Race of the Year Snetterton CRMC

Our only visit to the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club this year was their final round, the Race of the Year meeting, at Snetterton and Andy was the only Steelcraft rider competing.

                                                  Some random clips from Snetterton



  Some people believe in omens, but Andy leaving his tool box at home, despite having everything else but the kitchen sink in the van didn't worry us.
Practice went well on on the new layout of the Snetterton 200 circuit and all that was needed was a change to a taller gearing for the race as the bike was over revving on the long straights.

  Andy made his customary good start from near the back of the grid and was soon battling for third with Mervyn Stratford (Greeves), behind Chris Wallace and John Hynes (both Ducati mounted). Then on lap four, disaster struck, a bang in the engine and then silence as the bike coasted to a halt.

  Back in the paddock, the inlet tappet cover was removed and we found that neither valve was opening. With the top bevel cover removed the problem was clear, the vertical bevel had broken as you can see in the photo below.

 

  Maybe having no tools at the track is a bad omen or at least a guarantee that tools will be needed. The breakdown wasn't a great problem as Andy intended to ride Andy Boyle's Royal Enfield GP5 on Sunday anyway.



Another nice example a shame it's only paraded




And what of the new video camera (see previous post)?. Again not good as we had recorded nothing on the camera when mounted on the Ducati, in either practice or race. We thought the problem was either down to vibration or the radio waves from transponders affecting the remote control on/off function. On the Sunday we turned the remote function off and had the camera strapped to Andy's leg. This gave good results but we are still not sure what caused the problem.

                                                   Race of the Year on board the GP5
         


  In the Sunday morning race Andy took a third place behind Mervyn Stratford and Chris Wallace. This result was repeated in the final race the "Race of the Year".

a 350 for sale in the paddock at £4000

Other notable Ducati results were a win for Nigel Palmer in the first 500 clubmans race, though sadly he failed to finish either of the other races, and Simon Morris who took three out of three in the 350 Clubmans Class.

                                               
                                                      Our thanks to all the the CRMC.

On board video

      This blog may be about racing bikes from the past, but that doesn't stop us from using new technology.
     After trying a cheap on board camera this year (£15 - yes that cheap) which gave us some passable results, (see Lydden and Gedinne posts, 2011) Stu has invested in something a little more upmarket.

Drift 170 Stealth action camera  (OK, it's a silly macho name)

 We're hopeful that this new camera offering High Definition and 60 frames per minute will provide some good footage in the future. The high frame rate means that we may also be able to have slow motion clips.

Today we started testing  and below are our first clips on one of the Ducati's, firstly facing forward, mounted on the fork leg.

                             As you can see, the camera can be clipped to the mount very quickly


And below fear facing, mounted on the seat hump.

                      The remote control can start/stop recording from up to 5M away as shown here



On the way home Stu tested the camera, strapped to his boot, to give another perspective, and also added a slow motion section.

Fine so far, but will it stand the vibration of a 250 single and the rigours of classic racing?
Andy is racing at Snetterton this weekend with the CRMC where we hope to give it a real test so we will let you know in the next post.

Back to the beginning

 

In the beginning...

In 1926, the brothers Adriano, Marcello and Bruno Ducati founded Societa Scientifica Radio Brevetti Ducati, producing components for radio's, business was good and a new factory was built in the Borgo area of Bologna in 1935. At the same time, in Turin, Aldo Farinelli designed and built a small 4 stroke engine to be used as a cycle motor for a company called SIATA. Immediately after the war, this engine became available to the public and named the Cucciolo

 A number of companies soon produced motorised cycles based on the engine, but it was in 1950, after around 200,000 units had already been sold that the Ducati company joined forces with SIATA to manufacture their own Cucciolo motorcycle.

With 60cc and weighing just 44Kg the bike gave 200mpg (64 Km/L)

The Cucciolo (Puppy) name was soon dropped in favour of the 55M and 65TL.

    

  Apparently the name derived from the sound of the engine, see what you think.

OK that's enough history, the point of this post is that with a quarter of a million of these engines around it was inevitable that people would start to race them.

Below are a few examples.

But it wasn't just road racing, people 

even made board racers

  

And in England someone took things even further, below is the Britax Hurricane of 1954

And here, in action

The wonderful beginnings of Ducati single cylinder racing


Here endeth the lesson......   

except, if you didn't think it could get more strange......    

someone (or rather some people) built tandem versions

It's a strange way to start a legend