Rowrah, May 2008

Riders: Andy Ellinor, Paul Barnard, Russell Burnage

Mechanic: John Cooper & Manic

First race of the season and we find ourselves at Rowrah, as is tradition. The team now has 3 new people on board, not to mention a totally new set up in the pits. Chris was absent due to tramping the world. The bike is now considerbly more powerful than last year so it all looks good so far.

Russell and Paul have never ridden pit bikes before so the meeting was very much a try out for the new look MonsterMotoGP team. All was going well till early afternoon on the Saturday, when the engine seized having dropped a valve (in a big way). This incident resulted in Andy having a high speed crash just before the first hairpin. The engine was stripped and returned to last years spec, consequently performing perfectly though a little down on power compared to the competition.

Our times were slow throughout, understandable for Russell and Paul as they are learning from scratch. Their times improved every time they went out so good progress all in all. Andy on the other hand was 5 seconds down on last years times! Not sure why other than the fact the bike never felt as planted as last year, leading to a lack of confidence in the corners resulting in the slow times. Not to worry though, it's a new set up and these are just teething problems.

The pits worked perfectly with Manic and John acting as mechanics, to their usual high standards. Paul won the number of crashes competition, Russell showed nice style on the bike, and Andy was just slow! (it is a managers perogative to be slow!)