Chad's Derby Phoenix Cadwell blog

Road tester Adam Child brings you news of his weekend at Cadwell Park in the Derby Phoenix Formula 600 championship.

Grid Position 38th

Saturday
Race 1   13th overall/ 4th Novice
Race 2  7th overall/ 2nd Novice

Sunday
Race 1  8th overall/2nd Novice
Race 2   N/A

As any club racer will tell you, the race doesn’t start on race day but days or possibly weeks before as you prepare the bike.

In my case a very standard 2001 GSXR600, built from spare parts donated by Ken Urwin Motorcycles in Thorne near Doncaster.

Everything is standard, forks, engine, pegs, brakes the lot. But for Cadwell Park we had a new shock kindly lent to us by Richard at Maxton suspension.

We fitted the shock late Thursday night, well I say we, I mean my brother Mark, he’s a bike technician at J+S Motorcycles in Doncaster. What he doesn’t know about bikes isn’t worth knowing!

All I had to do was stick on the stickers from my new sponsor www.theFSD.com. Richard, the director, is a local business man who’s helping me out with fuel and entry frees, and he gets the drinks in every now and then, so big thanks to him.

Come race day and it was an early 5am start to Cadwell Park. Everything went smoothly thanks to Mick from Derby Phoenix.

No problems with the bike and I was ready for the first practice. The new Maxton shock worked well, but I didn’t really push as practice isn’t timed, grid position is decided on championship positions, which meant I was at the back.

The call-up for my race was to say the least, confusing. First I was given a grid position, then it was taken away, then I was recalled to the grid.

As it turned out I joined the back of the grid frustrated on cold tyres without a sighting lap. But that’s racing, accidents happen, it never runs like clockwork.

I took the first few laps steady; trying to get some heat into the Bridgestone’s then started pushing. I managed to battle up to 13th; bit frustrating as I was lapping quicker than some of the guys in front but it’s hard to make up time from the back.

Race two, but this time from 13th on the grid and I was mixing it with the quick boys, much more fun. The racing was close, with some fast lads but my old GSXR was feeling slow and dated, but in the damp conditions I brought her home in 7th, 2nd in my class. We were chuffed, even my very small fan club of two seemed happy, and a trophy to take home!

Sunday and again the weather was looking gloomy. We fitted a new BT002 to the back, and crossed our fingers hoping it would stay dry.

Even though it was declared at wet race it was near dry. I got a good start but Steve Perkin had a massive off at Park, almost taking me out in the process, forcing a re-start. I didn’t do so well in the restart but had some really good battles, second again in class eighth overall.

The heavens opened up after lunch, some of the worst rain I’ve ever seen at Cadwell. The meeting was put on hold, racers started packing up, and then it was back on.

We decided against it, we wasn’t in the championship and only risked crashing the bike. We’d had a good weekend, cold and wet we headed for home.

Thanks to Mick at Derby Phoenix and everyone who came over to say hi. The paddock was really friendly and if I get change may see you later in the year? I’m at Elvington this weekend hopefully it will stay dry!

Thanks To: MCN, www.theFSD.com, Ken Urwin Motorcycles, Bridgestone, Maxton Suspesnion, B+C Express, Motrax, R+G, BSD, Skidmarx, Phoenix Distribution.

Crew: Mark, Roger, Lee and Gareth

Bike: 2001 Suzuki GSXR600
Engine: Standard around 100bhp
Suspension: Maxton rear, standard front
Wheels and tyres: Standard wheels, Bridgestone BT002 tyres