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Jack Lilley Racing
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Ben Miller
Age: 22
First road race: Brands Hatch, March 2004
Occupation: Printer
Favourite Circuits: Not any specific one as they are all great fun!!
Ambition: To race at world championship level.
2010 Race Calender:
16/17 April BMCRC/MRO Oulton Park
1/2 May BMCRC/MRO Pembrey 11th & 12th
12/13 June BMCRC/MRO Silverstone National 6th & DNF
26/27 June BSB Mallory Park DNF & 6th
17/18 July BSB Snetterton 7th & 4th
24/25 July BMCRC/MRO Brands Hatch Indy 6th ,7th & 7th
7/8/9 August BSB Brands Hatch GP
29/30 August BSB Cadwell Park
25/26 September BSB Silverstone GP
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| Racing Diary |
| 10/03/2010 |
11/02/10 "I have just received news that the brand new 2010 675
is all ready for collection from Jack Lilley Triumph, I cant wait to see it and fire it up for the first time (nothing compares to the noise of a british built triple). All we need now is some warmer weather "
02/02/10 "My name is Ben Miller, I am a motorcycle racer from Cambridgeshire. I am proud to say that I will be working alongside Jack Lilley in the coming season whilst participating in The Triumph Triple Challenge, and am looking forward to the year ahead". |
| 13/04/2010 |
It was a pleasure coming along on Saturday and it was great to meet
most of the team at Jack Lilley.
Yesterday we had our first time on track with the new bike to run it
in. We headed off to a very wet and chilly Snetterton. On the whole
it was a sucessful day, the weather was terrible and it rained for
the best part of the day and unfortunately we hadn't yet received our
allocation of wet tyre's so that meant riding on the standard tyre's
- which I must say did impress me when you take into account the
conditions that we were up against. I was even overtaking the guys
who were on full racing wets so it goes to show how well the road
tyres can perform in even the trickiest of conditions. We had one
session on circuit where the track was mainly dry which allowed me to
up the pace and complete running the bike in.
I was very happy with the bike and we are going to Mallory Park on
friday to concentrate more on finding a set up on the suspension on
the bike...hopefully the weather will be more on our side!! |
| 27/05/2010 |
Hi guys.
I hope you and everyone at Lilley's are well!
We think we may have resolved the problems that we have been having
with the bike. We ended up erasing the memory on the ECU after all of
the problems we had with sensors and burnt out catalytic converter
which seems to have done the job. We have not yet put the bike back
onto the dyno that we use for an accurate gauge on wether or not it's
up to scratch compared to my old bike but we have recently completed
two track days and my times reflect that we have made some positive
steps forward since the ECU had been re-programmed. Our first track
day at Cadwell Park was a success, I managed to get to within 2.5
second of my race winning lap time of last year. Considering how much
"traffic" you come up against on such a day we were very pleased. We
always reckon that if I can get to within 3 seconds of my race pace
then I should be on the ball come race day. Our second track day was
at the new Silverstone Arena Circuit that they have developed for
Moto GP and Formula 1. As we never had any data to compare with we
never had any idea of what times we would want to achieve, but as
there was a couple of BSB stocksport riders there, I could use them
as a gauge. The new circuit was absolutely fantastic, if any of you
get the opportunity to ride it then don't turn it down because I
think it's possibly the best track that I have ever ridden!! So if
any of you guys havn't got a bike, then try to bribe Dave to let you
"borrow" one for the day...I'm sure he wont mind! LOL!
Regards,
Ben. |
| 16/06/2010 |
We went to Silverstone for the third round of the Triumph Triple Challenge. We were competing on the smaller National circuit, which had changed slightly since I last rode it five years ago...but I must say, for the better. They have got rid of the silly first/second gear chicane, it now flows much faster with a long double apex right-hander, which you come out of and onto the front straight in sixth gear.
We made some progress this weekend. Qualifying didn't go to plan but that was down to the fact that we were trying to find a setting with the correct gearing. I ended up starting the first race from 15th on the grid. But on the positive side, we now had a suitable setting for the gearing and also made a couple of changes to the suspension as I was struggling to hold a line.
The short race on Saturday saw me respond well to the adjustments that we had made and I shed another second off of my qualifying time and crossed the line in 10th.
The first race on Sunday ended up as a two-part race after being red-flagged after five laps. The first part of the race I had a bad start so I had my work cut from the off, but I got my head down and made some tough passes and managed to get up to 10th and was reeling the next group ahead of me in until the race was stopped.
Part-two was declared as only a five lap race, so I knew that I had to make the start count! I got off of the line well and made up four places on the first lap and before I knew it I was up to 6th and by the last corner on the last lap, I had caught up with the two guys in front of me...if only I had another lap!!
The engine management light come on during the race so the championship mechanics came and ran a diagnostics test again to see what it flagged up. It was showing a fault on the ex-up valve so we attempted to adjust it but that was not working. They then thought that it may be the ECU, so we swapped it for a new one but that still did not work. We tried a few other things and used a process of elimination. It turns out that there is a fault in the wiring and also in the secondary air injection. This may be the root of the problems which we have been experiencing with the bike. We worked hard to try to fix the fault before the second race but we were unable to do so. It was a very time consuming process and we couldn't risk not getting the bike put back together and missing the race altogether.
It was then time for the second race, although I knew there was still some underlying problem with the bike I was looking forward to getting out there again and giving it my all. We lined up on the grid and I knew what I had to do. As the lights went out I got a perfect start, it was a frantic battle for the first corner and I had managed to battle my way to 8th from my grid position of 15th and by the end of the first lap I was again up into 7th place. I was getting settled in and pushing hard. I knew that I could improve again on my finishing position from the first race but then as I started lap three, I went into the first corner, I hit the apex and got on the gas but caught a big bump. It caused the front wheel to bounce off of the ground (bearing in mind this is all happening at around 120mph) but as the wheel made contact with the tarmac again it simply didn't gain grip and I unfortunately lost the front and ended up skipping across the gravel trap on my backside. It was a real shame but the main thing is, is that I know what caused it, it was the bump, there was no problem with set up or rider error so I will just have to put it behind me and focus on getting the bike looking nice and pretty again and hopefully getting to the bottom of the electrical problem in time for the BSB meeting at Mallory Park in two weeks time.
Kind Regards,
Ben Miller. |
| 08/07/2010 |
Another weekend full of drama's for Miller.
It was time for the fourth round of the Triumph Triple Challenge and we headed to the Leicestershire circuit of Mallory Park. It was the first of five rounds of the TTC to be held as a support class at the elite British Superbike Championship.
I was confident that I could put in a stong performance after the memorable race from last year, where after encountering some problems with the clutch, saw me having to start the race from pit lane after qualifying second on the grid. Only to stun everybody there with an astonishing ride to claim a podium position.
We arrived at the circuit early Friday morning and the outlook looked set to provide us with some perfect weather for a weekends racing.
We wheeled the bike out and into the Michelin awning where we had been selected to work from for the duration of the weekend alongside ten fellow competitors.
The bike had been restored to its former glory following the 120mph crash in the previous meeting at Silverstone.
Before we knew it, it was time for our free practice session. Everything was all going to plan until I began feeling a loss of rear end grip, I decided to pull into the pits and we soon realised that we had a water leak which was spilling onto the rear tyre. This brought an end to the session.
The radiator had seemed to blow the water out through the overflow tank, after bleeding the radiator and ensuring it was filled to the correct level, the bike was again ready to roll.
Saturday and time for qualifying, I went out and I knew that it was vital to qualify on the front two rows of the grid. After two laps I had to pull in to make an adjustment to the rear suspension. It was too soft and squatting down through the chicanes, and as Mallory has three of them, its pretty certain the bike needs to be handling well through each of them otherwise it could be costly. A couple of clicks harder on the compression and instantly it felt more composed. But after picking up the pace, I was struggling to make the bike turn, each lap seemed to become harder. I knew it wasn't like me to feel so physically drained and I pulled into the pits as I couldn't face another lap. I explained to my pit crew the situation, my Dad took the bike and went to wheel it back to the paddock but could barely move the handle bars, It turned out that my steering damper had been moved and was wound on ten clicks harder than where I would normally run it. How or who would have done this was beyond me, it would explain why I was finding it so demanding to ride. It had obviously ruined my session and I ended up having to start the race from 12th on the grid.
Before the race we made some adjustments to the ex-up valve to attempt to set it up correctly as it was still showing up as a fault on the diagnostics.
It was then time for the race. I pulled up and into my grid position and waited for the lights to go out, I didn't get the best of starts but managed to claw back a couple of places around the first turn. I was having a good race, and was working my way through the pack and was up to 9th, I was about to make a move for 8th, but then going into the hairpin the back of the bike came right around, I managed to keep it under control and get it turned in but then as soon as I got on the throttle, it spun up, I knew that something was wrong and luckily I made the right decision to slow down immediatly, when I looked down at the bike, I couldn't believe what had happened, there was oil and water everywhere, it soon become apparent that something pretty serious was wrong.
When I got the bike back to the awning, we stripped it down and soon diagnosed the problem. The heat exchanger had blown up causing the bike to loose the majority of its water and some of the oil. I was very fortunate to have managed to avoid a serious crash.
However, after analysing the timing sheets, the speed trap figures showed an improvement from the bike from the day previous, seeing my bike leap from 18th to 8th due to the adjustments that had been made to the ex-up valve.
We worked hard until late that night stripping the bike down, replacing the heat exchanger, and giving it all a thorough clean. The spill had gotten everywhere, even I was covered when I pulled in but we put everything back together and fired it the bike up. Everything seemed fine, so far so good!!
I went out for practice on Sunday morning to scrub in the fresh tyres and to make sure the problem had been cured. When the session had come to an end I noticed that there was again signs of a leak. We had to have the bike apart again to get to the bottom of it, but we found no sign of a fresh leak and we came to the conclusion that it was residue from the previous day that had managed to get into all the little nooks and crannies that had then been blown out, therefore making it look worse than it was...thankfully!
We managed to get the bike back together before the race, and I was looking forward to it.
I pulled up to the grid and was focussed on the job at hand. As the lights went out, the race was on, the first two corners were absolutely manic, some of the guys were all over the place. I got into the flow of things and set about chasing the guys down, one by one, and sometimes even two at a time I was up to 7th and chasing hard, Toby Markham who has rode 250 World Championships in Moto GP was the next target on my list, When I caught him, I found that I was getting held up but decided to follow him for a lap simply to see where my best opportunity would be to make a pass. It didn't take long until I had it all figured out, I was all over the back of him and managed to get very good drive coming out of devils elbow (the last corner) and onto the start finish straight, I got tucked in his slip stream which gave me the drag that I needed to ensure that I could get close enough to make my pass stick going into the fast turn one. I braked later and made the move, and as soon as I got passed I instantly pulled a gap. I kept my head down and pulled a gap of over 6 seconds, and when the chequred flag was waved, I crossed the line to claim my best result of the year in 6th place. We had finally made some good progress with the bike and hopefully got to the bottom of the reason for lack of power.
We have in the mean time removed the engine so that we can have a thorough look at it just to be sure that the problems which we encountered have not done any more damage. So far the signs are good, so fingers crossed that at Snetterton in a few weeks time, we can replicate my pole position and win from last year...forgetting about the race where I was knocked off at the last corner after leading the entire race! |
| 02/08/2010 |
Just checking in after Round 5 of the Triumph Triple Challenge. We headed alongside the BSB regulars to the fast, Norfolk, Snetterton circuit. I'm pleased to say that we made some further progress over the course of the weekend.
It was blowing a gale when we arrived on Friday, which saw four of us hanging onto the awning whilst attempting to set up for the weekend. The strong wind's meant that it was also more difficult to make a decision as to which gearing we will need to run. Anywhere else it's not such an issue but with Snetterton having the longest straight on the racing calendar, it's pretty crucial to get it right.
Qualifying went to plan, I knew that I had to put the bike onto either of the front two rows for the start of the races. After a struggle with the wind in certain parts of the track, which caused some quite serious slides through the Bomb Hole, I managed to set the 8th fastest lap and only 0.8s off of the pole setters time. This was my most successful qualifying session to date this season and the bike finally was feeling up to speed for the first time so I was optimistic about the races ahead.
The race on Saturday saw me struggle with the gearing that we were running as the wind had changed yet again, I settled into the race in 7th place and had gapped the guys behind but was having a frustrating ride as the rider in front was holding me up through the corners but once he got the bike onto the fat part of the tyre and on the gas he managed to pull out enough of a gap down the straights so that I was unable to get close enough to make a pass stick when I caught him back up on the brakes. I decided to sit there and bide my time and make a hard move on him going into the final turn and hope to get the drag to the line. But unfortunately I was unable to execute my plan as when I came out of the penultimate turn and lined him up for the pass, all of a sudden the yellow flags were waved therefore refusing me the opportunity to overtake and I was forced to settle for 7th place.
Luckily we had a morning warm up on Sunday, which allowed us to make some adjustments, after struggling with a lack of acceleration we decided to sacrifice some top end speed and gear the bike to give me better drive out of the corners. We were hoping to test this in the ten minute session that we had but two laps in and the clutch began slipping. I immediately pulled in, as I knew we would have to replace the clutch before the race.
My Team worked hard on repairing the bike and done a great job to get it ready in time for the race...I honestly don't know what I would do without them!!
The crowd had come out in their thousands and it was absolutely packed for the race, there was an amazing atmosphere about the place.
As I headed out for the race, I noticed that I had no feel on the clutch as it began to bite as soon as I released it from the handlebar. This made it very awkward for me to get the bike off of the line and I ended up loosing a couple of places going into the first turn. I soon passed the rider who had qualified on pole by out-breaking him off of the back straight. I was off with the leading pack and we soon pulled away from the rest of the field.
I kept my head down and was lapping at a good and very consistent pace. The last couple of laps soon came around and I had my work cut out, I was up to 5th position and chasing down the next two riders in front of me. My next lap saw me set a time quicker than last years lap record pace, I could see that I was reeling them in and it was all down to the last lap, I managed to piece the lap together perfectly, I got really good drive out of the two corners that lead to the last turn and I made the move, I was late on the brakes and went for the inside line to claim 4th position. I managed to hold off the guy behind in the drag to the line with my best result this season and finished only a mere 0.3s behind the championship leader in 3rd. My fastest lap was only 0.3s off the winners fastest time.
I was very happy to have bridged the all important gap that we had been struggling with this year. I came away from Snetterton looking forward to turning my season around after all of the bad luck that we have encountered so farKroll on Brands!! |
| 19/08/2010 |
Round seven of the TTC and we followed the rest of the BSB paddock to the Brands Hatch GP meeting. It's a fantastic circuit but unfortunatly only a handful of meetings are held here each year on the fast, flowing GP layout, so it's a real privilage to be able to participate in such an event.
Qualifying Saturday was going great until the session was reg flagged mid way, due to a rather nasty incident at Paddock Hill Bend. I had managed to get out at the front of the group and had put in a good lap which put me 4th on the timing screens. The second part of the session I wasn't quite as fortunate and didn't get a clear run which meant that I ended the session 7th....second row, that's the main thing but after the start I had made earlier on I was hoping to be on the front row for the race.
Saturday's race wasn't untill 5:30 that evening and it had been dry all day but threatening a downpour with the dark clouds looming overhead, then fifteen minutes before we were due to go out the heavens opened and down it came. To be honest, I had kind of been hoping that it would stay dry as I havn't ridden in the wet all year. This meant that I was straight out on a brand new set of wet tyres which hadn't been "scrubbed in", I had also opted for the new fountain front wet which obviously I didn't have a clue what it was going to feel like until I was thrown in at the deep end with it.
I got a good start and after a few corners I was already getting to grips with the new tyres, I had managed to pass a couple of guys after a bit of a tussle and settled into the race in 5th position with a 1.5 second gap to the guy behind. But in the last lap I was passed and finished the race in 6th. I wondered if had slowed down a tad on that lap but after studying the data which gives you your time on every lap, sector times, speed trap figures etc, it was clear that I hadn't handed it to him, my times were consistant, he just managed to pull it out of the bag when I was least expecting it.
On the whole though, I was pleased with the result considering I hadn't had any wet testing all year.
The weather was looking a bit brighter when I woke up on Sunday morning so it was looking promising that we would have a dry race to look forward to. By the time the race came around it had clouded over a bit more but It had obviously not put the crowd off. It was absolutly chock-of-block, it was great to see all of those spectators there, offering their support and chearing everyone on!
The race was, as ever, packed full of action, I'm always hearing comments from various people as to how exciting our races are to watch. It's great to know that people are enjoying the show we put on for them! :)
As the lights went out, we were away and I had managed a great start. I got away with the leading group and was instantly running at a good pace. Then a couple of corners before benining the third lap of the race I got stuffed up and pushed out across the kerbs (good job they were wider than normal), which cost me two seconds and allowed the front pack I was with to break away. I got my head down and had some good battles throughout the race, I made sure I got the better of the rider who had run me out and finished the race in 5th. I set the third fastest lap of the race and only a mere 0.3s off of the winners fastest so It was a real pitty about the incident early on in the race as I'm confident that I could have been challenging for a podium finish if it wasn't for that. My fastest lap of the race was 2 seconds faster than my previous personal best so I was dead chuffed about that.
On the whole, a good weekend, another step closer and some very valuable points in the bag...roll on Cadwell!! :) |
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