Need the Suspension sorting!!!

We have decided Leon is riding out of our League now and needs the Suspension set-up by people who know what they are doing, we have always run a tight ship and tried to do all we can ourselves, after all we don't have a money tree at the bottom of the garden!! and run on a very tight budget !!! Unless there are any offers of Free Suspension set-up and Advice ???

ThundersportGB Round 1 Trophies

Leon with his ThundersportGB Superstock 600 Trophies, Thanks to Joan from 'Bikesportpics'

EMRA RD 1 Trophies

Leon's EMRA Round 1 Trophies

ThundersportGB Round 1 Mallory Park March 13th, 14th and 15th

Leon competed with ThundersportGB last Year and finished in 3rd place in the Junior Powerbike Championship on his AMS-Motorsport sponsored Kawasaki ZXR400, this is a well Organised Club with lots of track time, as well as being Televised on 'Motors TV' and is highly recommended.

This year Leon will be racing in the Superstock 600 Championship, and this is the first race report.

Friday 13th was testing and Qualifying for the 'Superpole' race to be held on the Saturday, there were some top named riders 'Dean Brown', 'John Simpson', Daniel Miles and Richard Wardle. Leon rode well and qualified in 3rd place on the grid, he held back a bit to try and save on tyre wear, after all it get's expensive when you have already bought 3 rears and 1 front tyre 2 weeks earlier!!

However Saturday came and Leon did well in the 'Superpole' race (18 laps), he Finished in 2nd place, 0.511 seconds behind John Simpson, with a fastest lap time of 55.599, and another Trophy in the cabinet ( well there everywhere now!).

Sunday is televised race day, with ThundersportGB, so Leon had to do well and get all his Sponsors on the TV!!, so the pressure was on.

Race 1

Leon got a good start but had company! Dean Brown was right behind him and at one stage got passed Leon, which Leon then claimed back at the hairpin, seconds later we saw Dean rolling down the start / finish straight, his gear change rod had come off!! and that left the door open for Leon to claim a 4.6 second Victory!!! and an Interview with the TV Camera's.

Race 2

Suspension changes were made after Leon said he was having trouble putting the power on out of the corners in the first race so he didn't have any track time to check the set-up, so this was always going to be a hard race.

Leon went into 3rd place from the off and started to drop back, but within 3 laps he was clawing the gap back, it was a brilliant race to watch (as you will see!) and was a photo finish over the line with just 0.3 of a second between all 3 top place riders, unfortunately Leon came 3rd and as quoted by the commentator on the day "it was a photo finish" 1000th of a second between him and 2nd place winner John Simpson with Dean Brown taking the overall win. This was an amazing race and afterwards Leon explained that it took him 3 laps to get used to the Suspension set-up, while the Rear was better it was pushing the front wide and was a fight to control it, with Dave Stewart saying "thought you was entering the new part of the track at one point".

Leon did extremely well and now leads the ThundersportGB Superstock 600 Championship, but this will change as the next meeting clashes with the EMRA Round. Leon still has quite a few rounds to get the points back and this will be his aim for the next meeting with Thundersport GB at Pembrey on the 8th, 9th and 10th May.

Thanks to Sponsors and Supporters

Big Thanks to Leon's Sponsors:-
Mike Dorey at BMC Racing (Manbat, Rock Oil, Signs of the times, Trickshifter)
Crossed Keys Motorcycle Club (Fundraising for Leon)
Cross Keys Inn (your generous Donation)
U.V.S signs (Stickering of Vehicles)
Freddy Dunn (Leon's R6 paintwork)
Andrew Downs (your Support and Donation)
without you All this wouldn't be possible.

Leon with 3 top riders

Paul Curran, Mark Littler and Leon leading the way in the Buildbase Mallory Trophy race

EMRA Round 1 March 1st 2009

Well the 2009 Season finally get's underway for the BMC Racing / LJR Racing Team
Leon had decided to go for the 3 Championships with EMRA as if winning 2 wasn't good enough in 2008!!!

Buildbase Mallory Trophy Championship(open to All)
Formula 600 Championship (although on a Stock 600 motor!)
Superstock 600 Championship

It certainly was going to be a very busy day!! and on top of that BMC Racing had a new rider for the 2009 Season Mark James, and he rode extremely well, we were all very proud of him.

Leon being the EMRA 'Clubman 2008' had also offered to share room in our awning to 2 other riders, James Simpson and Simon Edmundson, so in total there were 6 bikes and about 50 !!! loyal Supporters to feed! it was hectic but we enjoyed every minute of it.

The first Race (race 4) was the 'Buildbase Mallory Trophy' and what a race it was, Leon finished in 5th Place and was the first 600cc machine over the line with a fastest lap time of 56.684, and just 7.9 seconds behind the Winner Mark Littler on his ZX10R, and on the tyres he had used in the morning for Qualifying.

2nd Race (race 7) was the Reve racing 600 Superstock Championship (10 lap race), Leon had qualified earlier in the morning and was on Pole, and after what seemed like a number of incidents the race was re-run over 4 laps, it turned out to be the Leon and Steve Tomes race and it was absolutey brilliant! Leon crossed the line in a very close 1.19 second behind Steve Tomes the Winner.

3rd Race (race 8) which was immediately after Race 7 was the Formula 600 race, Leon had qualified in 5th place and was on the 2nd row of the grid, he got a blinder of a start and immediatly went into 2nd place tusseling with Steve Tomes again!! By Lap 4 he had took the lead and there he stayed, Winning by 1.19 seconds with Steve Tomes in 2nd place, his cycling and fitness regime certainly paid off!! But his tyres were shot! He said after the race " I wanted to Win that race so bad, I didn't even think about the Bike moving all over the place".

Lunch was a welcome break, especially for Craig and Leon's Dad, who were not only looking after Leon's bike, but also helping the rest of the BMC Racing Team, and have to say they looked exhausted, but Leon's racing efforts kept them going!

Race 12 was Leon's 4th race of the day and the Final of the Buildbase Mallory Trophy and after having new rubber put on the rim's, he was up for the Race! and what a Race it was, Leon started on the front row in 4th place, along with Mark Littler, Paul Curran and Pete Bradshaw all 1000cc bikes and people Leon has always looked up to, we were all very proud of him. By the time they got to Gerrard's Leon was siting in front of Pete Bradshaw on the Co-ordit R1 in 3rd place, we couldn't believe our eyes! Leon managed to hold Pete Bradshaw off for 3 laps and then the power of the R1 got the better of him down the Kirkby straight, still what an achievement, Leon finally finished the Race in 4th place 0.4 second behind Pete Bradshaw and again first 600cc machine over the line. Mike Dorey (BMC Racing) who Dyno's and Service's Leon's R6 when he is not racing it, didn't stop grinning!

Race 14, 5th race of the day was the Final Superstock 600 race and again, it was Steve Tomes and Leon again out front, in fact 8 seconds in front. Leon finished the Race in 2nd place 0.820 second behind Steve Tomes. He came in complaining the tyres were shot and the bike was losing grip round Gerrards, so we had a Mum and Dad whip round and new tyres later it was time for the last race of the day (this is going to be an expensive Year!!).

Race 17, 6th and Final race of the day the Formula 600 Championship. Leon got off to a good start and went straight into the lead and stayed there for 4 laps until Steve Tomes (yes that man again!) came past him and took the lead. The race ended with Leon finishing in 2nd place 0.851 of a second behind him. However after checking the new rear tyre we were amazed he even finished the race, bad tyre compound choice and tyre pressures left the tyre totally ripped up, still we'll learn quickly at this rate!!

Leon's Standings after the first EMRA Round are:-

Formula 600 - 1st Place
Superstock 600 - 2nd Place
Buildbase Mallory Trophy - 4th Place

Leon also currently leads the Co-Ordit Relay Championship open to under 24 year olds.