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Shane - Superlite (#43)

AMCC Round 5 @ Hampton Downs

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What a great way to end an excellent summer full of riding.

Thursday evening was the last of the Honda Twilight Ride Days. It's only 3 sessions but it's also really cheap.

Early on Thursday it was looking extremely dodgy with steady rain until about 10:00am, with light rain until about 1:00pm and then the sky cleared. By 4:30pm the roads were bone dry and perfectly clean. It was warming up so the track was going to be really good.

Getting to the track a little early I wandered around having a look at the supercars from FreemanX. There was a Lamboghini Superleggera, Lamboghini Gallardo, Ferrari 360 Modena, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, a Lotus Exige, Porche Turbo (not sure which one) and a Mini Challenge race car. Any of which you could drive for between $99.00 to $600.00 for 3 laps.

When we were ready to get on track I checked my tyre pressures and headed out but the first session felt awful. The bike just felt horrible everywhere but the worst was on the start/finish straight where the back tyre felt like wood and was letting go then gripping until I buttoned off for turn 1.

Lowering the tyre pressures the second session was much more enjoyable.

It was decided that the last of the Medium and Fast groups would be combined, giving us a 40 minute seesion. I didn't see it through to the end though as I was starting to have way too much fun, some of the passes being a bit too close for a ride day. I called it quits when I got to the end of the start/finish straight with the tail way up in the air and front tyre inches from ramming into the rear of a slow moving litre bike.

The thing that I hate most about ride days is all these really powerful road bikes blast past my little 450 on the straight, move onto my line and then brake 100-150m early while I've still got it pinned to the stops. It's really dangerous and I've had a few scares because of this exact situation. The worst was a while back when a guy on an RSV4 overtook me right at the very end of a straight and immediately hit the brakes. He was so close I didn't even realize he'd hit the brakes until my elbow clipped his right arm as I sailed past on full throttle.

By the time I got home I was sore. But over the next couple of days I got really sore. Even though I only had 2 good sessions on Thursday I'd made somemore changes to the way I ride the bike and those two sessions had really punished certain muscles. I was starting to think I might not be in a fit state to race on Sunday, but by Saturday evening I was feeling much better.

For Sunday the AMCC had sent out an email saying things were being reorganised and everything was going to be getting underway much earlier than previously. When I got to the track instead of unpacking and sorting a shed I went to sign in and get through scrutineering. After that was sorted I talked to Gary and moved into shed 6. There was meant to be five of us but we ended up with just the same four as last time - me, James Jarmen, Geoff Batt and Peter Woodford.

I'm glad I got a shed because it was damn cold out in the wind so the guys on the skid pad would be freezing their arses off. It also meant the track temperature would be well down and I'd need to drop the tyre pressures to suit.

At 8:30am everyone and everything was ready to go, except for the Ambulance. Seems they were still 10 minutes away. However, it was great that things were underway and we weren't messing around waiting for 10:00am because any earlier will upset the horses. Hampton Downs isn't bloody Pukekohe, there aren't any horses!!!

Out for qualifying and I did my usual and left pit lane last. However, it was immediately obvious this was going to be a difficult qualifying session as everyone was being really cautious and really slow. So slow that that I just cruised around but still ended up closing on the guys in front of me.

So instead of backing off to increase the gap I started getting on with things and going after a decent time.

Unfortunately it wasn't until the fourth lap that I finally got enough heat into the front tyre and started feeling that I might be vaguely near a half decent time. A couple of laps later my right hand was getting so cold it was cramping up and I almonst missed the brake lever.

Turns out that I qualified just 0.4 seconds off my personal best, putting me near the middle of the third row. This was a very pleasant surprise as I knew the track conditions were having a negative affect on times so when it warmed up I should be able to have a really good go at achieving my target of taking 1 second off my PB.

It took a while to get to Race 1 for us because the conditions saw a lot of people falling due to cold tyres and the recovery guys were making pick up's after each practice session. A big accident at turn 3 in the first lap of Formula Auckland + F2 saw the entire meeting stop for 20 minutes while Chris DeFiori was taken to hospital. Sounds like he had a huge high side on cold tyres coming over turn 3 and landed on his tail bone. Hope he's alright cos it sounded nasty.

Because of the cold conditions in the morning everyone was getting 2 warm up laps so we headed out and got to work on heating the tyres.

Lining up on the grid it was great to see the staggered formation being used. It just feels right. Being lined up perpendicular doesn't feel right when you're out there on the grid.

The lights come up and we're off!!

Peter Woodford who qualified one place behind me got a great start and pulls just ahead of me even though I got an ok start. Into second gear and the lever actually hung so that when it finally sprung back into place it kicked the bike into neutral forcing me to stomp on the lever early. Neil Slater to my right comes across and gets between us before turn 1 and Peter fires it out of the corner up the inside of Grant Douglas. I'm actually struggling for front end grip on the first lap so Neil and Grant both pull a little bit of a gap on me.

However, coming out of turn 5 Peter is coasting down the middle of the track with his hand in the air, his bike stone dead.

End of lap 1 and I fire it into turn 1 nice and hard and completely miss the apex by a good 8-10 metres. Turn 2 I miss the apex again. Even though we had two warm up laps and one entire lap under race conditions I'm still having problems getting the front hot enough to grip.

However, throwing it at those two turns in an angry fashion has finally got the front up to temperature and I'm able to start closing on Neil and Grant.

A lap and half later I'm up the inside of Neil into turn 1 and set off after Grant. Last lap and I'm close enough to have a go into turn 6 so I ghost up the inside of Grant on the entry, crank it on it's side and feed it the right hand all the way to the finish line.

Definitely a fun race. During qualifying it took so long to get the front tyre warm that we lowered both the front and rear tyre pressures for the race, but it also means the bike squirms around more when you're pushing it and I was having a ball with it wriggling and squirming and bucking everywhere.

Race 2 I got a great start but Grant Douglas had got a better one from the row behind me. I went around the outside of him at turn 1 and set my sights on Nigel Lennox, who usually laps a couple of seconds quicker than me. However, like in Round 4 of the AMCC series I lost count of the gears heading to turn 2 and I changed down too many, the bike threatening to throw me off over turn 3 and causing me to back off and lose a few metres on the guys in front. I set about making it back up but turn 5 is by far the worst corner for me as my bike has no mid range to speak of and it falls into that gap between first gear being too low and second gear being too high. As predicted the bikes in front pull a few metres on me out of turn 5 and I make up fewer than I lose at the end of the short straight.

Following those guys and losing ground it's plain to see I have to change my line for both turn 5 and turn 6 as I'm losing ground on the exit of 5 and the entry of 6 so I start experimenting with lines. Unfortunately it way too late by the time I finally find a line through turn 5 which works really well and I don't lose anything.

Third lap and to my surprise Grant Douglas squeezes up the inside of me braking into turn 1. It was quite a surprise to see him there as he'd been braking before the start/finish line every lap I was behind him and I was braking at the start/finish lights, a difference of 50m. However, he had now gone about 75m past his usual braking point to get past me. Good move and he benefits from seeing how much further he can go before hitting the brakes.

I get my head down and start to look for places to get him back. I see he brakes early for turn 2 and turn 4 and I could probably get him on the entry to turn 6 as well. His bike is hauling arse though so I can't get him out of the corners or at the end of the straights like I usually can against an SV.

Into turn 2 and I can't close enough but I get great drive out of turn 3 and prepare to go up the inside of him at turn 4, but there's a yellow flag there as Scott Findley has stopped on the grass so I have to drop back in behind him, which loses me ground out of turn 4 and I don't make it up until the start/finish straight. Next lap and it's same again, look to pass on turn 4 but there's still a yellow flag cos Scott is still stuck on the inside of the turn unable to move his bike as the brakes are locked on. So once again I lose all that momentum and ground to Grant.

I'm chasing Grant hard but unfortunately I'm not quite able to get him back before the finish line.

Into the pits and I'm happy again cos that was fun. Not so fun was getting called to the stewards office. When I get there wondering what I did wrong and I'm told they weren't sure if I overtook Grant under the yellow flag as we disappeared from sight so they wanted to talk to both of us. But both Grant and I said there was no problem there so things were sorted.

Race 3 and we've upped the pressures a bit as the sun is out and we don't want to overheat the tyres due to all the squirming they're doing.

Peter Woodford is back in his correct spot having had a damn good look to try and find out why his bike keeps dying. Off the line and he gets the usual 2 bike lengths to be just in front of me. Turn 1 he goes around the outside of Grant Douglas while I get stuck behind him for a couple of turns, allowing Peter to get bit of an advantage.

After getting past Grant I have a gap to make up to Peter and spend the next lap losing ground to him before the front is hot enough to chase properly. I then spend the next few laps trying to reel him in, making a few metres here and losing a few metres there. Across the finish line and I can see they're holding a flag out but I can't tell what colour it is so I turn my head to see it and find it's the white but the wind has made it roll up. Back to the race and I realize I've just missed my brake marker and haul the anchors on as hard as I can then turn it in and hope I make it. I'm well off line but get around the corner ok, however, that upset me the next few corners, destroying any hope of catching Peter.

An eventful day with plenty of crashes in the cold, a new Personal Best (a total of 1.3 seconds better than last time) for me in all three races and it's only about 3:45pm. Starting early has done exactly what it was expected, we had time to soak up any problems that arise during the day. I suggested to Graham Bastow that they could probably have extended the last round of races by a lap for all classes and we still would've finished early, but sensibly he said we'd just make it through the day and make sure it's a success before adding any complications.

A great days racing and I'm really pleased to see the AMCC have reorganised how they do things. It was very successful and pleasing to see that we got all the racing in and finished early instead of having to cancel the last round of races due to going overtime so well done to Graham, Colleen (her birthday today by the way), Trevor, Chris and all the others at the AMCC for the good job.

I'd like to thank:
  • Michael for being my pit crew
  • Gary, Tony, Eddy, Ash and the crew from Play Day on Track and the Honda guys for the great Thursday
  • AMCC and all the Marshals for the great days racing
  • My brother, Anari Steyn and Phil Smith for the great photos
  • Stefan @ DL Consulting
  • Allan at Grey Street Motors
  • Tony, Diane, Boaz and Eve for looking after my bike


Photo courtesy of Phil Smith at the Honda Twilight ride
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Image courtesy of Jason Taylor
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Image courtesy of JDAS Photos
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