Next week’s Bol d’Or marks 25 years in World Endurance For Phase One
07/09/2009 20:02:50

Achievement.

One day someone will work out how many rostrums we have had, or how many riders, or how many bikes, or countries we have raced in, or how much fuel we have burnt or tyres consumed. ! There will be answers to them all, but the big achievements that all the team members can be proud of are the ones that you don’t need to look up.

We’ve won 3 championships, won races in Germany, won in Italy and won in Belgium and we are indisputably the most successful private team in a generation, the facts speak for themselves!

In the end it’s all about the Team and the people in it – you really should all be very proud; we are amongst the last of a generation of sportsmen and women motivated solely by results and we have certainly achieved much more than our fair share of those!

History.

In early September 1985 Martin Prout and I went to see one of our endurance race heros at his home in the Cotswolds. We desperately didn’t want to forget a thing for our first Bol d’Or and Bernie Toleman, veteran of 18 endurance seasons was the man to talk to. Bernie started in 1966 at the Barcelona 24hrs and raced very successfully with a number of partners (only two on a bike in those days) up to his last race at the 1984 Bol d’Or. So he was the font of all knowledge. In fact, his first race at Montjuic Park was a disaster. Their first crash left Roger Corbett concussed, returning to the pits absolutely clueless about where the bike was, and their second took them out of the race completely! For the historians amongst us, in the end that race was won by Dave Degans on his Triumph.

However, back to Bernie, perhaps one of his best years was in 1978 when he won the Mettet 1000kms and was 3rd at Le Mans, did Brands with Graeme Crosby and was 4th at Spa all on a P&M Kawasaki. Anyway, Bernie was the man with the knowledge that we needed. I remember him being pleasant and helpful that evening and we came home with a notebook brimming with advice. Bernie’s parting words were….. just bring the lot; it’s no good at home in the workshop!

Bernie was not alone in being one of our early inspirations, there were loads of Brits at it then – Gary Green, Jim Wells, Joey Dunlop, Tony Rutter, Stan Woods, Howard Lees’s lot, Mick Hemmings, Asa Moyce, Roland Brown, Charlie Williams and loads more.

A week and a half after seeing Bernie, the Team, headed up by Martin Prout and assisted by a host of friends and family, including fellow racer Chris Byrd (complete with broken leg and cast) had finished the their first Bol d’Or. Looking back it was an absolute miracle ! We were hopelessly ill equipped, inexperienced and naive – but we did it through sheer guts and determination. We qualified last, (82nd) managed to be ready for the grid through an act of god, and then somehow completed 24hrs on the tattiest Harris GPZ750 air-cooled Kawasaki in existence. What an experience….those that were there will never forget it.!! We finished 42nd and I promise you, it felt better than 1st!

One day I will write about the whole episode from there on, the journey has been fantastic and the people involved, just amazing….but now is not the time, we need to go racing.

I saw Bernie today…….he wishes us luck.

Bol d’ Or next – September 12th / 13th.

The Team is back with its normal rider line-up, the brothers Cudlin accompanied by Pedro Vallcanaras, as for the first three rounds. The 2009 bike is now in its most competitive state with a new engine specification for this event with slightly more peak power than in 2008. As far as the Team is concerned, it is amongst the best this year and building on the 14 and 15 second stops from the last two races is definitely in prospect. We are all very excited, 24hr racing is what we enjoy best…

I hope that you can make it to Magny Cours to support us. See you there….

RB

2009 Suzuka 8hrs race report.

12th in Japan – more points!

Summary.

Phase One Endurance entered a team of Damian Cudlin, Pedro Vallcaneras and Graeme Gowland for the fourth round of the 2009 WEC held on Sunday 25th July. The race was one of changeable conditions ranging from dry mid- thirties temperatures to rainy season downpours interspersed with safety car sessions! All were successfully overcome and the team had a trouble free run to 12th position after a great battle with Etching factory Yamaha, who eventually finished 13th. There were no machinery problems, it was a nine stop race, just about optimum considering the rain, and with a best stop of 15.75 secs. The only unplanned events were a stop by Cudlin after 5 hrs due to rain at the other side of the circuit demanding wet tyres, and Pedro never really getting to grip with the rain. Debatably, perhaps 3 minutes could have been saved. Overall the team were content with a solid finish, one place better than last year, but a little disappointed on not achieving a top ten.

The Race.

Yamaha Austria continued their domination of the championship by scoring a fine 4th position after a trouble free run, effectively giving the team their well deserved first world championship.

The race was held slightly earlier in the calendar year and it just failed to escape the rainy season. On each day it rained, the only difference being by how much ! Between the rain the temperature soared up to the mid 30s and humidity rarely went under 80%. ! Sticky.

Although there had been no changes to the circuit proper, the infrastructure had been completely refurbished, every thing from the canteen to the tunnel. All the pitboxes and offices were new and so were the cold rooms… the development was truly fantastic, making this certainly the best equipped venue that the WEC visits…and that includes Doha.

On the down side the crowd was weak, perhaps as low as 60,000, compared with 200,000 in the event’s heyday of the late 80’s or early 90s. Also weak was the factory entry list – with only semi-official teams present. However, the competition was still intense with Honda FCC and Yoshimura etc well and truly present, recession or not.

Graham Gowland started for the team and he went well. Qualification had resulted in the team starting from 34th position, (2mins, 15.9 secs) slightly slower than the 2min 13secs in 2008, but he had a great start circulating in 27th position at the end of lap 1. His first hour at Suzuka saw him in 22nd at the end of the stint. Excellent. Cudlin took over and built on the achievement with a great trouble free session finishing stint two in 13th. Pedro was not so lucky – the rain that had been threatening for an hour finally fell early in the stint and by lap seven he was in for wets. Regrettably, Pedro never really got to grip with the wet conditions and dialled in a little too much safety. Gowland took over from 19th position and embarked upon a mammoth 1 hr 34 minute rota, albeit assisted by pace car, but it must have still hurt. Cudlin continued and was also unlucky with the rain, pitting un-planned, the earliest of them all, after localised rain on the opposite end of the circuit. The unplanned stop cost perhaps 22 seconds, most of which he made up over the following 5 laps when he was faster than the main competition by 4 seconds per lap, until the majority of the field took on their wet tyres. He finished in 14th. Gowland and Cudlin then back to backed to the flag, incident free, but being passed by one of the semi-factory Hondas in the last hour, to score a solid, if unspectacular 12th place.

Finally

A very big thank you to all team members, sponsors and supporters for your efforts, contribution and commitment to the team this year, it really is much appreciated.

RB

Suzuka 8hrs- pit record.

Stint no. Rider off Stint length(laps) Race distance(laps) Time (hrs, mins,secs) Pit time (secs) Work Pos.

1 Graham 24 24 0.55.52 23.32 F&R, 22nd

2 Damian 26 50 1.56.35 18.08 F&R 13th

3 Pedro 7 57 2.17.26 15.77 Wets on 15th

4 Pedro 10 67 2.45.49 16.44 Wets off 19th

5 Graham 4 71 2.53.46 25.02 Wets on 19th

6 Graham 29 100 4.19.49 17.70 Wets off 13th

7 Damian 17 117 4.58.56 43.39 Wets on 13th

8 Damian 20 137 6.12.32 15.75 F&R wet 14th

9 Graham 26 163 7.20.23 17.50 F&R wet 11th

10 Damian 13 176 8.00.00 END F&R wet 12th