Let’s get underway for the Team’s 40th season !

Actually, it all started early this year, with races at East London and Kyalami in late January and early February. James Ellison was the chosen rider and what a great choice he was, bringing home two F1 wins and two further podiums to secure first place in the South African Classic TT F1 series. For this, the Team’s Suzuki XR69s were brought out of retirement and proved 100% effective.! Fellow Brit Danny Webb, secured the New Era category on Steve Wheatman’s GSXR750s.

Moving forward, the team will travel to Valencia in early April to test some new modifications on the GSXR1000K1s and introduce new rider Christer Lindholm to the team. Peter Linden, James Ellison and Christer will all be there, in preparation for the same rider line-up at the Paul Ricard 4 hrs race in mid May.

Old friend, Stephane Mertens will join James Ellison for the Mettet 4 hrs race.

Peter Linden will be retiring from motorcycle racing at Paul Ricard after a fantastic 40 year career, 25 years of which have been with Phase One. Without doubt, Peter has been the Team’s most successful rider, securing the 2000 World Endurance Championship, alongside Warwick Nowland and Stephane Mertens, plus, a 24hrs win at Oschersleben and more than 20 classic race wins. Much more will be said about Peter later.

In summary, the plan this year is; Paul Ricard 4hrs (May) Linden/Ellison/Lindholm, Mettet 4 hrs (May) Ellison/Mertens, Classic Bol 2x2hrs (Sept) Ellison/xxx and the inaugural Navarra 4hrs (Nov) Ellison/xxx. Plus, some short circuit events to keep fresh across the summer.

Major backing will once again come from stalwarts, 4tronic and Continental Tyres, plus invaluable additional support from Beringer, R&G, Ragged Edge, Hel, Marchant Engineering Services, SBS and Racefit.

Thanks to all team members, supporters and riders for their continued support.

Firstly, apologies for not updating the website since the beginning of the 2023 season. All regular updates are now posted on Facebook ‘ Phase One Endurance’ but a short season summary now appears below;

Aragon Test – March 23                                  With Hugh Brasher out for the season for health reasons, the team drafted in Aaron Staniforth to assist Peter Lindén with the 3-day Aragon test. The refurbished Suzuki GSXR1000K1s were rolled onto the track and no significant problems were experienced – having the old track notes from 2001/02 was a big help in finding base settings, as was having Keith Marchant, Shell Academy Junior Team leader, back to assist.

Mallory Park – 10th April 23                                James Ellison tests with the team in very wet conditions, prior to joining Peter Lindén and Ant Hart for Paul Ricard.

Paul Ricard SRC 4 hrs – 29th May  DNF                             All three riders qualified in the top 3 in their respective groups. An early race dice with the Team Classic Suzuki rider Danny Webb provided the excitement of the first hour. By mid-race Phase One Endurance was dominating, building a 1.5 lap lead by the 3rd hour. Ant Hart crashed at 3 hrs taking the team out of the race.

Assen – 27th June  1st                                    Peter Lindén Yamaha TZ350 1st place.                              Peter Lindén Suzuki XR69 2nd place

Brands Hatch 4 hrs- 30th July  1st                              New men Bjorn Estment and Jon Railton, score a fine win on the K1 Suzuki, in the 2nd round of the FIM European Classic Endurance Championship. Aaron Staniforth stood in for Peter Lindén, who crashed heavily in free practice. Aaron Staniforth and Phil Atkinson raced together finishing 6th on the team’s XR69 entry.

Linkoping – 5th August   1st                                Peter Lindén scored fine class wins on the Yamaha TZ350 and 2nd places on the Suzuki XR69 in conditions varying from poor to abysmal.

Magny Cours 4 hrs – 10th October  DNF                            James Ellison and Peter Lindén dominated qualifying in this final race of the French classic endurance championship. An early race electrical fault led to a mid-field position at half distance, despite being fastest on track. A crash on oil took the team out of the race in the final laps of the race.

Thanks to all our team members and sponsors for their continued support.

Please follow the team in 2024 on Facebook.

Preparations have been well underway since late December when the new categories for 2023 were finalised.

There have been big changes in the European Championship for the new season – a huge jump in eligibility cut-off caught us all by surprise; a move from 1989 to 2001, was just not expected.! For us it meant teh ZXR750 era of 1991 to 1995 was leapfrogged, as well as the GSXR750 era of 1996 to 2000. So, we now find ourselves back in the world of fuel injected GSXR 1000K1s.

Fortunately for us, one of our original 2001 machines was resting-up in our museum and another was recovered from the open market – so we had the perfect platform to build from. We will debut the new ‘old’ GSXR1000K1s at our Aragon test in March with Peter Linden and Hugh Brasher.

The race season itself will be quite challenging to prepare for – the new bikes can only race in European championship, all the other federations/clubs will stick with more conventional true ‘classic’ classes, so for us that’s the trusty XR69 Suzukis.

No matter how challenging, this will be another great season, the teams 39th, and we shall be absolutely up for it !!

The planned dates are;

Aragon Test – 27-29th March

Paul Ricard 4 hrs – 4-6th May

Assen Classic weekend 30th June – 2nd July

Brands Hatch 4 hrs 28th – 30th July

Linkoping Classic festival – 5-6th August

Magny Cours 4 hrs – 11-13th October

As always, thanks to our trusty team members and sponsors, old and new, for your continued support.

See you all in the workshop, for some serious race preparation and maybe some socialising too.

Regards RB

The pairing excelled in the sunny and warm November conditions. Dominating the race after the third lap, they pulled at a rate of almost 3 laps an hour to finish approx. 10 laps up on the opposition at the flag. Linden started poorly but soon made up for it, carving through the field (of mainly 1990s machinery) to take the lead on lap 3. The team had sliced the race into 4 easy sections, each of 45 minutes, in order to give the riders a comfortable time in the moderate 23 deg C conditions. With the tank well stuffed for short stints, it also meant that the motorcycle ‘full’, weight was reduced by some 4 kgs, giving the riders and tyres an easier time. Phil Atkinson, fresh from yet another classic club 350 cc championship series win, circulated like the endurance pro he was becoming, proving himself the perfect partner. Despite both riders suffering from a virus, they pushed on well, dismissing the early competition and back-to-backed themselves to a trouble free podium.

Peter Linden also won the TZ350 support race in style, after qualifying in second position. This was notable as this win was achieved on Conti CR3s, rather than the Avon tyres that most competitors use. The tyre comments were extremely positive, centring around better front end feel with increased positivity and firmness and possibly better grip. The comments on the rear were equally positive, with feedback that there was no longer any squirminess and grip was good.

A great way to go into the winter – thanks to the whole team and all sponsors; and congrats to Conti for their first TZ win ? The season tally – Endurance wins at Mettet and Cartagena, with support class wins at Linkoping and Cartagena; 5 wins from 7 starts, with one 2nd place. More next year…….

It’s just great going racing in November isn’t it ! Peter is joined by Phil Atkinson for this ‘sprint’ in the sun – a bit of a return to the past for the team – we think we last did the Cartagena six hours in 2011 !

Anyway, we are all set with a great support team, and we leave the UK on the 21st for the 3 hrs on Sat 26th. There is a support race as well, so we shall take the Simpson TZ 350s and enter Peter in that one too. We will report some more for you when we get to the circuit. Coming down?