Richard Britton Racing
News 2005 25th July 2005
Richard Britton Interview with John Hope
Well then Richard…the Quiet man these days…how did the racing go at the weekend?
"Well now the first Open race, I never got a good start…in fact I never started at all. The flag man never indicated to us to engage gear and he just flagged us off…I wasn’t in gear and ended up chucking it into gear and flew off like a madman into the first corner and soon realised I wasn’t getting’ stopped and was headin’ straight for Athlone (laughs)…..so overshot..…got it sorted and ended up in 7th place but the track was breaking up with the heat…the tar was melting… the track was moving under braking and it wasn’t too good now. You couldn’t get the braking right and I ended up losing out all over the place but…there ye go".
So how did the bike feel otherwise? It’s well known you suffered a few reliability problems at the TT along with more than your fair share of bad luck but how did the machinery fare on the day?
"We got the suspension changed a bit on the rear but with the tar breaking up we couldn’t do too much with brakes etc. The bike went well enough now but still not happy with all the different aspects of suspension but with the tar moving and rippling in places, couldn’t really get happy with it".
Ok then, on to the next race – the 600 – what was the story there…. A bit of controversy?
"Well yeah….the thing is I knew that if I had ridden the tuned bike I was going to get thrown out ‘cos the day before I heard them talking at the scrutineers mentioning the boys that were going to be picked out for testing and I heard my number come up as one of them so….I had a chance to ride a regal spec Yamaha I had ridden before at this meeting and …. Well I didn’t want allegations of ‘aye there he goes..cheatin’ and all the rest of it so I had to make a decision and I did and ended up riding the Yamaha, finishing 3rd on the road and with Damien (Mulleady) getting’ disqualified for riding a tuned bike, I ended up with 2nd place which I suppose was a good result for me……"
So in effect, the situation that prevailed here with tuned and non-tuned bikes forced you into a decision which, if you had ridden the DMRR 600, you would have been chucked out the race which would have been a bit pointless … so you took the best option available?
"Aye it was the best option…that was that – rode the Yamaha….it went ok like…..you see my tuned bike doesn’t drive out the corners like a standard bike would…my bike is more suited to the NW200, TT or the UGP…faster circuits….so its not really suited to drive out slow corners at 4000 revs…anything below 8 and a half doesn’t suit the tuned bikes".
So explain what the reason is for that……is it not just down to gearing if that’s the case?…
"No its just the way the engine is tuned…its not meant for low down torque…the power output is all the way up to 16 thousand revs….that’s why I would be losing out 5 or 6 bike lengths out of corners….the standard bike will pull away out the corners quicker."
OK then…the final race of the day…how did you go?
"Got a better start…think I was about 4th going into the 1st corner then passed Darran and John (Donnan) …passed the two of them and oooohhhh naaawww ran wide again…up the grass and…ooohhhhh!!! Got her turned and away again…soon caught back up with them and John was very hard to pass … he was squaring the corners off and so I thought I’ve got to get by and ….tried again and overshot again…and I only had 6 laps to play with cos it was reduced from 10 because the tar was meltin’ …got a good drive out the start and finish line down and just flew by and then got stopped so couldn’t get up with Ryan or Darran so…happy enough..the bad conditions I suppose didn’t help anyone but….there ye go".
So do you reckon it was dangerous conditions as opposed to tricky?
"Well yeah it was…the tar was bad…the boys put about 2 ton of cement powder down to try and sort it out so on the sighting lap you thought you were doing the thousand lakes rally in 40 degrees…dust everywhere (laughs) ..you could see nuthin’…it dried out a bit and the dust settled…the boys did their best it wasn’t their fault…the weather was too good…."
It sounds as if you’re looking for a bit of rain at Kells then Richard?….
"(Laughs)…Nah..its too bloody slippy in the wet…..if you had the same weather in Kells it wouldn’t really matter because its an asphalt track as opposed to this tar….it doesn’t melt the same. It wouldn’t matter…."
So the bikes then? All ready to go…no major problems?
"Yeah well I’ll change the gearing a bit and maybe play about with the forks on the 600 but until I get there and do a few laps…I won’t really know for sure what the craic is".
So you’ll be out on the tuned DMRR 600?
"Yeah I’ll be out on my 600 and I think they are running an un-tuned race so I might take Paidraigs Yamaha out….see if I can win a few shillings to help pay for my diesel (laughs)"
So all set for the weekend then Richard …… any word for the fans before the Kells races?
"Yeah we’ve been lying low for a couple of weeks and not much on the website recently but we’ll get that sorted and get some info up and running soon…I see I’m getting the tag of ‘The Quiet Man’ these days well…maybe I am sort of but…I’ll still be giving 110 per cent for the fans at the weekend so…I’m looking forward to some great racing at the weekend so…see you all there".
Thanks Richard…and good luck pal.
Richard Britton was talking to John Hope
