Gambalunga

DAYTONATASTIC!

Gyles Fairclough

This year we are entering a team to race a Guzzi Daytona in the ThunderbikeUK series. Mentioning this to anyone but Guzzi fans usually results in a torrent of abuse. It seems quite a rare event to race a Guzzi so I thought club members might like to hear about it...
This is the first instalment in what I hope will be a regular feature in the club magazine through 2007.

The ThunderbikeUK series is run by Bemsee, throws lots of different machines together and imposes a power to weight restriction to promote closer racing. The maximum power to weight ratio allowed is 1 SAE horsepower per 4 lbs, or 1.814kg. The engine configuration of your machine determines a capacity limit and in some cases there are restrictions based on a machine's vintage. I won't bore potential readers by trawling through each regulation but anyone interested can find the breakdown on www.thunderbikeuk.com; the website is undergoing a revamp at present.

The old guzzler can run unlimited displacement as an air-cooled twin. Unfortunately lack of funds means we can't really take advantage of this rule by running a 1225cc Raceco kit, so she'll be a stock 992cc all season. To give an idea of competitor machinery, we'll be up against the likes of the Ducati 748 and Honda RC30. The Duke and RC30 are allowed to compete for the first time this year. When I told my local mechanic (who used to spanner for the late great Steve Hislop) we'd be racing against RC30s he was in pleats of laughter. Once he'd composed himself, changed from beetroot to normal skin tones and popped his ribs back in situ I tried to justify why we were racing the Daytona. I obviously didn't put forward a great argument as yet more thunderous laughter and many expletives ensued. Bastard. Some people just don't get it.

The 2006 Thunderbike season was won by a Suzuki SV650 (and a rider); looking at the results table these bikes seem really competitive and are regularly bored to 700cc to take full advantage of their displacement limit. Another potent contender in 2006 was the Kawasaki ZXR400. Other Japanese machinery, a Buell, Laverda and some Dukes made up the grid in 2006, so basically a real mix.

Many teams throw literally tens of thousands of pounds into their bikes. To put this into perspective, a team competed last year with a very trick Buell piloted by Phil Read Jnr. In 2007 the same team lost factory backing so won't be competing! This year Phil Read Jnr will ride for Alto performance running, from what I can gather is a very well sorted Laverda 750S. We are somewhere at the other end of the spectrum, or perhaps just dangling off it. We have one bike so if I crash/she blows up and we can't fix her we are out. But, let's not concentrate on the negatives. We also have no money and no real idea how to fix her in the event of a small to medium scale disaster. At the minute we don't even have a spare set of Marchesinis to run wets on. We are the definition of budget racing. Violins at the ready folks...

Here are the provisional race dates:
March 10th & 11th		Brands Hatch
March 24th & 25th		Lydden Hill
April 14th & 15th		Snetterton
April 28th & 29th		Cadwell
May 12th & 13th		Brands Hatch
May 26th & 27th		Pembrey
July 7th & 8th		Snetterton
August 11th & 12th		Cadwell
September 15th & 16th		Snetterton
September 29th & 30th		Brands Hatch

Read the full detailed article in the Gambalunga February/March 2007 issue.