LEE EASTELL'S BLOG...

UPDATED 21/07/2010

Swan Combi Snetterton Round 4

Saturday

Back on home soil this was a race Team Lee-FM were really looking forward to a track I now very well and a chance to prove myself. Saturday started off quite disappointing when we were told our 20 minute Free practice had been moved to Saturday evening and our Qualifying was to be cancelled and we were to start the first race from championship positions meaning we were starting 9th.

Free Practice 1

Out we went on a mission to put in some quick laps having tagged on to the back of Championship leader John Holden I thought we would see for how long we could hold on to him
Straight into the 1.18 about half a second off my personal best things were feeling pretty good and me and shelly were really working together well. Having stayed with John for 6 Laps we decided to come into the pits to see where we were. It appeared we were Quickest for the first few laps and had dropped to 3rd by the time we pitted. As we watched the monitor we were dropping down the order as the track was just getting quicker so we decided to get back out there but it was to late the rain started. So we ended up 8th quickest.

Sunday

Sidecars were the first free practice so after a good check over on the Saturday evening we were ready to go

Free Practice 2
 
This was a 8 minute session so out we went and were straight back on the pace to make the most of our track time completing 6 laps we came in very happy going a bit quicker than Saturday and ending up 7th quickest.

Race 1

Frustratingly this race was cancelled due to a hold up with the program and with TV schedules for the British Superbikes taking priority this could not be avoided so a long day ahead waiting for the second race at 5.50.

 Race 2

With the sidecar crews not being able to do race one we were all out to put a good show on for the spectators/TV especially Team Lee-fm.
We were now starting from 7th row 4 on the right, of we went with a good start but the first corner was busy so overtaking was difficult wanting to make up places as soon as we could we pushed to keep with Bennett/Perry and Bryan/Partridge lap 1 we made a move on Bennett into russels but didn’t quite make it past so the next opportunity was good drive out of richies onto the back straight we drafted Bennett and passed before the Esses where Bennett had another go but we had the line covered next mission was to pass Bryan at the first opportunity I knew we were very strong through sears so this was the place to catch him and then go for the pass at Riches so I stuffed it up the inside to passed and off we went head down and full concentration to hold these two behind me as well as Wallis and Wareham who were on the back of this 4 way battle for 5th position Lap 5 coming out of corum absolutely on the Knocker all I could see was a big cloud of dust some one had gone off but we couldn’t see ahead so initially backing of to realise I really need to keep on the power if not these people were going to pass me, so back on the power and through the dust hoping there was no debrie outfit or passenger in the track but it was safe. Realising it was Kimberly/Bell gutted for them but up a place for us so we were now 4th and having to do all we could to keep the three behind with the pit board showing +0.1 the pressure was still on this being the case for the next 7Laps coming over the line tacking 4th from Bennett only .3 of a second behind and 1st place in the cup this was one of my hardest races but so rewarding for a long time.

Summary

With an awesome race at the end this made up for all the disappointment, we got excellent TV coverage a personal best lap of 117.3 the sidecar was faultless all in all a good weekend. I would like to thank my family for their support and shelly for a cracking weekend also The Motorcycle Clothing Shop for their continued support.
With Anglesey next weekend for the next round of the British Championship I can see the week ahead being busy.

To Keep up to date with Team Lee-FM go to Lee’s Blog at www.motorcycle-clothing.co.uk/

UPDATED 05/07/2010

Mallory Park Swan Combi & British F2 Championship Rounds 3

Test
 
A couple of weeks prior to the race me a Shellie went testing at Mallory to run a new engine in and have a play with the chassis setup.
We ran through some steering geometry changes and also suspension changes which proved to be quite useful. The outfit now turns in a lot sharper a the handling seems to suit me better than before I also modified the seat to get me sitting in the outfit lower this was a lot more comfortable. The engine feels a lot more responsive than the other so this was a very worth while test.

Saturday Warm up

Well with the weather being 28degrees and sunny warm up was the word we decided to keep the laps limited and save ourselves for qualifying and also the tyres which are getting to the end of there life (any body wishing to help fund our next set of tyres please get in touch you get your name on the outfit and maybe on TV to).
We completed 7laps got ourselves settled in and achieved a time of 59.1 a personal best time by 1 sec so a good start.

Qualifying

The temperature was up a couple of more degrees so time to put the sweaty leathers on and have another go. Having completed 4 laps I was struggling with gear change problems so in the pit lane to check out what the problem was. Having had a look there was no obvious reason so had a chat with Shellie to see what she thought and she had recognised the problem from the start, its was me being to eager she could feel that I was trying to hard which was causing not only gear change problems but also making it difficult for her. Out for another go we completed a couple of gentle laps then wound up the wick for a couple of flyers and back into the pit lane to see what we had managed a time of 58.217 which put us 15th overall and 4th in class.

Sunday Race 1

What awesome weather 3o degrees and sunny the plan was to push hard for the first few laps and then settle to a good pace as this was going to be a good hard race in these temperatures. We got a superb start again making up a couple of places into the first corner then entering Edwina’s look to be another opportunity to gain more places but then a couple of outfits being bell and Wallis came together and luckily we escaped getting involved in that one then coming out of the hairpin Atkinson come across the front of us leaving us no where to go so we made contact and both ended against the barrier. We got going again but by this time we were last so a lot of work we had on our hands to get back up with the pack riding my absolute nuts of we managed to catch some outfits and pass them and ended up a respectable 14th and with a best time of 57.9 so not a bad result after all.

Race 2

Race two was cancelled due to tarmac breaking up on circuit.

Summary  

A bit of a frustrating weekend after not doing race two, I also have to remind myself that I am racing against the best in Europe and 4th in cup championship and 10th overall in the swan combi championship is not bad in our first year at this level. The cancelled race will now be run at Snetterton at the next round on the 17th/18th July again supporting the British Superbikes.

UPDATED 05/06/2010

British F2 Championship
Rounds 3 & 4 Cadwell Park

Saturday

This was just a set up day and to get Technical Inspected with this all done we were eager and ready to go.

Sunday Warm up

We were given 10 Minutes warm up which we used to familiarise ourselves with the circuit as again there had been a lot of resurfacing work done and I hadn’t raced hear for a while we completed about 8 laps enough to check it out ready for qualifying.

Qualifying
 .
Having gone out and done a couple of warm up laps we decided to go for it and get some quick laps in, our 4th lap was our quickest setting a 1.46.77 which is my personal best good enough to put us 7th quickest in class and 22nd overall out of 29 after this lap we struggled to get a clear track but was pleased with this as we both felt there was plenty more time to come.

Race 1

Getting a storming start we made up 4 places by the first corner and another by lap 2 with Tony Thirkell & Tony baker in our sights this was my aim to chase them down by lap 6 we had made another position and was now close on Dave Atkinson’s tail which we passed and the red flag came out so race was stopped and a result was called we had finished 13th overall and 4th in class Gary Bryans passenger had unfortunately fell out and Gary hadn’t noticed so attempted coppice flat out and ended on the grass at high speed his passenger suffered a broken wrist and Gary a dislocated wrist. Another good race and another personal best of 1.44.16 so 2.5 seconds gained.

Race 2

Yet another good start making up a couple of places settled down and slowly picking our way through the field made it up to 15th overall and 5th in class gained another second in time which we were very pleased with gaining more points in the cup championship keeping us in 3rd position and the best of the newcomers and 14th in the super F2 what more could we ask for.

This Month

Training to compete in Norfolk 50 Mile cycle race 6th June

Mallory Park Testing 16th June (Testing new engine and some chassis set-up changes)

Mallory Park Rounds 5&6 Swan Combi 26/27th June also Rounds 5 & 6 Yokohama British F2 Championship.

Final word

Good Luck to all competing at the Isle Of Man TT

UPDATED 22/04/2010

Swan Combi F2 Sidecar Challenge Rounds 3 / 4 & Yokohama ACU British F2 Championship Rounds 1/2Thruxton April 17th & 18th

Race Report

Friday evening once all set up it was time to walk the circuit as last time I raced at Thruxton was 1990 as a Passenger .I had forgotten how fast and wide the circuit was as well as being quite bumpy. So I really had a bit of a challenge on my hands to get to grips with the Circuit.

Saturday

We were given 20 minutes Free Practice Saturday so out we went to learn the circuit now viewing the circuit from 2 feet above rather than 6 feet, I found that all the very fast corners had blind exits and finding breaking points were quite difficult to find, But realising after a while there were only two places where you needed to brake. Having completed about 7 laps we came into the pits for a chat. It appeared we were struggling a bit and needed to sort a few bits out so out we went again. Having completed another 3 laps the Session was over, now we had to wait to see what our times were like. We were 1.4 seconds outside the 110% Qualifying time so we had some serious time to find.

Qualifying 

Between Free practice and Qualifying I went and had a chat with Matt Dix a good technical rider with a lot more knowledge of this circuit than me. He pointed out the lines to take and where to brake to start with. So having got this in my head off we went for qualifying. Having completed a couple of laps I started to find my feet so now it was time to put some quick laps together which felt quite good and started to feel the grin factor of this place. Lap7 we were hit at the rear coming into the complex and looking to my right I recognised the outfit to be Matt Dix and Shaun Parker with Shaun doing a head over heels at quite a speed. Having carried on with the lap 3 corners, the red flags went up so that was qualifying finished. Eagerly waiting for the time sheet me and Shellie were hoping we had done a good enough time to qualify and yes we had found 6 seconds enough to put us 13th out of 25 this cheered us up ready for the race. We found out that sadly Shaun had broken his ankle so they were not going to be competing tomorrow.

Sunday

 Race 1
Now lined up on the grid in 12th position as Matt Shaun were not competing we got a very good start and completed the first lap in 8th position it got pretty busy going into Campbell corner and we lost a couple of places we were now left having a very good fight with the Pearce brothers and on lap 8 they finally passed us so we finished 11th overall and 5th in class gaining another 2 seconds from our qualifying lap so we were still improving and learning every lap.

Race 2 

Summary

Yet another very rewarding weekend we now have Cadwell park to look forward to in two weeks time for rounds 3 & 4 of the Yokohama / ACU British F2 Sidecar Championship

UPDATED 9/04/2010

Swan Combi F2 Sidecar Challenge Brands Hatch 3rd-5th April

Race Report

Having Raced at Snetterton the previous week mainly as a shakedown for the outfit and to clear the cobwebs out of me. Receiving a Wild Card for this race was a big surprise and also very exciting. Shelly Smithies who passengered for us at snetterton was to be on again for Brands, this was good news. The four days inbetween were very busy for the whole team in order to make it to this race in good shape.

Saturday

  First task was to have the outfit technical inspection and clothing checked which we passed with flying colours, then the riders’ briefing to brief us on the British Super bike system/ rules as we were racing under similar rules.

Free Practice

Now we are all set to go and complete our free practice which was a 20-minute session. I haven’t ridden here for 4 years and Shellie hasn’t ever passengered a F2 round here either so it this was to be a steep learning curve for us both.
We gave it a couple of gentle laps to bed in the new Rear and Chair tyres and to check out the circuit as a lot of resurfacing had been done over the winter. We started to build up speed but were suffering a big problem with under steer at Clearways and Druids and also gear change coming on to the straight, so we came in and had a chat to see what we thought we could do to cure it, then of for another run. Having completed 12 laps we put in a time of 55.529 only good enough to put us in 19th out of 22.

Qualifying

Between Qualifying and practice we fitted a New front Tyre hoping this was going to cure the under steer at Clearways and Druids and also adjusted the gear lever to hopefully help the gear change problem.
We went out and completed 10 laps to see if we had sorted the issues trying quite a few different things to find the best. We then came in and had a chat as we still were suffering under steer and gear change problems. Went out to put some quick laps in and managed to gain 1.3 seconds on this morning’s time but still only quick enough to qualify 20th with a time of 54.194. We were still very pleased with this, as we knew we were going to struggle a bit to start with.

Sunday Race 1

Having still suffered handling problems in qualifying we started to look at the set up of the outfit. We checked the chair toe as this does effect the handling certainly on corners like Clearways we found we had 13mm Toe in so there was our first problem, this we reduced to 7mm. We also adjusted the gear lever some more as this was still an issue. Ready to race we decided we would just try to pick our way through the field and learn if our adjustments had worked for the better. We fought our way up to 16th and were having a good battle with Lumley / Skinner and realising they were having ill handling problems, just waited for the opportunities to pass and finish 15th and gained another couple of tenths with a 54.035 and also a point so the team are all happy as progress was being made.

Monday Warm up

Having done most of the outfit prep Sunday night I had a chance to sleep on what had happened over the last couple of days and gather some new thoughts. Monday morning was spent getting me more comfortable in the outfit as I have now had a good amount of time in it and now know what I want. I got myself lower in the seat making it feel a lot more comfortable and spent a lot of time setting up the gear and brake lever positions. Feeling really good now I couldn’t wait to get back out on track.

We went out and completed only 6 laps but these felt like the best laps of the weekend, I now had a good feel of what the outfit is doing and me and Shellie were working really well together with the outfit and put a time of 53.824 in so another 2 tenths found and we are now 9th quickest . 3rd quickest in the middle sector and 5mph down on the start finish line. The next problem we had was that now I was more comfortable I found I was having to brake earlier than I would have expected and earlier than many of the others as this I also noticed in the first race.

Monday Race2

Suffering braking problems in warm up we realised the brake pads in the front and rear were too hard a compound and were giving no bite, so purchased some carbon metallic for the 2nd race using the 2 warm up laps to bed in the brakes was ample. On the grid in 15th place we were ready to go. With lots more confidence in everything we were hoping to fight our way into the top 10. With a excellent start we had made up a good 5 places by the first corner but soon the race became action packed with a bit of paint swapping ahead. We worked hard to keep out of trouble and a couple of spinners too. On lap 4 there was a couple off at Paddock bend and parked up dangerously, the safety car came out, this was out for 6 laps so we all bunched up waiting for the race to start again. The green flag dropped and we were off, we were in 13th place but were much quicker than the 3 right in front. So slip streaming them through clearways we were set to pass when suddenly the 10th place Atkinson/Neave suddenly stopped mid corner and with nowhere to go, hit the back of Sanderson/Sanderson’s outfit putting them in the gravel and the race had to be stopped half a lap later, so a very frustrating race but we finished 10 so a good result and 6 more points.

Sum Up

An excellent weekend, better weather than expected. We learnt a lot and Shellie has now joined the team for the full season, so lots of good news.

We would like to thank The Motorcycle Clothing Centre for their continued support

Next round Thruxton 17th-18th April. First of the British F2 Championship and supporting the BSB race again.

UPDATED 30/03/2010

Just a brief results after the weekend will extend when more time.

Testing friday 4 sesions to blow out the cobwebs and for shelly to get to know my style of riding

Saturday Qualifying
 The sky opened 5 minutes before we were due on track so a very quick tyre change by the team and we made it out on track with 6 minutes left of the session. With me absolutly loving the wet conditions we completed 4 laps and came in the pit lane for a chat for me to tell shelly thats the quickest we were going to go so might as well leave it at that.
went and got result sheet to find out we are on pole by 3 Seconds in class  and second overall behind world class rider Andy peach.

Saturday  Race 1 had a spin when leading so dnf

Sunday Race1 started from back of grid and took it gentle for a few laps as realised I was over riding  settled down and then picked up the pace to finish a good 4th

Sunday race 2 was much more focused again had a realy good race with the F1,s and won the F2 race.

Have got a Wild card to do the British Superbike support race at brands at the weekend so over the moon and cant wait.

Will do a full update when we get back from that.

SNETTERTON MARCH 2010.

UPDATED 16/03/2010

Im currently looking for a new passenger. If you are interested or would like more information call 01953 606922.

UPDATED 03/03/2010

Over the last 4 months my evenings have been occupied by a full strip of the outfit and rebuild, The work I have carried out on the outfit in preparation for the season ahead entails every nut and bolt to be removed and  a good inspection off every part, The chassis gets a major clean then polished one main reason for this is to check there are no cracks as these chassis do crack due to the stresses and strain of being raced around the Isle of Man. I strip the brakes and Reseal Calipers and Master cylinders. Most nuts and bolts are replaced bearings cleaned checked and replaced if worn.Suspension overhauled by Maxton, Engines Refreshed i have three engines in total so always 2 spare if the unfortunate happens.My next job is to strip and prepare the bodywork ready for respray then I am ready to go. I will be competing at my local circuit Snetterton on the 27 & 28th of March at a club round this race weekend will be used for a shakedown in preparation for the British Championship.

The British Formula 2 Championship this year will be competed over 6 Round 3 of which will support the British superbikes the venues are shown below
April 17/18                                     Thruxton                BSB
May 2/3                                         Cadwell                 Derby Phoenix
June 26/27                                     Mallory                  BSB
July 24/25                                      Anglesey               Wirral 100
Sept 4                                           Castle Combe         New Era
October 2/3                                   Cadwell Park           New Era

UPDATED 05/01/2010

A little about me and my racing

I started racing as a passenger at the age of 16, from that first race I was hooked!!
I now own my own sidecar that I bought about three months ago, and I have done one race weekend which I used as testing and was not going to try to race the other outfits!! This obviously didn’t happen, I couldn’t help myself, I just couldn’t hold back.
I am now looking for a permanent passenger and a sponsor or two. I am going to do the British f2 championship which starts in April and has six-race weekends, possibly running as support races with the British Super Bikes.

Lydden Hill

The team travelled to the circuit close to Dover on the Friday to get us set up and organised for the weekend. For these races I had a stand-in passenger; Lee Watson, a regular competitor with the British f2 Championship.
Saturday morning the weather was fine and first port of call was the scrutineering bay to get the outfit checked, it’s all good and ready to go. Qualifying was our first event, this was a 10-minute session so not much time to settle into the new outfit and get a quick lap in. Feeling comfortable with the outfit from the outset we were quickly up to speed, a time of 46.7s was set quick enough to qualify 4th with former world champion Tim Reeves on pole.
A good check over the outfit and fuelled for the first race our plan was to just get some mileage under our belt with the outfit. Lined up on the grid ready to go it was time to find out the best way to get off the line. We had a reasonable start losing one place from the outfit of Lummley. Once settled down, we gained back our 4th position and gained on Dix towards the end of the race. We finished a good 4th with our aim for 3rd in the next race.
Race 2 we had a much better start and were with Dix from the outset. When coming over the Start/Finish line seeing the last lap flag I knew I had to make a move on Dix wherever I could. Coming into the only left hander on circuit I knew I was much quicker through this last section, so this was where I made the move at the Hairpin but we touched and I spun off, so a DNF. We weren't disappointed as we felt for the first day on the outfit this was a very good achievement and getting the 3rd quickest time of the race was also pleasing.
 
Sunday the weather was horrible; strong winds, heavy down pours, a really grotty day and we didn’t start racing till the afternoon. We had such an enjoyable day yesterday that we couldn’t wait to get back on the track even though the conditions were far from ideal, there was so much mist over the track you could barely see in front of your own nose, and there was a lot of standing water even though it had stopped raining,
We began the race but after four laps decided that the tyres we had put on were not going to keep us on the track, and out of the tyre wall. We only had intermediates on and really needed wets. We were a little disappointed but soon cheered up when we realised our lap times were still good enough to get us into the burn up and we would get to race against some of the best sidecar teams in England, we couldn’t wait!

 The Sidecar Burn Up

 This is the race for the 22 quickest sidecars of all classes (F1 F2 & Old-timers) over the weekend. This was the race I was really excited about, anything can happen and anyone can win, certainly with the conditions we had.
We qualified 7th yet another great achievement for the weekend. Some were on slicks some were on intermediates and others on wets, there was probably a couple of laps during the race for each choice. We got of to an excellent start with the first 7 outfits in close pursuit, first corner being very interesting and we all managed to slide around and keep it on the black stuff. This 7-way battle going on for 3 laps until the first 3 started to pull away, we were having a good battle with the F1 of Peachy and F2 of Hegerty holding on to a great 6th position. Peachy was pulling away on the straights and we were gaining on the brakes and twisty bits. Eventually we decided to try out braking peachy into the sharp left-hander where we both left the braking very late. With a touch going into the corner we veered onto the grass, from there on I was a passenger, so a DNF. This was not to put a dampener on the weekend though, as we climbed over the barrier still grinning from ear to ear, we had some great battles and racing over the weekend.