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Category: Superbikes
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John McGuinness started the race for the Honda TT Legends and the first few hours saw him, Simon Andrews and Michael Dunlop put in an impressive performance that took them from 28th to third place.
As evening fell on the Magny Cours circuit in France, light rain caused a few incidents for other teams, but the Honda TT Legends settled into a steady fourth place, where they remained through the night until daybreak.
Just after 8am, Dunlop made an unexpected pit stop and the Honda TT Legends crew set to work, eventually identifying and fixing a problem with the heat exchanger. McGuinness re-joined the race in 13th place but unfortunately the irreparable damage to the engine had already been done and it subsequently overheated. He was forced to dismount and push the bike back to the pits on the first lap and the team retired from the race.
The EWC will continue with the Suzuka 8-hour in Japan on 28 July.
Neil Tuxworth This is a very disappointing end for the team after all the hard work and effort everyone has put in. It’s unfortunate but we had a problem with the heat exchanger which caused the engine to overheat and fail towards the end of the race. It’s our first incomplete event in seven races and our first ever retirement from a 24 hour race, but it happens to everyone at some point and the main thing is that everyone is ok. We haven’t had any injuries to anybody and although there was some leakage from the bike, it doesn’t look like it caused problems to anybody else as the safety car came out very quickly. Like I say, very disappointing for everyone but we have to move on and look forward to the road races coming up in the next few months. John McGuinness We’re just gutted not to have finished. The lads have done so much work on the bike – new electronics, traction control – all sorts of bits and pieces that they’ve spent hundreds if not thousands of hours on. We’ve had a fantastic run of results up to now with seven races completed and we were looking good in the race. We were top five again and chipping away, but unfortunately we had a problem 18 hours in. I’m just speechless really, just gutted, but we’ll try and take the positives out of it. We were running a lot closer to some of our rivals so we can take that to the next round.
Simon Andrews It had gone well up until that point. I did a good few stints at the beginning to get us up to fourth and I was happy enough with that. It’s a shame what’s happened for everyone because the guys have worked so hard. The chassis was working well and we had the quickest bike out there at some points, so it just would have been nice to reward everyone with a podium. We were third at one stage so to go from that position to coming away with no points at all is not fun, but that’s endurance racing. We can be happy with the hard work we’ve put in and the way we’ve worked together and we’ll look forward to the next round.
Michael Dunlop It’s so disappointing for all the lads after all the hard work they’ve done. I really feel for them because it’s not just about us riders, it’s a massive team effort and they put so much into it. I just got my head down and got on with it, going with the flow really. It was going well up until that point, but we’ll go back and take a look at the bike and come back bigger and stronger next time.
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After a couple of false starts, mainly due to the weather, our events at Donington Park have really started to pick up in recent months and are looking as though they will once again become a staple part of our programme for many years to come.
The winter restoration show at the end of December was a great success with 2,000 plus visitors full of Christmas cheer poured through the gate to see around 70 trade and autojumble stands plus an excellent selection of classic cars and bikes on display.
The Japanese and Modern Classic Motorcycle Event in February this year was a major success after the snow halted proceedings on the Sunday in 2012 .
The building was full to capacity of stalls, club displays and private entries with 3,000 happy visitors attending from all points on the compass. Bike of the show and winner of £100 was Dave Yates with his 1980 Yamaha LC, and winner of best club display and a £100 cheque was The UK two Stroke Club. Traditionally the season opener this event will now have a twin event at the end of the season with a new one day Classic Japanese event being launched on Sunday 15th September at Donington Park. This replaces the car and bike autojumble originally announced for Sunday 22nd September 2013.
This coming weekend, Sunday 24th February, we will be back at Donington for a general classic car and bike autojumble, at the time of writing the hall is over two thirds full and with indoor stalls at just £25 (pre paid), not to mention the BOGOF offer on stalls for autojumblers, Donington represents a perfect opportunity for enthusiasts to clear their garages and get unwanted parts back into circulation.
We are so confident that this event will prove to be equally as successful as the Classic Japanese bike show we will be doing a re run on Sunday 14th April, again on a BOGOF basis on indoor stalls. At both the February and April events there will be a dedicated classic car and bike park right next to the exhibition hall with adult admission being £5 instead of the normal £6.50 so come in your classic, save money and you can even put a sale sign on your vehicle too!
We will be running Donington on exactly the same format at the end of the year on Sunday 3rd November and Sunday 29th December so put these dates in your diary. Donington Park is ideally located right next to East Midlands airport just two miles along the A453 at J23a and J24 of the M1 motorway right in the centre of the country.
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Held each year in a different place and organised by a different member clubs of the FH-DCE, however it has been quite a few years since we last saw this event in the UK.
The last time was in 1989, @ Longmarston Raceway, Warwickshire and prior to that 1984, Brighton and 1979, Brands Hatch.
The 'get togethers' started in 1964, bringing together different member clubs of the FH-DCE, however the the first Super Rally® was held at Kastelree Belgium in 1975 and has now grown to become for many Harley-Davidson® owners - a must on their events yearly calendar! Recent years have seen this event held in Germany, Lithuania and Greece.
The Super Rally 2013 was to be held in Ireland, hosted by H-DC Ireland, however was cancelled as they had many issues and mitigating circumstances, along with issues by from some of local authorities. So this event in 2015 is great news for the H-D Riders of Great Britain.
The FH-DCE SUPER RALLY® in the UK
West London Harley Riders are hosting this event in 2015. Beer, bands, stalls, camping, showers, attractions, etc... More details to follow...
venue: Lincolnshire Events Centre, Lincolnshire Showground, Grange-de-Lings, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN2 2NA
price: TBC
tel: 07733 357339
website: www.wlhr.org
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Go BSB Racing with Ace!
Teaming up with MSV, organisers of the UK's premiere motorcycle race series, BSB, Ace Cafe London has an extra pair of tickets up for grabs as a raffle prize, at the cafe on Friday 12th October, to attend Round 12, the Finals, being held at the famous south London circuit Brands Hatch on Sunday 14th October.
Spend £5 or more over the counter at the cafe and receive a raffle ticket. Draw will take place at 10pm.
www.britishsuperbike.com
www.msvracing.com
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After a gruelling 24-hour battle, the Honda TT Legends team has completed the 76th annual Bol d’Or, placing ninth in the race overall and sixth in the Endurance World Championship class to claim 19 points.
The race took place in challenging conditions at the Magny Cours circuit in France, with intermittent rain and cold temperatures making for an eventful 24-hours. Cameron Donald, John McGuinness and Simon Andrews competed for the Honda TT Legends, with Donald taking part in the running race start at 3pm yesterday.
The team began well, maintaining a steady pace through the changeable weather to hold fifth place until the early hours of Sunday morning. As dawn broke, Andrews was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop with a quick shift issue that was quickly rectified. The team re-joined the race in sixth place behind Yamalube Folch Endurance.
As the weather deteriorated further, the Bol d’Or almost came to a premature end for the Honda TT Legends when Donald lost the front end and suffered a high speed crash on the back straight. In line with EWC rules, the uninjured Australian pushed the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade back to the pits, where the team set to work repairing the extensive damage.
The well-rehearsed TT Legends crew fixed the bike with co-ordinated expertise, successfully returning it to the race with McGuinness at the helm in under 20 minutes. The slick repair saw the team maintain sixth position in the EWC class, while running ninth in the race overall. The final two hours passed without incident and the Honda TT Legends completed the race to claim 19 championship points. The race was won by SRC Kawasaki with SERT and Monster Energy Yamaha in second and third respectively.
Neil Tuxworth
I think the best we could have expected was fifth in that race. We couldn’t have come any higher at the pace we were going at. We still finished sixth overall in the EWC race which is good considering we lost time doing repairs after Cameron’s crash. It’s certainly been the most difficult endurance race that we’ve done and the one with the most problems. We’re going to analyse everything that has happened, figure out where the issues lie and continue from there. Hopefully we can have a better race the next time out.
John McGuinness
Not the result we came for but it was one of our strongest rides yet. We were holding fifth and looking good in very difficult conditions. It was a gruelling race with temperatures as low as 2 or 3 degrees through the night. I got caught up in some of the bad weather and had to pit for tyres changes which meant I then had to do double stints with 50 or 60 laps at a time and that is hard work. After Cameron slipping off at probably 150mph and the bike cart wheeling its way though the gravel, luckily Cam was alright and the team did amazing job at getting the bike back out there. We wanted to be a bit further up but at least we’ve picked up some world championship points.
Cameron Donald
After starting and finishing Le Mans last year I got to start and finish the Bol d’Or, which is really special. It was an absolute ordeal of a race. Everyone had their moments to shine and it was a big teem effort, but unfortunately we just didn’t quite come up with the goods. It was a little bit of bad luck and me skidding up the road didn’t help, but just to finish another 24-hour is a massive achievement.
Simon Andrews
It feels good to finish my first 24-hour race. Ten months ago I was lying in a hospital and my first race back I’ve completed a 24-hour so I feel triumphant and I’m pretty happy. We were quick and we were safe, I did everything to the best of my ability and I’m going home with a smile on my face.
For news, videos and images follow @HondaTTLegends on Twitter, bookmark www.hondattlegends.com and subscribe to HondaProRacing on YouTube.
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