Raptor Superpaint is pleased to reveal the new colour scheme, for Team Phoenix Racing.

Steve said “This job was of interest to me personally for many reasons.   I really wanted to produce something that was simple but yet eye catching and extremely visible on the track”.

Raptor Superpaint would like to thank Rob at STG Grahix for his input into this project, not to mention some great vinyl graphics.

If you would like to see some of Rob’s work, just click on this link.

http://www.stggraphics.co.uk/

Graphic would like to Thank their sponsors:

Close Print Finance

Surrey Asset Finance

Trade Mate Windows

ITEC Graphic Machinery Ltd

Graphic Line

S E S

Raptor Superpaint

On Saturday 3rd July 2010, individuals came together at Mallory Park to test out the Yamaha TZ250 bike and possible new rider, Richard Holmes-Williams, aka TractorBoy. The following track report has been published by Steve on various forums.

I arrived at Mallory with some of the Raptor crew. Made my way over to the paddocks in search of Pete (Workshy), who I have never met before, then got our pitch set up. The sun was out in all of its glory but was a tad windy. Gibbo then turned up with his half finished bike, so I helped fit his newly painted fairing and seat unit.
Off we went to get young Richard (TractorBoy) signed in and briefed ready for the track. The one thing TB didn’t realise was, that we had booked him in the fast group. TB is the southern champion 2009 in Mini-moto’s and has only ever been on a 80cc geared bike & never been on a full race track. The fun was just about to begin.
Pete got the TZ250 ready to go out & TB kitted up for his debut on track. When asked if TB was nervous, he answered “Not really, it just feels weird on this thing” He went out half way down the pack and done 3 laps at 1-08 which was a great start. He continued with the sessions and just got quicker every lap. It was great to see a 16 year old lad, so focused and he listened to every bit of coaching from Workshy & myself. On his penultimate session, TB managed 3 consecutive laps of 1-01 & then he managed to pull off a 59.6 lap.

Steve said “Young 16 year old Richard, has proven to be an exciting prospect in racing, so I feel it only fair & just to give him a chance on track. I feel confident that the team will progress excellently due to the amount of people involved and their commitment is very apparent”

There is a an evening function in the bar and tickets are £10 & the limited tickets can be purchased on the day from one of the organisers.  It is guaranteed to be a great day for all.  So if you are at a loose end, with nothing to really do, make your way to:

Mallory Park Racing Circuit
Kirkby Mallory
Leicestershire
LE9 7QE

The replica of the Craig Fitzpatrick 2010 scheme in attention grabbing yellow and black has been signed by the man himself and is featured, looking damn fine, on the cover of the July/August issue - Number 75 of the mag would you believe!

We’ve guaranteed the finish for our standard two years as well as throwing in a free 12 month stone chip touch up. Pretty good eh?

If you are the lucky winner, to keep you good and safe we’ll be painting a helmet in your size with matching replica colours. See, we do care about you.

If you’d like to enter the competition grab the magazine or head on over to Twist & Go for more info.

If you’re not feeling so lucky and would like a killer paint job all of your own then please,  get in touch and we’ll be happy to talk to you.

The teams arrived for testing at a cold and damp Snetterton on Thursday night and there was a great deal of apprehension in the paddock over weather conditions for the weekend. Following Eric Chittys preseason injury, experienced MRO racer Jonty Dixon filled the available seat for the Snetterton round. Dixon adds another dimension to the team with his experience and analytical approach to set up. For this round he also brings specific knowledge as Snetterton is his home circuit.

Jonty Dixon Fires Out Of The Esses

The test day on Friday started damp but soon dried out although ambient conditions remained cold. Both riders experimented with tyre choice running different compound tyres to assess best wear and grip options for the qualifying sessions on Saturday and race day on Sunday. Although the times were down for both riders Friday night saw some confidence in the team that we could be fighting for a podium position.

Andy McKnight Pits His GSXR 1000

Saturday was bright and dry although the wind persisted. All the riders were commenting on how green the circuit felt with few showing much confidence in the grip levels. The afternoon qualifying sessions saw Dixon set about placing TM72 in a good position for Sundays race. With a second qualifying session scheduled for Sunday morning but doubt over the likely weather conditions for race day we needed to esnure that we maximised the oppotunities from this first session. With a busy track and both riders finding it hard to post clear laps the team were delighted when Dixon posted a grid topping 1 minute 12.3 second lap, nearly a second faster than our nearest rivals. McKnight struggled with the conditions and was over a second down on times. Overnight he made a decision to run a differnt tyre choice for Sundays race. At the close of day one the team held provisional pole and looking at the times posted from the other teams it was clear that we would be in a race but with a good chance of a podium position.

Dixon At Full Throttle

Despite the earlier dire predictions, the weather held from Saturday and second qualifying saw all the teams fighting out for track position for Sundays start. Reigning Champions Sweatshop put down an early marker with experienced campaigner Mick Godfrey, fresh from a test with Alfs for this years Le Mans 24 Hour, clocking a never to be beaten 1:11.296. Graphic UK had been struggling with tyre wear but an overnight switch to Michelins appeared to be paying dividends with Dean Skipper posting a best of 1:12.121 late into the session to secure second on the grid. Dixon still held third with the hard charging James McBride, running in his North West 200 motor, taking fourth and first of the 600’s. With the front of the grid closely spaced on time it looked like an intriguing prospect for the afternoons race.

Dixon was happy that he could hold a fast pace for the afternoons race but was still looking for a little more set up to push the boundary slightly further and close the gap on Sweatshop. McKnight had made the switch in rubber that was paying dividends but with the change in wind direction a further adjustment on gearing was needed for the afternoons race.

At the drop of the flag Sweatshop made a break with Godfrey showing a clean pair of heels to the field,clocking the fastest lap of the race on lap 22 at 1:10.863. Skipper and Dixon pushed on with Skipper holding second place overall at the end of the first half hour with a lead over TM72 of 35 seconds. Sweatshop had pushed out to a 2 lap lead at the front. As the first round of pitstops came into play there would be some shuffling of the leader board.After a faultless pitstop McKnight headed out for his first session. After a trouble free ride McKnight pitted at the end of the first hour to hand on to Dixon. After one hour of racing the leaderboard had changed significantly with TM72 closing in to just a lap down on leaders Sweatshop and Graphic UK having dropped back to tenth place overall. TM72 held a lap over nearest overall rivals Marc and Peter Dilks of Pit Stop Racing With a whole host of 600s on the same lap filling third through to seventh place.

Jonty Dixon and Dean Skipper, Short Circuit Style

Dixon was suffering from tyre wear in his second session but continued to press Sweatshop hard as they still held a lap lead over the TM72 pairing. At the half way pointthere was no change at the front but Graphic were clawing their way back up and had moved into eighth place.

Moving into the final third of the race TM72 took the lead after Sweatshop pitted for new rubber and had a slow stop. The airgun failed and they took over two minutes to change the rear wheel. Mcknight held a lead of 25 seconds over Brasher as both Godfrey and Dixon prepared for their final stints. The Tango and Crash pairing of John Blundell and Ryan Myler had lifted themselves to third following a crash by Marc Dilks pushed Pit Stop back down the order. Dixon had swapped rubber for his final session and was pushing hard. The race was on for the lead and with the wild card possibility of a pace car intervention and Sweatshop needing to pit again for fuel before the end there was till everything to play for.

McKnight Pushes Sweatshop Hard

Entering the final half hour Sweatshop held a slender lead of 8 seconds over TM72 Racing. With only ten minutes to go the gap had opened up to 35 seconds but a broken exhaust from Slingshot Racing was lying in the track on the exit to Russells Chicane and this brought out the pace car. The pack closed up and TM72 moved to within 5 seconds but with a lot of bikes between the two riders. Godfrey had pitted for fuel but remained on board riding to his maximum time limit of 70 minutes in order to try and secure the win. As the pace car pulled in the pack chased hard.

McKnight Drives Hard Looking For The Win

McKnight was in a mixed field of 600’s approaching the esses and some interesting lines forced avoiding action on him as he just missed clipping a slower rider. In taking this action he himself was almost the victim of other riders as both Fatbloke Racewear pilot Colin Norris went one side and Martin Landman of Ducks Cross went the other. Having avoided near catastrophe McKnight stayed out of trouble for the last two laps to come home second and within 16 seconds of winners Sweatshop.Third in class Graphic UK were five laps further back and a lap up on fourth place Slingshot.

Arriving at Snetteron on Thursday it was doubtfull that the team would be at Cadwell for the second round in May. However, through the course of the weekend a sponsor stepped forward with an offer to pay entry fees for the remaining rounds. The team are still looking to secure budget for tyres and fuel for Dixon but it is hopefull that we will be able to do so.

The next round is at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire on the 8th and 9th of May. Both Dixon and McKnight are in confident mood although the team expect a few “ringers” to crawl out of the wood work for this round. It’s rumoured that the Trackcraft pairing of Linscott and Dickinson may make an appearance for the National race but Dixon took pole for last years Masters race so we should be in for yet another interesting weekend.

Craig Fitzpatrick had a difficult time at round 3 of the British Superbike Evo Championship at Oulton Park. A stone through the radiator at the start of race one lead to a DNF and forced a swift engine change before race 2. In his first wet British Superbike race, and with the spare engine, Fitzpatrick could only finish ninth.

Following the crash in the second race at Thruxton, two weeks ago, Fitzpatrick was still struggling with a hand injury. Bruising and swelling around his first metatarsal on his left hand meant he didn’t have the full range of movement.

A fall in Saturday morning’s free practice session did little to help matters. Fitzpatrick hit a false neutral whilst down-shifting for Island bend. With no engine breaking, he ran wide onto the grass and tipped off. Although unhurt in the crash, the bike suffered extensive damage.

Having repaired the damaged to the bike, Fitzpatrick qualified fourth fastest in a time of 1 minute 38.981 seconds.

At the start of the first race, a stone put a hole through the radiator of the Close Print Finance Honda, causing coolant to spray out. As the spray flew up onto his screen and visor, Fitzpatrick assumed it was rain and eased off slightly. It soon became apparent that it was leaking from the bike, and Fitzpatrick had no choice but to pull into pit lane and retire.

After examining the bike, the team  diagnosed the cause and decided to switch to the number 2 engine as a precaution. This left the team just two hours to swap engines and prepare the bike for the second outing.

Rain prior to the start of race 2 meant the riders were given ten minutes of wet practice as this would be the first wet session of the weekend. This gave the Close Print Finance team a good chance to test the rebuilt bike before the race. During practice the bike showed no problems but having spent all the time between races rebuilding the bike, Fitzpatrick had to practice on the only wet rear tyre.

By the time the riders lined up on the grid for the second race, the track was starting to dry. Fitzpatrick decided that it was still too wet to use the intermediate tyre, so he would have to race on the wets he had just run in practice.

When Alex Lowes’ KTM had a problem on line, it looked as though the start procedure would be stopped, but the lights went out and Fitzpatrick was caught cold. Dead last into turn one, Fitzpatrick faced an uphill battle. By lap five Fitzpatrick had fought his way up to fifth place in the Evo race. The conditions were starting to take their toll on the part-worn wet tyres. The track was still wet around the start/finish, but was dry on the back part of the circuit.

With his tyres quickly disintegrating, Fitzpatrick was struggling for grip. As the bike was moving around under braking and when accelerating out of the corners, Fitzpatrick was unable to keep his pace up. Having already suffered one DNF, Fitzpatrick made the sensible choice to hold on and take home solid points for his ninth place finish.

Fitzpatrick commented: “We don’t seem to be having much luck at the moment. The crash on Saturday was my own fault, but even then we didn’t exactly get off lightly with the damage as the bike went end over end. The holed radiator in the first race was another blow we could have done without.”

“I was so happy with how the Close Print Finance team dealt with the problems, I really couldn’t ask for any more from them. There was quite a bit of work to do following the crash in practice and then there was a big rush to swap the engines between races.”

“In hindsight, I should have chosen the intermediate tyre for race 2, but on the grid wets seemed the better option. I think virtually everyone went with the wet option. By mid-race, the tyres were absolutely destroyed and they were just spinning everywhere. We have come away with some points and now we just have to move on and look forward to the next round at Cadwell Park.”

Sam Farrington

Craig Fitzpatrick recorded his first British Superbike Evo podium of the season after an impressive display in round 2 of the championship at Thruxton. A superb ride in Race 1 earned Fitzpatrick a third place finish, missing out on victory by just 0.3 seconds. It looked as though better was to follow in Race 2 until Fitzpatrick was taken out with two laps remaining whilst running second.

In free practice, the Close Print Finance Honda team continued to make progress with chassis set-up on their new Honda CBR1000RR. The fast and bumpy Hampshire circuit takes no prisoners but Fitzpatrick showed his ability to wrestle the Superbike around after making the step up from Supersport last season. Fitzpatrick improved throughout each of the three free practices and posted the 1st, 3rd and 4th fastest times in the respective sessions.

Qualifying saw Fitzpatrick improve further on his lap times, shaving 0.3s off his previous best. It looked as though he was set to progress to the second phase of the session until the last few seconds of the session when he was demoted to 21st overall. Fitzpatrick’s time was the third best of the Evo riders.

Fitzpatrick made a steady start to Race 1, slipping back a place on the opening lap. He soon found his rhythm though and quickly set about climbing through the field. By lap five, Fitzpatrick had moved back up to fourth place in the Evo race. The top five Evo riders were nose to tail and battling for victory. Fitzpatrick passed David Johnson before losing the position two laps later to David Anthony.

By two-thirds race distance, Fitzpatrick had moved up to third place and the front three began to gap the others. Going into the closing stages, Fitzpatrick was planning his attack and felt he was stronger going into the final chicane.

On the last lap, the three leaders, along with one of the Championship riders, went four wide into the chicane. As they all tried to out-brake each other they ran wide, Fitzpatrick held the tighter line but then struggled for grip as they accelerated towards the line. The lack of traction cost him, as Fitzpatrick missed out on the win by less than three tenths of a second, crossing the line in third place. Fitzpatrick’s fantastic ride was also good enough for 15th overall, earning him his first British Superbike Championship point.

In Race 2, Fitzpatrick carried on where he left off and after some early passes, was quickly up to second position in the Evo race. Getting stronger with each lap on his new machine, Fitzpatrick posted his best lap time of the weekend. As the laps counted down, Fitzpatrick was closing in on the leader, again looking to make a move coming into the chicane a the end of the lap. This time around his plans were scuppered two laps shy of the flag. As Championship rider, Christian Iddon had a look down the inside of Fitzpatrick, he lost the front and both riders crashed out. Fitzpatrick landed hard on the kerb, but thankfully walked away without serious injury.

After the race Fitzpatrick commented: “I was really happy with how things had gone all weekend, up until the end of race 2. The Close Print Finance Honda team have all worked really well and we have made significant progress over the weekend. I am starting to get on much better with the new bike and I think we have shown how competitive the package is.”

“Race 1 was a good battle with four or five of us fighting for the win. I thought I could grab the win coming into the final corner, but everyone was pushing so hard. They all ran a bit deep in the right-hander and I thought I could out-drag them to the line. When I opened the throttle the rear tyre was just spinning.”

“I am frustrated about the crash as it wasn’t my own doing. I was catching David Anthony and thought I could pass him before the end of the race. It’s a shame because it has cost us at least 20 points, but we just have to move on to Oulton Park in two weeks and make up for it then.”

Sam Farrington

I have received the following from TM72 rider, Eric Chitty aka ‘Little Blu’

Hanging up my leathers….

Spent a long time with the specialist stroke consultant a few days ago, who looked at all the scans and the notes, and he agreed with the doctors at Sheffield, that I had a stoke following the crash. The clot was a break away from the artery in the back of the neck, caused by the trauma to it when I crashed.

He says with time and hard work I should make an almost  100% recovery, there may be a bit of left over residue that isn’t fully right, like balance or speech, but he said I should recover given time and hard work.

He then said I shouldn’t ride again. Pretty much destroyed me in one go, as I was hoping to get on track again if my balls were big enough. When I asked why, he said that the clot was caused by a tear or breakaway in the artery. I should recover fully, however it will now always be a weak point as its given way already, and if a similar trauma happened, I wrenched my neck, it could lead to another clot, with all that it entails, as I may not get away with it next time, it may permanently paralyse me or even kill me….. He was able to quote loads of cases like mine where people have had repeat strokes from the same place due to having another clot break away again. Leading a normal life will be fine, but I do have to be careful of anything that might cause a strain or a wrench to my neck. I refuse to be wrapped up in bubble wrap, but do need to take it steady. So going to hang up my leathers as it’s the sensible choice. So no more riding, that’s road riding, off roading, or track riding.

I don’t want to take any stupid risks, so racing and track days are out, as it would be too easy to have an off, which leads to a bump on the head. Gutted does not convey what I feel, but I did promise all my loved ones that if the doctors said I shouldn’t ride for the sake of my health, that I would listen to them. So that’s the racing and track days over with for me. I still want to be around bikes, will still want to be TM72 team manager, still able to help and advise others, still drink beer with everyone on track days and race meetings but riding is over.

As bullish as I am and as mad as I am, it has to be the sensible choice as I may not get another chance. I will be at cadwell and all the other races to cheer you all on. You don’t get rid of me that easy…

I have personally told those that are close to me, but thought I would post this to get it out in the open; otherwise people are bound to keep asking when I will be on a bike again.

So… everything will be up for sale soon, from a sorted, fast and brilliantly handling Suzuki GSXR K6 1000 that’s just had an engine and suspension refresh with virtually every trick bit on it, the race van including awning and living accommodation, all of the race kit inc tyre change kit, massive amount of spares, leathers and gloves, tyre warmers, standard wheels discs, 16.5 inch wheels, basically everything and everything you need for trackdays and racing. Obviously some parts will be staying in the TM72 team as they need them for racing, as the plan is for Jonty to replace me for the rest of the year in the team as there’s some unfinished business on the track to sort out, but I will be with them cheering them on

This is the hardest thing I have ever had to write.