Sea of green! Cadwell park Auto66 24/10/09

The leaves may have gone brown and fallen to the ground but it was all green at the Cadwell Bonanza.
RMKD was expertly represented in both the f400 and formula lights classes by (shown from left hand side) Mark Leaning (124), Alwyn Dalton (49), Will Leaning (32), Dan Frear (25), Arran Hopper (87) and Richard Connole (98).
All riding RMKD zxr400s the top six places were almost exclusively owned by these guys all weekend, Dan Frear taking 9 wins from ten starts, and somehow getting on lap record pace despite only having a racing line 2ft wide due to leaves on the track. 16 year old Novice Will Leaning followed suit, screaming through the leaves to take a string of fine 2nd places and even dipping into the hallowed 1m40s bracket. 17 year old rookie Arran Hopper also grabbed a second place. With Alwyn Dalton and Richard Connole both on the podium over the weekend and Mark Leaning making a rare appearance, delivering a superb 4th place there really was a lot to shout about, in fact, the last f400 race resulted in the entire top 5 being made up of RMKD machines, what a way to sign off for 2009.

"Kings Blings" (Derby Phoenix Cadwell 19-20 sept)

Silverware ahoy for 15 yr old Kingsley Ruddy, 2009 Derby Phoenix F400 champion.
Rarely do you see riders this young with such consistency but Kings has shown the numerous ex champions in this class a display of not only superb pace but extraordinary maturity on track.
The title was already won prior to this, the final round and Kings set out on track complete with winners shirt over his leathers for race one. In a cruel twist of fate the youngster suffered his only crash of the season whilst in a fierce battle at the front, tearing his commemorative vest in the tumble. Race two saw Kings piloting his RMKD ZXR400 on a spectacular charge through the field from dead last to 2nd behind the ever rapid Alan Armour on his trusty Suzuki RGV 250.
Sundays races both saw Kings first over the line but an unfortunate 5 sec penalty in the final race for finding the ultimate line through the chicane put him 2nd on corrected time behind another talented youngster, Josh Leaning (also RMKD ZXR400).
Many congratulations Kings and good luck to a bright future!

Will Power! (Derby Phoenix Cadwell 19-20 sept)

16 year old Will Leaning wrapped up the Derby Phoenix F400 novice championship in great style last weekend.
With a 95 point cushion at the head of the table Will could have been forgiven for playing it safe at the season finale and scavenging just enough points to make the title his, but no, Will fired his RMKD tuned ZXR400 to 4 class wins, bringing his times down considerably and even scoring an overall 3rd place. Bearing in mind the experience and pace of the competition congratulations really are in order for such a performance.

Lean green winning machine (Auto66 Olivers Mount 19-20 Sept)

Dan Frear has had it all his own way in the 400 class at Scarborough this year. However, at this meeting there was a high profile new challenger to contend with. TT Winner and current master of the Irish roads Ryan Farquhar had brought his Kawasaki ER6 minitwin across to Olivers Mount. In Ireland the minitwins can be tuned and race alongside the 400s, a class in which Ryan is considered unbeatable.
The scene was set for an epic battle and when the first race got underway Farquhar got away first chased by Dave Bell (Kawasaki ER6) and Dan. Ryan wasted no time in posting up a lap record in the 1m 53s but Dan responded well, passing Dave Bell and chasing Ryan down, Dan passed Ryan and gently eased a gap, smashing his own lap record by 2.1 secs with a 1m 52.8s, Dan calmly pulled away to win by an incredible 14 seconds.
Following the race the knives were fully out for Dan and the RMKD team. An official complaint was lodged, and a request to strip the teams' ZXR 400 was upheld (see seperate story).
The bike was of course found to be legal and was rebuilt ready for battle no2 on Sunday. With a fresh clutch in the bike, Dan powered away from the line into a strong lead and when Ryan Farquhar retired due to an injury sustained in the 600 race, Dan controlled his pace to ease the little 398cc RMKD Kawasaki home to a 10 second win over the stylish Dave Bell.

Paddock rumour merchants finally silenced (Auto66 Oliver's Mount 19-20 sep)

Ever since RMKD racing have been building ZXR 400 engines there has been the usual paddock mutterings with reference to the bikes' speed and ultimately their legality. We've heard claims ranging from big bore kits to long stroke cranks and even using a 600cc engine.
Following yet another amazing win by Dan Frear at Olivers mount the rumour mill was at full steam and put in an official complaint requesting an engine strip and capacity measurement. Despite feeling unfairly treated as such procedures are generally left until the end of the racing weekend, RMKD Racing agreed for the technical team at Auto 66 to remove, strip, and inspect the engine after Saturday's record breaking race.
The measurements came back at 398cc and all aspects of the engine were found to be legal for F400 competition.
The bike then had to be fully rebuilt by RMKD (with thanks to Joe Hicks and Russ Button) overnight in preparation for Sunday's racing.
The team's hard work to get back on the grid was repayed by Dan with an emphatic victory.

In summary: if you want to go as fast as Dan, you need a RMKD engine. Oh, and bags of talent helps.

Arran feels the power and takes the glory. (Auto66 Cadwell 9/8/09)

17yr old apprentice engineer Arran Hopper has been showing real promise aboard his standard engined ZXR 400, his performances putting far more experienced riders to shame. The time had come to add some more power to the mix and RMKD duly obliged.
The unveiling of the new combination was at Cadwell Park with Auto 66 on 9th August and Arran didn't disappoint!
The youngster took four whole seconds off his previous best lap time around the technical lincolnshire track and won the opening two races in style. Unfortunately, youthful exhuberance got the better of him in race three where he pushed his braking point a little too much and fell uninjured at park corner leaving 16yr old RMKD ZXR 400 mounted Will leaning to take the victory.

"Ruddy hell that's fast" at cadwell as Kings learns from devastating Dan. (Derby Phoenix 25/7/09)

Kingsley Ruddy, the 15yr old sensation from Barnsley has been in tremendous form in the Derby Phoenix MCC F400 championship aboard his RMKD Racing ZXR 400. A run of convincing victories against quality opposition such as Paul Ellerker, Alan Percival and Richie Welsh have put him over 100 points clear and well on the way to wrapping up the title.
However, this meeting was always going to be a big test for Kings as Dan Frear (outright cadwell park 400 lap record holder and BSB Superstock 600 front runner) and Dan Hegarty (BSB Superstock 1000 front runner) were set to take to the grid.
Derby Phoenix use a championship position starting system meaning Kings went from pole in race one while Dan Frear was going to have to draw upon all of his talent and experience to catch the young whippersnapper from the back of the grid. Kings showed great maturity to take the win with Dan only 1 sec behind, but ominously over a second a lap faster, Dan Hegarty took an incredible 3rd place on Mark Jordan's KR1S 250, a machine which many would dismiss as being uncompetitive against the well documented straight line speed of the RMKD tuned Kawasakis.
The following three races saw Dan Frear starting from the front row and steaming off into the distance taking wins by 8 secs, 13.5 secs and 12.5 secs taking the fastest lap in each race- all of which were in the 1m37s, the fastest being 1m37.53. Yet another devastating performance from Dan.
Kings came away from Cadwell with his head held high following a string of intelligent second places, extending his championship lead and now clear about the level he needs to (and no doubt will) attain when he moves to national competition in the near future.
Dan Hegarty continued to amaze with his pace on the little KR1S until he finally broke it in the last race but not before he'd issued another stunning 1m39s laptime dicing with Kings.
16yr old Will Leaning continued to make excellent progress aboard his RMKD ZXR 400, taking some strong top ten finishes and extending his lead in the F400 novice championship to 95 points.