Ever since Jenny Tinmouth, the fastest woman ever around the Isle of Man TT course, was rewarded for her privateer efforts with a factory ride in British Superbike, she has come in for some stick.
Regularly finishing closer to the back of the grid in her first factory season, armchair pundits from all over have been questioning her caliber, without any appreciation for how fast even the lowest placed riders on the British Superbike grid actually are.
To prove a point, the team at MCN sent Jenny to the Ron Haslam Race School at Donington, to put in some data logged laps against an intermediate track day rider, to highlight the differences between the two. Armed with one of the schools Honda Fireblades, shod with Bridgestone Battlax T30 sport touring tyres, both Jenny and the figures went on to prove a point.
With a typical intermediate track day rider lapping Donington at around two minutes on one of the T30 shod Fireblades, by comparison Jenny Tinmouth set a 1:46 lap. If she had been riding her fully blown BSB bike, all bells and whistles, she’d be in the sub 1:34 bracket.
How does she do it?
- Throttle Trace
Jenny gets on the brakes later, and stands the bike quickly up on exit to be at 100% throttle exiting McLean’s, Foggy Esses and the Melbourne Loop. She is also at 100% throttle down the two main straights. Jenny says that she discovered that most BSB riders are happy for the bike to be moving and squirming, the front end buried and the back end lifting. It just takes some guts to give it a try.
- Speed
On the straights Jenny is the faster of the two riders. She hits 153.2mph, whereas the intermediate rider only manages 140mph. She is also a little slower mid-corner at some points along the circuit, such as the Melbourne loop, proving that corner speed is not entirely key to a fast lap.
- Gears
Jenny works much harder with her gears in order to control the bike. Using low gears helps to stop the bike when going into a corner, and with revs beyond peak torque, there’s less chance of a slide on exit. Over the course of a single lap she makes 16 gear changes, whereas the intermediate rider only makes four.
- Braking
Jenny goes straight from throttle to brake, and then back again. However, the intermediate rider loses time between closing the throttle and applying the brakes, as they take light dabs into the corners for confidence.
She might not be the quickest on the British Superbike grid, which is the fastest domestic superbike series in the world, but Jenny Tinmouth has still had to step her riding up another level just to be there, beyond what most of us could ever dream of, or even comprehend. With Honda behind her, and the support of the likes of Dan Linfoot and James O’Halloran in her team, she’s getting even faster too.
The Bridgestone Battlax T30 is used on all of the Ron Haslam Racing Schools track bikes, offering great performance and stability in both wet and dry weather as well as superb longevity. You can find out more about the Battlax T30 here.
