Simon Low Racing
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Being, involved with motorbikes Securit GB Ltd, is aware how hard it is to run a racing team, but now with the credit crunch it is even harder to get sponsorship, our company wants to help a new potential rider to keep going through these hard times!
Being, involved with motorbikes Securit GB Ltd, is aware how hard it is to run a racing team, but now with the credit crunch it is even harder to get sponsorship, our company wants to help a new potential rider to keep going through these hard times!
In 2009, Securit GB Ltd is supporting a new up and coming British rider Simon Low (SLR Racing)
Simon Low is racing in the highly competitive Thundersport GB Series on his Honda RS 125 and aims for a top three finish within the Championship.
For more information please refer to http://www.simonlowracing.co.uk/Index.html & shop4bikers website. To follow him through the season please refer to the following website for the race dates https://tickets.motorsportvision.co.uk/calendar/search.asp?circuit=all&type=all&grade=0.
Thundersport GB, Round 7, Brands Hatch
Round 7 of the championship was held at the famous Kent circuit of Brands Hatch, as this was my local circuit I was hoping for a good result here as I won the double last year in the new era championship and I knew I could go faster still.
As usual we had the practice day this time on Saturday as well as 1 qualifying and a superpole race on Sunday, with 1 warm up and 2 races on bank holiday Monday, so it was allot of track time to really learn the circuit.
We started with the same setup we used last year at Brands hatch BSB, gearing and suspension was the same except this time we were running on the No.2 Engine because the crank had destroyed itself on the No.1 engine whilst testing on a track day at Snetteron earlier last month. The old engine is a couple of horsepower down but there were a few things we had been recently trying to get the most out of the bike and me on the track day.
The Quickshifter has now been set up and it works superbly - 100% every time, we have been using a ‘tuned’ standard cylinder which was giving the bike more top end speed and lastly I have finally decided to use ‘race shift’ to change gears instead of the conventional road pattern - helping me get tucked into the bike for streamlining down the straights and being able to change gear much better in the corners. All of this has improved my bike and my riding loads and I was really confident on the test day at Brands that we were in for a good result.
Unforeseen to us, one of the engine sensors that we use to detect detonation was faulty and giving us false readings when we analysed the data at the end of each session. This was to prove costly and give me the biggest scare of my life in the final session of the day.
As I wound the throttle open coming out of paddock bend I felt some engine misfire and the Detonation light came on briefly but remained off the rest of the time, (this works similar to that of an engine warning light that comes on in a car or on a bike). For the rest of the lap Engine power started tailing off, I was thinking what it might be and thought that any minute the engine could seize - it just felt wrong! I saw the 1 minute remaining board and decided to stay out for the remainder of the session but unfortunately as I shut off the gas coming into the first turn - paddock hill bend, the engine seized which locked up the rear wheel throwing me off my seat and legs into the air! I don’t know how but I was able to pull the clutch in, regain control of the bike, break really hard and coast it all the way around on the white lines to the bottom of the hill where I stopped in the gravel and gasped for a bit of air, As I was going well up to 115 mph before it tried kicking me off!
The cause of the engine seizure was wrong carburetion as the sensor was giving us false readings, we thought we would be safe with the setting we had but it turned out to be wrong, costing us a tuned cylinder, piston and ring.
Because of this we had to re-fit an older standard cylinder and go back to standard settings, but at least we still had a working engine for the remainder of the weekend.
Sundays Qualifying session went well for us, as I exited the pit lane I started to build up a good rhythm, getting faster and faster I was just plugging in the laps and watching my pit board which started on P3 (Position 3rd on the grid). I was content with this but felt like I could go faster so when I saw P4 I really knuckled down to a fast lap. I managed to get into P1 right until the last minute when Fraser Rogers put in the fastest lap and stuck it on pole with a 51.130 beating my 51.270. I was very happy with qualifying 2nd on the grid on a standard bike next to Fraser and in front of Joel Williams and Sam Hornsey.
I got a great start and kept 2nd position in the first race on Sunday. I started to chase down Rogers until Sam Hornsey and Danny Kent passed me, I desperately tried to stay with them through the course of the race but every time I got on the gas on the exit of clearways (final turn) they would pull 6 or 7 bike lengths on me and it was very hard to make up the time each and every corner, there was a massive 6 second gap from me to 5th place so I rode it home in 4th place collecting the points.
We made some gearing changes to the bike for Mondays first race because the bike seemed to be lacking drive coming out the corners, going up 2 teeth on the rear sprocket to run a 16 front and 41 rear, but unfortunately this hampered the bikes drivability out of graham hill bend which really cost us in lap time as the bike was literally over revving when I wanted to get on the gas to power out the turn. Again I got a good start from 4th up into 2nd but the race was red flagged due to an accident up at druids. After they had cleared the track the race was restarted, this time only being a short 10 lap sprint so a good start would be vital again. I did get another good start and turned in to paddock 2nd place again with only Fraser Rogers in front, because of the gearing change the bike felt really uncomfortable exiting graham hill bend and Sam Hornsey powered past, this was not to be the end of my race though, I managed to stay with the leading group right to the finish line but was not able to pass because I kept loosing time were it mattered due to wrong gearing. Another 4th was a good result overall but I was not content with it because I felt I could go faster with the right gearing.
For the last race we went back to our original setup and I was really looking forward to get going and get on that podium. With some advise from Andy Hyde (ex Winona racing 250cc world championship team manager) on how to take graham hill bend a little better I was able to put it into practice, I tried the different line on the warm up lap and it worked so during the race I was going to use it. Lights went out for the final time during the weekend and I got off to a good start tearing into turn 1 in 3rd place this time with Danny Kent and Fraser Rogers just in front, the new line worked wonders as I was able to get on the gas so much earlier than I originally had done, this time I was right up banging fairings with Kent and Rogers, it felt really good to be able to change my line and it to benefit me so much more than I imagined. Still I was loosing time coming out on the exit of clearways and Sam Hornsey again slipstreamed past. I was really determined not to get another 4th place so I tried harder than I had all weekend, lap by lap my laptimes were dropping and I was slowly reeling back in 3rd place gaining time on the breaks at druids as well as graham hill bend and off the cooper straight, virtually every section was coming together piece by piece and it felt really good. On lap 5 I tried way to hard to make up time around paddock and ended up loosing the front, this sent me into the gravel at high speed and I just hoped that I would be ok because it all seems to go in slow motion when something like this happens! Fortunately I was fine but the bike was a little more worse off as it dug in to the gravel and flipped causing allot of damage to the right hand side ripping off the fairing mounts and foot pegs, bending the exhaust and destroying the seat unit! I got up very much dejected about what had just happened but then I was thinking how good it felt when I was on it and how with a simple piece of advise I was able to change my riding and go faster than I previously thought. So even though my bike was pretty much a wreck I still felt upbeat and just wanted to jump back on for one last try!
This weekend has taught me allot about my riding and I have learnt that I can change my lines with relative ease should I wish to do so, I suppose its highlighted lack of testing time throughout the year because if wed have known the gearing from day one then I would have only had to focus on my riding and taking the ‘correct’ line through turns.
It does not matter now though as I am very satisfied with what I have taken away from this weekend although it could quite possibly be the last race meet we do this year.
I would like to say thank you to Tom, Ash, Bradley, Mark and Dee Hornsey, Andy Hyde, Sarah, Mum, Dad and Carol and Phil from SECURIT GB who have helped us out for this round and I hope to be back out there soon with some even better results.
Thank you
Simon Low #57
Please read this article"Twickenham's Low survives 100mph smash" 2:53pm Thursday 16th July 2009 written By Stuart Amos »
Thundersport GB, Round 7, Brands Hatch
Round 7 of the championship was held at the famous Kent circuit of Brands Hatch, as this was my local circuit I was hoping for a good result here as I won the double last year in the new era championship and I knew I could go faster still.
As usual we had the practice day this time on Saturday as well as 1 qualifying and a superpole race on Sunday, with 1 warm up and 2 races on bank holiday Monday, so it was allot of track time to really learn the circuit.
We started with the same setup we used last year at Brands hatch BSB, gearing and suspension was the same except this time we were running on the No.2 Engine because the crank had destroyed itself on the No.1 engine whilst testing on a track day at Snetteron earlier last month. The old engine is a couple of horsepower down but there were a few things we had been recently trying to get the most out of the bike and me on the track day.
The Quickshifter has now been set up and it works superbly - 100% every time, we have been using a ‘tuned’ standard cylinder which was giving the bike more top end speed and lastly I have finally decided to use ‘race shift’ to change gears instead of the conventional road pattern - helping me get tucked into the bike for streamlining down the straights and being able to change gear much better in the corners. All of this has improved my bike and my riding loads and I was really confident on the test day at Brands that we were in for a good result.
Unforeseen to us, one of the engine sensors that we use to detect detonation was faulty and giving us false readings when we analysed the data at the end of each session. This was to prove costly and give me the biggest scare of my life in the final session of the day.
As I wound the throttle open coming out of paddock bend I felt some engine misfire and the Detonation light came on briefly but remained off the rest of the time, (this works similar to that of an engine warning light that comes on in a car or on a bike). For the rest of the lap Engine power started tailing off, I was thinking what it might be and thought that any minute the engine could seize - it just felt wrong! I saw the 1 minute remaining board and decided to stay out for the remainder of the session but unfortunately as I shut off the gas coming into the first turn - paddock hill bend, the engine seized which locked up the rear wheel throwing me off my seat and legs into the air! I don’t know how but I was able to pull the clutch in, regain control of the bike, break really hard and coast it all the way around on the white lines to the bottom of the hill where I stopped in the gravel and gasped for a bit of air, As I was going well up to 115 mph before it tried kicking me off!
The cause of the engine seizure was wrong carburetion as the sensor was giving us false readings, we thought we would be safe with the setting we had but it turned out to be wrong, costing us a tuned cylinder, piston and ring.
Because of this we had to re-fit an older standard cylinder and go back to standard settings, but at least we still had a working engine for the remainder of the weekend.
Sundays Qualifying session went well for us, as I exited the pit lane I started to build up a good rhythm, getting faster and faster I was just plugging in the laps and watching my pit board which started on P3 (Position 3rd on the grid). I was content with this but felt like I could go faster so when I saw P4 I really knuckled down to a fast lap. I managed to get into P1 right until the last minute when Fraser Rogers put in the fastest lap and stuck it on pole with a 51.130 beating my 51.270. I was very happy with qualifying 2nd on the grid on a standard bike next to Fraser and in front of Joel Williams and Sam Hornsey.
I got a great start and kept 2nd position in the first race on Sunday. I started to chase down Rogers until Sam Hornsey and Danny Kent passed me, I desperately tried to stay with them through the course of the race but every time I got on the gas on the exit of clearways (final turn) they would pull 6 or 7 bike lengths on me and it was very hard to make up the time each and every corner, there was a massive 6 second gap from me to 5th place so I rode it home in 4th place collecting the points.
We made some gearing changes to the bike for Mondays first race because the bike seemed to be lacking drive coming out the corners, going up 2 teeth on the rear sprocket to run a 16 front and 41 rear, but unfortunately this hampered the bikes drivability out of graham hill bend which really cost us in lap time as the bike was literally over revving when I wanted to get on the gas to power out the turn. Again I got a good start from 4th up into 2nd but the race was red flagged due to an accident up at druids. After they had cleared the track the race was restarted, this time only being a short 10 lap sprint so a good start would be vital again. I did get another good start and turned in to paddock 2nd place again with only Fraser Rogers in front, because of the gearing change the bike felt really uncomfortable exiting graham hill bend and Sam Hornsey powered past, this was not to be the end of my race though, I managed to stay with the leading group right to the finish line but was not able to pass because I kept loosing time were it mattered due to wrong gearing. Another 4th was a good result overall but I was not content with it because I felt I could go faster with the right gearing.
For the last race we went back to our original setup and I was really looking forward to get going and get on that podium. With some advise from Andy Hyde (ex Winona racing 250cc world championship team manager) on how to take graham hill bend a little better I was able to put it into practice, I tried the different line on the warm up lap and it worked so during the race I was going to use it. Lights went out for the final time during the weekend and I got off to a good start tearing into turn 1 in 3rd place this time with Danny Kent and Fraser Rogers just in front, the new line worked wonders as I was able to get on the gas so much earlier than I originally had done, this time I was right up banging fairings with Kent and Rogers, it felt really good to be able to change my line and it to benefit me so much more than I imagined. Still I was loosing time coming out on the exit of clearways and Sam Hornsey again slipstreamed past. I was really determined not to get another 4th place so I tried harder than I had all weekend, lap by lap my laptimes were dropping and I was slowly reeling back in 3rd place gaining time on the breaks at druids as well as graham hill bend and off the cooper straight, virtually every section was coming together piece by piece and it felt really good. On lap 5 I tried way to hard to make up time around paddock and ended up loosing the front, this sent me into the gravel at high speed and I just hoped that I would be ok because it all seems to go in slow motion when something like this happens! Fortunately I was fine but the bike was a little more worse off as it dug in to the gravel and flipped causing allot of damage to the right hand side ripping off the fairing mounts and foot pegs, bending the exhaust and destroying the seat unit! I got up very much dejected about what had just happened but then I was thinking how good it felt when I was on it and how with a simple piece of advise I was able to change my riding and go faster than I previously thought. So even though my bike was pretty much a wreck I still felt upbeat and just wanted to jump back on for one last try!
This weekend has taught me allot about my riding and I have learnt that I can change my lines with relative ease should I wish to do so, I suppose its highlighted lack of testing time throughout the year because if wed have known the gearing from day one then I would have only had to focus on my riding and taking the ‘correct’ line through turns.
It does not matter now though as I am very satisfied with what I have taken away from this weekend although it could quite possibly be the last race meet we do this year.
I would like to say thank you to Tom, Ash, Bradley, Mark and Dee Hornsey, Andy Hyde, Sarah, Mum, Dad and Carol and Phil from SECURIT GB who have helped us out for this round and I hope to be back out there soon with some even better results.
Thank you
Simon Low #57
Round 7 of the championship was held at the famous Kent circuit of Brands Hatch, as this was my local circuit I was hoping for a good result here as I won the double last year in the new era championship and I knew I could go faster still.
As I wound the throttle open coming out of paddock bend I felt some engine misfire and the Detonation light came on briefly but remained off the rest of the time, (this works similar to that of an engine warning light that comes on in a car or on a bike). For the rest of the lap Engine power started tailing off, I was thinking what it might be and thought that any minute the engine could seize - it just felt wrong! I saw the 1 minute remaining board and decided to stay out for the remainder of the session but unfortunately as I shut off the gas coming into the first turn - paddock hill bend, the engine seized which locked up the rear wheel throwing me off my seat and legs into the air! I don’t know how but I was able to pull the clutch in, regain control of the bike, break really hard and coast it all the way around on the white lines to the bottom of the hill where I stopped in the gravel and gasped for a bit of air, As I was going well up to 115 mph before it tried kicking me off!
Because of this we had to re-fit an older standard cylinder and go back to standard settings, but at least we still had a working engine for the remainder of the weekend.
Sundays Qualifying session went well for us, as I exited the pit lane I started to build up a good rhythm, getting faster and faster I was just plugging in the laps and watching my pit board which started on P3 (Position 3rd on the grid). I was content with this but felt like I could go faster so when I saw P4 I really knuckled down to a fast lap. I managed to get into P1 right until the last minute when Fraser Rogers put in the fastest lap and stuck it on pole with a 51.130 beating my 51.270. I was very happy with qualifying 2nd on the grid on a standard bike next to Fraser and in front of Joel Williams and Sam Hornsey.
It does not matter now though as I am very satisfied with what I have taken away from this weekend although it could quite possibly be the last race meet we do this year.
Please read this article"Twickenham's Low survives 100mph smash" 2:53pm Thursday 16th July 2009 written By Stuart Amos »
British Superbike Round 11 Silverstone
We chose to do the penultimate round of the British Superbikes at Silverstone as our last outing this year, this was mainly due to lack of funds but partly because of our bad luck in the Thundersport GB championship and my position within that championship this year, we feel it would be best to now aim for next year as we want to compete full time in the British Championship in 2010 and want to get on the right track straight away.
This weekend we were riding with the Dutch based team Dutch 2 UK Racing on there fully kitted out Honda RS125, I feel very privileged to ride such a machine as it is the one of the few Honda Grand Prix machines in the world to run a Disc valve rotary system for carburetion instead of the conventional reed valve system fitted to all Honda’s, the major benefits of this is that the bike feels much smoother on acceleration and initial throttle openings, it gives far better throttle response meaning much better drive coming out of corners. I was really looking forward to riding this machine as I rode it at Brands Hatch BSB a couple of weeks back but the bike wasn’t set up for me so suspension and positioning didn’t feel right but the bike powered out of corners like a rocket! Much different than to my standard Honda I usually ride.
This time they had put a much softer spring on the rear shock, replaced the oil and springs in the front fork internals and changed the handlebar positioning back to how I like it and what I was used to, so in theory it should feel like my bike but just with the added power I had been looking for all year. I wasn’t expecting to go out and put in fast lap times straight away because everything about the bike is new to me plus I was on a circuit I have never rode on before so I had to learn everything really quickly.
Free practice on Friday was just about getting the bike feeling right and me comfortable riding it, I had to also run in a new piston for the weekend. We finished the first session in 34th place (out of 41) which I was not bothered about because I knew that the bike needed much more tweaking, plus it was jetted really rich because of the new piston, and we knew nothing about what sort of gearing to run - external and internal. The quickshifter was also intermittently working. I wanted everything on the bike to mirror my standard bike so we moved the gear change leaver and even swapped brake leavers and foot pegs around. The only thing we didn’t touch was suspension because we wanted to go out on the bike again with it running less rich because that improves engine characteristic and power.
In free practice two we found some great improvements, gearing was different and I felt much more comfortable with my riding position, we finished the session up in 23rd place out of 40 and improved my lap times by almost 6 seconds! With a 1.39.610 my best I was confident I could go faster still as there was nothing wrong with the speed of the bike, as we were joint 4th fastest through the speed traps in sector 1 and 2 and 15th in sector 3! The next thing to focus on was the gearing and suspension so we stripped apart the gearbox Friday evening and found out we were running standard gearing all the way up from 1st to 6th gear. We made a decision to put a low 1st and 2nd gear in to get the bike to pull better out the slow chicanes as that’s were I was having trouble and loosing my top speed in sector 3. We also dropped the front forks through to 15mm, which in theory would help the bike turn better.
Straight into first qualifying at 9 o’clock in the morning we opted to run a softer compound front tyre as the track temperature was still quite cold, I began plugging the laps in and immediately felt improvements on handling and turning ability, also the gear changes we had made improved the engine revs out of the slow speed corners such as the hairpin and last chicane were I previously had to slip the clutch on the exits, now I could just power on. The only trouble I was experiencing was with the quickshifter and the rear tyre grip, the shifter was still working intermittently and the rear almost lost grip a couple of times when getting on the gas out the turns, one time I almost highsided because of this. We knew the tyre was ok as it hadn’t done allot of mileage so that pointed us in the direction of the rear shock. Still, we managed a first qualifying time of a 1:38.668, which put us 23rd on the grid out of 40, so I was happy knowing that improvements still needed to be made to the bike.
We had to put in a new piston for last qualifying because the original one had allot of damage and detonation due to a really lean carburettor setting so I would have to go out and run another piston in for 3 laps, we also made the rear shock softer so it would hopefully give us more grip when exiting the turns, and disconnected the quickshifter altogether. After my initial running in laps I was able to start pushing, the bike felt better still and was almost handling identical to my standard bike, I now felt I could push it properly and started to get into a good rhythm, as I passed my pit board on the start finish straight and saw the IN sign on it because the team wanted to check everything was ok with the bike, so I pulled into the pits on the next lap and waited down pit lane as they examined the bike, everything was ok and I was able to go out and try for a faster lap, at that point I was in 18th place and knew there was more to come
As I exited the pits onto the track I tried to get up to pace straight away but unfortunately highsided on the gas at the Abbey hairpin, this was my own mistake due to the tyres not being up to temperature, there wasn’t much damage and I was ok so I was able to get back on the bike and ride it into pit lane so the team could check it over, unfortunately I had snapped a washer in the front break leaver master cylinder and wasn’t allowed back out again that session because the leaver was loose and flapping around.
Never the less I was happy with the bike and really confident for the race on Sunday, we stayed in 23rd position but I went a second faster with a 1.37.312 and only did 3 fast laps before I came in.
We experimented with some shorter gearing for the 15-minute warm up session on Sunday but it didn’t improve the bike so for the race we would go back to the settings we had for qualifying.
I was really looking forward to Sundays race mainly because it may be the last one of the year for us and I wanted to try harder than I’ve ever done before to get a good result, our realistic aim was to get in the points in the top 15 and I felt that it was possible, I would just have to get one of my good starts and take a few people on the first laps, we had a strategy planned and I was ready to put it into action.
Lights went out and we were away, I managed to take two riders into Copse corner and some more on the exit, it was complete madness! I got the elbows out and just tried to stay with riders in front, Andy Reid crashed at the hairpin and a few of us had to take avoiding action so we wouldn’t hit his bike, I went past my pit board on the first lap in 18th and was happy but now more determined to make up the 2 second gap in front to Catherine Green, Ian Lougher and Philip Wakefield, Ross Walker was on my tail though and I didn’t want him passing me because I knew I could make up the gap, he passed me going under the bridge and I was able to slipstream past him down the start finish straight because I got really good drive coming out the last chicane, we were having a good battle but he tried a move up the inside of me through priory which is one of the fastest left hander’s of the track, unfortunately our lines met and he hit my rear tyre and exhaust, making his front tyre wash out and crash also sending me straight on into the gravel at speed, putting both my feet down I managed to slow down, come to a stop and keep the engine running, but my exhaust was bent almost at a right angle sticking out the side of my bike, obviously I wasn’t allowed to get back on the track and that was the end of my race after only 3 laps!
Yes a very disappointing end to the weekend after trying so hard improving the bike, but the outcome was totally out of my hands and there was nothing I could of done. We were back in the 1 minute 37 mark and going faster so I’m sure I could of achieved a good result but that’s racing and stuff like that happens, I just want to say a big thank you to the team: Tom Ames, Mark and Peter VAN DAALEN for the ride and Mum, Dad and both Sarah’s for helping us out with the finer things such as photos and brolly girls!
This year has been very up and down for us but we have learnt allot as a team and me as a rider, I cant wait for next year already to put it to the test with the UK’s top talent and teams in the British Championship. Hopefully we can ride the Dutch bike from DUTCH 2 UK RACING in 2010 and achieve top 10 results as I know its possible for me to do so, we just need the testing time on track and a little more funds, with this the possibilities are endless!
Special thanks to:
Carol and Phil from SHOP4BIKERS.CO.UK
Richard Alexander from TIPPETTS
Mark and Dee Hornsey from HORNSEY STEELS
Paul and Linda from PLJ PHOTOGRAPHY
Lee from E2E SOLUTIONS
Mark from HMT (HOLBEACH MOTORCYCLE TYRES)
Ian Emberton IANE
And everyone who has helped our team grow and be competitive in 2009 and we look forward to 2010!
Many thanks
Simon Low # 57
