Round 2 Circuit Carole


Round 2 of the ERT championship was held at the “ Circuit Carole” a small but interesting track just outside of Paris near the Charles de Gaulle airport that was built and is still owned by the French government. How’s that for social services!
This is our home track and we’re looking to kick ass!!

Thursday evening 29 June

Leaving after work I have to ride to the other side of Paris, cutting through the rush hour traffic to get to the track and try and secure a place in the tiny paddock. On arriving I find quite a good spot but have to defend it tooth and nail from other people arriving. The team next door, number 55, who we’ve met before at the circuit, lend me some chairs and some tape to cordon of the area. Finally Pascal arrives with the truck and we finish setting up at about 10:00pm and decide to take a walk around the track in the slowly cooling summers evening. Even if we’ve done a thousand laps here it’s always good to walk around a track when you get the chance.

Friday morning 30 June

I arrive at the track at about 8:30 followed by Pascal and Defré with about 60 seconds between each of us, if we can have the team that well organized during the weekend we’ll be on a winner. Blue, blue sky and already quite hot, today’s just free practice but it’s also to see what the competition is like.
The first times start coming in after morning practice which is not without difficulty as we still have our old qualifying tyres on that we’ve used all the time since the last race and they are starting to be very second hand, as my biggest ever, non crashed, highside demonstrated. The bike got so sideways I was waiting for the steering to hit the lock, it snapped back so violently that I lost both feet and hurt my wrists just trying to hang on! In the end I manage a 1:10.5, which is my best time here on this bike even though we’ve only managed to practice here twice with the Suzuki. I persuade Pascal that we should put fresh rubber on and he goes out for his first session. He’s suffering from a bad back, and finding it hard to get comfy on the bike managing a 1:11.5. We both desperately want to take a good second off our times.

We eat and relax a little, the bike is working well and the tyres don’t seem to get as shredded here compared to Lednon where they were finished half way through the race. This is very good news as we don’t have the time to change them during the race.
I get on the bike for the afternoon free practice and …it doesn’t want to start. I’m not to worried as we’ve had some battery probs in the past so I shout to Pascal that I need a push. We push it back and forth and nothing happens. The other riders are already going round, it’s 36°c, I’m fully suited up in my black race kit (including helmet and gloves) and I can’t push anymore. The guys from team 55 spontaneously come and help and so does another guy, at one stage Pascal and I were both standing there with our hands on our knees panting as the others ran up and down pushing our bike. The atmosphere in the ERT paddock is really good!! They finally get it going but it doesn’t want to tick over and isn’t firing properly. We test the battery, it’s dead, yet again team 55 help out by lending us a battery and I only manage to do one lap before the end of the session!

For the final free practice session we decide that I’ll go out first and do a few laps, then come back in and give the bike to Pascal. I go out with the bit between my teeth, riding aggressively and watch my times go down on the Lapcom. After about eight laps I see 1:09.5, there’s the second I was looking for so I come straight in and pass the bike to Pascal who still isn’t comfy and can’t quite manage to get into the 1:10’s.

Saturday 1 July

No clouds and even hotter. I arrive early to find Pascal already there with his VFR battery but it’s too big! The holder is modified and everything bolted back on ready for first qualifying which is very important as the quickest times will be in the “cool” morning session before the track gets greasy and the engines loose a bit of power with the heat.
My first qualifying isn’t wonderful. I feel shit (strange fluey feeling), no energy and only manage a 1:10.2 with a constant yellow flag at one of the corners where one guy got his braking rather wrong and took out another rider leaving some kind of liquid on the track (oil or water) which slowly ran down towards the inside of the corner. If you were on the right line it was ok but a bit off-putting. The first guy was lapping in 1:08 so we aren’t that much on the pace!
Pascal does a 1:11.6 which puts us 6th …not where we want to be at our home track!! But the bike has no problems and the tyres are working better… they should be, we’re just rolling round the track like tourists!
I can’t believe how the first guy manages to do those lap times with all the traffic on the track. It sounds stupid but when you are lapping in the top 5 there are a lot of people to overtake.
I feel a bit better in the afternoon final practice despite the heat. After about 7 laps my times aren’t what I want but then a space opens, I can only just see the rider infront of me. I know I have one chance and one only so I get my head down and go for it. I have a front end slide, and the rear steps out at one stage but I manage a 1:09.3 on my Lapcom display (3rd quickest overall)… and then run out of petrol.
Pascal manages to get his times down to 1:11.3 which is the 6th quickest overall qualifying us on the front row for the second time this season in 4th position. The first team is untouchable, 3.3 seconds ahead on conglomerate time with a best lap of 1:07.7!!
The Fuerxer bro’s arrive with Iza, they are going to be our pit crew for the race, Charlie and Gabby doing the pit stops / refuelling and super reliable Iza managing the pit board.

Sunday 2 July

Too friggin’ hot and our race starts at 3pm the hottest time of the day! We decide that as I did the first race start (Lednon) Pascal will do this one which is very tricky as our bike has a worn clutch basket and therefore wheely’s like a bastard when ever you try to set off quickly. Pressure builds but is let off a little when the lads from work turn up, all with there Rush Racing Team t-shirts on and beers in there hands. Elodie has organized refreshments for everybody as we knew there would be loads of people. Pascal relaxes a little when Vanessa arrives with his bike mad son Pablo (check the pics).
I delay getting my leathers on to the last minute (too hot) and see that Pascal is already overheating, so I soak a towel in water and put it round his neck which he finds really effective. We do make a lovely couple!
The bikes are now on the grid, the 2 laps of warm up go OK and they’re ready for the start. I’m sure that Pascal will do the most humongous wheelie and my even flip it with our shitty clutch, but not at all, he does an absolute blinder and is first after 10 metres. The two 2005 year model SV’s of pole and second position only manage to get by on there extra hourse power, we’re third into the first corner!
Pascal is tense and lets a few bikes through (scared of binning it in the first laps). Number 14 comes off two corners after passing him, maybe he has a point. After 5 laps number 79 who has been all over the back of Pascal, hits him and finishes face down in the gravel trap unconscious! Dumé (ex-racer come team consultant) comes running into the pits shouting “Pascal has just taken a guy out and he’s laying dead in the gravel!” (all of which is not true) I say to him not to tell Pascal when he comes in and that he could have spared me the news until the end of the race. He then calms down and tells it as it is (he’s a bit worked up as he wanted to show his wife that the racing we do isn’t dangerous… he wants to get back in the saddle again….oooops!) The pace car comes out letting everybody bunch up and is what Pascal needed to get his head together.
After an hour we are sitting in eight position when Pascal comes in to refuel and pass me the bike. The stop goes smoothly and I deliberately don’t look at the rear tyre as I don’t want it to influence my riding (it was fine even at the end of the race!). I slump into what must have been a extremely average rhythm (the Lapcom pickup came lose so we will never know). I feel as flat as our first battery, only managing to pick up the pace when the first guy comes past. I can just hold on to him, knowing that I am quicker (he’s the slower of the two) but I don’t have the energy to pull him in. Nothing that exiting happened during my stint apart from number 5 doing the biggest possible highside on a CB going through the “parabolique”. He held on to it to the last second, tyres smokin’ an’ all before taking off vertically! It’s incredible how much a bike slows down before highsiding, I was pretty close at take-off. I was thankful when the pace car came out as I was really suffering. The lads were waving like mad from the side of the track and as I passed the pits Pascal gesticulated “pit in yes/no?” I thought, “this is easy riding round behind the pace car” and for no reason at all put up five fingers to say five laps… never ask a rider about tactics if he’s on the bike. Anyway we wouldn’t have gained anything as the pit lane is closed 20 seconds after the pace car passes the exit so you actually lose a lap instead of 40 seconds.
Iza, as reliable as ever, pit boards me in and the refuelling is great thanks to the bros. Pascal goes out in fifth position as I fall into a chair barely able to walk! Thank god that S’yves from Moto Ouebe (our internet host come sponsor) was there as he gave me stuff to eat and drink and cleaned my visor without getting in the way or making a fuss. We now want him at all the races, what a great man!
Now Pascal had enough petrol to finish the race but wasn’t lapping very fast compared to number 19 who caught and passed him for fifth place, so I spurred him on from the pits. He upped the pace and started to pick off people who had passed him only a few laps before … racing really is 50% in your head!
Our Belgium friends, number 19, do a rather slow refuelling giving us a good 50 second buffer from their sixth place, so I could get back on the bike and finish the race but we would gain nothing as I wouldn’t be able to make up the time lost pitting in, in the time left. So I decided against an always potentially dangerous pit stop.
Now Pascal was going quicker and quicker but wouldn’t be able to make up the 30 seconds that separate us from fourth place. So I try to get him to slow down now there are only a few minutes to go but he was so focused that he didn’t look at the pit board, steaming passed head flat on the tank (check the pics. he wasn’t looking forward!)
The race director walks across the track picking up the chequered flag and hiding it behind his back… Pascal comes by ringing the bikes neck…..how long do we have to wait, S’yves rushes off to see the standings… Pascal comes flying by touching the rev limiter before his gear change….it must be soon….Pascal comes by, helmet touching the tank…. wave the flag you bastard!!!.... Pascal comes by….we’re going to be fifth…Pascal doesn’t come by….NO PASCAL! After 40 seconds he comes by, with number 19 on his tail, pointing at the bike. What no petrol, it’s not possible!!! I curse the Bros (sorry), how can we run out of petrol in the last laps? Number 19 passes us, Pascal is going much slower, we’re going to run out of petrol on the last lap!! We finish 7th less than 5 seconds behind number 19.
Pascal had manage to do better than Troy Bayliss at Silverstone!! He had crashed and remounted in less than 30 seconds. The petrol was fine!

Special Thanks to:

Mike and Claire for the help, support and mega pics!!
Iza for her calm aura and super reliable pit boarding.
The Fuerxer bro’s for the impeccable pit stops (sorry again for the swearing)
S’yves you are the man! (Little big man)
Elo for the filming and food organization (Supermarché ATAC at la Queue les Yvelines for the food)
Dumé for running round hysterically
The lads for shouting (Alan, quinquin,
Carl, de only focking designer dat turned up!