Last time out we finished with a destroyed bike and beaten up rider but this weekend we finally left Oulton Park with a smile on our faces, the bikes were all intact and so too were all the riders. Dean fired the bike off the grid in race 2 to elevate him straight into 16th position from 19th by turn 1, after that he set his personal best time and battled with James Haydon on the Kawasaki to just miss out on getting the championship point he deserved.

Phil Bevan in the superstock 1000 battled hard after a difficult qualifying sessionto get up 8 places but outside of the points.

 

 

 

 

Richard Cooper took the reigns of the R1 cup machine and finished in his qualifying position of 6th after a hard fought battle between Kennedy and Sam Warran. Solid points and a firm basis to carry on into the second half of the series. Richard will miss the next meeting at Knockhill due to commitments with the BMW endurance team.

 

 

Sam Middlemas had his debut in bsb onboard the co-ordit liveried Yamaha R6. Unfortunately a technical fault ended his race and had to park up at Hall bend.

IXON, product sponsor of the Co-ordit racing bsb team will be holding a trackday at Pembrey this thursday. Phil Bevan co-ordit’s superstock rider will be organising the day as part of Phil Bevan trackdays. Team owner Pete Bradshaw will be attending the day on the Yamaha R1, so come along and say hello. Phil will continue on Friday and Saturday with his superbly run trackday experience. Go to www.philbevanracing.co.uk for more information.

The latest press release from Oulton Park can be downloaded in PDF format below

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Co-ordit owner Pete Bradshaw is featured in this months edition of bike magazine (july) Its a feature on why men go back to racing mid life without a crisis! Check out the feature its good read.

Co-ordit raced at their local circuit Mallory Park. Pete Bradshaw finished his ride on the R1 cup bike with a 14th after dropping from 12th as he found false neutral entering Edwinas and having to run on. ‘It was great to ride with the crowd at my local track commented Pete, but the lack of racing this year really played a part, I’ll leave it to Richard now to get the results the team needs.’

Dean Ellison again proved that he had the speed to match the front runners but was edged out at the start but came through from the back to claim a 14th and 2 valuable points. The second race was down to the track conditions and the ability to judge the track for grip. Well done to rutter who kept it upright and got the win.

The expectations were high and Pete  got what he wished for…. Rain and more rain. He had a habit of quite liking racing in the wet conditions but not on a track as slippery as Donington. Pete had to start from the back of the grid as the grid had been set from those who had competed in the BSB round earlier. Richard was unable to make the meeting as he was riding the bmw in america, so it was left to Pete Bradshaw the team owner to get back on a bike and take the glory at the major bike event.

Race 1: Pete got a good start and was having a great race with Shoey then stretched the gap and headed off in pursuit of Sam Bishop and Marty Nutt. Now on the back of Sam in 11th position he tried to close in as Sam had a moment existing Mcleans this increased the entry speed into coppice and without warnining the front tucked and down he went into the gravel. On his return to the garage it was all hands to the pumps to get the bike back together ready for the next race. Even Stan helped out by hosing down Pete to clean up the leathers.

Race 2: The track was still wet but seemed to be little drier than the first race so Pete decided to go for a harder setting. The first lap saw a rider fall infront of the boss at redgate, old hairpin and Mcleans so Pete decided to settle down and make sure he finished the race. With all the others dropping off he looked sure to get the top ten finish but disaster happened again on the 4th lap when Neil Garside lost the rear of his machine as he negotiated coppice, with no place to go Pete had to brake and down went the bike. Not what he had intended but a great experience.

Co-ordit 2hr duo Dave Wardle and Ian Walker held their own and have now gone second in the championship standings.

The 2hr event held at Pembrey gave another difficult call on the tyre choice as the track was wet but conditions looked as if they might improve. Dave was first out and opted for full wets to suit the current track condition. After a few laps the track started to dry and Dave signaled to Ian to change to the dunlop treaded tyre. This was the best choice and one which gave Ian the fastest lap of the race. Dave had to manage the track throughout the rest of his seasons on the wet compounds. Next race is at Snetterton which is a 3hr race.Â

Following on from the teams first win in the 6hr superbike endurance Co-ordit arrived at Donington on a high. Dean had been having loads of therapy and manipulation on the injured foot and was really up for the weekend. We had Richard Cooper on the R1cup 118 bike and Phil had had loads of tracktime on board the Stocker.

Dean was delighted that he had both bikes back available and instantly liked the feel of the the new chassis. This showed in his qualifying even though it was wet and Donington is very greasy in the wet (80+ bikes went down over the weekend). Dean had struggled to find a good wet pace but the confidence in the new chasiss put us in our highest qualifying position of 18th. Still a long way to go but now making big progress the right way despite the injury.

Race 1 Dean Finished 14th and got us 2 points
Race 2 Dean finished 15th again scoring a point.

Phil Bevan didn’t have the the best of luck this weekend, it would appear that the decision to use the stocker for the endurance race has cost Phil championship points. The gear box was hitting false neutrals and the problem of gear selection had started again in practise. We didn’t have the spare stocker completed so it was down to Phil to ride through it and get the best he could from the weekend. After having to start from pit lane he showed the race craft he has to forge his way through the pack but with the race stopped short he couldn’t get to the points positions.

Richard Cooper accepted to ride the co-ordit henderson R1cup bike at Donington. Pete Bradshaw had noticed Richard at club rounds and it was great that the team had been able to get to know Richard at Snetterton when he stood in for Dean. The Cup was to be the rerun of the cancelled Brands round so with Phil consentrating on the superstock Richard couldn’t take his position so had to start at the back of the grid. Richard soon battled through the pack to get to 9th place which was his starting position for the second race. The second race had the team shouting like crazy as he battled his way to get on the back of Coates for 3rd place. Unfortunatly he started to suffer with the clutch slipping as he powered through the revs, the pack closed him down and he had to settle for 8th place. It was a great race and one which team owner Pete Bradshaw rewarded with the offer for Richard to retain the seat for the next round at Snetterton.

Next up Snetterton which should provide the team and sponsors even more coverage as the team builds on the success.

The co-ordit bsb team finally got together with the 2hr endurance front men of Dave Wardle and Ian Walker at Snetterton. It was our first try at the 6hr event, Pete Bradshaw team owner had his first outing of the year joined by Phil Bevan with Richard Cooper standing in for the injured Dean Ellison. The idea was to get Pete Bradshaw back into the saddle and let the whole team have some fun without the pressures of the bsb championships. Thats what we thought but it turned out to be more hectic for Kev our chief mechanic and probably more costly to Phil Bevan later at Donington.

 Practise started well with Richard Cooper getting a really good feel for the endurance bike and commenting how well the bike turned and handled. Our joint pace was ahead of the competition and the team was starting to smile…. that was until Richard didn’t come round and we heard that he had gone down at the end of the revitt straight. Richard brought the bike back to the garage so apologetic with the fairings battered and a broken screen. Thankfully Richard had got away unhurt apart from his pride and set about taking the bike apart and washing it down. It was good to see the rider taking the effort to help but it was decided to take the best bits off and put them on the superstock bike that Phil Bevan rides. This was a stock engine but in hind sight was probably the best choice for the race. Kev after spending the last weeks building a new superbike now had to swap front and rear ends before morning practise and qualifying. As always Kev and the team worked like troopers and by morning we had a well prep’d stock endurance bike. The only thing missing was a quick shifter but it was only Pete moaning as he had not raced without a shifter for some years.

Dave Wardle and Ian Walker got the first podium with a great 3rd place in the 2hr endurance.

We now had to continue the success and its was down to each rider to qualify. Pete was first out and came P2 behind GBMOTO, (hey still life in the old dog). Phil and Rich came P1 in each of their heats but couldn’t manage to better the time of GBMOTO. So it was P2 for coordit in the line up.

It was decided by the team that Pete should do the honours and start the race which he did but obviously thought that Kev had fitted an automatic box as after jumping on the bike started it but forgot to put the thing in gear!! After frantic fumbling set off in 2nd gear to take the first corner in 4th place.

After the 2 hours we had settled into a comfortable flow and had gone P1 and the team was really buzzing. Then disaster, Richard came into pit lane early waving and pointing to the gear lever. He couldn’t go down the box only up. More work and asbestos fingers needed from Kev who stripped the bike clutch basket and refitted new clutch plates, Pete took the bike out but again couldn’t go down the box so back into the pits and more burn’t fingers for Kev. He quickly found that it was down to a broken retaining tab on the gear mechanism so had to strip the other R1 to get the replacement. Time had still been ticking and we had dropped to second from last. The challenge was for the riders to do their job as Kev had done more than his.

We finished 1st in the superbike class and 9th overaul so a really good start to the 6hr event.

 Hottrax organise the event and i must say that they do a great job and give riders fantastic value for money based on the tracktime. The fun is that you race against your pit board and its the whole team that gets you to the finishline so give it a go you will love it!

What a weekend…… After leaving thruxton on a high with our first point Dean and the Team couldn’t wait to get back on the track. Qualifying was again hampered by wet slippery conditions. We had a really great dry set-up but have failed to get there in the wet.

Race 1 ended with Dean having to retire due the conditions and lack of grip.

Race 2 had the sunshine on our side and Dean started to progress through the pack. On lap 13 Dean was 4 seconds behind Johnson and Mercer when we saw on the screen Crutchlow lose the front at druids. The race was red flagged which we all thought was for Cal. Unfortunately it was due to a crash involving Dean and Mercer. Dean had been on a charge to catch the 2 infront but mercer had highsided going up hilltop out of foulstons. Dean was accelerating hard in 3rd gear when he came on Steve in the track. Having split seconds to react Dean managed to avoid the rider but ended up straight into mercers R1.

The picture above tells the story and impact of the collision, Dean was unconcious for 10mins and sustained a broken bone and ligament damage to his left foot with severe bruising. He was very lucky, and the whole team wish him a speedy recovery.

The bike didn’t fair as well as Dean, the front end was ripped off and distroyed, frame, sub frame rear shock and exhaust system have all been totalled so its back to the garage for some extensive rebuilding for Kev. 

Unfortunately we will not be running the superbike at the rerun at Brands this week due tot he 7 day ruling for head injuries. Phil Bevan will be our sole rider competing in the superstocks.