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2011
MONZA

LE MANS 2005 - Decibels Yamaha No.33 - Phil Giles Race Report
Phil Giles, Russell Baker and Phil Giles - 2nd in class, 9th overall.

"It’s Monday morning and my Dad and I are on our merry way home, driving back to Calais with Keane playing on the CD player. Yet despite finishing a very long 24 hour endurance event we're already well into another race, the race for the ferry! To be honest this is a race we don’t mind losing, as we have just been in the Victory circle…again!

This year we have new bikes and a new Sponsor. The bikes looked trick in their new blue and white livery. Christophe and his team have worked solidly for months preparing two immaculate machines. The riders have been working hard in the gym to achieve a very high level of fitness as this year we have the bikes, the experience and the speed. Thus, we need to achieve!

Last year Russell Baker and I arrived on the Tuesday evening ready for the 2nd 1.5hr Free Practice on the Wednesday but this year we both arrived for the Tuesday session. The bikes had already had their debut outing on the track via the official test in March in the hands of our new French team-mate, Bernard Cuzin. Before this Laurent informed me he rode 2000kms in sub zero conditions during the winter running the bikes in on the road. Normally that would be me...oh, the advantages of riding for a factory team!!

Practice...

Tuesday for me was a little non-event as I only got about 6 laps in...and they weren't very quick. Last year we completed 752 laps of the 4.1km circuit, of which I must have done around 250. Yet I was lost and had no timing at all. I don’t think I hit more than 3 apexes on any one of my laps. This is what happens when you have 6 months without riding. This bike however seemed strong. Russ was lapping well and Bernard was flying.

Wednesday proved much better. I ran around the circuit Tuesday night to familiarise myself once more with the sharp hairpin curves of the Bugatti circuit. Once on board at 11am Wednesday morning I was immediately lapping at last years race pace - the 1m46s bracket - and hitting my apexes. After my stint I handed the reins over to Russ. Several laps into his stint he was missing! However, the local airport did notice a momentary blip (or blimp, only joking Russ) on their radar screens. Russ got a little carried away with the extra power the team had extracted from the Yamaha R1 and was using it to its full when it launched him into orbit. (...I can see my house from hereeeee...!)
He landed on a soft part of his anatomy, mainly his head so nothing broken. He was very sore for the rest of our time in France. In his words “It hurts more than I’m letting on!”

Thursday morning Russ and I have had the machine altered to give a better feel to the bike with more stability during braking and importantly more feel for rear end grip.

Qualifying...

The riders are separated in to 3 groups which is determined by their (transponder fitted) coloured arm bands which must be worn every time the rider goes on track. In traditional French national colours we have groups blue, white and red. In the program we are list in alphabetical order Baker, Cuzin and Giles, and the arm bands were issues blue, white and red respectively.

We had a rain shower an hour before 1st qualifying and my team mates were struggling to find some speed. Russ, who normally revels in the wet was down in 34th place and Bernard, who was riding in damp conditions with a wet front tyre and intermediate rear tyre was 42nd with a time off 1min 56.2s. 10mins later I managed to put a time of 1min 50.4 putting me firmly into 14th.

The 2nd session was a little better with Russ and Bernard 25th and 18th respectively. I set off for my final 30min qualifying on a dry track but with Bernard’s used tires. He managed a 1min 44.3s. After 15mins I was in 8th place with a 1min 43.1s lap. I pitted for a fresh rear Michelin, confident that with a good clean lap with no traffic I could manage a mid 42s lap. As the tyre was being changed, water was pouring from the belly pan of the bike. This was traced to a split water pipe but there was no time to repair and return to the track. By the end of the session I had dropped down to 17th.

For final grid positions all the rider’s times are aggregated and this put us 18th overall and 5th in class.

Saturday...

After warm-up Christophe called for a team meeting. With Russ, Bernard and I present we discussed who would start. It was a team decision to offer me the start, based on my practice times. I acceptedn - who wouldn’t!

2.50pm all the riders attempted a mock start to precede the 2 warm up laps. Once completed all the machines were lined up across the pit wall (left in 1st gear with ignitions on) and riders on the opposite side of the track watching the man with the flag.

3pm and the French national flag dropped, the 100,000 people in the packed grandstands cheered and 56 leather clad racers ran across the track to their awaiting machines. I jumped on board pressed the starter, the bike came to life and I gave her a big handful of throttle and started to release the clutch only to see the bike was no longer in 1st gear.
Eek, a quick dap of the gear shift and there was a very loud clunk as 1st gear engaged whilst the motor was spinning at about 10,000rpm and then out again with the clutch….we’re off!
Not the best start ever but I only lost a few places. I was, however, a tad annoyed at this error and I rode my socks off trying to get back as many places as possible. Every slide I had I kept thinking, good job I didn’t drop that or Christophe would drop me! At the end of my stint I came into pit lane in 13th place. This was an early surprise to the team as they expected to be able to run for 35laps – yet I had only run 27. Fortunately Russ was very keen to get on board and was already in leathers and helmet and took the number 33 machine out for his first stint of the race. After his stint he came to pit again at 27 laps, hoping that Bernard would be ready; but the team had not quite grasped the fuelling problem and Bernard wasn't ready. Russ had to go out again.

It’s very hard doing a double stint at any time during a 24hr race. Normally though it is done during the night, or if there has been some rain. Russ was absolutely shattered, not to mention a little aggravated. His lap times had suffered to the point that his last laps before pitting he was lapping 7sec per lap slower than I had done in my stint. Subsequently, we had dropped down the leader board to 24th overall 11th in class, when
Bernard took the helm and began to claw some time back. From this point on we were up against it. Russ, very stiff and sore from his big spill and full of painkillers was now very tired to boot. Bernard and I had to ride really hard every session day and night to catch the time lost from Russ’s stints and then make time on our rivals. It was a long process but after some tremendous stints from Bernard and I, lapping in the 1min 42s bracket and 23hrs racing, we were in 10th place overall and up to 3rd in class.

Christophe called me over to ask if I could finish the race as it was looking like Bernard final stint would bring him in at around 2.35pm local time. I was delighted to be given the chance to finish what looked like it could be my 1st podium at Le Mans.

We were all very excited at the prospect of a visit to the podium when one of the mechanics who wasn’t asleep jumped up and screamed something in French whilst pointing at the TV. I looked up at the screen to see the leading Stocksport runner Scratch Moto cruising back to the pits with a large amount of smoke coming from it.

Scratch Moto where a long way ahead of us, 28 laps, but could we now catch them?

We were going to have to un-lap ourselves 28 times and then 1 more to take the position in the remaining 50mins. It was going to be close. Bernard pushed hard and we were down to just 12 laps short when I was handed the number 33 for my final stint. I knew as I got on board that I could make the number of laps if the machine held together and I didn’t do anything silly.

At 2.52pm on our 784th lap we passed Scratch Moto to take 2nd place. I proceeded to enjoy the last 8 minutes of racing and at the stroke of 3pm Sunday the chequered flag was waved and I crossed the line and
headed straight over to the pit lane to meet the team.

After several burn outs and more wheelies I returned to park ferme for the podium ceremony to begin. You can only imagine how hyper-active a passionate French Team can be after the result like this.

The total number of laps we achieved was 787, last years winners managed 766. What a difference a year makes !!

So, now you’re all excited and know all about endurance racing, who’s coming to Barcelona in July?

Photos courtesy of www.olivierpolak.com