Deano
14th December 2010, 15:43
Alan (Weaver) and I had hit the road at 3.00am on Friday in order to make it for the practice session at 1.00pm, so it was destined to be a long weekend and a bit of a road trip.
I hadn’t been to Hampton Downs before and there was no way I was going to lose my virginity on Saturday during qualifying.
Practice day went well. I only got 2 sessions but it gave me enough time to sort my gearing out and to learn which way the corners went !!
I really enjoyed the elevation changes and how technically demanding the circuit was. Turn 1 was definitely a challenge and will take more practice to get my head around. Also the sweeper onto the straight – it just goes on and on forever.
After trying to sleep ’under the stars’ in the pit, I awoke sometime during the night to the sound of trucks on SH1. Being a light sleeper I had to empty the back of the car and spent the rest of the night in there. Lesson learnt.
Up before dawn and it was bbq sausages for breakfast.
Qualifying
This went fairly well. Avalon Biddle came past and buggered off into the distance. So after eating a large portion of humble pie I settled in and next to come past was my arch nemesis, Kyle Hammond (LOL).
I knew he would not let me hear the end of him caning me so I put my head down and chased him hard. He was understandable faster through the tight corners and out braked me pretty easily, but I had good mid range and top end power, which made all the difference down the main straight.
Results came in and Kyle had qualified 6th, just ahead of me by 0.5s.
Race 1
Starting from the second row, I got a pretty good start and with the SV’s torque I managed to get ahead of Avalon into T1. This lasted all of about 0.5s, whereby she promptly came back past at the exit of T1.
The top 5 then proceeded to bugger off into the distance.
I put my head down and tried to be as smooth as possible. With no one to chase it was a bit like the old days, stuck racing by myself. I hadn’t looked behind me however – if I had I would have seen just how close I was being chased.
Mid race and heading up the hill into T4 and I didn’t select 3rd gear properly and it jumps out of gear……Nick Southerwood on another pro twin bike shoots past.
I chased him hard for a couple of laps and stuck with him ok but not close enough to make a pass. The white flag came out and I thought last chance to regain 6th.
Between T1 and T2 I thought I would just check over my shoulder to see if…..………and here is bloody Kyle making a move on me.
Thoughts of regaining 6th were gone – I now had to protect 7th !!
He outbraked me into T2 but ran a little wide at T4 and so I got him back on the exit, where he came back up the inside over the hill and into the hairpin (T5). I chased down the little straight and lead into the sweeper but then I ran wide (adrenalin/red mist mistake). Kyle got a jump on me of about 10-20m but the SV had the power to make it to the line just a fraction of a second ahead. (Alan did say it looked very funny with an SV650 trying to slipstream a GP125).
Race 2
I got another great start.
I think Avalon came past between T1 and T2 yet again.
I dared not look back this time and concentrated on not making any mistakes.
I half pie expected Nick or Kyle to come past at any moment. I missed the white flag completely and came upon some back markers. Coming into T5 I got held up a little by Nicksta (you said you'd leave room up the inside !! LOL) and Kyle took the opportunity and went around the outside of both of us.
I chased them both down the straight to the sweeper – Nicksta had stayed out wide so I followed Kyle on a tighter line, and when he drifted out a couple of metres from the kerbing I took my chance and took a tighter line up the inside.
I was relieved to see the chequered flag cause I doubt I could have held Kyle off for long, given he had the slightly faster lap time.
I got 6th overall with best time of 1.15.2s and was pretty happy with my performance on my first time there.
Big thanks to Alan for all your help in the pits, and sharing the driving LOL.
Also thanks to Phil (Toast) for sharing your pit and gennie.
Thanks of course to my sponsors below.
Bring on Round 2 at Manfeild next weekend !!
I hadn’t been to Hampton Downs before and there was no way I was going to lose my virginity on Saturday during qualifying.
Practice day went well. I only got 2 sessions but it gave me enough time to sort my gearing out and to learn which way the corners went !!
I really enjoyed the elevation changes and how technically demanding the circuit was. Turn 1 was definitely a challenge and will take more practice to get my head around. Also the sweeper onto the straight – it just goes on and on forever.
After trying to sleep ’under the stars’ in the pit, I awoke sometime during the night to the sound of trucks on SH1. Being a light sleeper I had to empty the back of the car and spent the rest of the night in there. Lesson learnt.
Up before dawn and it was bbq sausages for breakfast.
Qualifying
This went fairly well. Avalon Biddle came past and buggered off into the distance. So after eating a large portion of humble pie I settled in and next to come past was my arch nemesis, Kyle Hammond (LOL).
I knew he would not let me hear the end of him caning me so I put my head down and chased him hard. He was understandable faster through the tight corners and out braked me pretty easily, but I had good mid range and top end power, which made all the difference down the main straight.
Results came in and Kyle had qualified 6th, just ahead of me by 0.5s.
Race 1
Starting from the second row, I got a pretty good start and with the SV’s torque I managed to get ahead of Avalon into T1. This lasted all of about 0.5s, whereby she promptly came back past at the exit of T1.
The top 5 then proceeded to bugger off into the distance.
I put my head down and tried to be as smooth as possible. With no one to chase it was a bit like the old days, stuck racing by myself. I hadn’t looked behind me however – if I had I would have seen just how close I was being chased.
Mid race and heading up the hill into T4 and I didn’t select 3rd gear properly and it jumps out of gear……Nick Southerwood on another pro twin bike shoots past.
I chased him hard for a couple of laps and stuck with him ok but not close enough to make a pass. The white flag came out and I thought last chance to regain 6th.
Between T1 and T2 I thought I would just check over my shoulder to see if…..………and here is bloody Kyle making a move on me.
Thoughts of regaining 6th were gone – I now had to protect 7th !!
He outbraked me into T2 but ran a little wide at T4 and so I got him back on the exit, where he came back up the inside over the hill and into the hairpin (T5). I chased down the little straight and lead into the sweeper but then I ran wide (adrenalin/red mist mistake). Kyle got a jump on me of about 10-20m but the SV had the power to make it to the line just a fraction of a second ahead. (Alan did say it looked very funny with an SV650 trying to slipstream a GP125).
Race 2
I got another great start.
I think Avalon came past between T1 and T2 yet again.
I dared not look back this time and concentrated on not making any mistakes.
I half pie expected Nick or Kyle to come past at any moment. I missed the white flag completely and came upon some back markers. Coming into T5 I got held up a little by Nicksta (you said you'd leave room up the inside !! LOL) and Kyle took the opportunity and went around the outside of both of us.
I chased them both down the straight to the sweeper – Nicksta had stayed out wide so I followed Kyle on a tighter line, and when he drifted out a couple of metres from the kerbing I took my chance and took a tighter line up the inside.
I was relieved to see the chequered flag cause I doubt I could have held Kyle off for long, given he had the slightly faster lap time.
I got 6th overall with best time of 1.15.2s and was pretty happy with my performance on my first time there.
Big thanks to Alan for all your help in the pits, and sharing the driving LOL.
Also thanks to Phil (Toast) for sharing your pit and gennie.
Thanks of course to my sponsors below.
Bring on Round 2 at Manfeild next weekend !!