Brands Roundup

This weekend (17-19 October) signalled a successful return to the British Superbike grid for Ducati, as a newly-formed Lloyds British Moto Rapido team fielded Czech rider Jakub ‘Kuba’ Smrz for the final three races of 2014.

The squad, headed by Moto Rapido team manager Steve Moore, treated the weekend as an ideal opportunity to get some valuable track time around the historic Brands Hatch GP circuit in preparation for a full season assault in 2015. With new sponsor Lloyds British confirmed and adorning the side of the striking 1199 Ducati Panigale Superbike, Smrz returned to race following a three-event absence due to a wrist injury sustained at Cadwell Park.

Despite the injury, it wasn’t long before the 31-year-old was back on the pace, progressing up the order throughout the three free practice sessions to end up seventh quickest ahead of qualifying on Saturday. When the stopwatch came out to decide the starting order for race one, Smrz was able to post the fourteenth fastest time on the 29-strong grid.

With rain falling moments before lights out in the opening encounter it was doubly difficult for the recovering Smrz, but despite dropping down the order initially he was able to make his way back up to fourteenth as the chequered flag fell.

The final two races took place in front of packed grandstands on Sunday, and with the sun shining it was clear that changes made overnight had had a positive effect on the sole Ducati in BSB.

Starting 16th for the penultimate encounter Smrz made steady progress, moving to 14th by mid-distance and eventually crossing the line 12th to take his second haul of points. Significantly the lap time he was able to put in racing in clear air late on secured ninth spot for the last race of a breakthrough 2014 season for the Ducati Panigale that has seen a first front row and pole position for the model.

As battled commenced for the final time Smrz gave himself more work to do off the line, struggling to get the power down and dropping to 17th by the end of the first lap. He was then metronomic in his passing in the early running, making up one place a lap for the next three consecutive circulations taking him back up to 14th.

At mid-distance Smrz made his move by the Suzuki of Waters and the Yamaha of Backlund in quick succession. A safety car deployed to clear debris from the track then closed the field right up, and on the restart he set off in pursuit of a top ten finish. Just as he got to within 0.091s of Chris Walker ahead, the red flags came out and denied a last-gasp top ten. Despite this, it has been a successful return to the top level of superbike racing in the UK with three points finishes.

Team principal Steve Moore said: “The idea was to preview our team and our new sponsor, and we’re pleased with how the weekend has gone – we’ve achieved what we set out to do, shown that we’re very competitive and learned a lot in the varied conditions. We’ve come a long way this year as a team, Kuba has progressed as a rider and we’re one of the few squads that hasn’t had a single mechanical or electrical failure all year which is testament to everyone in the garage.

“We’ve got exciting times ahead – our plan for the winter is to go straight into a testing programme. We’re going to come out stronger than ever next year and do everything we can to get the first podiums and wins for the Ducati Panigale.”

Points, Progress and Pace from Smrz

Millsport Ducati rider Jakub Smrz battled through the intense pain of a back injury to score two impressive results today (5 May) at Oulton Park in Cheshire. In front of a packed out bank holiday crowd, the thunderous 1199 Panigale Superbike ran inside the top ten in every session except race two where Smrz just missed out on tenth place by a small margin.

Lapping the circuit considerably faster than the 2013 pace meant that the Millsport squad had a steep learning curve to fine-tune the Italian machine, and with Smrz carrying injury the task was even harder. Despite this the Czech rider was able to secure tenth spot on the grid for the opening contest, and a solid start saw him in ninth position for most of the running. Two big moments in the latter stages caused ‘Kuba’ to drop a place, but he held on to cross the line in tenth picking up six valuable championship points.

Lining up in 12th on the grid for race two based on his race one lap time, it was another impressive effort from Smrz, who by mid-distance was suffering some fatigue. A mediocre start saw him slip back to fifteenth position by the second lap, but a surge on lap four put the Millsport bike back up to 12th.

It was a war of attrition from then on, with Smrz edging closer to the battle for tenth as the laps ticked by. With just a few tours remaining the Ducati closed to within 0.067s of Kirkham in tenth, but he couldn’t find a way past. Taking the chequered flag 0.153s back in 11th, both team and rider left Oulton Park in high spirits having shown impressive pace at a circuit that has not brought the Panigale a great deal of success in the past.

The British Superbike Championship returns to Oulton Park for a triple-header of races in August, and the team has gathered a huge amount of valuable data for a fully fit Jakub Smrz to utilise when the racing next gets underway in Cheshire.

Jakub Smrz: "From the first day I’ve struggled with my back which is very painful at the moment. This morning I had big problems in warm-up, but I’ve spent a lot of time in the physio and it was a bit better in the races. It’s still not perfect, I just can’t move properly on the bike. The first race was going quite well, but then with a few laps to go and a good gap to the guys behind me I had two huge high-side moments and lost two positions. Tenth was still really good, this is one of the most difficult tracks for us – we said if we can do top tens here we are doing OK.

“The start of race two was not so good which made it tough. Because of the temperature we had to use a tyre we hadn’t used all weekend so I wasn’t very comfortable. Despite all these things making it difficult, I’m very happy that we were able to get two good results – it’s something to build on and importantly we tried lots of things.

“The most important thing is to learn all we can ­­– there’s going to be a triple header here later in the year and we need to be quick for that. Snetterton for the next races is something completely different, I know it really well and it’s more like a European track. The bike is working well, I’m very happy because there’s a great atmosphere in the team and the changes we make move us forward.”

Steve Moore, Team Manager: “There were a lot of things working against us this weekend and we still came away with some good results. We’ve gained a place in the championship standings at a circuit that doesn’t particularly suit us and with a rider who’s injured, so I’m pretty happy with that! We tried a lot of settings and moved forward with the bike which is really important as we’ve got three more races at Oulton later this year.”

2014 British Superbikes with Millsport Racing

For 2014 Moto Rapido Racing have been appointed the technical partner for Millsport racing as they step up to the Superbike class for the first time with rider Jakub Smrz.

Our development of the 1199 Panigale R in the superbike class progressed well in 2013 with Italian Champion Matteo Baiocco scoring well and qualifying into the final stages in the final two rounds. We were very keen to continue our work with the Panigale so after working with Millsport last year in Superstock 1000, the partnership was the ideal option for us to be able to focus on the technical aspects of the bike to give Millsport something special.

The team structure is now a partnership of Moto Rapido and Millsport. We are really happy to work with Millsport as the title partner for the season and we are pleased to have our motorcycle and new larger team on the grid again.

We have already had some very positive tests with Jakub and the team has worked really well together.

Now we are preparing the 1199RS for the first round.

In addition to Superbike, we are supporting Jon Railton (No40) in the Ducati Cup this season on the Panigale 899. Jon, along with this title sponsor Boast Plumbing, will be operating from our pits and will have our team on hand to provide technical support.

Thanks for the continued support. Team Moto Rapido.

Rapido Sport Racing Ducati scores best ever BSB results

It was an inspired weekend for Matteo Baiocco and the Rapido Sport Racing Ducati squad at the penultimate British Superbike round at Silverstone. Set-up changes based around the work of the Factory Ducati World Superbike helped the team to post their best results of the season with ninth and eighth positions.

Shifting the centre of gravity further towards the back of the bike allowed the Italian to get the power down sooner out of the corners, with lap times reflecting these improvements to see Baiocco a whole two seconds faster in qualifying than he had been at this circuit in 2012. Seventh on the grid was not only a season’s best – it was a best ever for the Rapido Sport Racing team.

Despite not getting the best of starts, the Factory Ducati test rider remained in the top ten in the early stages, and latching onto the back of championship contender James Ellison put in consistent lap times to pull away from the chasing pack. Moving into ninth place at two thirds race distance the Italian was lapping half a second faster than the Westmorland in eighth, but after closing up to the back wheel of the BMW rider he was unable to find a way past.

Ninth by a comfortable margin, Baiocco brought the 1199 Panigale RS home in its highest finishing position in the British Superbike Championship eclipsing the two tenth places scored by the team earlier in the season.

Race two saw the sole Ducati in the BSB class start tenth on the grid, but another slow getaway left Baiocco back in 15th at the end of lap one. An incredible mid-race surge then saw the Italian blast past a whole gaggle of riders – including the likes of Noriyuki Haga and showdown contender James Wesmoreland – with new-found confidence. Going one better than he had in the previous race, Matteo set another record for the team to cross the line eighth, and following this sensational weekend both team and rider head to the series finale at Brands Hatch brimming with confidence.

Rapido Sport Ducati team principal Steve Moore said: It’s been an amazing weekend for everyone in the team – we’ve all worked so hard and to finish P8 feels like a win. The progress we’ve made with the Panigale has given Matteo so much confidence – we’re still struggling with the starts but to make seven overtakes past the likes of Haga and Westmoreland on the brakes shows just how stable the bike now is. Right from the first qualifying session we could see that Matteo was on it, and I'm very proud of the effort everyone has put in to make this happen.

Matteo Baiocco said: We improved the bike a lot in the second race to give us more feeling. In race one I had to brake very late to stay with the other guys which was very hard, so to fix it for race two was important. I made another bad start – I don’t know why! It wasn’t easy, the other bikes were very quick in a straight line, but we are very strong on the brakes and in the corners so I could overtake. If I can start high up at Brands I think we will have another good weekend.

National Superstock 1000

Both Ducati Panigales finished inside the points in the ultra-competitive National Superstock 1000 class this weekend, although Tristan Palmer and Robbie Brown found themselves with opposing fortunes during Sunday’s race.

The Ducati Manchester Team once again struggled with set-up on the bike. 29th on the grid was the best Brown could manage, and the team decided to go for a radical set-up change before the race.

Warm up on Sunday morning showed positive signs, and when the red lights went out Brown made a fantastic start to go from 29th to 17th after just three laps of the iconic Silverstone GP circuit. The rider from Biddulph continued to make progress as the race went on, and at the chequered flag was an impressive 14th scoring two championship points in the process.

Rapido Sport Racing’s Tristan Palmer was struggling to keep his Panigale in the top ten, losing out on the long Silverstone straights but making up time in the corners he eventually crossed the line tenth.

Robbie Brown said: We’ve worked so hard this year and it’s been really hard to find a set-up in the dry. We’re consistently fastest in the wet, but then to be 29th on the grid was really tough. We changed just about everything on the bike between qualifying and the race, and I’d like to say a big thank-you to Steve (Moore) at Rapido Sport Ducati for helping us to find a set-up. This should hopefully give us a much stronger starting point for Brands Hatch next time out.

Tristan wins again

Tristan Palmer takes his second win of the season onboard his Rapido Sport Racing Ducati 1199 Panigale R.

Tristan Palmer: “It was the perfect weekend to take pole and the race win. The Ducati worked great for the whole race, I lost a bit of grip near the end but I knew the guys were following me so I made it difficult for them by riding nice tight lines and not giving them any space to get past. I was trying to gap them for the first half of the race but realised it wasn’t happening, so I knew it would go right to the end. I didn’t want to let them past, and instead I stayed consistent and made them to all the work.”

Well done to the team! Now we have one eye on a Top 3 season finish in the championship. Tristan is now up to 4th.

Superbike at Oulton Park

We went to Oulton Park expecting a big challenge and got one, the bike has moved on and changed significantly since we were last at the track and certainly the lap times were improving through the whole field so we knew it would be a big task.

With us this weekend was a Ducati Corse engineer which helped us to get to a good chassis set up quickly. Thanks Ducati.

We really needed a test day or two there first, but budget and time constraints make it impossible so we had to use the three free practice sessions to get a setup and lap time ready for qualifying.

We were making changes to chassis and engine braking strategies throughout the weekend, even between races, finding a tenth each time out.

The guys worked really hard this weekend , long hours without mistakes under pressure isn’t easy!

The set up result and race plan was to focus on the second half of the race, our bike is very strong in the last 1/3 as it preserves the tyres well and handles better with a light fuel load, so our issue is always the first few laps. This plan was a gamble we had to take, but we found the longer the race went the better for us, When the safety car is out it allows everyone to look after the tyre a little more and uses less fuel, so not ideal.

Matteo cleared the first challenge of Q1 and finished Q2 in P18 for the race. Target was P16 to be on the best side of the track for the start but missed it by 0.1 of a second. Qualifying is very tough at this track and the experience of some of the very experienced BSB riders was just too hard to beat.

As predicted, the start of each race was a struggle, passing and making ground when the bike is heavy with fuel is difficult, especially at Oulton park, but once the race is settled and underway Matteo was lapping at good pace.

In all three races the consistent lap times were at the pace we needed and with a better qualifying position and start we’ve shown Matteo and the Panigale can keep pace with the guys in the top ten.

Strengths of the weekend: Strong lap times from mid race distance, good power from the slow turns, good tyre preservation. Our new engine braking strategy worked :)

Struggles:Lack of tracktime sets us back at each track, we need a few more laps before qualifying, especially at the tracks that are so different to the European and international fast flowing circuits that Matteo is more familiar with. We need some more top end power for the long straights in the races coming up.

Now onto Cadwell Park: At BSB level this is a track where it is impossible to race at without a test, so we went from Oulton to Cadwell this week and Matteo completed about 70 laps of the track, we made a few big changes and now have some data to look through and work on for next weekend. Matteo loved Cadwell and with some more laps under his belt we’re expecting to pick up some more championship points before we move on to the final 4 rounds at Donington, Assen, Silverstone and Brands GP which are more familiar to him. Ideal as we’re out of testing budget!