jrandom and speights_bud's endurance race
Stickchick and I turned up at the track on Monday nice and early via taxi from our usual five-star Taupo residence, and met Sue from MotoTT there, who'd very kindly trailered Betty the GSX1400 (aka Production Superbike #256, roffle) along for me.
A fair amount of general raised blood pressure, scrutineering (kiwifruit got in trouble for a hole in the arse of his leathers, chortle chortle) and worrying about fuelling arrangements followed.
Y'all should be familiar by now with how the weather progressed on the day.
I popped out in the first practice session to scrub in Betty's Pilot Powers, try out my really clever and original idea of running 30psi front and rear, and make sure the XT Racing Ultra-Lap timer and beacon setup was working (it was).
Came in after a couple of 2:00 laps (go go XT Racing gizmos!) and the sides of the rear tyre were already starting to ball up, which was pretty silly at that pace, so I went back to what I was used to and put another 4psi in it. 30/30 doesn't really work when your 'racebike' weighs a quarter of a ton, I guess. Felt all right, though.
Plan was to send Paddy (who'd never ridden Betty on the track before) out in the second practice session to get a feel for her and maybe put some hot laps in for qualifying.
Of course, by the time the second practice session started, the rain was persisting down, and all bets were off.
I'd been saying since ages ago that if it actually rained hard, given that all I had was a fresh set of PPs, I wouldn't race.
But being there on the day kinda changes one's perspective on that shit. Fuck not racing!
So Paddy went out for a very entertaining (to watch, but probably not for him) practice session. One crossed-up fishtailing entry through the lake into turn 1, and one dirt-tracking expedition off the end of turn 7, and he more or less sussed out Betty in the rain, settling on about a 2:18 pace.
Paddy held Betty on the line, and I did the Le Mans start (looking dead sexy and rather wrecking-ball-like in a bright orange rain jacket that dpex very kindly lent me - I had, of course, left my waterproof gear sitting in the garage in Auckland) and intentionally dropped to the back of the field; those were the first moments I'd ever spent on a wet racetrack.
What can I say, um... it was real slippery out there, just silly, really. I bet I had a fairly amusing expression on my face for a lot of it. The painted grid lines coming on the front straight were fookin lethal; it took me half the race to comfortably and reliably find a line through there that didn't provoke wild wiggles from both ends of the bike.
So I went out after the start and pretty much had to pick my way around and discover what Betty would (and wouldn't) do, one baby step at a time.
Which translated to taking 2:40 for my first lap, and then taking 40 minutes to drop 10 seconds off that. Big props to all the serious racers out there going 30 seconds a lap faster than me; they were very considerate with their passing while I treated the first part of the race as my private "learn to ride in the rain" session.
Jody on the pit board brought me in after 40 minutes and Paddy swapped on; I retired into the garage to sit back and process the all-new data I'd just soaked up about GSX1400s on Pilot Powers on the Taupo racetrack in heavy rain.
And then Paddy came in halfway through his session with the gear lever dangling off the linkage and dragging along the ground.
My bad. Some experimentation with reverse-pattern shifting a few weeks ago (turns out it just doesn't feel right on a GSX1400) had caused the circlip holding the shift lever on to pop off, and we'd replaced it with a fat twist of lock wire... I just didn't think to get a new clip. Of course, the wire didn't last.
Thank goodness the dangling linkage didn't dig in after it fell off and cause Paddy to bin.
Anyhow, Chris Mitchell charged to the rescue with some more wire and did a far more secure job on the shift lever. Note to self: get the right fucking clip on before the bike goes out again!
Mea culpa.
The rain had eased somewhat when I went out for my second session, and I was able to sit at the same pace Paddy had found earlier, 2:17-2:19 ish. Just when I was starting to feel good about it, Jody brought me in again and we swapped.
We were in the final hour by then, and the rain actually stopped coming down. Hallelujah! A dry line was opening up and Paddy was bringing the laps back down to that shit-hot 2:00 'qualifying' time I'd set in the morning.
We swapped again with 20 minutes to go (hey, I wanted another turn) and finally I got to ride on a mostly dry line all the way around - heaven. My last lap of the day under the chequered flag was Team Betty's fastest: 1:56.
Chortle.
So we finished up last-but-one before wharfy (who binned early on and spent some time sorting things out before heading out again as the rain eased to put more laps in and finish with honour - nicely done dude).
Great fun, and I'd do it again in a second. Here's hoping for a repeat next year! Whaddya reckon about a six hour event, Scrivy?
Super huge props gotta go out to:
speights_bud, of course, for manning up and agreeing to race an endurance event on a very non-racey machine at the last minute when I decided I couldn't be arsed supermanning it. I'm honoured to be able to tap such talent to round out my own lack of riding ability.
Stickchick for standing in the rain for three hours slinging the #256 pit board, perfect timing all the way. Thank you sweetheart!
Sue Ure of MotoTT for sponsorship, support, coordination, transport, and general high-intensity surrogate motherhood of a motley bunch of wooly-headed bike riders.
Gixxer 4 ever for his slick rider-swap direction and refuelling and for putting in an emergency legal-speeds-all-the-way-cough-cough ride from Napier that morning to bring vital supplies before the race start! (With extra thanks to Mary Moo for the sustenance, om nom nom nom...)
Chris Mitchell for emergency spannering support - something tells me this isn't the first time he's worked wonders with lock wire under pressure. The man's a magician.
Scrivy and Chris Lawrence for putting on a very cool and definitely different race meet. Please do it again next year, guys. I'll be there with bells on. Might even have a proper racebike by then...
kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
- mikey
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Originally Posted by jrandom
. 3 hours in it would have been a bit tough on the nerves though.
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