Spring Cup 2015 story: Nicolas Pautet prepares for the Manx GP
In anticipation of the Manx GP, Nicolas Pautet, driver in the French rally championship, tells us about his first real crazy race: the Spring Cup, on the Oliver’s Mount circuit in Scarborough (England), on April 11 and 12. Chills sequence…
A few months ago, a friend, Eric Lenser, announced to me that he was going to compete in the Spring Cup … I have at home an old t-shirt with the name of the main "real road races" where is precisely the Spring / Gold Cup. So when he asks me, as well as a few other French bikers riding in road races, if a "car-sharing" version "road race" interests us, the "French armada" was born…
We leave on the evening of Thursday April 2nd on a long, very long 24 hour trip to Scarborough in central England, to the east. We are enthusiasts so don’t be surprised to read that we are willing to travel 50 hours for a two day race !
After 24 hours on the road, we arrive at the Oliver’s Mount circuit … First impressions: it’s cold! We are by the sea, with wind and very soon rain…
Saturday morning, it rains. And lack of time to put on the rain tires, it was impossible to do the only "new comers" tests of the weekend. No problem, I say to myself: I learned the route by heart on video, I lack the speed and the elevation but I should not be too surprised…
So I’m impatiently awaiting the qualifying sessions and when they start, the wind has almost dried up the whole track … Too bad to have rain tires on the bike…
On this track, it is impossible to enter while driving or to exit to make adjustments, because the entry is in the middle of the straight line through a small gate.
It should be understood that we are in England, on a race which is part of the "real road races" and that the circuit is a road that Mr. and Mrs. everyone can take to go to work in the morning…
The paddock is a mixture of the Continental Circus of the 70s where the shining "motor homes" of top pilots, old camper vans and barnums that have seen more storms than Jack Sparrow himself mingle. !
I knew deep down that I was going to like it! This is the atmosphere of the French road rally championship, but with the essence of Anglo-Saxon road races…
At the end of the two Spring Cup and Junior qualifiers on Saturday morning, I’m a little disappointed because I know that I can ride faster and that suddenly I’ll start in the middle of the grid. In Oliver’s Mount, it is better to be in front for the first bend (a 180 ° hairpin) where 30 furious people tumble down with drool on their lips !
I am therefore qualified in Junior B (600 cc) and in Spring Cup B (600 and 1000 cc twin cylinders, everything is mixed).
3.20 p.m., departure of the Junior: I place myself on the grid, this famous starting grid so narrow where electric blankets and other umbrella girls do not exist due to lack of space…
For the warm-up lap, I take off and everyone simulates their start. It is certain that the first pin is going to be decisive. I have in mind the collective fall that occurred a few years ago…
We absolutely must not be inside because we are locked up. You have to be in the middle of the turn and stick out your elbows (as well as your super biker-style foot in the rain!). I end the warm-up lap by reciting to myself the trajectories and the places where the fall is prohibited…
We stand on the grid, the old Englishman with the cap full of pins waves to us, everyone is there, the red flag goes down, the three lights come on, then go out…
Feuuuuuuuuuuuuu !
Feuuuuuuuuuuuuu! The deafening meow of the 600s takes us all to "Mere Airpin" (the first pin). I am in the middle, it brakes, it accelerates, here we are out of the turn, impossible to keep the front wheel on the ground because we attack the climb that takes us above the hill.
All my weight on the front and a little bit of rear brake allow me to quickly keep gas high. 2nd, 3rd, 4th, I throw myself into Quarry Hill and propel myself into Grant’s, go down two gears, make the Kawa scream and enter 2nd in the turn.
That’s it, I’m on the set! A left at 90 ° commands the "straight line". Many riders should not know that a 600 starts to run at 10,000 rpm and I overtake them as soon as they come out of the turn !
3rd, 4th, 5th: a small bump takes my butt off the saddle and gives movement to the bike (note for later: tighten the steering damper). I pass the 6, lying behind the bubble at more than 200 km / h on a small road and I wait for my brake mark: a tree with a weird shape – nicer than a 150 m sign !
Big braking at "Palmer’s", with in line of sight a pretty white house which seems to call me … I go down to 2nd, pass the Memorial and the right of "Lougher’s", then big acceleration by pulling the 4th until ‘at the "Drury’s" pin.
The leaves fly…
I try to overtake in the turns but I realize that it is dangerous … The leeway is almost zero with the grass on each side and I prefer to be 200% sure to overtake.
I pass the pin, I attack the descent in the woods, the leaves fly…
Here we are at the "Mountside" hairpin. I’m going to find out all weekend long that this is my favorite place to overtake, as there is good clearance in front "just in case". I brake later than the others and the continuation takes us to "Bottom Straight" then to "Jefferies’s Jump".
The jump recipe…
These are the two things that I like in road racing: the breaks (where the bike sheds the front in turns) and the jumps !
The first passages validate the trajectory, the approach speed and the overall feeling, but the following laps should be used to try to make the bike fly….
How it works ? You have to be at the bottom of 4th, look well into the distance and the bike must be perfectly straight, otherwise beware of the handlebars … Keep gas, especially not to cut on the jump otherwise it is "frontflip no hand no foot and nothing "assured! I think the first jump where I really took off the two wheels, I smiled stupidly under my helmet…
At the end of the jump, I remember that you have to keep gas until the "200M" sign, like on the video. Oops: there is no sign! It will be by feeling, no problem, I arrive in the right / left of "Farm Bends", I go in first, the bike is very high in the turns, but at the end of the turn a small step at almost 90 ° command the straight line: forced to come out of the bend very hard.
1st, 2nd, 3rd, pit straight, 4th … And end of my first race lap at Oliver’s Mount.
You liked it ?
I finished 10th, with a fastest lap of 1’59.9 which suits me very well. First race validated out of the two that I still need for the Mountain License, after the four validated last year.
I ran into one of my trainers who introduced me to the Isle of Man route during the Mike Hailwood Foundation weekend. He asks me if this is my first road race and says he is impressed with my speed for a first at Oliver’s Mount. I thank him and we discuss the TT….
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My motorcycle: a 2011 ZX-6R |
| I ride a 2011 ZX-6R (a 600 and not a 636 to be able to ride in the 600 class championships) which has 13,000 km on the clock, with which I rode last year.
It is equipped with an Ohlins TTX36 shock absorber at the rear, a fork kit revised and corrected by 2Rteam, a shifter and engine management after passing to the bench at Thornbike, a pair of avia hoses and a Brembo master cylinder for the front brake. No more a good old shredded poly where there is still room for new sponsors, because it’s hard to make ends meet ! Contact sponsors and donors:
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4:50 p.m .: first Spring Cup B race: 600, 750, 1000 … Everyone is mixed.
I did my race and finished 11th with a time of 1’58.5. Good progress! The day of Saturday ends with the exchange of each other’s stories. I think that we (the French who ride on the race) have a certain facility to have "galleys" … In short, a small meal in the motorhome, a beer, a digital kiss and in bed! The 24-hour journey made us all exhausted: lights out at 10 p.m. (yes, ten o’clock!)…
Sunday, standing at 7:30 am. The sky is overcast … Scientific analyzes, the welded bones of old pilots and the Froggies are categorical: it is going to rain. Yes, but when ?
The Froggies are formal
We decide with my mechanic and friend Edouard to do the morning warm-up. Because that’s it, it’s raining, and I have never driven on this wet track which, according to other drivers, slips a lot…
End of warm up: 2’18.3. I didn’t force it at all, it actually slips quite a bit in some places where the foam remains anchored to the bottom of the tar. The best (Ivan Lantin, Dean Harrison and others Guy Martin) drive on average in 2 minutes.
The weather is getting worse … It’s raining, it’s windy, it’s cold … A good meal warms us up and I have time to rest because the Spring Cup B race only takes place 2:30 p.m..
2pm, first call to the microphone: "Please attention paddock, please attention paddock, Spring Cup B race" … I am waiting for the second call to get ready and take off my Tecnoglobe heating blankets and I go towards the start line. Surprise: I arrive first because an incident on the track is delaying the start.
I put my motorbike against the safety rail and sit down next to it while waiting for the departure. A spectator calls out to me, we are talking in the rain and he tells me that we are crazy to ride in these conditions…
This is the race…
I tell him that’s the race. Everything can happen for good or bad, but the pleasure is there and I would not be happier elsewhere than here, in the rain, waiting for the start of a race with about thirty English, Irish, Scottish, French people. , Portuguese and so on.
Finally, I hear the engines coming in. A marshal opens the small door giving access to the track, I stand on the third row, look to the right, to the left and realize that despite the rain, the spectators are there! I think the English don’t have the same perception of bad weather as we do and I see my friend Dominic Herbertson, who gives me great encouragement. I smile, close my visor and realize that a pilot is missing on the grid before mine! As a certain Jean-Claude Duss would say: "I think I have an opening …"
OK, red flag, lights on, lights out … My heart hits as hard as I write these words as when I was on the bike! I start in ground / ground missile mode … When I reach the hairpin, I screw my foot on the ground like a supermot ‘, I accelerate again, pass the 2nd, the 3rd…
And I am third! 3rd !!! I tell myself that if I finish the race in this position, it’s just huge. I am zen, I recite my lesson, load the toe clips fully on the acceleration, with this strange feeling that I am not in my place…
The front rider rolls slower than me … I pass him neatly inside the "Mountside" pin … I’m second! And the first one is right in front of me !
It’s okay, I’m first !!!
I have a bike / tire / circuit feeling identical to the times I won rally stages in the wet. I stay in the wheel from the first until the 4th lap, I try to overtake in the straight line on the plateau in 6th at more than 200 km / h in the rain, 50 cm from the grass. The pilot shifts a bit. OK, if you have to overtake you will do it safe in a place where you are sure not to do anything.
We arrive at the "Mountside" pin (yes, again): I put the brakes on him … it’s okay! It’s okay, I’m first !!! I’m so focused at this point that there isn’t even a tenth of a second of euphoria under the headphones. I cross the straight line, I’m in a bubble, I think of nothing other than trajectories and braking points.
I tell myself that I did the job. I have the right position, I will be able to ride at my own pace, without being embarrassed and especially without having to force to overtake.
I enter "Mere Hairpin" as on the previous tours, no more no less. Then I accelerate again…
Woooouuff … Highside !
Highside … There, at this precise moment, you have to imagine an elastic band that stretches and relaxes … Wooouuuuff! I am thrown from the motorcycle without having time to understand what is happening, I fly, I land on my back like a Ninja turtle … Kawabounga !!!
I get up, jump on the bike, the relief, the bubble is broken as well as the brake lever protection. A quick glance at the controls: it’s pretty much fine. I try to start, put my finger on the brake lever … nothing … No !!! The handlebars bent and the brake hose banjos came loose. I had time to do all this before my pursuers showed up on the turn. I was ahead (we validated the fact that I really had room with the timesheet after the races). I had the best time in the race 2.09.3…
No French has ever won a race there, we came close to the feat … I immediately think of things more down to earth: I did not finish the race, so no second race validated for the Mountain License…
Edouard repairs the bike for me in two steps, he bleeds the brakes, he manages! Fred Besnard (a freshly met road racing buddy) lends me a bubble (that’s the spirit of mutual aid on races). I take the bike to the technical control, it’s good, I can line up at the start of the junior race at 3:45 pm. Phew !!
I clear my mind by chasing all the images of "almost podium", wheelies on the finish line and other small cuts on the chimney to concentrate on the fact that I absolutely have to finish the coming race…
"Junior Race B," blasts the microphone. I go towards the straight line, place myself on the grid and wait for the start. I go into automatic mode! Zero risk, no big brakes … I do the whole race with Franck Petricola wheel to wheel, like a walk with friends! End of the race…
Relief, I have just validated the last race necessary for the Mountain License which will be used to run on the Isle of Man.
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Thank you ! |
| I would like to thank Eric Lenser who organized everything, my French pilot friends Franck, Fred and Martial, my English pilot friends Oliver, Dominic (for the good moments of fooling and mutual aid), my super mechanic Edouardo Mendes Passot, my family and the organization of Olivers Mount which really made it easier for us to participate in the Spring Cup !
As well as all my sponsors: Tecnoglobe, Starterre, Kawasaki Spring Bike, La Vie Claire in Villefranche (69), Motul, Tom’s Cuir, Vin Messerli, Studio Hair, Globe Atlas Adventures, 2RTeam and Site which allow me to make it all possible ! |
The rain stops, the wind stays and the sun comes … In a few hours, all the roads are dry. And that’s good, we finished our shopping! The weather was very … English !
Now is the time to tidy up, that special moment when you only have in mind those moments that have just passed, beautiful, hard, trying, but which ultimately contribute to the magic of a race.
The 24 hour return journey awaits us. I will spare you the motorway closed for 100 kilometers and the 12:30 am ferry that largely escaped us…
Spring Cup 2016, here I am! But I’ll meet you this summer on the Isle of Man for the Manx GP: stay tuned !
Spring Cup 2015 official video
Nicolas PAUTET
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