John South and friends are campaigning a Benelli 2C in the Lightweight Classic race. We will bring you updates as they prepare and race this Italian lightweight.
Saturday:
"This is just a short sharp daily update for you on our Benelli MGP progress.
As you know - we are running the Benelli 250 2C in support of the Joey Dunlop Foundation this year and so far have raised over £2,500 for this worthy cause.
Most recently Robert White gave a significant donation to the JDF in return for which we are running the bike in his colours for the MGP only - thanks Robert.
Last night saw us blast off down Bray Hill for the first time, conditions were fair with rain forecast to come in.
Fozzy got a great start and shortly after I heard from our lookout at Laurel Bank that he was safely through and going well.
Steve Peace was at the Highlander and later reported him as flying.
We were looking good for a great first lap and possibly on for a scene if time allowed.
However - the weather closed in and darkness called off any chance of a second lap and then the bike suffered a power loss coming into Governors Bridge - just a few hundred yards from the finish so Fozzy pulled in.
So - almost a lap then!
Debrief after revealed that he is happy with the bike overall and reckons 'its made for the mountain!'
Today we have our work cut out as we swap engines (planned), swap tyres and wheels and ready a third engine for next week.
Next practice is tomorrow night and weather permitting - we hope to get a full two laps in and take on the 84mph challenge to qualify.
This is exciting as we are the under dogs here and are up against works bikes - but Fozzy last night was out there passing some of them!!
Its all to play for.

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Monday morning:
"Just a quick update from yesterday.
As you know we stopped short on Saturdays practice at Governors Bridge with a loss of power which was suspected to be a broken ring.
Investigations yesterday revealed that mechanically all was fine and all it seems to have been was a dodgy ignition lead! Its the 10 penny items that cause so much grief!
We continued with our plan to swap engines and yesterday saw us:-
Swap engines
Re-spray the fairing
Swap out most of the electrics - coils, ignition box etc
Much testing including taking her for a run up on a private road
Collect the new built up crank and close ratio gearbox
Drink many cups of T
All this and it rained and rained and rained!
Today looks good weather wise and first up is more testing on a private road to make some detail crab changes and then its back here to fit the fairing and 'sticker' her up ready for scrutinizing this afternoon and out again this evening.
I hope to crack on later today with the build of engine no 3 - which will be our race engine for the day featuring the very best of everything!!!
Pics soon.
Take care all and here's to a good fast and safe practice tonight.
May the timings begin and lets see of we can crack an 80mph lap from the off!!!

Tuesday
This mornings news isn't the greatest but we have all had worse!
Yesterday saw us resolve the ignition fault from Saturdays practice and thanks to our good friend and helper Pat - we were able to check the bike out up on a private road near Lonan - so we now have our very own private test track - how cool is that!
Meanwhile back at Benelli Race HQ it was all go as Eddie and I worked on race engine no 3 and fitting new bearings to the spare wheels ready for today's practice - not quite like F1 but not far off!!
Race engine no 3 is very special indeed as this carries many ex works Benelli parts from the ex TT bike that Benelli made to compete here in 74 through 76.
Most notably - it's the close ratio gearbox and straight cut primary drive gears that we are most excited about.
Last night was a great evening and we were looking good for an 80 plus mph lap when Governors Bridge struck out again - this time Fozzy slid off and remounted to get the bike home to score a lap needed to qualify.
He was OK last night with a very sore shoulder and we really have to wait and see what today brings - these things can go either way.
Interestingly a fellow competitor fell off at the same spot later.
So - we are now famous as we were listed this morning on the radio for our crash out!!
The bike has suffered quite a bit of damage and at least its a new front end and a new rear! So we have our work cut out today and whether we will get out tonight is up in the air.
More tomorrow.
John and all at TS//2C Racing

Hi John & all the team,

Good luck with the rebuild / repairs and fingers crossed, hope all goes well for the rest of the week.

Excellent coverage for the JDF and we appreciate all your efforts!

Bruce

Hi folks,

What a day was yesterday and such is racing for you!

Fozzy got checked out at Nobles first thing and luckily had no fractures or torn ligaments so its just bruising and hence he had a painful night.

We then started on the bike and with 9 hours to go before the end of scrutineering and start of our practice session managed to rebuild the bike and get it out again.

It had:-
New front end - forks, oils etc
New wheels and tyres
New swinging arm which was machined by Steve Moynihan for us (famous he is)
Footrest hanger and lots of other bits straightened
New screen
... and a pile of small bits sorted out
We rolled up around 6pm with an hour to spare and its with thanks for Pat, Eddie, Robert, Fozzy and others that we shared the tasks out and got the job done - and correctly to!
Fozzy did two complete timed laps so it with great joy that I can tell you that he put in a first lap 81mph and second of 82.33mph!! Great for a man with a duff shoulder!
So - we are back in the game and now its raining!

John

Hi All,

A very wet day yesterday and the team pulled out of evening practice early to concentrate on readying engine no 3.

Practice did go ahead with much standing water and poor conditions - they got most people out for one lap untimed - so we didn't miss much!

Benelli Race HQ was again a hive of activity interspersed with T and Pastie / pie breaks.

I was working yesterday so it was left to Neil, Pat and Fozzy ably assisted by many drop ins to do the jobs of the day.

Engine no 3 was completed and installed at 12.05 last night after a 15 hour day for some.

She ran up fine and this morning it is off to Slick Bass and the dyno to run in and see what BHP we are getting and how good an engine I have built. If all goes well then we will be out with this engine tonight, if not then its back to either engine no 1 or 2.

Engine no 3 is essentially the ex works TT bikes engine with all the trick bits and close ratio box etc. The straight cut gears are magic to the ears as they whine away. Neils first impression was that something may be wrong when in fact all is well.

This morning we are greeted by the sun streaming in and dry roads.

Let us see what today brings.

As well as practice tonight - Jane gets to go round in the Roads Open car as I bought her a ride as part of her 50th birthday present

More tomorrow.

John

Good morning all (sorry about the late posting!)

Last nights practice was cancelled due to bad weather / rain so we all had a well earned evening off.

However - yesterday was most exciting as the boys took the race bike along with engine no 3 up to Slick Bass to have it run in on the dyno and then put through its paces.

The results are brilliant and I am very pleased with my engine tuning work - porting all done by my own fair hands and the rest of it by friends like Gary who shortened the piston skirt and cut a slot in the piston and the barrel to create a boost port.

The engine produces a healthy 29.8 (so lets call it 30 eh!) BHP at 8,000 revs. Compared to engine no 1 which is our benchmark - it is making about the same power and at 750 less revs (important) with a whopping 7BHP more in the mid range just where it counts! Comparing the Dyno graphs is fascinating and engine no 3 should be a massive improvement for places like the mountain mile where its all about torque. So - combine these characteristics with our ex works close ration gearbox and we should have a real step change in this little bikes ability.

So - this morning the sun shines and let's see if practice goes ahead and what we can do this evening.

John

Good morning all from a sunny Isle of Man (sorry, late again!)

Last nights practice saw us complete our required 5 laps for qualifying however we still need one lap at the required time of just under 85mph.

That said - it was wet and windy and generally awful conditions last night and we had a 80 plus mph lap from a standing start on rain soaked roads - so not a bad omen!

Second lap ended at Creg ny Baa with the gear level falling off! Ho hum!

Engine No 3 performed superbly well with bags of mid range combined with a close ration box giving Fozzy an excellent tool for the job and one which he is confident should allow him to achieve the required qualifying time.

His speed through the start / finish speed trap was 92.9mph last night - up almost 5mph on our previous best so a massive improvement.

We will now leave Engine No 3 in for practice tonight and the race on Monday.

For those interested in the tuning spec - here it is:-

2mm higher exhaust port and 1mm wider
Boost port added (this is the cunning bit!!!)
2mm off the skirt of the piston to increase inlet duration
1mm off the inside of the inlet manifolds

So as you can see - not a staggering amount of change but what a difference to Engine No 1 which is limited to the exhaust port modifications only.

The use of a boost port as prescribed by Walter Kaadan is a cunning way of increasing mid range power and cooling the underside of the piston at the same time. This technology actually dates back to the 20's - so nothing is new - just reused! The ex works TT bike uses the same approach and hence we have now adapted same for our bike.

All good fun and lets see what we can do tonight.

Sadly its all over for us as we haven't qualified on time - just outside the time tolerance by seconds and our appeal was unsuccessful.

So its time for reflection and learning - that's what its all about.

Anyway - here are some highlights of the week:-

We did manage 5 laps and a couple of half laps
We didn't have any mechanical / engine problems
We improved our speed trap time immensely and achieved 97mph through Sulby!
We used all three engines and followed our strategy
We did have a component failure and a couple of cases of - the TT Course does that to bikes type issues
We did rebuild the bike in a day and get out to record our fastest lap that very evening
We have endured poor weather
We had a brilliant lump of pork last night at our MGP BBQ!! Best ever!!

Above all - its been fun trying to compete at a class level which is for GP bikes - not road bikes such as ours and we must have seriously worried some of the boys out there with our speeds!!!

Looking forward we have the Jurby title to clinch, a two day festival at Cadwell and an endurance at Jurby to round off the season - so let's see what we can achieve.

That's it for now.

The Jurby Festival of Speed calls and Robert has a magnificent collection of MVs, a Brough and a Gilera 4 to go and watch perform.

The sun always shines in the North - or so they say!! - Not today mate!

John

Good Luck

Baylon