suitably tongue-in-cheek commentary from Steve Deeks and scooterist Dan Mears keeping the masses entertained.

If you’ve never experienced a BSEC Le Mans start it’s a joy to behold, the majority of the field being young at heart, 50+-year-old ‘athletes’, bounding like gazelles across the track and mounting their steeds before flying off down the track, or something along those lines anyway.

Keith had a new flag to start the race with, to celebrate some fella getting a new hat down in London Town that afternoon. The clubhouse was showing all of the pomp and circumstance of the Coronation so you didn’t have to miss anything, actually King Charles and Queen Camilla were seen watching the action at one point.

Team Foster 58 with a couple of experienced pit bike lads riding alongside BSSO rider Phil Hallam started from pole, but unfortunately stalled during the Le Mans start dropping them down the field. From the flag, John the Greek launched the monster Hornet Racing small frame Vespa and led the field.

Squadra Corse Swarb 96

It was great to see (last year’s stand-in SLUK rider) Scott Swarbrick out on track, he had created a new team (#96) with his two sons (both had never raced or done much riding on a Lambretta before). They proved to be strong contenders, Scott had a superb battle with John the Greek eventually getting past and setting what proved to be the fastest lap of the day at 1:06. Then the precipitation started falling, catching Scott out, sliding off on a corner, letting John back through to set a blistering pace maintaining the lead.

Team effort

Sticky took SLUK Racing’s first hour-long stint and did superbly well to battle up from 12th on the grid to 3rd on track. A great pit stop by our superb pit crew of Tracy Round on pit board duties, Steve Bone doing the pit running, with Al Terry and Dan Jones refuelling. This allowed clown Iggy to quickly get out and immediately get up to speed, riding well he worked us up to second overall.

Another great pit stop and out I went for my first proper race session at Whilton on a very slippery track in wet conditions. I thankfully managed to battle the demons and started to find a mojo I never knew I had, maintaining second place until a nasty off led to a red flag at the end of my stint, sadly another ambulance trip and broken collarbone for the rider involved. The race was paused for about 8 minutes, so from the restart I dived in for a rider change, we slipped back to third whilst in the pits.

Moist

The conditions all race varied between, wet, puddles, drying line, drizzle, to full wet again. With the added challenges of yellow flags and fallen scooters and riders littered around the track. It was proving hard to find and maintain a decent pace, coupled with the number of scooters of varying speeds on track meant it was hard to get into a rhythm.

Young Sam took control and set off at a good pace in the changeable conditions holding our 3rd place on track, unfortunately with only a lap or so to go in his stint he dropped the scooter as the rain fell again – snapping a lever. Thankfully he was okay, but by the time he’d got the scooter back into the pits and our trusty pit crew had sorted the lever and refuelled we’d lost about 7 laps pushing us back to 6th place overall.

It’s not my circus

I’ve never seen Iggy move so fast, whilst the lever was fixed he’d stripped off the clown suit and thrust it into Sam’s hands, teamwork at its finest.

Dave Bristow’s Hornet Racing continued to pull away at the front, despite a number of offs from all three riders. It’s incredible to think they could sustain a lead despite a total of 14 offs, clearly they’ve built an armour-plated rocket ship and rode it superbly in-between crashing).

The conditions meant a lot of teams slipped off and slipped down the leader board, Foster 58 had a few issues and ultimately had to retire after a nasty coming together with those Sunday Sport SC scamps on their United Colours of Bemberton Lui. Thankfully both riders were okay.

Team TASS Racing, Timo’s Targa and JB Tuning’s Dukes of Essex teams were all riding well and pushing us SLUKers and Team Vespa in the Race Class battle, with some great riding throughout the whole race.

Sticky set off for our 5th stint and again rode like the Speed Demon that he is, briefly pulling us up to 4th before our next pit stop dropped us back to 5th.

#200 Rushden Lambretta B Team

The full results of all classes are below. A special mention though for the other Rushden Lambretta Club team on their beautifully prepped SuperLui RB200 which deservedly picked up the best-prepped machine and first in Club Class on its first outing.

Friendly rivalry

This was another fantastic event and huge credit and thanks to Keith Terry and the BSEC team for organising another cracker. The camaraderie around the pits is brilliant to see, one example being the DC SERT #8 team found they had a totally kaput big end on their large frame Vespa engine, thankfully Martin MacGowan had a spare, even though he was racing a small frame. They worked through the night to be ready for the race.

Cheap as chips

This is probably the cheapest form of motorsport in the country and is a chance to get a group of mates to contribute, cobbling a scooter together to get out on track for 8 hours of racing. It doesn’t have to be a full-race prepared fire-breathing beast to be competitive. Sticky’s superb Quattrini motor is a testament to that, all off-the-shelf parts and approximately 24bhp. There were also a couple of road-going, kitted PX200s racing, with lights taped up, having a great time in their own on-track battles.

With riders coming from Germany, France, Greece, Ireland & all over the UK it’s a truly international affair.

If you fancy having a go then have a look at the BSEC Facebook page where you’ll find loads of help and advice

Free of the clown suit Iggy mastered the conditions to maintain our track position, then the 7th hour was back to me, it was hard work finding a flow as you caught up with other riders at each corner, the standard of riding has really improved amongst the regular teams over the years which made for great battles all around the track.

Mojo restored

After picking my way through those battles I finally found a bit of clearer track and managed to string a few quick laps together, each lap I gained more confidence with the track conditions culminating in setting our fastest lap at 1:09.1, don’t ask me how?! I finally laid those demons from two years ago to rest.

Unfortunately, a coming together between the flying Team Vespa SS90 and the Valley SC #207 resulted in another red flag and sadly another rider taken to hospital with a shoulder injury. We were held on track and after a short pause we got going again, luckily I was at the front of the pack so with clear track and almost bald rear tyre I could put in a few more quick laps before our final pit stop as the rain started falling again.

Check out the gallery above for more images…

Out went Sam, flying the SLUK flag and fluttering the coattails of the clown suit, riding really well on the now-wet track for our final hour. Bringing us home to an excellent 2nd in Race Class and 5th overall.

John the Greek’s helmet cam

Bin it or win it, or in this case both (John had 8 crashes at Whilton). Here’s a rider’s eye view video from inside the helmet of John the Greek. Conditions were terrible, wet track, drying track and slippery.

210-mile race

The Overall win and Pro Race Class winners were the very impressive Team Hornet Racing with 350 laps completed, followed home by Team DSC with 342 laps, third home was Team Vespa with 339 laps, taking first place in Race Class, fourth overall was Team Swarbrick with 337 laps closely followed by us bunch of SLUKers also with 337 laps.

350 laps of Whilton Mill’s 960m track is 336,000 metres. To put that into context that’s around 210 miles ridden at race pace, in the wet. That’s not including practice on Friday, or qualifying on Saturday morning.

Get well soon

The negative to this meeting was the challenging and changing conditions which resulted in a record number of crashes during the race, with the final count being 74 offs and 10 people having to visit A&E. Thankfully none of those were too serious, however, we send everyone our best wishes and hope you heal quickly. Don’t forget we’ve got to do it all again at Teesside in September!

A personal thank you to the SLUK Racing family for another awesome prepped and crewed scooter and for allowing me the time to bury those Whilton Mill demons.

Ride safe.

Words: Shaun #71

Images: Iggy and Shaun

Video: John the Greek

You can find Lee Hollick’s images here, although a computer issue means he’s currently a bit behind schedule., hence why we’ve used our own pictures (most of which were taken in the very few dry spells).