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Team Benwell withdraw from 2003 Racer series

Ian's Reasons:

Why am I stopping my guaranteed support of the racer / British Championship series....

Well it's for a number of reasons.

Primarily its because I have other things in my life that I would rather devote more time to at the moment.

Reason number 1: I took up sailing last summer and this year have I been doing more and more of this. I get a great deal of pleasure from this, its on my door step, costs next to nothing and I'm slowly getting better at it. So much so that I bought a second boat at Easter which I now sail with my father so...
Reason number 2: is that I now have other people to consider (If I don't sail neither does he) Reason number 3: I'm not having as much fun racing the bikes this year mainly down to bad luck and circumstance, but the fact remains that its not been as enjoyable as in the past. I still take the bike over the car park for fun I just don't want to spend a lot of time and money traveling the country for a while getting less out of it than I do over the road. Reason number 4: The final straw for me (and note this is just me :-)) was the last round I attended at Snetterton. At what should have been a great meeting it wound up getting spoilt by a combination of a poor organisation on the day, an unsuitable track layout, and my now normal interference problems. On what was a lovely day it all just made me wish I'd stayed at home and gone sailing? Reason number 5: Finally. At Easter Mark and I went to see a MiniMoto race, loved what we saw and want to have a go at it. So I'd rather spend what little time and effort is left over from my sailing commitments to concentrate on that.

Ian Foxwell

Mark's Reasons:

Many years ago, in a galaxy far away..... Me and Ian started racing together for two distinct reasons:

1. We find it much more enjoyable going racing with friends and making the whole day or weekend a more social event

2. We both get better results with someone else to share problems and ideas with and to add a bit of encouragement or constructive criticism when it was required

Now over the years we have just got used to going racing together and "going alone" seems a bit strange to us now. This doesn't mean that because Ian decided to pack up racing I automatically was expected to stop as well, far from it. In fact I think it was me that lost interest first. And although we haven't discussed it I think Ian kept going because he thought I was still keen.

But like Ian, I think the Snetterton meeting in June made up my mind. Most of you already know my feelings on this meeting and not to have a go at any one person it was badly organised and badly run.

Many years ago I was Chairman of a very successful 'off road' club down here in Kent, and I very quickly learnt that you can't run a meeting and race in it at the same time - enough said.

This is our second year competing in the racer series, and we both had high hopes for this year, but if anything the organisation was worse than last year. Everything would have been so much easier if more people attended. It would then force the organisers to get slicker, allow a proper racing time table to be adopted and provide better racing for everyone. The fact of the matter remains that it hasn't got as popular as we thought it would and is now in danger of stagnating. Team Benwell tried to promote the sport as much as we could with our Masterclass and our magazine articles and along with the work of Chris, Steve and Barry a lot of effort was put in to try and make it grow and it didn't ..so maybe now it's time for someone else to have a go?

Ian has already explained he has other interest's and so have I. This doesn't mean to say that we will never race Radio Control again, we have both been doing it too long to stop completely and we both feel we have done a fair bit to get the exposure that RC Bikes now enjoys, and we both want to stay in touch with this.

Ian's weekend's are pretty much tied up with Sailing commitments for the rest of this year, but I only have to work one Sunday in seven so I might just get to a couple more meetings this year.

Mark Bennett

BD4 is here

At last the long awaited chassis from Team Benwell is available. read about it's development here

for all other articles relating to the BD4 check out the bike pages

To order a chassis click here

Racing this weekend at Tibshelf if you want to race please email Steve Newey ASAP. Following that there will be racing at Tibshelf on every third Sunday of the month, see the calendar for exact dates.

Racing at Riossi (formally Carnells) in Liverpool.

The racing will be for 1/5th and 1/8th scale bikes so there is no excuse not to race. We start racing on 3rd November, with an exhibition race on the 10th which is when Carnells becomes Riossi. We will then race every other week. see the calendar for exact dates. For more info and directions email Barry Walker.

Benwell Development Chassis

Benwell's AGM adventure

Bike racing at Barham

The Barham circuit is in the heart of the Kent countryside about 5 miles from Lydden Hill motor racing circuit. They have recently had the track redesigned and resurfaced and is now large enough to accommodate 1/5th scale bikes. Terry and Gary who run the BRCT have very kindly allowed bikes into their club meetings and have set aside two dates specifically for us. So now that Colin Edwards has won the WSB, Steve Hislop has won the BSB and Valentino Rossi has won the other bike class (just what is it called these days?) there is nothing left to do on a Sunday, so come down to Barham on November 10th and December 1st.

Practice is between 8.00 and 9.00 and racing usually gets underway about 9.30. They run a strange race format of two rounds of qualifying and three legged finals for everyone. However, it seems to work OK and everyone is happy. It is a very friendly club with no so called superstars with chips on their shoulders like so many other clubs I could mention. There is catering and toilets on site. For a map of how to get there click here

The Team Benwell Motor Cycle Masterclass

Things got off to a shaky start for the Team Benwell RC bike master class on September 21st. Everything seemed to be in place. Gary at GM models had kindly allowed us to book the excellent, fully refurbished, track at Brooklands ‘FOC’ for the event. Ian Knight from Centre Point and Maritime racing had agreed to attend, complete with laptop and AMB lap counting equipment. We had notes and handouts produced for all those that attended and a good number of people had already returned their registration form confirming their attendance at the event.

So far, so good…

What we hadn’t planned on was the local council digging up the level crossing ½ a mile down the road, which is the only route to the track, and thus closing it for the day. Even the locals had difficulty finding their way there!

However, Thirteen people managed to follow the very long diversion and turned up with both electric and IC bikes, ranging in ability from complete bike novices to experts that had never raced their bikes on a track before ….. Exactly the type of riders that the Master Class was aimed at!

The day kicked off a little later than planed, to allow those having difficulty getting to the track more time to unpack their stuff and to charge some batteries. Mark quickly dispensed with the introductions allowing Ian to get on with the first theory lesson of the day. Covering steering, both the theoretical and practical aspects of getting bikes to turn, it provided a good starting point for every one and Ian managed to make a difficult to understand subject, very easy to follow.

The first lesson was followed by plenty of track time which allowed everyone to opportunity to put what they had just learnt into practice and with the help of Ian and Mark, get their steering set up adjusted correctly. The relatively small number of riders did allow everyone plenty of time for practice and gave all a chance to get some ‘one-to-one’ advice from Ian or Mark, or discuss steering idiosyncrasies with their fellow riders.

After the second theory lesson on bike construction and setup, plenty more practice time and lunch, every one got together for the races (results here, choose 09-21-02). Considering most attending had never raced a bike on a track before and some had never ridden them at all, the standard was exceptionally high, with one or two already at a standard that they could comfortably race at a national event…. and do well!

The day was rounded off with the third theory lesson of the day on bike racing, how this differs from cars and things to consider at a meeting. After a vigorous Question and Answer session the day was closed off with some more impromptu racing and handouts for all.

I think we can say without fear of contradiction, that the day was a huge success. Everyone that attended went away feeling a little more confident, with their bikes behaving a little better, and a general awareness that everyone has the same troubles to start with but that if you just stick with it then bikes are tremendous fun.

Team Benwell would like to say a big thank you to everyone that supported the event. Gary and the Brooklands club (thanks to the car guys that gave us plenty of track time when we asked without complaint) Cliff at GM Models for providing some spare parts at short notice and especially Ian Knight for running the races under difficult conditions.

Happy Racing

Ian & Mark

photos for this event are available on the smart group