A very good afternoon to you,
We hope you are well and the recent bad weather has not caused you too much disruption ?
Little over a week ago the team rolled down to Brands Hatch for the final round of the season.
Despite being ready to wave goodbye to our “challenging” 2023 season, there is always an air of sadness at the last round as all the teams and competitors miss racing over the winter.
We were very keen to compete as hard as we could at this round, it was very much the plan to take something positive into the break. Nobody wants to end a season on a low note…
Still opting to compete with only the one Yamaha 600cc Supersport machine, Friday’s free practice sessions once more dealt us a strange hand.
Our Scottish pilot Sam Munro opted not to participate in the first session on Friday morning. It was cold, windy and very wet. It was agreed that we would save the bike, the tyres and Sam’s energy for later in the day as the rain radar was showing dry spells after lunch.
The second session in the afternoon was chalk compared to the morning’s cheese. It was still quite cool but bright and dry with a lot less wind.
Steadily building into the session Sam’s 11th lap of 11 was his fastest giving him a 12th place finish. To give you a gauge of the difference in conditions, Sam’s fastest lap was 1.34.03, and the overall fastest in the first session was 1.40.03, exactly 6 seconds slower.
In to Saturday mornings qualifying session and it is fair to say, we could have done better.
We were all very confident and the timing screens were showing that we could be looking at a very strong grid position. Shortly after recording three green (PB) sectors on lap three, Sam unfortunately lost the rear coming out of Sterlings bend (sector 4) which delivered a large high side.
Frustrated would be an understatement.
At 15.30 the team were formed on the grid as Sam set off on his sighting lap. All the other riders were streaming onto the starting grid around us but Sam had not come round ? His motor had given up two thirds of the way round, he managed to get the bike back to pitlane but we were not able to compete in race one.
Racing engines are very finely tuned and there is no way of telling or seeing when they might give up. We have sent it off to the best in the business to be rebuilt and we look forward to hearing the diagnosis.
A crash on qualifying and a DNS (Did not start) left the mood in the camp flat to say the least. Having shown such promise matched with our internal enthusiasm the days events took the wind out of our sails.
By 8pm on Saturday there was a new engine in the bike and she was looking as good as new. A few smiles were starting to creep in and the mood was lifting during the evenings meal with a coupe of hard earned beers for Dave and Kieran on spanners.
Our DNS in race one automatically put us to the back of the grid for Race two, they are the rules and nothing we can do about that.
Morning warm up (12 minutes) was very useful. Sam used the time to bed the effectively new bike in. As he returned to base he removed his helmet and muttered in Scottish “She’e quick like.”
Game on !!
3pm on Sunday and the autumn sun was lighting up Brands Hatch, it was beautiful. The race organisers estimate there was an additional 5000 spectators that had paid on the gate to see the barn storming Superbike finale. Because we were the race prior it worked in our favour as every grass bank and grandstand was bursting. Getting to the circuit from our paddock was a challenge in itself.
Once we had dragged the pit trailer to our starting position we all took a minute to comprehend just how far back we were……?!
The lights went out for the 16 lap feature race with Sam away safely from P39. By the end of lap one he was already up to 21st. By the end of lap two under a safety car he was up to 17th. One lap after that he was into the points in 15th. We all agreed before the race that taking points would be a result, we did not expect him to do so well so quickly, we did tell him to ‘take it steady’ and ‘chip away’ at the job.
Lap after lap Sam was putting in really strong lap times and closing the gap on all those in front of him. As the race unfolded the lead pack had got away and there were some gaps opening up. We had calculated the best he could do would be 8th place as the gap to 7th with only 4-5 laps remaining was too big.
As the chequered flag came out, he had done it ! An 8th place finish from 39th on the grid, +31 places. We were all absolutely delighted !!
Getting through traffic and slower riders is not easy and it can take valuable time to execute it correctly. Sam threw caution to the wind and emptied his bag of race craft to give himself and the team just the boost we needed.
Yes, of course we wanted more from the weekend but racing is all about resilience and digging deep to find positives and get results. Sam did just that for us. When he returned to Parc Ferme and we flooded him with hugs and praise all he could mutter ? “I told you she was quick.”
We do hope you have enjoyed our updates from inside the team over the course of the year and we look forward to sharing more with you in 2024.
Dave and the whole team are as bust as we have ever been for this time of year making plans for our charge next year.
This year has been our first year in the Supersport class. It has been a tremendous learning curve for all us. It is a fiercely competitive class and we have pitted ourselves against some very experienced riders and teams.
We will take all of our learnings, make things better and move forward together.
On behalf of all the boys and girls at Binch Racing, thank you very much for your support throughout 2023. We all really appreciate everything you do for us and we are very grateful.
In the coming days and weeks we will be updating you on our plans for 2024 and we look forward to seeing you very soon.
