Lyndon Poskitt Racing - A blue print for Dakar 2013 - and he did it!

Direct Link (with images)......http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/2012/05/24/support-crew-decision-made/

Well, after weeks of thinking about this I have finally made my decision. There are lots of things to consider when thinking about support, the first of which whether you want it at all or not. I considered doing the RallyMoto or Marathon class but to be honest, as much as I’d love to do this and feel that I could manage it technically, I don’t see much in way of recognition from doing such and it is fraught with complications. Doing the event solo is fine while everything is going well and all you need is an oil and tyre change every night but when things start going away from ideal, this is when the trouble starts. There’s only so many hours in the day and when there’s a problem with the bike, the time of day can diminish rapidly leaving little time for road book prep, nutrition and sleep. This is where it all starts going horribly wrong. I feel you just limit your chances to finish even more; and as I’ve said before, my goal is to finish. So, with the decision made that I would like to go supported, the question was who with.

One option was to try and arrange my own support, hire vehicles and get friends and family to drive them and support the race. The problem with this is the money it would cost and also I would have to procure and transport all of my own spares, something which is very costly indeed. I ruled this option out on cost and logistics alone. I’ve got enough to deal with, with a full year of racing and preparing my own bike, without organising all the logistics of the event and arranging the support crews too.

The most commonly used and probably the most experienced support team in the UK is Desert Rose Racing. Not only is Patsy Quick (owner) a Dakar veteran but she is a great person and has oodles of experience that goes with it. I have raced the UK series with Patsy so have had some time to see how she operates.



Typically, patsy has supported many a privateer on a shoestring budget and is determined to get them to the finish. She will support any make of bike and the individual is responsible for make sure they have the correct amount of spares (although if you are riding an RFS KTM, she has plenty!). Her crew is already solid, made up of Clive (her Husband), Zippy and others who regularly make up the team. It looks likely that Desert Rose would wind up supporting a number of riders with different machinery, something I feel makes the logistics and spares situation more complex and complexity is something you really need to limit if you can. I’m not saying it’s not achievable, it’s just not as ideas as all the riders being on the same machines. Recently Desert Rose have not been running Factory bikes at the Dakar due to riders choice but that does not mean they couldn’t going forwards. The option of taking my own mechanic was not explored but this is definitely something I would want to do.

Desert Rose has typically been one of the most economical options in the past although Patsy has made it clear that the model was going to change this coming Dakar. Lets face it, she has been somewhat of a ‘mother’ to her riders in the past, doing it because she loves to do so and not for the money. Speaking to her of late, I think the time has come where she has to put her business head on and make it viable. At the end of the day, she is running a business and there is only so much charity one can give, fully understandable.

Another option I had been pursuing was the opportunity to race with Team Frontrow GB, managed and run by Stan Watt. Stan has many solid race results, latest of which was 34th on this year’s Dakar. His support model is really nice in terms of vehicles and a support crew with two or three years of experience on the Dakar. I’d been watching them for a while and the way that the team operate at Enduro’s and Rallies is something that I would definitely want to be part of. The problem is, he does not offer support packages so if you want in, you have really ‘get in’!



After a few initial discussions with Stan, it was clear that it was and never will be his intention to support others on the Dakar. The only way he was willing to let people in the team was if he eels they will fit, are capable and willing to be an equal member of it; being part of the decisions making, organisational elements and everything else for that matter, including financials. He made it clear that the deal would be non-profit making and all the costs would be split equally between the riders. Another positive is that Stan would only entertain Factory 450 RR bikes on the team (works for me) and he already has a huge spares pool from the previous year’s racing so there’s already a financial benefit there. Oh and an Ivan power shower too…..



After the initial discussions I sure felt like this approach was going to be the most robust option for my style of thinking, my logistical focus and flexibility required. Being part of the decision making on the support and logistics as well as the bike would be great but without having to do everything myself, a true team effort.



Last week, I travelled down to Frontrow headquarters to meet the full team and support crew and iron out a good few questions I had before committing to the team. One of the big questions was whether or not I could choose my own mechanic for the race. It was agreed that this could be worked into the whole package. In addition to this, something I was really keen on was to get the entire team to a couple of other events throughout the year. This needed the buy in from all team members to do it as a full team and as it turns out, we were all as committed. The decision was made to race Sardinia and Morocco FIM rounds as well a number of other events as a team, with the same support vehicles and set-up. This way, we could perfect our team work and logistical operations throughout the year and not at the Dakar.
After a lot of question asking, food eating, debate, discussion and trying to make numbers look smaller by moving them around the page, the decision was made to…………..have a beer and talk some more.



Eventually, late that night or was it the early hours of the morning, all the i’s were dotted and the t’s were crossed. The decision was made, I’d be riding under the package of team Frontrow GB for all the support aspects but riding as Lyndon Poskitt Racing in my own livery. Excited is an understatement!

With the agreement that I can choose my own mechanic, the next decision will be who, but I’ll save that for my next post……

Nice!

Good one, another 'big decision' ticked off the list.


(and in an off-topic aside, I can see my truck in the background of that picture)

So will we get to hear/see how the practice schedule looks?

Practice schedule is already on the web-site www.lyndonposkittracing.com under the calendar section. I will try to keep it up to date with any changes too.

Sardinia....t minus 4 weeks...ish :eek1

Anybody know how I can automate an update to ADVRider from my Blog posts like you can with Facebook?

New post....

http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/2012/05/29/hearts-minds-and-a-small-island-with-many-benefits/

Must sleep.

The start of this week was far from the norm. After a weekend on the Rally Bike I’d usually return to work but I had some Racing commitments to take care of. This involved taking a short flight to the Channel Island of Jersey on Monday morning for a number of activities.
First up was a trip to the Jersey Hospital / Medical Centre for an appointment with www.heartforlife.co.uk for some Heart tests that are required for the World Championship Events and indeed the Dakar. Having the Echo Cardigram first, I got to see the valves in my heart pumping away, hopefully they never reach the rate of the valves in the 450RR motor; if they do I’ve got trouble because they look a lot more complex and I did not see any springs in there to help them close!

Next up was the exercise tolerance ECG. The standard requirements are pretty basic but when I told the cardiologist what I was doing and how I like to keep fit, I think he saw this as an opportunity to push me a little harder. It all started well…..

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……and thuntil I got to the point where I wish I could have reached the stop button. I stuck with it until eventually he decided I shed enough sweat to call it a day. He then helped me to the bed before I collapsed from the sudden stop (that is a requirement of the test).

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Dr. Andrew Mitchell will collate the report and complete the licencing application in the next few days.
With the heart tests in that bag it was over the road for the eye examinations and tests at Alan Duchemin Optitians. Ben did a sterling job here and informed me of some very useful information about my eyes. I’m always keen to learn more in life, here I got a lesson about my eyes, got to see the back of my eye and find out some interesting stuff about disk to cup ratio’s and how I was a minority with my ratio. After a 30 minute appointment turned into over 60 minutes, mainly due to a long discussion about the Dakar, it was time to hit the road. It’s amazing how many people know of and are interested in the Dakar.

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Finally, I took a trip to Bikers Jersey, the islands KTM Dealer. I was recently contacted by the Sales Director Owen Lewis who had been following me for a while on ADVRider.com and had seen what I was planning to do through my web-site. As a result of the visit I am happy to announce that Bikers Jersey will be the KTM dealer that are supporting my race campaign over the coming year. Big thanks to Owen (see picture below) who has stepped forward to contributed in many different ways in order to support me throughout 2012 and in the run up to the Dakar.

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It was great to meet the guys at bikers, get all my licence tests done, pick up Dealer Support and also see such a fantastic little island steeped in history on what turned out to be a fantastic couple of days. Now it’s back to the grind stone.
A huge thanks to everyone on the island that made the visit so smooth and so beneficial.

Big props, Bikers Jersey!

It's always nice to have a dealer support

Hi Pyndon,

Wow, didn't know you were a fellow Mechanical Engineer (I just retired after 35 years of ME professoring @ Univ of New Mexico USA)...I may have to try to support you a little

I may have met you at WestFest 2007 in Sipapu, NM...I know for a fact you rescued a Uly-mounted buddy of mine :eek1

So as a comrade ME...good luck!

--Doc

Hey Dr Greg,

I remember that day like it was yesterday. We also spent all night looking for a lost rider if I remember correctly. Crazy but fun times. Well, it was all fun apart from riding that Uly back down the trail. Hey, wasn't it Slippery Pete?

Haha, hope you do buy into some support, it'll be a fun journey to follow, I promise you that.

Take care of yourself.

Lyndon

Looks like things are coming together well for you.

As soon as work is settled here this ME, (in exile in a vast cloth-covered world) will be sparking up that support button.

Casual Friday so I'm rocking a shirt from Team Double Barrel Racing.

Solid choice with FRGB, Pyn. Tell Stan and the boys from Adv Spec I say Hi.

Ok ADVers, get excited cos there's a cool video on the way. Hey I even dug out the ADV sticker for the front fairing .

Last weekend I took off to Helmsley in Yorkshire, UK to start the making of a promotional video for my Dakar Campaign. *Mikey from blueoysterco.co.uk teamed up with the LyndonPoskittRacing crew for a dawn to dusk day of filming. *Mikey was the mastery behind the camera's for the day while I just got to rip it up all day!
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0774.jpg"><img title="DSCN0774" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0774-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0788.jpg"><img title="DSCN0788" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0788-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0800.jpg"><img title="DSCN0800" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0800-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0883.jpg"><img title="DSCN0883" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0883-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;">Occasionally, Mikey got confused and I had to help out or point him in the right direction.....</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0876.jpg"><img title="DSCN0876" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0876-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0912.jpg"><img title="DSCN0912" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0912-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0923.jpg"><img title="DSCN0923" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0923-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0930.jpg"><img title="DSCN0930" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0930-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="DSCF4396_2" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCF4396_2-1024x712.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="427" /></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0946.jpg"><img title="DSCN0946" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCN0946-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a></p>
<a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCF4391.jpg"><img class="aligncenter" title="DSCF4391" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSCF4391-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a>

With a good few hours on spool, any spare time we get will now be spent pulling it together into something cool. *Watch this space as it is set to hit the streets of YouTube shortly through Adventure-Spec TV.

Big thanks to Mikey, Dani, John and Lee for all their help.

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Lovely bike ...

Looking fwd to the vid

The clocks arrived.....no longer just a design, an actual product!

<a href="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Clock.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-363" title="Clock" src="http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Clock.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="600" /></a>

Cool, now you have a place to hang the spare chain. I should turn mine into a clock, if it ever wears out that is.

Just sent a little something your way.