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| News Archives | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | Latest |
| Date Published | 2002 News Story |
| 30/04/2002 23:14:42 | Due to an administration error the site was down for a few days the problem has now been resolved and the old news items will shortly be re-instated. Thank you for your patience. |
| 30/04/2002 23:22:05 | There is now a 2002 gallery with some new photos of Les in action, just click on the galleries link. |
| 30/04/2002 23:42:42 | At last the season is underway. The team is off to Brands Hatch for the first round of the MRO Championship. The new team truck will get a good try out as it’s a 1,400 mile round trip. Results of this and following rounds will be posted next week. This round will enable us to gather vital set up information for the British Championship rounds later in the season. |
| 30/04/2002 23:45:45 | Hello There Les has just completed a marathon testing session on the new bike in preparation for the first round of the British Championship at Silverstone on 31 March. As many miles as possible were put in on the bike at Silverstone on Thursday 21 March. The decision to test here has proved invaluable as some handling problems were identified with the bike. Changes to the set up were made and the team moved onto Oulton Park for another shakedown session on Saturday. Further changes were made to the bike at Oulton and Les felt the handling had improved. The team then moved on to the Mallory Park Race of the Year meeting on Sunday. In 600 race the handling problems surfaced and Les pulled in and retired from the race. Help was enlisted from one of the Superbike mechanics who made some fairly radical suspension changes to the CBR600. This proved to be a major step in the right direction and from the back of the grid Les pulled through the field to finish 16th in the Powerbike race, not as good a result as he had hoped for but Les feels there is much more to come yet. Both bikes have returned with Les to the team base in Mosstodloch where some further fine tuning of them will be carried out this week by the team to suite Les's riding style in preparation for the long trip south to Silverstone this weekend for the first televised British Championship round of 2002. Pictures of the new bikes and team colours will be available on the web site shortly. |
| 30/04/2002 23:46:59 | Les and the team have just completed the second British Supersport 600 Championship round of the 2002 season at the Brands Hatch short circuit. Following the Silverstone round most of the work on the bike has been concentrated on changes to the suspension. Due to the distances involved Les simply has not had the time to test the modifications made to the bike prior to Saturdays only qualifying session. Initially the bike felt good but as Les upped his pace a different set of handling problems manifested themselves resulting in his 36th qualifying position. The bikes suspension was completely stripped and reset on Saturday night. The only opportunity to test was Sunday morning 10 minute warm up. The handling still did not offer Les enough feedback to give him the confidence required at this level of competition. The team was therefore forced to take some gambles with the bikes settings for the actual race. The settings proved a major step in the right direction, Les finished the race in 26th position. Les is confident that all that is now required is more track time on the bike, and is trying to book some time at Knockhill this week before this weekends Scottish Championship meeting. |
| 30/04/2002 23:47:57 | As Les needed more track time he booked a practice day at Donnington Park on the Monday after Brands Hatch. Everything went well and he has found a good set up. Les now feels comfortable on the bike at race speed. This weekend’s Scottish Championship meeting at Knockhill was cancelled due to a mix of wet weather conditions and oil on the track. The weekend was not a complete disaster however as Les managed to practice at the circuit on Saturday. Les will be off to the Donnington Park British round this weekend armed with settings from last Monday and is looking forward to it. |
| 30/04/2002 23:50:02 | Les and the team are heading back from the Donnington Park British Championship round after having a good weekend. In qualifying the bike had a strange vibration which the suspension experts could not cure. As a cure could not be found before the end of the session Les rode through the problem to qualify in 30th position. Far from happy he qualified never the less. Les and Davie set about getting to the route of the vibration problem pre qualifying and discovered that the tool used to balance the bikes wheels had been faulty. This had resulted in both wheels being well out of balance, hence the vibration. Pirelli balanced the wheels and the bike was transformed. The race started in light drizzle, which caught, out some riders on the first lap. Donnington is notoriously slippy in these conditions and a rider went down directly in front of Les going down the incredibly fast Craner Curves, the bike took out the rider next to him and both bikes bust into flames. Needless to say Les had to take evasive action and dropped a few places. At the end of lap one Les was in 37th position, but he put the damp track to the back of his mind as the suspension modifications and the wheel balancing had transformed the bike and Les now felt really comfortable at race speed. Les finished the race in 24th position and was initially far from happy as he felt that another two laps would have seen him pass the group in front and attain a higher finishing position. The team trackside have reported that Les was visibly quicker than the group in front and lap times backed this up. With the bike now set to his liking Les hopes to qualify in a much higher position for the next round at Oulton park and enable him to finish the race further up the field. Roll On Oulton Park |
| 06/05/2002 23:02:42 | Saturday - Qualifying - Track slightly damp Due to the increased track time and testing Les now feels at one with the bike and this reflected in his performance, he qualified in a brilliant 11th place. However, towards the end of the session the head gasket blew, so Les and his team spent Saturday night and Sunday morning replacing it. Sunday - 2nd Qualifying session Competition for places was hotting up and at one point Les had been pushed back to 18th place on the grid. But true to form Les wasn't finished, he put in a blistering lap and regained his 11th position, knocking over a second off his previous lap time! Monday - Race Day Les was feeling good about his performance in practise and the team knew he could do better in the race. Les missed a gear at the start, as anyone knows who rides a bike it's almost like stopping for a second. Les lost a lot of places due to this and to add to this there was a serious accident on the 3rd bend, taking avoiding action for this lost him some more places. The pace car was out for 5 laps, effectively reducing the race to 10 laps, this left Les very little time to regain any places. Anyone who knows or has followed Les will know he does not give up easily, the "Red Mist" was on and Les started to make his way through the field. By the end of the race Les had ridden brilliantly and had made his way up to 13th, at first glance this may not seem brilliant, however, 5 of the riders ahead of Les were lapping slower and had the race been full length, who knows, it could have been a top ten finish! Les' comment The whole team are pleased with my performance but I think I should have gone faster. This is a good result against the best in the country and I'm happy to have pleased the team and to be travelling up the road in one piece. I feel good on the bike now and I'd like to thank my pit crew for the outstanding effort over the weekend. PR Comment I think this race is an indicator of what Les can do on his new equipment, the team are giving him the backing and he is producing the goods, I'm sure Les will go from strength to strength now. I can't wait for the next race. Mark Dunscombe |
| 13/05/2002 23:31:05 | Below you will find a copy of a statement from British Motorsport Promoters (BMP) with regards to TV coverage following the switch off of ITV Digital. Hope this will help you continue to follow Les on the TV. Regards Mark Dunscombe (PR Manager) British Motorsport Promoters' (BMP) statement regarding the ITV Digital position in respect of the 2002 MCIM British Superbike Championship: Following yesterday's announcement that the pay TV platform, ITV Digital, has been switched off, BMP today clarified the immediate position with regards to the LIVE/as LIVE broadcasts of the British Superbike Championship. ITV Sport channel is not in administration. The digital platform is and as a consequence it will continue to show the British Superbike Championship as free-to-air offerings. This offering will continue through until at least 11 May. BMP is continuing to monitor the position on a day-to-day basis and is in constant dialogue with ITV regarding the broadcast of future rounds of the championship after 11 May. The decision to switch off the ITV Digital platform has not affected the British Superbike Championship coverage. In fact, the latest development now means that the Championship will be available to a wider audience of approximately two million homes via NTL and free-to-air digital terrestrial television. British Superbike Championship Series Director Jos Foulston commented: "We are obviously pleased that this will allow fans to watch forthcoming events, at least for the immediate future. We are monitoring the situation closely as we fully appreciate that all! parties concerned need to be kept informed of any developments. As and when any changes occur we will issue the relevant information. Until which time the LIVE/as LIVE broadcasts remain in place. The situation, however, does not in any way affect the BBC's broadcasts of the championship". Hope this will help you continue to follow Les on the TV. |
| 19/05/2002 21:27:26 | Les’s weekend did not get off to a good start. In qualifying he only managed to complete one lap before falling on a slippy section of newly laid circuit. The one timed lap was still good enough however to qualify, even though it was on the fifth row. Race day conditions were mixed and Les had his work cut out to finish in a reasonable position after qualifying. Race one was the Scottish Championship event and was run in dry conditions. Les got a good start and by lap eight had come through the field to second position, three seconds behind the leader. As there were only two laps to go Les settled for second but set the fastest lap in doing so. Race two was the Regal Championship and was run in the wet. Les again managed to get second place and felt very comfortable on the bike setting times very close to his best ever wet weather lap times. Race three, the second leg of the Regal Championship for the day, was again run in wet conditions but began to dry toward the end. Les secured another excellent second place. All in the team has had a very successful weekend, with only one minor hiccup. Knockhill claimed a high number of crashers due to the weather conditions and the new surface. The team has gathered valuable data for the British Championship round in July having the varied conditions has been very usefull. Special thanks to John Campbell of Victoria Garage Lockerbie for the loan of the paddock bike and trailer and also to Alan Bennie for the loan of tyre warmers. Les and the team are in confident mood and head to Snetterton in Norfolk for the next British round on June 3. Les |
| 03/06/2002 19:43:58 | Hello there Following his excellent performance at Oulton Park Les was looking forward to this weekend British round at Snetterton. In Sundays qualifying session the bike felt very sluggish pulling out corners. Les pushed very hard and qualified in 28th position. The team decided to put the bike on the dyno on Sunday evening, this revealed that the bike was well down its normal horsepower figure. Following some investigation into the engine internals the compression ratio was found to be well down, resulting in the lack of horsepower. With no spare bike for this weekend, as it is being raced at the Isle of Man TT by another M & S rider, Les prayed for rain to level the playing field. Monday race day was sunny but Les only managed half of a lap in warm up when the engine failed completely ruling Les out of the day’s proceedings. The engine is already out of the bike and will be rebuilt before the next round at Brands Hatch on June 16th. Cheers Les |
| 10/06/2002 22:04:41 | After not being able to compete at last weeks Snetterton Round of the British Championship due to the engine failure, Les wanted to keep team spirits up and managed to secure a last minute entry for the Ken Redfern Trophy meeting at Croft Circuit, Darlington. As Les’s own bike was out of action and the spare at the Isle of Man TT, good friend and fellow competitor Angus Mearns offered his number two bike to Les for the Croft meeting. Although the bike was totally strange to Les and only picking it up on the way to the meeting the 600 race saw Les finish in third place. In the open race against many 1,000 c.c. machines on slicks Les finished in a fine second position. Two excellent results and great moral boost for the team. Big thanks to Angus for his generosity and team spirit. As the number one bike will not be ready till later in the week and will require running in, the team will struggle to be ready for this weekends Brands Hatch British round. Les has therefore decided to contest this weekends 3rd round of the Scottish Championship at Knockhill. Hopefully we will have some good weather, continue with some more good results and see you there. Cheers Les |
| 16/06/2002 20:31:08 | Knockhill, June 16 2,002 At the teams home circuit of Knockhill and with the bikes engine rebuilt, Les intended to use the weekend to get some good results in the Scottish and Regal Championship races but the main aim however was to set consistent fast laps and record vital set up information in preparation for Julys British round at the circuit. Les and Davie fitted the engine on Saturday morning and the afternoon sessions were used to run the engine in. On Sunday morning qualifying Les felt the engine was not quite making the power it should but managed to qualify in an excellent second position. In race one, the Scottish Championship event, Les was confident of a good result from his second place on the grid. In the early laps Les felt that the engine was losing power and just as he was planning a move into the lead on lap six the engine failed completely. As the spare bike was still set up for road racing at the TT the team made the decision to fit its engine into the number one machine. The engine set up on the number two bike is approximately 10 horse power down on the number one bike and required Les to alter his riding technique to suite but in both Regal races Les managed two fine second places. Even with the deficit in horsepower Les’s quickest lap of the day was only 100th of a second off the race winners pace. Had the number one bike been in action the team could well have been looking at three wins for the day. Les and the team have a hard week ahead of them to have the bike in action for next week’s British round at Rockingham. Regards Les |
| 07/07/2002 21:56:33 | After the teams recent engine problems Les managed to pull out all the stops and sourced a brand new engine. Tuner Nicky Kennedy did an excellent job turning the engine from road spec to full British Championship in record time to have it ready for Knockhill. Big thanks to Nicky. After fitting and running in the new engine on Thursday, Les set about qualifying for the main event. The bike was running perfectly and although the first session was run in mixed conditions Les finished an excellent 6th fastest. The afternoon session was very wet but our man, not deterred, and after disrobing his wet suite to stop sliding about on the bikes seat, managed to set a faster time than in the morning session and qualified in an excellent 4th position, the teams best to date and no mean feat given the very wet weather. Sundays race day was mixed but the Supersport 600 race was run in dry conditions. The race was hard but fairly uneventful, Les put in a sterling performance to finish in 7th position, his best to date. The Knockhill British round also hosted a Scottish Regal Championship race, with an opportunity to score double points. Les had another brilliant race to finish in second position, with the double points Les is now leading the championship by a massive 20 points. All in the team has had a very successful weekend and has left the mechanical gremlins behind them and is looking forward to bettering this weekend performance at the next round on 11 August at Thruxton. Cheers Les |
| 11/08/2002 20:47:26 | Hello There After the mid season break Les has been back in action at the ultra fast Thruxton circuit After some minor changes to the suspension Les qualified in 20th position, a good performance considering it was only his second visit to the circuit. The team managed to find some good settings and Les was very happy with the bikes handling and engine power. Sunday’s race was held patchy damp conditions. Les put in consistent fast laps around a second quicker than his qualifying lap time and finished in an excellent 18th position. The lap times from 10th to 24th positions were all within a few tenths of a second of Les’s times showing just how competitive the 600 class is, and how important qualifying is to the race result. Les’s main aim for the rest of this season is to concentrate on putting in some good qualifying times. |
| 26/08/2002 21:58:45 | Hello There With the 26 August being an English Bank Holiday weekend race was held on the Monday. Qualifying went well without any major drama and Les finished the session in a very respectable 18th position. Les got a terrible start to the race when the back tyre hooked up, lifting the front away from the line and saw him running in 28th position. As the race progressed it started to drizzle with rain, resulting in the race being red flagged due to a serious incident. Les had to restart the race from his 28th position from the first leg and the second would be run over five laps. The team had fitted a full wet front tyre and an intermediate rear. At the restart of leg two our man got an excellent start and felt immediately comfortable with the bike set up, noticing that other riders were struggling with the conditions he pushed on, passing everyone up to 8th position finishing three hundredths of a second behind the seventh placed rider. Les needless to say very happy with his performance which was excellent at this level of competition, however due to the result being aggregated his final position was 14th. The team now have dilemma to resolve before the next British round held at Oulton Park on September 1st as this clashes with the next Knockhill Scottish and Regal Championship round. Les finds himself leading the Regal Championship by 20 points but also feels he could go very well at Oulton. Lets hope for a little drizzle where ever the team decides to run !! Cheers Les T |
| 01/09/2002 19:21:21 | Les and the team have just had the best meeting of the 2002 season so far. Les scored three convincing wins from three starts, one Scottish Championship and two Regal. Race day was dry but cool not the damp conditions Les had initially hoped for following his excellent British Championship performance at Cadwell Park. The team managed to squeeze a few extra tenths of a second from the bike by reverting to some of last years settings, even though the settings were for last years bike they obviously worked well enabling Les to push harder and return him to winning form. Due to the engine failure at the last Scottish round Les only has a very remote chance of regaining his title, as the point difference is to much to make up in the one remaining round, however he now leads the Regal Championship by 30 points. With 50 points still up for grabs at the last Regal round in October, two good finishes should retain this title, but this should be an exciting finish to the season. The team was disappointed to miss the Oulton Park British Round, which clashed with Knockhill, Les was confident of a decent result but the decision was made to compete at the Scottish Round to help regain the prestigious Regal Championship winners title. Does anyone know of any capable stunt doubles!! Les would like to give a special thanks to Davie, Bob and Allan who made this weekend run so smoothly. Now we are into September the 2002 season is entering the final rounds. The team have the following rounds to contest 8th Sep, Mallory Park MRO, 14th & 15th Sep, Mallory Park British Championship, 28th & 29th Sep, Donington British Championship, 6th October Knockhill Scottish & Regal Champoinship. |
| 15/09/2002 20:08:52 | Both free practice on Friday and qualifying on Saturday were exceptionally busy times for the team, with engine problems occurring in both sessions. The number one bike cylinder head gasket blew on Friday and on Saturday Les noted the engine temperature on the number two bikes was running at 107 degrees and felt down on power. Les had no option but to push on due to the limited qualifying time available on investigation another blown cylinder head gasket was diagnosed. Needless to say the team spent until the wee small hours on Friday and Saturday repairing both engines in preparation for Sundays race. Les however managed to finish the session in a very respectable 21st position. In the race Les got a good start and managed to improve his rear wheel drive out of the famous bus stop chicane, his lap times fell and he pushed through the field to finish a fantastic 12th position. This result is even more impressive as Les has been suffering from a throat virus for the last two weeks, this gave him some concentration and stamina problems during the race. Next weekend the team will be competing at the MRO Championship round at Oulton Park as Les is still disappointed at having to miss the British round held at the circuit in September and is looking for some good results. Les would like to thank the team for the special effort they put in this weekend to achieve this great result. |
| 22/09/2002 20:34:46 | After the disappointment of missing the British Championship round at Oulton Park, as the team decided to defend Les’s Scottish Regal title, Les was determined to put in a good performance at this weekend MRO Championship round at Oulton. Les put in some excellent times in qualifying for both the 600 and the Powerbike races qualifying in an amazing 14th position for the Powerbike race, which is open to any race bike, many of the machines competing in this class are full World Superbike spec machines, Les qualified 14th on his 600. On race day the first race was the 600, Les got a good start and was running with the leaders when he noticed the engine temperature rising and felt the power begin to drop off. Undeterred Les managed to stay with the leaders to finish in an excellent 4th position. Due to last weeks engine problems the Team had no spare engine for this weekend and could therefore not compete in the Powerbike race. The team did not have sufficient time to repair the engine of the number two bike Les was running in the 600 race. On the journey home Les received a phone call with the news that he had been excluded from the results for not brining the bike straight to Parc Ferme. As Les has not been competing in all MRO rounds this season he was completely unaware of this rule change, but had asked a race official immediately after the race if he should go their, the official replied “no”. The team is understandably unhappy with this decision. The team will have another very busy week ahead to get both bikes competitive before this weekend’s British round at Donnington Park. |
| 30/09/2002 18:06:25 | The team had an excellent finish to this year's British Championship Supersport 600 season at this weekends event, held at Donnington Park, on the full Grand Prix Circuit. During the practice and qualifying sessions, minor tweaks to the suspension were made and Les got faster each session resulting in a 10th position on the grid which put him on the third row. On Race day morning warm up it was decided to try one further change in an effort to get more traction from the rear tyre. The track temperature was much cooler than in qualifying and made it very difficult for Les to assess whether the bike was any better. Rather than gamble with an unknown set-up in the race the settings were returned to the qualifying set up. Les got an excellent start and diced throughout the race with four other riders getting the better of them on the last couple of laps to finish a brilliant 10th position. This has been a real boost to the teams moral going into the final Scottish and Regal rounds this weekend. Les is looking good to retain his Regal title and has an outside chance of regaining his Scottish crown despite missing a round due to the teams mid season engine problems. |
| 07/10/2002 20:53:36 | The team went to Knockhill this weekend with a slim chance of retaining the Scottish Championship title but this would have meant a non finish from Les's nearest rival and Les would still have to win the race. In the Regal 600 championship however Les had a 30-point lead and just needed two steady finishes to retain the crown. The weekend started off well with Les qualifying in third place for the Scottish and Regal rounds. No real problems were encountered and our man concentrated on setting fast consistent lap times. Race day was run in beautiful Scottish autumn sunshine. First race of the day was the Scottish Championship title, Les got a good start and came through from third to win the race. By winning Les had done what he had set out to do by beating his nearest rival into second but as the results stood Les finished second in the Scottish Championship. In the first round of the Regal 600 championship Les was unwilling to take any chances, as there were still 50 points up for grabs, a crash could have ruined his chances of regaining the title. Les got another excellent start and had a very hard fought race to finish an incredible second, given what was at stake. In round two of the Regal 600 championship Les only needed one point to win overall but a DNF would still have meant disaster. The race was run over two nail biting legs due to serious crashes and the resulting red flag stoppages. When the race was stopped Les was in second position. On the restart Les got a terrible start, coming out of the first corner in seventh, but by the end of the race he has worked his way up to fourth position. As the race had been stopped an aggregate result was awarded this resulted in Les ending up 3rd overall, more than enough to clinch the 2002 Scottish Regal 600 Champion title. Les is very happy with this weekends results especially as the teams main aim for 2002 was to get some good results in British Championship, the Regal 600 Championship and second in the Scottish Championship are much welcomed added bonuses. The team’s last outing for the 2002 season will be next weekend at Croft where Les will also be riding a GSXR1000 kindly loaned from John Campbell of Victoria Garage Lockerbie. I hope all LSR fans who came to Knockhill this weekend enjoyed the day as much as we did. |
| 13/10/2002 23:42:52 | The team had an absolutely brilliant end to the 2002 season at the prestigious Laird of Croft Meeting, Les taking three wins from his five starts. The weather for race day was atrocious with torrential rain to the point that the organizers considered canceling the meeting. The team decided that the quicker and safer bike to ride for all races would be the M&S Honda 600 as it was lighter and less powerful giving more traction in the terrible conditions. Les was disappointed as he had looked forward to riding the ultra competitive Suzuki 1000 in a dry race. Thanks to John for the loan of the bike which Les was sure would one of the fastest bikes entered in the meeting. Although Les was second in two of the races he set the fastest lap in every race he entered. Given the conditions the team are over the moon with such a positive end to the 2002 season, this only proves that the early season mediocre results were down to the bike set up and engine problems encountered with the new bike. The team will now start to build on these latest results to take them through the winter months and the long hard preparation for the 2003 season. Les would like to thank you all for your valued support during what has turned out to be another successful season if a little difficult in the outset. Look out for the 2002 year end newsletter which should be with you soon. Thanks again. Les |
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