View RSS Feed

Shane - Superlite (#43)

2015 HMCC Round 1 @ Hampton Downs

Rate this Entry






The last time on my bike hadn't worked out the way I'd hoped it would, having done only 4 full laps before finding out the rear suspension was leaking and therefore dangerous.

After sending the rear shock off the Robert at KSS and getting the bike back together I was keen to bring the lap times down but the weather wasn't looking good.

Because the Intermediate class was so large Qualifying was split into two sessions, odd numbers and even numbers. The odds were out immediately after Clubmans.

I was keen to wear my nice new gear but I didn't want to get it all soaking wet and looking secondhand. For Qualifying the track was definitely a wet but there wasn't any rain in sight so I climbed into my new gear. Once Steve Jones showed me the paint job on my helmet I wasn't going back to my old gear cos I wanted to wear it all.

Needless to say everything felt different. I just cruised around for a couple of laps and got used to the different gear and foot pegs position. Not only was the track wet but because of the visor I had on and my glasses I could see oil in all of the corners except turns 2 and 3. But I knew I had to get on with things and I was already feeling comfortable so I decided to pretty much stick to the middle of the track and see what I could do.

With nobody around me I settled down and just got faster and faster until the bike started slipping and sliding, not helped by the fiddling I'd done with the fuel map to try and get better response at part throttle but instead it was rough and jumpy. Once it started sliding around and jumping too much mid-corner I couldn't really go any faster so I headed in, missing nothing as the chequered flag was already out.

Qualifying felt good and I was happy with the outside of the second row. Thankfully I'd remembered to take the lap top so I changed back to the map I normally use and I'll have to rethink the part throttle fuelling.

First race and I remembered that we hadn't turned the tail light on so I'd have to turn it on when I got to the grid. On the out lap I cruised through turns 2 and 3 and heard something going on behind me. I find out later that Sean Bateman crashed through turn 3. Into turn 4 I hear something loud and fast heading around the outside of me and out of the corner of my eye I see Nick Kampenhout going sideways, the back wheel catches and flicks Nick up and over the top. He's a lanky bugger and it's only slow so his feet are touching the ground almost the entire time but he's still crashed and won't make the start.

The flag came up and we're off!!

I got a pretty crappy start, going backwards all the way to turn 1. Into turn 1 and there's a bike up the inside of me and Jacob Stroud is going around the outside of everyone. Turn 2 I lose another place. Turn 3 and Gerard Pijfers goes around the outside of me and another, slipping and sliding and almost running off the side of the track. He backs off a little, gets it straight again then charges off to turn 4.

Getting involved in someone elses crash and breaking my clavicle has made me really wary around others, especially riders I don't know. Because of the different class rules for the Intermediate class there's only half a dozen that I've ridden with before and just about everyone is on wets so the bikes are moving around alot. Qualifying I was happy cos I was by myself but now with lots of bikes squirming and sliding all around me I'm getting spooked a lot so I'm backing off when I wouldn't normally.

After a couple of laps things settle down and I'm feeling comfortable. Jacob Stroud and Hamish Boyd are ahead of me and I'm staying with them. After following them for a while I'm looking for places to pass but coming around the very slippery turn 1 Dillon Telford is sliding on his arse while his bike is spinning around in the middle of the track. The 3 of us back right off and pass between Dillon and his bike, he's looking like he's going to do something stupid but resists the urge when he sees us. We hold station until we're around past the flag near turn 2 then get back on the gas but we end up holding the same places all the way to the finish line.

The weather looked to be holding so we decided to get the slicks back on the bike for race 2. The warmers had only gotten up to 45C by the time pit lane opened for the second race so I knew the carcasses were stone cold. The track wasn't any warmer so I decided to take it easy on the first lap and get some heat into the tyres.

I got a better start this time, although it still wasn't anything spectacular and still lost places into turn 1. I lost another before the end of the lap when I started to pick up the pace and take advantage of the slicks, easily taking Jase Augustine under brakes into 2 as he wasn't on slicks. Aaron Carmichael came past me in turn 5 but I blew past him out of 6 and took off after those in front.

Next lap I'm firing it out of turn 6 to see Ian Reed's bike upside down and he's not looking too flash. A lap later and I'm starting to see water droplets on my visor so I start to back off, knowing it's psychological rain but that's ok by me and lose a place to Aaron Carmichael. Into turn 1 and there's yellow flags out because Jacob Stroud has thrown Shane Lawery's ER650 down the road. Out of turn 1 and suddenly it's absolutely pissing down. It's so heavy even the guys on wets have given up and the red flags are out.

Back in the pits and one of my brand new gloves is full of water so I decide I'll go back to my old but dry ones. We take the belly pan off and there appears to be about 1.5 litres of water in it, that's from 3/4 of a lap. The rain was really heavy.

By the time the third race comes around I'm getting really grumpy at how things have gone and decide that I'll do the warm up lap and see what things are like. If it's too wet I'll just bail and go drink beer instead. But after talking to John Dyson at the end of his last race I'm a lot more positive as there's a definite dry line all around the track.

I know turns 3, 4, 5 and the straight before 6 will be dry, as will up the hill to the start/finish straight and the straight itself but the final turn is always the slipperiest and turn 1 has had worms on the exit all day. Even during the bone dry part of race 2 at the turn 1 exit you could see worms all over the place and feel the bike slipping on them so those two turns still worried me.

On the out lap there was a definite dry line everywhere, although turn 6 it was very narrow with wet (not damp) patches offline.

Off the line I got another very average start. Into turn 1, again, I lost a couple of places as I was well off the dry line. Settling down I was faster through the corners than the two in front of me but I couldn't go off line to pass them. Others, however, could.

Sean Norquay on a KTM 690 had a lot of grunt out of corners and was difficult to set up for a pass. However, as we went past the white flag he went way, way wide and lost all of his speed so on the exit Colin Terry shot up the inside while I went around the outside as Sean was in the wrong gear.

I looked at getting Colin in the remaining corners but the SVs are quick through the infield so the only chance was going to be out of the last corner. I got on the throttle early, using the grip of the slick while Colin slithered around on the wet. As he was slithering around he kept a tighter line on the exit so I had to go around the outside, but I had a whole heap of grip so comfortably rode around the outside of him to the finish line.

A very mixed days racing due to the weather and some major trust issues so I was glad to pack up and go home. However, I'm really pleased with my new gear and the set up on the bike feels much more natural so I'm looking forward to the next round.

Thanks to
  • my wife for not yelling at me too much for racing with titanium bits in me
  • Cherie for all the help in the pits
  • Stefan @ DL Consulting
  • Tony, Diane, Boaz and Eve for looking after my bike
  • Craig @ Grey Street Motors
  • Dusty @ Leda Leathers for the awesome custom race suit
  • Steve @ SPJ Art and Design for painting my helmets
  • Anari and John @ JDAS for the excellent pics



click image


click image








Submit "2015 HMCC Round 1 @ Hampton Downs" to Digg Submit "2015 HMCC Round 1 @ Hampton Downs" to del.icio.us Submit "2015 HMCC Round 1 @ Hampton Downs" to StumbleUpon Submit "2015 HMCC Round 1 @ Hampton Downs" to Google Submit "2015 HMCC Round 1 @ Hampton Downs" to reddit Submit "2015 HMCC Round 1 @ Hampton Downs" to Facebook

Comments