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At
the age of 15 we moved on to road racing, it was all that Craig wanted to do,
and his hero at that time was Eddie Lawson. We were given an old 125 Honda G.P
bike to use thanks to Billy from St Luke's Motorcycles of Southport. In his first
season Craig and I found it really difficult to adapt from off road racing which
we were use to. Countless practice laps at Three Sisters circuit in Wigan paid
of as Craig achieved the A.C.U.Northern Area Champion and Wirral 100 Club champion.
Once again the little sod kept on winning. We decided to enter a couple of national
meetings the 1st was at Donnington Park this was a huge step up from Three sisters
,the 2nd was at Pembery and whilst dicing for the lead he was being watched by
Mark Hodgson. |
He
was chosen by Mark Hodgson, Neil Hodgson, s father, who gave him the opportunity
to be No 2 rider in his R.C.D. Motorsports team with Chris Burns the No1 rider.
It was supposed to be learning curve for Craig. He was to run in the 2nd British
Championship but it was scrapped, so he had to run in the main championship which
was at that time full of ex GP stars. I think it was too much too quick for Craig
but he battled on and surprised many people. His best result was 9th at Oulton
Park beating T.T winner Ian Lougher. Obviously all the team effort went into Chris
Burns. Craig and I had learnt such a lot from Mark Hodgson and John Holmes in
that year. It has stood us in good stead for the future, if nothing else to have
a good sense of humour but be deadly serious about racing and don't listen to
bullshit from other teams. |
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At
the end of the season with help I was able to buy Craig's bike from Mark and Team
C.S.RACING was formed in 1999. We struggled to get sponsors and so I had to deliver
pizzas at night after my day job for 12 months to help with the cost of competing
in the British championship. We had a couple more years in 125s with many strong
finishes including a 4th at Mallory park to Casey Stoner until Craig binned it
at the hairpin trying to make up ground on the leaders. |
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2001 Craig moved up to the 600s.Our sponsor BRIT- TIPP LTD, supplied us with our
first new bike and I turned it into a supersport racer The engine was tuned by
the legendary Tony Scott and the suspension by the infamous Dave Parkinson who
Craig puts all his faith in. The team had many good results 4ths 5ths 7ths it
was all moving in the right direction. In 2003 we changed to the 600rr Honda.
It took a season to get to grips with this bike, the engine was fine but Craig
couldn't get it to handle quite right. Dave had moved to France and for now he
couldn't rework the suspension. We had a standard Ohlin's rear shock in the bike
but Craig couldn't feel the back tyre through it and we got little help from the
suspension experts in the paddock to cure it. |
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We
struggled with it till 2005 when Dave came to our rescue. He knew what Craig wanted
and made us one of his Fox shocks and altered the front forks which the suspension
experts in the paddock couldn't do. The changes transformed the bike . we entered
a new championship .it was called the British Championship 600 privateers cup
.This was just up our street ,we had found it difficult to compete against the
factory teams that had entered the series the year before ,so this was a chance
to prove ourselves on equal terms. The team were really up for this season and
Craig didn't disappoint us. |
| Craig
battled hard all season and won points in every round Three 1sts two 2nds and
three 3rds were Craig's best results which gave Craig a chance of winning a major
championship again, but he came 2nd at the last round at Brands Hatch. Craig and
I know why we were robbed of a final win and it left a bit of a bad taste but
let's just say, that's racing. |
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| Not
many small privateer teams get accepted into the Superbike class, but C.S. Racing
did due to Craig's achievements in 2005. They told us they wanted people like
us in the sport and we are proud of that. The Superbike class is another world.
We chose a bike with the help of Tony Scott and our sponsor Fergus Dalgarno supplied
it for us. Unfortunatly it turned out to be a bit of a dog. We couldn't get it
to handle and in the end didn't have the money to change it. The season nearly
finished us when the top teams introduced traction control and Dunlop had a pecking
order for top tyres which we were at the bottom. It made it difficult for us to
progress and sometime we didn't even qualify. |
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Funny
thing is though, the Superbike times were slower in 2009 than in 2006 so we would
have made every race and perhaps a different outlook on that season. Looking back
for a little team like ours only to be 4 seconds off pole against world class
teams with top tyres is not too shabby. |
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2007
saw the team return to the 600 supersport class with the latest bike from Honda
again supplied by Fergus Dalgarno. All I can say about 2007-8 is, how could Honda
produce such a dog of an engine that in customer form it didn't make enough power
to pull Craig's pants down? The chassis is great but even the top teams have had
to make the engines rev on to 17000 - that's 1000 revs above kit and that's no
good for small teams as the running costs are too high. It was good in the wet
though and that was Craig's only claim to fame with it, as you can see on this time sheet. |
2010
will be our 2nd season on our Yamaha YZF 600.The bike was again supplied to the
team by Fergus Dalgarno. He has always believed in Craig's talent and wants to
see us back on a competitive bike. Craig loves the chassis, Dave has again given
Craig what he wanted, but in 2009 the engine was a dissapointment. It didn't finish
a meeting all year, often breaking in the first session on the first day. The
blame I feel has to be with our ex-engine builder. How can you go through an entire
season and not finish a race? Our moral was really low, we thought the Honda was
bad but this, not being reliable was something alien to us. We were becoming a
laughing stock, at the last round Oulton Park; bets were being placed to see how
long engine number 4 would last. It didn't let them down; it dropped a valve in
the first practice. |
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A
good friend of the team knew someone with a standard motor that had only done
600 miles. He removed it and brought it to me. I left the engine as it was and
fitted it in. Craig used it the rest of the weekend and it didn't miss a beat,
it was as sweet as a nut and he qualified 28 out of 35 with a time of 1.44.7,
not too bad for a bog standard engine. It was quite emotional to see him cross
the line getting the better of a Triumph he had been battling with and many people
congratulated us on finishing a race in 2009.
Now
it's serious, 2010 brings a top engine builder who wants Craig to move up the
pack and fresh determination from us all. Craig's training hard and we can't wait
to see if the engine is all they say it will be. All that's left is to raise the
budget to do it!
Contact
us with your comments or we will see you in the paddock.
Feeling
old but can't wait!
Keith
Sproston |
