7mmWSM
26th July 2009, 21:57
After many years of riding MX and getting tired of the dust, mud and cleaning up to do at the end of the day I decided to have a go at 'road racing'.
After having a ride on the ol mans bike at a track day earlier this year I was hooked and a few days later had purchased an RG150 to learn how its all done. After a couple more track days I felt ready to have a go and see how I stacked up.
Unfortunately I missed the first 2 rounds due to a poor bank balance but managed to get my entry in for Rd 3. The weather was shit from Sunday to Thursday the week leading up to the 25th so I was hoping the long range forecast was going to be correct as it was forecasting for calm and sunny skies on saturday.
I rolled up at 7:50am and quickly went and got signed in and to find out what to do etc, then went and got the bike unloaded and give her a quick check over. All Ok so time for rider briefing.
Then comes the long wait. Unfortunately the street stocks were last class out so after an hour we all started lining up on the dummy grid. Feeling a bit nervous having fitted a new rear tyre a few days before and also having rebuilt the top end that hadn't really been run yet the plan was to go out and take it easy for 2 or 3 laps and hopefully getting 1 good lap to qualify in a reasonable position.
Off we went on a very cold track and a wee wet in places too, all was feeling ok until coming onto dunlop for the first time the back end lost all traction and almost high sided me. All composer now lost I knew qualifying wasn't gonna go well but got on with it and eventually got up to a reasonable pace once I settled down. Checking the lap times I clocked in a best time of 1:37.670 for 8th position.
Race 1: With practice out of the way and some of my nerves now gone, I was feeling pretty good knowing I could do heaps better this time. Off the line I managed to pass 6 or so other riders but lost a few places in T1 and got a few back around the hairpin. After this everything settled down and started to do battle with one of the minilites who eventually just piped me on the finish line! Checking the results I was blown away with a 3rd with a best lap of 1:31.974. I was stoked but still 11 secs off the winner so knew I had to do better still.
Race 2: Now feeling more confident I got a real good start off the line getting to the front but too chicken at T1 loosing heaps of positions. Again by the end of lap 1 I had passed several other bikes and knowing this race was only 6 laps I knew I had to push as hard as I could. Some places almost pushing too hard and almost running off at T1 and at dunlop. At this stage I had no idea where I was running but could see another 150 in front of me so set out to chase it down. Each lap for 3 laps I managed to gain a few meters but eventually ran out of laps. I was stocked when the results came through and I had secured 2nd. Best lap was a 1:30.986 and only 1.7sec behind the leader.
Results after the end of the day were good enough for 3rd overall which I was pretty happy about.
Well you should hopefully see me at manfeild next month hopefully with the same sort of weather and hopefully I can repeat or better this result!
After having a ride on the ol mans bike at a track day earlier this year I was hooked and a few days later had purchased an RG150 to learn how its all done. After a couple more track days I felt ready to have a go and see how I stacked up.
Unfortunately I missed the first 2 rounds due to a poor bank balance but managed to get my entry in for Rd 3. The weather was shit from Sunday to Thursday the week leading up to the 25th so I was hoping the long range forecast was going to be correct as it was forecasting for calm and sunny skies on saturday.
I rolled up at 7:50am and quickly went and got signed in and to find out what to do etc, then went and got the bike unloaded and give her a quick check over. All Ok so time for rider briefing.
Then comes the long wait. Unfortunately the street stocks were last class out so after an hour we all started lining up on the dummy grid. Feeling a bit nervous having fitted a new rear tyre a few days before and also having rebuilt the top end that hadn't really been run yet the plan was to go out and take it easy for 2 or 3 laps and hopefully getting 1 good lap to qualify in a reasonable position.
Off we went on a very cold track and a wee wet in places too, all was feeling ok until coming onto dunlop for the first time the back end lost all traction and almost high sided me. All composer now lost I knew qualifying wasn't gonna go well but got on with it and eventually got up to a reasonable pace once I settled down. Checking the lap times I clocked in a best time of 1:37.670 for 8th position.
Race 1: With practice out of the way and some of my nerves now gone, I was feeling pretty good knowing I could do heaps better this time. Off the line I managed to pass 6 or so other riders but lost a few places in T1 and got a few back around the hairpin. After this everything settled down and started to do battle with one of the minilites who eventually just piped me on the finish line! Checking the results I was blown away with a 3rd with a best lap of 1:31.974. I was stoked but still 11 secs off the winner so knew I had to do better still.
Race 2: Now feeling more confident I got a real good start off the line getting to the front but too chicken at T1 loosing heaps of positions. Again by the end of lap 1 I had passed several other bikes and knowing this race was only 6 laps I knew I had to push as hard as I could. Some places almost pushing too hard and almost running off at T1 and at dunlop. At this stage I had no idea where I was running but could see another 150 in front of me so set out to chase it down. Each lap for 3 laps I managed to gain a few meters but eventually ran out of laps. I was stocked when the results came through and I had secured 2nd. Best lap was a 1:30.986 and only 1.7sec behind the leader.
Results after the end of the day were good enough for 3rd overall which I was pretty happy about.
Well you should hopefully see me at manfeild next month hopefully with the same sort of weather and hopefully I can repeat or better this result!