What an epic weekend that turned out to be! Against all the odds, Keith Terry, Mikey Bonett and their long-suffering partners not only pulled off a very successful mid-pandemic season opener but also managed to get the event aired live across the world.
This gave scooters a chance at being showcased to thousands of people as the race was aired live on YouTube, complete with drone footage, interviews, commentary and live timing.
Le Mans style start…
British Scooter Endurance Club
Just in case you’ve not been paying attention for the past couple of years on SLUK, the British Scooter Endurance Club is new. It was set up in 2019 and BSEC ran their first event at Teesside in September of that year. After being forced to cancel Whilton Mill in spring 2020 (due to Covid) the next event was back at Teeside last September, behind closed doors.
It’s been a while since I saw a Lui racing, then two come along at once!
What is endurance racing
Endurance racing is a team event with four classes catering for all types of classic scooter rider. You only need a road licence for most classes so it attracts complete track riding novices, as well as experienced racers. Scooter clubs can even enter a team. BSEC allows all geared scooters, so at this event, you could see everything from a Moto Rumi and Maico to a couple of Lui’s and your ‘run of the mill’ Vespas and Lambrettas. With 33 teams entered it was going to be a busy time out on the relatively short 1250-metre kart track.
Being a team event run over a set time (six hours so far for BSEC, although they’ve hinted at longer meetings in the future) strategy plays a big part in how your team is likely to fare. Big horsepower won’t always be a big advantage, especially on a naddgery little track like Whilton Mill. Refuelling quickly and changing riders is just as important as rider ability and reliability.
Whilton Mill scooter endurance facts
Circuit length: 1250m
Number of corners: 13
Fastest Lap: John Chitoglou 58.151
Average speed: 37.748 mph
Distance covered: 204 laps = 236 miles
Shaun suffering from ridicule and a damaged shoulder after 3/4 of a lap
Practice makes perfect
Our weekend didn’t get off to a brilliant start, Shaun Hodgkin had a little crash in Friday practice and ended up tearing ligaments in his shoulder. He took himself off to hospital after less than a lap and we were down to three riders. How very inconsiderate!
Sunday Sport SC taking racing seriously…
New blood
After a freezing cold (minus 3) night in the paddock, we were all up early and ready to rumble – once we’d thawing out a bit. 33 teams, including quite a few new ones, like the enthusiastic lads from Rushden Lambretta Club and those cheeky boys from the Sunday Sport S.C – riding under ‘The United Colours of Bemberton.’ Both teams riding 135cc Lambretta Luis with CP One35 motors, it’s good to see these machines being able to compete now that tuning stuff is readily available.
And they’re off…
Clowning around
Before the event, Sticky had devised a forfeit for any rider in the team getting giddy enough to have an avoidable crash. Shaun was only able to wear the special hat on Friday, thanks to his shoulder injury but after morning practice and qualifying, Sticky was forced to start the race wearing a full clown suit (morning frost, first lap, first corner, new tyres… you know how it goes). Other than pride, no harm done and it was soon time for the 11 am Le Man’s race start.
Sticky spent the whole day riding in this…
Strategy
Our team strategy was to do as many laps as possible as quickly as we could, change over and refuel as fast as possible, not break anything and win the race. Simple!
All the racers had been warned by BSEC before the race that there would be lap and time penalties for being too aggressive on track and for a few other infractions (quite rightly so on a track with so many novices and different types of machinery). Our clown forgot about this though as he overtook on a yellow flag and we were deducted three laps, this dropped us from second in class and third overall to seventh in class. A fair enough penalty though so we can’t complain. Aside from that, Sticky rode the wheels off for us and started to claw back some laps during the rest of his first stint.
Sam is just 19 years old but less stupid than the rest of us (probably)
Litres per hour
Sam was soon taking over from his dad for the second hour, a quick pitstop for fuel and he was out on track. Interestingly we were only using five litres of fuel per hour so could in theory do two hours before refuelling. When I say ‘in theory’ that’s because none of us had actually measured the capacity of the new long-range fuel tank. We thought it was around 10-litres but were too scared to find out mid-race. Especially as we now needed to make some time up.
Loads of novices makes for a real mixed bag of abilities, great to see
Sam is now into his third race meeting and his mature approach to learning a new track and lowering his lap times safely is great to watch. He works it all out, learns his way around and then gets his times down. All three of us were lapping within a second of each other during the race, with Sticky getting the fastest lap with a 1:03.008. With so much traffic and the use of penalties for being naughty it was hard to string together consistent laps. Sometimes losing a couple of seconds waiting for a safe place to overtake is worth much more in the long run. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
VIDEO | Fastest lap with Hornet Racing
Talking of lap times. Hornet Racing’s Greek God, Jon Chitoglou was under team orders not to go mental and he still got the fastest lap of the meeting with an awesome 58.151 on the blue and white Vespa PK. He’s a great talent for sure, you can watch an on-board video of his fastest lap above. He makes us mere mortals look slow!
Endurance attracts Vespas like wasps around a jam jar
Interestingly though the fastest scooter on the track only got to a top speed of 59 mph, which goes to show just how tight this circuit is. It’s all corners, hard on bike, tyres and rider. The Dukes of Essex got the second-fastest lap with a 1:01.585 with British scooter racing Buddha, Mikey Bonett on board.
If you’re into your stats you can see the full breakdown of results/lap times and plenty more info on Alpha Timing.
London Lambretta Club
I don’t think it matters what scooterists get up to, there’s always a drama. London Lambretta Club entered a five-man team for the first time and on Thursday night they found out they didn’t have a van to get them there. Early Friday morning they were still trying to find a replacement vehicle. Meanwhile, Jerry was riding to work in London on the freshly rebuilt and set up for the track Lambretta 240 they’d entered… and seized it up on the North Circular. He got recovered to work, stripped and rebuilt the scooter, got it running again and arrived at the track around 8 pm – well after practice had finished. Earlier in the day, Sticky lent the team our spare scooter, a Pinasco 251 LML for them to practice on, so at least most of the team got some track time.
The London Lambretta Club not only got their own scooter to the start line for the race but also to the finish line. Despite a puncture, early in the day they rode a very good race and won their class. Well done everybody.
Flea hangs on for dear life for the Bembers
Headline news
Another scooter club that surprised anybody who knows them were the Sunday Sport lads. They’d had problems with their scooter on Thursday. On Friday it looked like they’d be forced to pull out on their multi-coloured Lui. Against all the odds though they arrived early on Saturday morning and did very well on track and behaved themselves off track as well. Their Lui certainly wasn’t slow and I’m sure they’ll be back for more.
The track falls silent for HRH Prince Philip
The track falls silent
We battled ourselves back from seventh place after the penalty to third and that’s where we remained for most of the day. Our three riders all did an hour each of the first half of the race and tried to use some tactics just before 3 pm by bringing Sticky in from his second stint, refuelling and swapping riders. Sam went back out just in time for the yellow flag coming out to slow riders down and stop them for a moving two minute’s silence to mark the funeral of Prince Philip. An eerie silence descended on the track, just the noise of the birds chirping and the nearby M1 could be heard. Before long the scooters were all started back up and the race was underway again. Sam put in a sterling performance again, nice consistent, quick riding and you could see he was enjoying himself.
Team Vespa, great bike and a fantastic team
The battle for third
Meanwhile, our class rivals from Team Vespa #15 were doing a sterling performance, clawing their way back up the standings from 17th after a problem earlier in the day. They were now sat in fourth place behind us. John Balcomb’s Dukes of Essex #155 were in position two, with Hornet Racing off in the distance at the front.
On it like Essex boy bonett!
With just one hour left of the race left, Sam handed the scooter over to me. We stuck a few litres of fuel in and I was out on track. At this point the Dukes of Essex were a lap in front of us and they’d got their top rider, Mr Bonett on for the last session. He rides past me like I’m stood still so I wasn’t expecting to catch him.
What a let down
My thoughts were to do as well as I could and try and hang on to an overall third place, second in class. Things were going well until 40 minutes before the end, I felt the back let go but hoped I’d imagined it. At the next corner I felt it twitch again and knew I had a rear-wheel puncture. I got to safety on the grass and signalled to a marshal to see if I was ok to get across to pit lane, he waved me across and Sam was there to run the scooter up to the pits.
A stubborn exhaust slowed things down but we were back out in 4 minutes…
A frantic few minutes and the Franz exhaust was off the Vespa (Al suffered some nasty blistering with the heat because it wouldn’t budge), wheel off, new wheel on, exhaust on and I was back out. A brilliant quick job from Al and Dan. Our pit crew and team all worked very well to make sure everything ran as smoothly as possible for the whole meeting.
We’d lost just over four minutes and the same in laps. Something still wasn’t right though. We’d changed to a different tyre, one we’d used in practice so that felt strange but then I noticed the handlebars had also come loose. They were pointing around 20º to the right when they should have been straight. Not nice. My trip across the grass must have messed the bars up.
Team SLUK passing the Bembers ‘Bigun’ (actually he’s not quite so big anymore either)
Throttle happy
Once you get spooked whilst riding it’s hard to get your head back in the game. I was expecting the front to wash out at every turn and trying not to imagine just how loose the forks may be. I could come back in and get them sorted, or stay out and risk it. I decided to stay out and try to forget about it. Slowly I got a bit of confidence back but by the end of the race the throttle grip was hitting my knee mid-turn and holding the throttle on. I did as much as I could but still didn’t have a clue how far Team Vespa and the Dukes were ahead of us.
The finish line
I was quite happy to see the last lap board come out, followed by the chequered flag as Keith Terry put an end to a fabulous six hours of close, competitive, good-natured and, above all fun racing. Out of 33 teams, 27 made it to the finish line, that’s not bad going. That’s six hours of non-stop racing, an hour and a half of practice/qualifying, plus two hours of Friday practice. Great stuff.
The first three over the line were Hornet Racing, the Dukes of Essex and Team Vespa. SLUK managed to hang on to third in class, fourth overall.
London Lambretta Club with well-deserved trophies
SLUK Racing with the walking wounded Shaun
What an epic weekend that turned out to be! Against all the odds, Keith Terry, Mikey Bonett and their long-suffering partners not only pulled off a very successful mid-pandemic season opener but also managed to get the event aired live across the world.
This gave scooters a chance at being showcased to thousands of people as the race was aired live on YouTube, complete with drone footage, interviews, commentary and live timing.
British Scooter Endurance Club
Just in case you’ve not been paying attention for the past couple of years on SLUK, the British Scooter Endurance Club is new. It was set up in 2019 and BSEC ran their first event at Teesside in September of that year. After being forced to cancel Whilton Mill in spring 2020 (due to Covid) the next event was back at Teeside last September, behind closed doors.
What is endurance racing
Endurance racing is a team event with four classes catering for all types of classic scooter rider. You only need a road licence for most classes so it attracts complete track riding novices, as well as experienced racers. Scooter clubs can even enter a team. BSEC allows all geared scooters, so at this event, you could see everything from a Moto Rumi and Maico to a couple of Lui’s and your ‘run of the mill’ Vespas and Lambrettas. With 33 teams entered it was going to be a busy time out on the relatively short 1250-metre kart track.
Being a team event run over a set time (six hours so far for BSEC, although they’ve hinted at longer meetings in the future) strategy plays a big part in how your team is likely to fare. Big horsepower won’t always be a big advantage, especially on a naddgery little track like Whilton Mill. Refuelling quickly and changing riders is just as important as rider ability and reliability.
Whilton Mill scooter endurance facts
Circuit length: 1250m
Number of corners: 13
Fastest Lap: John Chitoglou 58.151
Average speed: 37.748 mph
Distance covered: 204 laps = 236 miles
Practice makes perfect
Our weekend didn’t get off to a brilliant start, Shaun Hodgkin had a little crash in Friday practice and ended up tearing ligaments in his shoulder. He took himself off to hospital after less than a lap and we were down to three riders. How very inconsiderate!
New blood
After a freezing cold (minus 3) night in the paddock, we were all up early and ready to rumble – once we’d thawing out a bit. 33 teams, including quite a few new ones, like the enthusiastic lads from Rushden Lambretta Club and those cheeky boys from the Sunday Sport S.C – riding under ‘The United Colours of Bemberton.’ Both teams riding 135cc Lambretta Luis with CP One35 motors, it’s good to see these machines being able to compete now that tuning stuff is readily available.
Clowning around
Before the event, Sticky had devised a forfeit for any rider in the team getting giddy enough to have an avoidable crash. Shaun was only able to wear the special hat on Friday, thanks to his shoulder injury but after morning practice and qualifying, Sticky was forced to start the race wearing a full clown suit (morning frost, first lap, first corner, new tyres… you know how it goes). Other than pride, no harm done and it was soon time for the 11 am Le Man’s race start.
Strategy
Our team strategy was to do as many laps as possible as quickly as we could, change over and refuel as fast as possible, not break anything and win the race. Simple!
All the racers had been warned by BSEC before the race that there would be lap and time penalties for being too aggressive on track and for a few other infractions (quite rightly so on a track with so many novices and different types of machinery). Our clown forgot about this though as he overtook on a yellow flag and we were deducted three laps, this dropped us from second in class and third overall to seventh in class. A fair enough penalty though so we can’t complain. Aside from that, Sticky rode the wheels off for us and started to claw back some laps during the rest of his first stint.
Litres per hour
Sam was soon taking over from his dad for the second hour, a quick pitstop for fuel and he was out on track. Interestingly we were only using five litres of fuel per hour so could in theory do two hours before refuelling. When I say ‘in theory’ that’s because none of us had actually measured the capacity of the new long-range fuel tank. We thought it was around 10-litres but were too scared to find out mid-race. Especially as we now needed to make some time up.
Sam is now into his third race meeting and his mature approach to learning a new track and lowering his lap times safely is great to watch. He works it all out, learns his way around and then gets his times down. All three of us were lapping within a second of each other during the race, with Sticky getting the fastest lap with a 1:03.008. With so much traffic and the use of penalties for being naughty it was hard to string together consistent laps. Sometimes losing a couple of seconds waiting for a safe place to overtake is worth much more in the long run. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
VIDEO | Fastest lap with Hornet Racing
Talking of lap times. Hornet Racing’s Greek God, Jon Chitoglou was under team orders not to go mental and he still got the fastest lap of the meeting with an awesome 58.151 on the blue and white Vespa PK. He’s a great talent for sure, you can watch an on-board video of his fastest lap above. He makes us mere mortals look slow!
Interestingly though the fastest scooter on the track only got to a top speed of 59 mph, which goes to show just how tight this circuit is. It’s all corners, hard on bike, tyres and rider. The Dukes of Essex got the second-fastest lap with a 1:01.585 with British scooter racing Buddha, Mikey Bonett on board.
If you’re into your stats you can see the full breakdown of results/lap times and plenty more info on Alpha Timing.
London Lambretta Club
I don’t think it matters what scooterists get up to, there’s always a drama. London Lambretta Club entered a five-man team for the first time and on Thursday night they found out they didn’t have a van to get them there. Early Friday morning they were still trying to find a replacement vehicle. Meanwhile, Jerry was riding to work in London on the freshly rebuilt and set up for the track Lambretta 240 they’d entered… and seized it up on the North Circular. He got recovered to work, stripped and rebuilt the scooter, got it running again and arrived at the track around 8 pm – well after practice had finished. Earlier in the day, Sticky lent the team our spare scooter, a Pinasco 251 LML for them to practice on, so at least most of the team got some track time.
The London Lambretta Club not only got their own scooter to the start line for the race but also to the finish line. Despite a puncture, early in the day they rode a very good race and won their class. Well done everybody.
Headline news
Another scooter club that surprised anybody who knows them were the Sunday Sport lads. They’d had problems with their scooter on Thursday. On Friday it looked like they’d be forced to pull out on their multi-coloured Lui. Against all the odds though they arrived early on Saturday morning and did very well on track and behaved themselves off track as well. Their Lui certainly wasn’t slow and I’m sure they’ll be back for more.
The track falls silent
We battled ourselves back from seventh place after the penalty to third and that’s where we remained for most of the day. Our three riders all did an hour each of the first half of the race and tried to use some tactics just before 3 pm by bringing Sticky in from his second stint, refuelling and swapping riders. Sam went back out just in time for the yellow flag coming out to slow riders down and stop them for a moving two minute’s silence to mark the funeral of Prince Philip. An eerie silence descended on the track, just the noise of the birds chirping and the nearby M1 could be heard. Before long the scooters were all started back up and the race was underway again. Sam put in a sterling performance again, nice consistent, quick riding and you could see he was enjoying himself.
The battle for third
Meanwhile, our class rivals from Team Vespa #15 were doing a sterling performance, clawing their way back up the standings from 17th after a problem earlier in the day. They were now sat in fourth place behind us. John Balcomb’s Dukes of Essex #155 were in position two, with Hornet Racing off in the distance at the front.
With just one hour left of the race left, Sam handed the scooter over to me. We stuck a few litres of fuel in and I was out on track. At this point the Dukes of Essex were a lap in front of us and they’d got their top rider, Mr Bonett on for the last session. He rides past me like I’m stood still so I wasn’t expecting to catch him.
What a let down
My thoughts were to do as well as I could and try and hang on to an overall third place, second in class. Things were going well until 40 minutes before the end, I felt the back let go but hoped I’d imagined it. At the next corner I felt it twitch again and knew I had a rear-wheel puncture. I got to safety on the grass and signalled to a marshal to see if I was ok to get across to pit lane, he waved me across and Sam was there to run the scooter up to the pits.
A frantic few minutes and the Franz exhaust was off the Vespa (Al suffered some nasty blistering with the heat because it wouldn’t budge), wheel off, new wheel on, exhaust on and I was back out. A brilliant quick job from Al and Dan. Our pit crew and team all worked very well to make sure everything ran as smoothly as possible for the whole meeting.
We’d lost just over four minutes and the same in laps. Something still wasn’t right though. We’d changed to a different tyre, one we’d used in practice so that felt strange but then I noticed the handlebars had also come loose. They were pointing around 20º to the right when they should have been straight. Not nice. My trip across the grass must have messed the bars up.
Throttle happy
Once you get spooked whilst riding it’s hard to get your head back in the game. I was expecting the front to wash out at every turn and trying not to imagine just how loose the forks may be. I could come back in and get them sorted, or stay out and risk it. I decided to stay out and try to forget about it. Slowly I got a bit of confidence back but by the end of the race the throttle grip was hitting my knee mid-turn and holding the throttle on. I did as much as I could but still didn’t have a clue how far Team Vespa and the Dukes were ahead of us.
The finish line
I was quite happy to see the last lap board come out, followed by the chequered flag as Keith Terry put an end to a fabulous six hours of close, competitive, good-natured and, above all fun racing. Out of 33 teams, 27 made it to the finish line, that’s not bad going. That’s six hours of non-stop racing, an hour and a half of practice/qualifying, plus two hours of Friday practice. Great stuff.
The first three over the line were Hornet Racing, the Dukes of Essex and Team Vespa. SLUK managed to hang on to third in class, fourth overall.
