9 March 2008
Jnr. Team: Round 1 – Brands Hatch (Indy circuit)
Simon Peyto and Piers Hutchins, Diablo 666’s junior team, had their first outing for the 2008 season at Brands Hatch on the 8th and 9th of March.

Both Simon and Piers are riding Suzuki SV650 race bikes prepared by D&M/HM Racing. Simon will contest the National Thunderbike series and Piers the National MiniTwins series within the popular and competitive BMCRC motorcycle racing club. Piers will also race in the Thunderbike series at selected tracks.

The Thunderbike class allows a free reign in terms of engine tuning which has allowed the team an opportunity to get their teeth into a real tuning project. However, to keep all the machines competitive the class polices a maximum power to weight ratio for every bike. The more familiar MiniTwin class, which both Simon and Piers raced in last year, is for race prepared but standard, un-tuned SV650s making the machines more equal and competition very fierce.

With the season fast approaching, and after a sterling effort by the team, we had to concede that the tuned Thunderbike wasn’t going to be ready for the first round. This left Simon riding the spare MiniTwin bike and obviously at a power disadvantage to the other competitors. Piers’ bike had been refreshed and had benefited from some development over the winter but with very little testing both riders needed to get up to speed quickly in what would be difficult circumstances at the cold, wet and wintery Brands Hatch track in Kent.

Thunderbike
Having not ridden since last season year Simon managed to put his local knowledge of Brands Hatch to good use and qualify in 4th position on the front row. The first race saw Simon get away with the leaders and eventually finish second after a battle with assorted machinery including a Honda CBR600 and a Ducati 748.

The weather wasn’t quite so kind for the second race on Saturday and the riders lined up in a torrential downpour. Simon left himself with some work to do at the start but made his way through the pack quickly eventually leading on the second lap. Over the next few laps Simon closely followed by Garry Budgeon, the first race winner, extended their lead over the chasing pack. Simon kept his nerve in the difficult conditions, put in some fast laps towards the end of the race and went on to win closely pursued by the second place rider.

Sunday’s first race was held in dry, albeit cold, conditions and again Simon struggled to get the bike off the line leaving himself with a lot of work to do on the first circulation. He managed to make a few decisive passes and tag onto the leaders, however, as the race wore on it became clear the power disadvantage was just too much to overcome and Simon finished the race in a creditable 3rd.

The last race of the weekend was again dry but with the weather always threatening rain we had to keep a constant eye on the track conditions. Simon got away well in this race and despite a crash just in front of him on the first lap managed to keep it all together to claim another podium. Second place again this time with the leader just a little bit too fast to live with.

Minitwins
Piers once again proved his ability and appetite for bike racing. He qualified on the second row and went on to finish 5th in the first race after the usual close racing that epitomises this class.

A mix up with timings saw Piers miss the warm up lap and be relegated to the back of the grid for the second race. After a good start and some determined overtaking in the torrential rain, Piers once again found himself at the sharp end of proceedings. He exhibited an amazing level of confidence in his wet weather tyres with his knee down through the rain soaked corners to eventually finish 6th.

Piers had another great battle with the competitive field in Sunday’s first race, once again finishing 5th but improving his lap times to within a second of the leaders in the dry conditions.

Piers’ was even more determined in the last race of the weekend despite the changeable weather and wet track. After a strong start and consistent performance in the difficult conditions he kept his cool and finished just off the podium in 4th position. Once again proving his commitment to learning and improving with every race.

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