Dan Couzens of Team VSpeed takes the Minitwin Crown !

Dan Couzens, Team VSpeed #7 clinched the title at the final round of the BMCRC Minitwin Championship this weekend at Brands Hatch.

Full seasons race reports on the website

www.teamvspeed.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamvspeed/8043623497/

This was it. The season’s finale and Dan’s chance to win the 2012 10 year anniversary of the BMCRC Minitwin Championship, the most hotly contested and competitive series in UK club racing.
This season has seen Dan’s competition grow at every meeting, with the likes of Ashley Buxton (3 lap records this season), Jordan Gilbert, Rowan Miller, Tony Russo and Neil McQueen all capable of podiums and a race win by the end of the season to join Charlie King and Jesse Jones at the sharp end.
Brands Indy is Dan’s favourite circuit and he is lap record holder with 50.545sec lap time set last season, he was confident and felt he had a 49 in him.
Friday practice and despite there being no clear track in the afternoon Dan’s best sector times were showing a possible 49.7 ideal lap so all looked good.
What he needs is clear track. Passing at the Indy is not easy, especially with a straight line speed deficit. Dan carries more corner speed but if the bike in front is a tad slower through the corner you have to shut off a little and you loose your momentum making it difficult to get the run to the next corner. Dan was wearing his old and battered Alpine Stars blue leathers as they saved a kilo in weight over our white Arlen Ness’s and we had fitted a super-lightweight race battery shaving another kilo and doing all we could to make him as competitive as possible.
The weather was with us and Saturday was glorious, although qualifying was a dodgy affair as the dew had dropped on the course overnight and the track was wet in places although not enough for rain tyres, so we all went out for a slide around on dry’s.
We were out second and there was only just a dry line so passing was very tricky. Dan qualified 3rd on a really busy session where he could not get clear track behind Josh Wood in 2nd and Jesse Jones on pole.
I managed 19th but again was held up in traffic and felt I could go a lot quicker.
Race 1 comes around and Dan gets beaten to the first corner by the lighter riders off the line, spends a couple of laps in 4th behind Josh Wood then is passed by Rowan Miller who then looses the front at Druids whilst in 2nd place, Dan is up on the back of Charlie King in 3rdnd when the race is red flagged as Rowan ended up with a broken arm. Fortunately it was a clean brake and he is expected to get back to full fitness. Jesse went on to take the win by 3 seconds with Charlie and Dan promoted to 2nd and 3rd respectively and cuts Dan’s lead to 22 points with 3 races left.
I had a lousy start baulked into the first corner and was back in 23rd, but then made steady progress past 4 riders in 4 laps to be on the back of the next pack before the race was stopped early.
Race 2 Saturday afternoon and Dan is again back in 4th after 2 laps but goes on to pass Ashley and Charlie to finish in second 0.659 sec behind Jesse who did the double and is now only 17 points behind Dan with 2 races left.
I finished 17th with a 53.3 sec best again after a lousy start but had a ball catching and passing PJ, Gary, Grant and Roger in 2 laps and grinning like a loon the whole way round. This was more like the fun I remember racing being.
We had a fairly tame night on Saturday and were all tucked up by 10.30 as Sunday was the big day and it looked like this was going down to the wire.
Race 1 starts and Dan is like a bull out of the gate, really committed and not going to go down without giving his all. I have not seen him so focussed all year.
Jesse gets the hole-shot again with Dan in second as they cross the line after the first lap, coming out of Druids Jesse held a tight line into Graham Hill, too tight, the front tucked on him and he slid into the grass with the bike cart-wheeling ahead and was fortunately unhurt.
All Dan had to do was finish in the top 10 and the championship was out of Jesse’s reach, however Charlie now had an outside chance of clinching it and so kept Dan honest all the way to the line, with Dan taking the win with a fastest lap of 50.906 and 0.8 seconds separating Charlie in 2nd and Ashley in 3rd.
And there we have it, Dan Couzens, 2012 BMCRC Minitwin Champion with Charlie King in 2nd place, Jesse Jones in 3rd, and Charlie King taking the Junior Championship from Jesse.
We were all elated, 2 years to get here after gifting the title away last year missing two rounds, this was for Dan’s brother who got him into racing but sadly lost his life racing at Lydden in 2006. I was so happy for him and all the work the team had put in. A huge thanks to his and my family and friends coming to support us this weekend, you know who you are.
I was down in 20th after lap 2 but fought my way past 5 bikes to get an honest Minitwin point at 15th by the end of the race.
Champagne spraying and burnouts over with we enjoyed the moment for the afternoon to go out in the final race where Dan took the win by 6 seconds from Charlie and I got 15th again with my fastest time of the weekend 53.2sec.
The bikes underwent a technical inspection after the racing which passed with flying colours and the title was ours with points scored at every race, 24 podiums from 32 races, 11 wins 5 2nd place and 8 3rd place finishes with NO DNF's in two years of racing. Now that is consistency.
A huge thank you to all our sponsors and supporters this year and here’s to 2013. Please keep checking the website www.teamvspeed.com as I will update our preparations for next season over the winter.
__________________

awsome,,,,i cant wait to join the next year, im on my old curvy. and im hoping to compete in well policed and fair class, and that 72 horses are the maximum numbers. ( strictly policed) coments please........rob