The sweet taste of victory mingled with the sweet smell of e85! Click picture for gallery.
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( 3 / 4039 )Qualifying in second at Cadwell was a good start and a wet sixth place actually disguised an excellent performance with Russ testing some new wet tyres and getting faster throughout the race.
Race two saw Russ get on the pace and a fifth place finish, with the commentator announcing the fastest lap to Russ; this unfortunately turned out to not count as yet again the race was stopped early. Even without this Russ was now second fastest, within 0.1s /lap of leader Glynn Davies.
Sure enough, race three saw Russ in second when the race was stopped after three laps. From second on the reformed grid Russ won the race on the road, pipping Peter Molloy across the line by the customary <0.1s. Celebrations of the first win for the bio-fuelled Ducati proved premature as BMCRC were running "WSB" (aggregate time) rather than "BSB" (first on the road) rules! Russ followed up this second place with another second in the final race after battling back from a poor start.
Michael Neeves from MCN deserves a special mention for putting in a really good ride in the Thunderbike UK race on the Inzane Ducati. Starting from last on the grid he rode up to fifth out of 25 starters!
MCN took some excellent pictures to add to our usual Racing Lines race shots: click the picture to view the gallery
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A new two into one underseat exhaust was hand built and fitted to the Ducati for this round. If you are interested in one of these contact Two Wheel Technics under "Links". It its lighter and more crash worthy than the twin exhaust set up - as events were to confirm...
After qualifying on the second row for race one, Russ ran in fourth place until a rear master cylinder fault caused the rear brake to drag - check out the spectacular glowing disc in the gallery! This resulted in a DNF and consequently a back row (37th place) start for race two.
Russ carved his way up to 9th giving a third row start for the third race in which he set the fastest lap of the meeting and missed out on a win by less than 0.1s from Championship leader Peter Molloy. A rather mixed weekend ended with an unfortunate crash out of a comfotable third in the final wet race.
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The bioethanol powered Ducati was progressing well at Croix in June with a 4th, then a 3rd, then 2nd in the warm up and then - a startline crash put paid to the weekend! Some good pictures though, and as usual some great racing in the BMCRC Minitwins series. Next, we return to Snetterton on 5th July.
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Although the £1000 ebay Laverda did prove itself to be faster than most of the Suzukis every time it ran, it was always going to struggle on fast circuits against the top SV 650s. Running the Laverda did prove several things:
1. Bioethanol (e85) is an excellent fuel for racing bikes.
2. You don't need to spend thousands buying a Suzuki, reworking the forks, changing the rear shock, fitting a race exhaust and fitting new discs to run near the front in Minitwins. Just get a Laverda 650 Formula!
3. Russ Joyner can still ride a bike fast and his bike preparation is superb.
4. To actually win a Bemsee minitwin race you need to be near the 72bhp limit, which the Laverda was about 10 bhp off.
So, team Inzane has upped its game and developed a 2003 Ducati 800SS race bike. Once again ebay produced a suitable donor bike, which Russ has hand crafted into a gorgeous and unique racer clothed in a lovely piece of QB Carbon Desmosedici bodywork. It is still heavier than an SV, but it looks great.
The stock motor loves the e85 and was much more powerful than the Laverda on the dyno - straight up to 70bhp with the homemade exhaust.
With expert setup setup help from Baines Racing on the Friday, the Ducati qualified 2nd in a field of 39 on Saturday and finished third in its first race! Russ did even better in race 2 by pipping championship contender Peter Molloy by 0.1s to get 2nd. More to come!
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