Shane - Superlite (#43)

At the first round of the Hamilton MCC Series I'd had my first ever Pole position and came away with some great results. Turns out I'd also ended up making a couple of decent bloopers as well. First, I forgot to pick up my race licence before leaving the track. Worse, I'd put the excess petrol in the fuel jug into the bikes petrol tank while it was sitting on the trailer and I'd forgotten to put the fuel cap back on. So I drove all the way home, put the bike in the shed and it'd sat there without a fuel cap for over a month.

After much head scratching and hunting around I eventually found the original gas cap. Luckily I still use the key, although not to turn the bike on (that's done by plugging in the lanyard for the kill switch) but because I haven't put in the other ECU (need to run a wire and then dyno the bike as the fuel and ignition mapping will be considerably different) and the transponder is needed because of the HISS. Liberal use of CRC was needed to get the gas cap unlocking properly but it was all easily sorted.

I had intended on getting in some practice on Saturday at the Play Day, but when I woke up that morning and looked outside it was pretty obvious that staying in bed was by far the best option. I could've headed to the Play Day to get some wet practice but I'd finally replaced my dodgy old set of wets with a nice new set so I wasn't going to waste on a track day.

Once I eventually climbed out of bed I dropped the trailer and bike off at my mother inlaw's place. As it's on the way out of town I can pick it up when I head to the track rather than having to drag it around all day.

Sunday morning, after picking up the trailer I stopped at the BP to gas up and get some breakfast. I think I'm going to have to start taking note of the bike's fuel consumption as 98 octane is up to $2.39 a litre.

Rolling up to the track I realize that I'm almost 20 minutes earlier than I'd planned to be. Not sure why as I hadn't been in a hurry at all, had stopped off to pick up the trailer, gas and breakfast and had stayed at a steady 95kph all the way to the track. However, seeing as I was early I wandered around and took my time getting things sorted.

Sign-in took no time at all, scrutineering is for Clubmans only and helmet check is quick and easy. Seems I missed all of the dumb arses that still hadn't renewed their MNZ licence and were causing lots of paperwork and delays.

Qualifying was definitely wet, with lots of worms all over the place to make things interesting. Looking around on the dummy grid I could see almost everyone had wets on the bikes this time so I wasn't going to be able to pull a sneaky pole again, especially as Ben Rosendaal had turned up to blow a few cobwebs out.

Out of pit lane and I'm first away again. I ease into things and gradually build a bit of speed but I'm having trouble turning the bike. I'd added a little bit more fork fluid as it's still bottoming out, but otherwise the bike was still running dry settings so there'd be too much preload in the front end for the wets. Maybe I should've done the wet Play Day after all and come up with some decent wet settings.

After a couple of laps Ben came past me and he was clearly quicker, lapping a couple of seconds faster than me. By the fourth lap I'd had enough and knew I wasn't getting anything more out of it without taking some big risks so I headed into the pits.

Even though I wasn't that confident in how things went I still managed to qualify 4th, just pipped for 3rd by Gerard Pijfers. However, something seized at turn 1 sending Gerard into the grass on his back so that was his day finished after just 5 very slippery laps. That left Hugo Trenholme in second with Ben Rosendaal on Pole.

After much umming and ahhing I watch the first couple of laps of the Senior class and saw that the guys on slicks were pretty much going backwards so I was going to stick with the wets for race 1, even though there were spots around the track that were bone dry. I did, however, take 1.5 turns of preload out of the front end so that the bike would steer correctly again. We also reset the tyre pressures as they were 3psi higher than they should've been due to the difference in ambient temperature (it was much colder before Qualifying and I don't have enough experience with the wets to have pressures for different temperatures).

On the out lap it was pretty obvious that the track was more dry than wet, but it still looked too cold and damp for slicks so we were going to have to suck it up and destroy a set of wets. Not something I was looking forward to as mine were brand new and I'd really like to some use out of them.

Lining up on the grid I see Greg Smith on the Ducati 750 is directly behind me and seeing as Gerard's spot is empty I know exactly where he'd be aiming for.

The lights come up, the revs rise, we're waiting ... waiting ... still waiting, and we're off!!

I get a pretty good start but Nathan Jane gets a better one, just getting in front of me for turn 1. However, he's tentative on the cold front tyre so I ride straight around the outside of him into second place behind Ben. A short while later Greg Smith comes past me. I start to settle into figuring out what I can do with wets on a dry track and rapidly find out that I need more weight on the front end. The wets keep making the handle bars weave from side to side on corner exits and on straights. Not tank slappers, but still big, lazy weaving, almost lock to lock. Out of turn 4 the bars don't stop weaving until I throttle off and brake over the brow of the hill. Out of turn 1 the bars are weaving almost all the way to turn 2. Into most corners it's also happening on entry, but it's nowhere near as pronounced as corner exit.

The bike is handling it all well though, not getting offline or doing anything stupid so I decide to let it wave the bars around and up the pace. That is until I give it a really big handful on the exit of turn 1 and almost lose the front end, convincing me that maybe I should be a little bit cautious. However, this gave Nathan the chance to get past me and he headed off after the other two while I eased back just a little bit so the weaving didn't get that bad again. Nathan did well, chasing down Greg Smith and passing him for second place.

Back in the pits I added a little bit of preload back in as it had felt a touch too nose down. But I also added 1.5 turns of preload to the rear as I must've taken some out last time to try and clean up the nasty tyre wear I was getting on the rear tyre. The wets looked barely used though so the track surface must be cold enough to stop the tyres over heating cos they were definitely squirming and moving a lot.

For race 2 the track was bone dry so the wets came off and the slicks went back on.

Lining up for the start of the second race I'm looking forward to some dry laps and predictable handling. This time the lights come up and aren't held for ages so we're off without any problems. I get another good start but this time as we're heading into turn 1 I can see tyre lines out the back of Ben and Nathan's bikes so I back off a bit to see how wet it is. Soon Greg Smith eases past and Hugo Trenholm charges hard past me in the slippery conditions. Out of turn 6 it's bone dry so I give it heaps, hoping it was a very brief shower that only affected the first half of the track. Charging up to the start/finish line I've suddenly got lots of water streaming across my visor. Backing right off again Chris Bridge slithers past. Ben keeps waving to indicate he's slowing and I'm thinking this isn't fun and neither is fixing the bike.

Over the start/finish line again and I'm pretty much fed up and heading for the pits when Guy Webster goes right around the outside of me at turn 2.

Into the pits I park up and a short while later Ben follows me in, then the red flag comes out. In the end almost half of the field DNF'ed due to withdrawing or crashing, including all of Team Aspire.

Withdrawing meant that I pretty much handed second place in the Club Championship to Nathan. I'm doing the Hamilton series mainly so I get some laps over winter. I never expected to be fighting for the championship or anything so being 2nd after round 1 was a complete surprise.

For race 3 I'd had enough of changing wheels so if it rained I was going home. Thankfully it didn't rain again and the track was bone dry.

Off the line I get another good start, with Nathan just edging in front again, so once again I ride right around the outside of him. A short while later Greg Smith came past both of us, then him and Ben started to ease away in front. By lap 3 Nathan had closed up behind me and pulled a pass into turn 5, I went around the outside of him out of turn 6. He went the long way around me at turn 4 but I managed to get him back again, although this time it was just before the start/finish line. Into turn 4 Nathan heads up the inside of me, I hear him make a bad gear change and the bike suddenly dips and I have visions of getting collected in a crash so I stand up and back off. However, he manages to hold it together, find the correct gear and charges off, pulling a bit of a gap while I get it back together.

I'm chasing Nathan hard but I'm fighting a losing battle as I just can't keep up in the slow part of the track. Out of turns 3, 4 and 5 the 2 stroke pulls too much of a lead. I'm certainly trying, sliding the back then standing it up out of turn 4 to turn the bike quicker, charging in fast and hard to turn 6 and turn 1, but he's riding really well and is getting faster and faster.

Down the short straight we see Greg Smith rapidly coming back towards us and he suddenly wobbles toward the middle of the track. I back off again and therefore lose a bit more time to Nathan. Next time around the marshalls are waving the yellow and red Lack of Adhesion flag and I can see something long rolling around on the track so once again I back off. Greg Smiths bike is being pushed over to the wall at the exit of 6 so I'm guessing he had a big mechanical problem.

Over the line and I could swear we hadn't done the full 8 laps, but according to the timing sheet we did.

Results for the day were mixed, a 4th, DNF and a 3rd. However, I was pleased that we'd made it through the day with minimal problems.

Another good, well run, relaxed event.

Big thanks to:

• Cherie for helping out in the pits
• Vince at Burrell Signs
• the Hamilton MCC, marshalls, ambulance crew and all the volunteers that made for such a good day
• Robert and Dennis at KSS for the suspension work
• Craig @ Grey Street Motors
• Stefan @ DL Consulting
• Tony, Diane, Boaz and Eve for looking after my bike