cadwell photos from facebook site,

Who did the winning?

Mike Powell & Tom Snow.

looking at Mike Readheads comment on the points, I can see looking at this table what he is talking about, are or were all points collected on a 125 or 175, to be fair to all parties this wants looking over.

as it appears if a 125 rider wins all his races then wins a few on a 175 looks like he wins a 175 trophy, surely only his points collected whilst riding a 175 should count for the 175 trophy. if this is the case fine, but Mike Readheads comments need answering to say so.

regards Derek

It must be taken into account the number of DNFs -- 8 for Ian -- and DNS´s for many riders and the fact that Mike Powell has RELIABILITY as well top performance.
    For those reasons he is a worthy champion. Tom Snow has shown he has the ability and the bike but where was he all season? Where was Sticky Mick? or was it the fall at Three Sisters -- or wherever it was?? I hope you are OK Mick?

But, surely, unless my eyes are getting much worse -- the 175 championship  was won by Robbie Brown.

I don´t see anything untoward in results that show reliability, good preparation and consistent good riding.

I congratulate Mike and Robbie -- well done both of you ....

I say Good Show Chaps to all 16 who competed this year. Some of you must have been like me in my Bantam racing days:   WISHING FOR SOMETHING FASTER  but I -- having made a deal with two other blokes,  keen on preparing a Bantam Racer  -- found it had   become a duty to race as best I could with what I had  knowing that finishing in the first 10 of a senior race  was most unlikely.

It was really good fun (oooh ...!) anyway and did lead to actually racing something quick enough.

  What needs to be addressed is the problem of the number of riders who fail to turn up and the total number of Bantam Racers available. Mike Powell and several others are putting a lot of effort into advertising Bantam Racing and hopefully numbers will pick up for next year but to my thinking the BRC (what´s left of it) needs a few more of their ilk ready to back it in any way possible to keep Bantam Racing alive....

Any way possible I mean!

Cheers!


Isa Hasbinn....

Hi all no Michael did not finish 2nd in the 175 cup this is a mistake and I am sure wen James gets time he will change it. IT was me that put Michael out on a 175 as he was about to give up bantam racing after two years of non finishes
hope this clears things up
Robbie

Aa it has allready been stateted the points scoring was a mistake and its only human to make mistakes people need to look at how much off a good job james does and stop picking on the little mistakes that are made i would like to see other people do it (would probally be altertered to weight advantages)

As my dad has stated i was on the edge on giving up and just that ride on the 175 put a smile on my face and that was what i needed

And as for mike he does enough for the club of bantam racing by turning up to every or nearly meeting for the last 30 odd years (correct me if im wrong mike) its called bums on seats (which i dont think you know what it means anymore) and thats all this club needs

Please keep your coments to yourself as you obviously dont know the facts!!!!

Uh oh! Sorrry Michael -- this gets worse. You came on as I was scribbling.

I´ve already been reminded that I don´t know what I am talking about and of course I don´t if the message happens to be on Facebook  which could perhaps be described as a chatty-hidey-hole I would never use.

And of course I don´t know what I am talking about because my time -- that is my time of Bantam Racing and Club participtation -- was long, long ago. Oh so long ago that I am frequently WRONG.

Like you said about nearly giving up and coming back to it to enjoy Bantam Racing,  for me it was having to give it up for the sake of more pay and better status otherwise I might well have gone on into, this, my dotage as BRC´s chairman and probably would still be racing... Probably trying to catch you....!

I like your comments about Mike Powell because they back my feeling I get just reading about him and others on here. This is my only means of information on the Bantam  happenings and I am glad I am right about that one thing -- at least.

More power to your elbow.  I hope you and your Pa have a good 2014 Bantam season. It is also to be hoped that a few more enthusiastic Bantam racers join you...

I´d like to hear a bit more about large flywheels....

Cheers!

Good Evening,

Just for the record, the remarks  I made regarding the scores on the doors were definatley made tounge in cheek and were more at poking fun at my very poor attempt at picking a winning team in the fantasy league, rather than James's ability with numbers. Fact is Robbie won the 175 championship and the last time I looked there wasnt a trophy for the runner up so there wasnt any real harm done.

I would like to think that James knows me well enough not to take offence but I offer a sincere apology if he did, Michael B is quite right,Bantam racing needs supporters and not detractors and I would hope I was in the former catergory rather than the latter, and I certainly appreciate James giving up his own time to write up the scores on the doors and the fantasy league, and I hope that my comments haven't put him off continuing with the excellent service he has provided.

Regards,

Mike

Hi,

I am sure everyone has managed to work out that when doing the final set of results I failed to remove Mr Redheads score from a previous round as he plummeted down the table so fast I missed it. I also need to correct for Michael being on a 175 at cadders which i had missed so he will have a well earned place in the 175 scores. I will get round to fixing it in due course but as it didn't effect the overall result and with a small amount of thought was easy to work out what had gone wrong I didn't think it was urgent.

Personally I blame you all, the trauma of Nicky whooping everyone in the fantasy league is a hard cross to bear   

Mike- I took your comments with the humour intended, unfortunately you left an opportunity for someone else to make an issue of it, if you could turn up to a few more meetings it wouldn't be so hard to keep track of you   


Roll on next year, I am predicting a belter !!

James

Sorry to have put my foot into the stir....

I only wanted to know how the winning went at Cadwell and over the season....

Thank you James for doing the results.

I did get a bit confused (so, what is new these days??) about how the scoring was done and wondered if someone entered a 175 as a 125 whether anyone would really notice. From what I read and see the 175 formula makes it an also-ran to the well-tuned 125. And with that old club spirit of bikes being lent left right & centre if Joe Bloggs blew his 125 motor Fred Mucker -- would surely lend him his 175, and Fred would probably still ride it as if it were his entered 125.

In the old days with lots and lots of races it was possible for two riders to share one bike during a day of Bantam racing. George Harris even put on two Novice races at his Llandow meetings which made that a possibility for two newcomers to race the one bike on the same day.

It is doubtful whether a 175 -- entered as a 125 -- could finish the season with points ahead of the 125 but I suppose a super-suped-up 125 (with 4-speed box??) could win the 175 Championship....***

The reults block shows that a lot are not entering or not starting and doing only a few of the season´s meetings which suggests that costs are the crippling factor. That is a great shame.
I don´t suppose this idea will get much of a response (except a few rasberries) but supposing there was an extra championship award where only four of the six meeting´s points were to be counted. There´d still be the normal Championships but there´d be another chance for those not able to afford the whole season.

Or what about a "Half-Season Championships" -- the best three meetings points counting...

Uh Oh! Went over the top again....

I´ll go back to sleep -- by the way, which day of the week is it? -- and Oh Heck! whirr´s me teef?

***Uh oh! I hope that hasn´t given anyone ideas???

Take care.

That block of results contains more than just results -- it shows the state of a large number of riders bank accounts and backs my thinking...

Not counting the DNFs (did not finish) there are 26 DNSs (did not start) which if added to the NEs (not entered) comes to 37% of the block´s total number of races that could have been entered and raced.

More impoortantly taking the NEs (not entered) alone,  that is 29.5% of the 352 possibilities -- which looks awful to me.

We´ve discussed this earlier -- COSTs seem to be to blame. Cost of entry, cost of travelling, cost of fuel, cost of spares, cost of tuning/preparation  and whatever for the bike, cost of nosh  for rider over teh weekend and ignoring where to sleep this is an enormous packet to my mind.

Frightening!

Maybe the question is answered even before it is put:   would a "Half Season" championship attract new/more Bantam Racers? That is, as said before -- 3 meeting´s points to go to this Half-Season-championship where the riders only compete at  3 or 4 of the venues? Full Championship as now, of course

The immediate wail would be trophies. Well, you go down in the ranks quite a way already and why not have just the first 4 of the full 125 & 175 championships awarded and first 3 or 4 for the Half-Championships?

It would mean that obviously brilliant racers as Tom Snow (sorry to pick on you Tom -- yours is the only name I can spell -- as well as remember) would get a winner´s trophy,  obviously deserved.

And don´t go telling me that trophies are all vanity and not necessary:  that was what I said when I was racing Bantam and 250 ABS and regretted it ... Now in the age of sloppy nostalgia I look at my five trophies (there were six -- one got nicked in Canada) and remember those instances of momentary glory and say to myself, "Yeah! Cop for that! On that day and at that time -- IT WAS ME -- I DID IT!"


OK OK! I´ll shut up and try to act sensibly....

Szzz-snoooore!

I don't think a half season would entice more members John.
If I were to contemplate building a new bike to race I would want more than three meetings to justify the cost and effort.

You are right, of course, Ned... But I was thinking of COSTs and in many cases TIME almost as important as cost.
I wonder íf any of the lads could -- or kindly, would -- explain why they competed in only few meetings. I don´t want to pry but where was Nick all this year? And I would add that our champion Peter Tibbitts missed racing at the North Wales venue several seasons because of the meeting clashing with his home-family affairs and that meant he was always in points-arrears except for that year he did all the meetuings and was Champion...

OK. So there were 22 races during the season and whilst we judge the excellence by performance-PLUS-reliability there are -- I think -- good reasons to balance up the situations of bad luck by that old rule of having, SAY, "18 of the 22 races are to count..."

Something like that might balance up the situation as it exists ...

I say Ned, you did look very bright, intelligent and well in that picture...

... what´s your secret?

Go well and keep well...

JayBee.

Good Afternoon,

In response to JB's request for info on the years stats mine read like this, First meeting poor preperation on my part resulted in DNF's, after intervention on the part of Mr Miller things picked up for Darly and three sisters, Lydden was a banket DNS as a result of a long standing pre booked engagement, Mallory clashed with the 90th running of the manx ( its the individuals choice which events he attends and I appreciate there are only so many weekends in the calendar but it is frustrating to have to choose, oh and for the record I think the new format of classic TT bank holiday weekend followed by the Manx from Wednesday on has completley destroyed the event, only my opinion!) Cadwell was a bit of a sickner as I was supposd to travel to the USA, it was on then off then on,net result I didnt attend and missed, I believe an excellent meeting.

The bantam was out for a total of six meetings, three with BHR, the festival of 1000 bikes and two with the Aintree motorcycle club,for me I am lucky that the financial consideration isnt too much of an issue (for now) however time constraints are, perhaps the two go hand in hand?

Like most racers I am already planning next years assualt on the championship I have one of those expensive multi port barrels that hopefully should arrest my plummet down the scorecard and give the current worthy champion something to think about, oops, that sounded like a challenge, better finish there before I get more carried away.

Regards,

Mike

Yes we are busy in the Brown camp all I am sayin is two is better than ONE    

Its like garlic bread Robbie!   

Thank you for the response Mike R...*** It was like that for me -- when I had sufficient money -- and in those days motorcycle racing  was not so grossly expensive as now -- Simms would ask me to work at the weekend and since the company  had given me  36% increase on my salary for the new job there´d  be no way I could go Bantam racing.

Only now and again... of course.

*** Naturally, it could be said that this is nothing to do with me, as far as it is all concerned  I have no teeth, no committment and just poking-in my nose but hearing of the Club´s demise in the late nineties I was glad to find that Bantams were still being raced because the club meant much more to me than flogging a Bantam around a track, there were experiences which happen rarely and  people in the club that could never be forgotten.

I just wonder how anything can be done to improve the situation. We did get at it half-heartedly some time earlier  and some suggestions came like sharing transport but as I see it the costs of racing  are excessive ...

The Brown camp obviously have the advantage of shared costs -- well done those two -- but with the majority living worlds apart there has to be some other way of managing without a rich sponsor popping up --
-- looks like a miracle is needed....

Lets hope I win the Lotto (Lottery in England.)

Cheers!
Who to call on for advice???

It not quite like that  I pay for all of our racing fuel etc he just buys the burgers think its called sponsored by dad:lol:

What about big flywheels Robbie -- are you still using 140 mm? (14cm...?) That´s five and a half inches -- about the average I believe.

Cheers!

Hi John
yes have been running the big flywheels this season and only one broken gearbox which was due to running the rear chain to loose which jammed up at the top of the mountain at cadwell:oops:  getting ready for next year with plans for Michaels bike can't tell you or I will have to shoot you lol   

Thanks Robbie.
I was always positive that having big flywheels and long stroke meant that at least one could  win an Intermediate race now and again and the big ones help when its raining -- all to do with more  torque or is it the "smoother talk?"

Dunno what I´m talking abaout again.

Go well and stay well,
Cheers!