First ever endurance race on Saturday. 10 hours around Anglesey circuit in Wales. I was asked to stand in for an injured rider at the last minute. Part of a four bike team sharing the riding for the duration of the race.
Wasn’t sure what to expect so went out purely to have a bit of fun and see what the bike and myself could do over a longer period out on track. Normally I only do sprint races of 20 minutes or so. To ride for nearly 50 minutes starting with a full tank of gas and used tyres was different. I did all four of my sessions on scrub tyres from Ducati Cup races and used part worn brake pads. Three pairs of tyres and three sets of brake pads. I probably could have done the whole race on one set of each but lack of grip and stopping performance towards the end of all my sessions could be felt so I chose to change tyres and pads.
I didn’t really modify my riding to suit longer sessions. I went out and got on the pace straight away and tried hard to be consistent. I use a Speed Angle lap timer and the real time lap prediction was very useful. I could see if I was up in my sectors so knew if I was on the pace. Clearly endurance racing on short circuits brings its own problems in terms of different standards of riding and varied machines. There was often a big speed difference when coming up on other riders so being a little restrained when passing was sometimes needed. That said, being bold also had benefits. I think my favourite moment of the day was coming up on a big group of riders as I came over the hill towards the downhill left hander at turn seven. They were all jostling for position and spread across the track. Riding around the outside of all of them before cutting back to pass the remaining two onto the straight had me laughing out loud in my helmet. For fine tuning race craft I can’t think of a better format. Learning to predict what another rider will do and taking the appropriate action is an invaluable skill. Riding unorthodox lines to cope with traffic hones my skills as a rider so that when something isn’t quite perfect I can deal with it better.
Fatigue doesn’t often set in until the final stages of a sprint race, particularly at National level but during a session in an endurance race it sets in about midway through. Having to think about resting on straights and modifying clutch lever use, amongst other things, all came into play when trying to keep up to pace in the latter stages of a 45 minute session.
Feel from the bike under me is also something that I often don’t think about during a sprint race. Modern tyres will easily cope with shorter race distances (at my pace) with plenty of grip left to spare. Heading out on pre-worn tyres, albeit good ones meant that over the course of a longer session I could feel the bike starting to behave differently. Feeling the front wheel letting go in a subtle way and changing my riding style to deal with it is not something I normally do. Relying on the traction control also came into play on very worn rear tyres. I’m sure I could’ve gone faster but the feeling of knowing when I was on a fast lap also became apparent. The opportunity to push harder at certain points was there because of the sheer volume of laps during an endurance race.
My lap times were pretty consistent over the four sessions I did. I very slowly got quicker as I learned and as is always my plan I aim to put in my quickest lap at the very end of a session. I didn’t quite manage it as I got held up on my final lap of the day but to put things into perspective the team did 350 total in 10 hours. Of those I did 105 laps. I did the final session to try and make up a few places in the overall standings. I made up one place in final 23 laps and the three fastest laps for the team were done in that session. The overall fastest lap for us came on lap 347 of 350 and the second fastest on lap 349. I wasn’t the only one to improve throughout the day. Every member of the team steadily got faster and learned valuable lessons. Perfect for when we return in a few weeks to race on the shorter circuit, I am sure it has stood us all in good stead.
A huge learning experience from my point of view. Bike time is essential if I want to go quicker and I highly recommend doing an endurance race if you get chance. The Ducati 959 didn’t miss a beat all day and the only issue I had was a bar end coming slightly loose in my third session. I rode around it by knocking it back in every now and then so as not to cut my session short.
Thanks to Rab who runs Ducking Quack Racing and the whole team for making the event memorable. Thanks to True Heroes Racing for making it possible in the first place.
Well done to No Limits Racing for organising and running the event, very slick and if you look at their social media you will see a few stats. Impressive to say the least. Thanks to the Marshals, Medical Staff and Circuit owners for facilitating. I don’t think I could have asked for a better maiden endurance race.
Images by me unless I’m in them in which case they were taken by another team member with my camera.