quickbuck
17th May 2011, 20:01
Righto, lets start with the week before......
Prolite 250 Ninja 250R was sitting there in the garage all naked with no wheels on it. Leathers were still with Sam at Celtic, and I needed to get my fairings home from work. I also needed some knee sliders.... So it was Trade Me for those.
Dunlop supplied me with some new tyres, and I got them fitted. Billy had finished my fairings and got them sent to work. Over the week I got all the stuff in one sock, and got my fairings fitted to my bike. Unfortunately I didn't leave the painters enough time to paint them. The gave me my race numbers and said bring them in after the weekend, and don't scratch them.....
So Saturday rolls around, and I load the bike on the ute... in the rain! Well, I guess it is winter series...
Got to the track, and sorted everything out, and picked my leathers up from Sam. I was a little apprehensive about taking my bike onto a damp track with brand new tyres, and new fibreglass.... last time I took the 250 onto a damp track, I scratched all the plastic!
Practice/ Scrub/ Warm-up/ Qualifying.... or that 3 lap session at the beginning of the meeting: Went out, took it real easy, got in plenty of peoples way, and slipped all over the place for 4 laps doing a best 1:46.198.....
Got back, and seems you can't really scrub tyres on a soaked track when riding like a total nana.
As it turned out, my team mate (Neil) ended up on the grid beside me on row 4 after finishing 1 times lap on his 150.
Got some fuel put in it for Race 1:
Got an average start, and watched in awe as Tyler Lincoln took off like he was on a 125GP bike and left the heavy weights (Neil and I) trying to twist the throttles off the handle bars... Then Tyler is 11, and weights 40kg dripping wet!
Then I discovered how much traffic there is when you qual row 4.... So I stuck to the plan of keeping it upright, and scrubbing my tyres. Thankfully the track was drying. I was having a bit of a dice with Damon Smith on his CBR250. He had much more power down the straights though, so the dice didn't last too long really.
After the 5 laps I finished 5th in class..... AKA Last in Pro-lite. Not too upset, as I kept it upright... Best lap of 1:36.231.
One thing I noticed was my lap times weren't as consistent as they used to be.... Spent too long on Manfeild on my 600 (Road bike) over the summer, and my reference points were all over the place!
Also, I had nearly a full tank of fuel.... Didn't mean to put that much in!
The front end is terrible with the extra weight.
After the race I noticed my tyres were scrubbed like I wanted. So it was all on for Race 2
Race 2: Got a good start, but put myself on the inside of turn 1.
Bad move, as it was another traffic jam.
I ended up dicing with Damon again, and we got pretty racey. I just about run into the back of him a few times through the esses, as I wanted to corner faster than he did.... After a few laps, he managed to leave me to it.
Another thing with a row 4 start is it is really hard to get onto the tails of the guys you normally race with. So after the 5 laps it was another 5th for me. Fastest Lap: 1:35.875.
After the race, I decided to change the way I was looking at things. Neil helped by reminding me (while he was telling Damon) to use the outside of the track in turn 1.
Nobody likes it out there, and hugs the inside....
Race 3:
Start was MUCH better. Tyler did his usual flying thing, and headed to the inside. Neil went to the outside, and I followed him. I kept on his tail right up to he point he went to the outside of turn 3. I stayed on the inside of turn 3, and managed to put both wheels on the seem of the new tarmac there.... It made things really interesting for a bit!
I then got in a battle with Simon Vollmer from Auckland on the Hyosung. We had a real dice for a bit, all the while I was keeping an eye on Neil. He had a real battle on his hands. Then on lap 3, Damon fell in turn 1 right beside Neil. I got there in time to see him run to the tyre wall and kick it in frustration....
I put in some consistent low 1:35's, and then lost Simon.... He disappeared for 31 seconds according to Mylaps. I then settled down to get 4th place with a best of 1:35.067. The best bit was my start, with a 1:39.290 standing lap. (That is just shy of a 110km/hr average).
So finally I found all my reference points. Now it is a matter of trusting my new rubber, and increasing the corner speed. Hopefully next time I am back at the short track I can get below my PB of 1:33.659.
All in all, not a bad weekend. Kept the bike upright, and bagged 57 championship points.
Next meeting is long track, and I haven't on that since I had my GSX600 on a track day back in 2002! Looking forward to it.
Thanks to:
Dunlop
Celtic Leathers
racefairings.co.nz
pipson for the photo's
And a HUGE thanks to Skunk, and the rest of the Vic Club Team, for a great day.
QB
(Team Air Force Racing #42)
239158
Prolite 250 Ninja 250R was sitting there in the garage all naked with no wheels on it. Leathers were still with Sam at Celtic, and I needed to get my fairings home from work. I also needed some knee sliders.... So it was Trade Me for those.
Dunlop supplied me with some new tyres, and I got them fitted. Billy had finished my fairings and got them sent to work. Over the week I got all the stuff in one sock, and got my fairings fitted to my bike. Unfortunately I didn't leave the painters enough time to paint them. The gave me my race numbers and said bring them in after the weekend, and don't scratch them.....
So Saturday rolls around, and I load the bike on the ute... in the rain! Well, I guess it is winter series...
Got to the track, and sorted everything out, and picked my leathers up from Sam. I was a little apprehensive about taking my bike onto a damp track with brand new tyres, and new fibreglass.... last time I took the 250 onto a damp track, I scratched all the plastic!
Practice/ Scrub/ Warm-up/ Qualifying.... or that 3 lap session at the beginning of the meeting: Went out, took it real easy, got in plenty of peoples way, and slipped all over the place for 4 laps doing a best 1:46.198.....
Got back, and seems you can't really scrub tyres on a soaked track when riding like a total nana.
As it turned out, my team mate (Neil) ended up on the grid beside me on row 4 after finishing 1 times lap on his 150.
Got some fuel put in it for Race 1:
Got an average start, and watched in awe as Tyler Lincoln took off like he was on a 125GP bike and left the heavy weights (Neil and I) trying to twist the throttles off the handle bars... Then Tyler is 11, and weights 40kg dripping wet!
Then I discovered how much traffic there is when you qual row 4.... So I stuck to the plan of keeping it upright, and scrubbing my tyres. Thankfully the track was drying. I was having a bit of a dice with Damon Smith on his CBR250. He had much more power down the straights though, so the dice didn't last too long really.
After the 5 laps I finished 5th in class..... AKA Last in Pro-lite. Not too upset, as I kept it upright... Best lap of 1:36.231.
One thing I noticed was my lap times weren't as consistent as they used to be.... Spent too long on Manfeild on my 600 (Road bike) over the summer, and my reference points were all over the place!
Also, I had nearly a full tank of fuel.... Didn't mean to put that much in!
The front end is terrible with the extra weight.
After the race I noticed my tyres were scrubbed like I wanted. So it was all on for Race 2
Race 2: Got a good start, but put myself on the inside of turn 1.
Bad move, as it was another traffic jam.
I ended up dicing with Damon again, and we got pretty racey. I just about run into the back of him a few times through the esses, as I wanted to corner faster than he did.... After a few laps, he managed to leave me to it.
Another thing with a row 4 start is it is really hard to get onto the tails of the guys you normally race with. So after the 5 laps it was another 5th for me. Fastest Lap: 1:35.875.
After the race, I decided to change the way I was looking at things. Neil helped by reminding me (while he was telling Damon) to use the outside of the track in turn 1.
Nobody likes it out there, and hugs the inside....
Race 3:
Start was MUCH better. Tyler did his usual flying thing, and headed to the inside. Neil went to the outside, and I followed him. I kept on his tail right up to he point he went to the outside of turn 3. I stayed on the inside of turn 3, and managed to put both wheels on the seem of the new tarmac there.... It made things really interesting for a bit!
I then got in a battle with Simon Vollmer from Auckland on the Hyosung. We had a real dice for a bit, all the while I was keeping an eye on Neil. He had a real battle on his hands. Then on lap 3, Damon fell in turn 1 right beside Neil. I got there in time to see him run to the tyre wall and kick it in frustration....
I put in some consistent low 1:35's, and then lost Simon.... He disappeared for 31 seconds according to Mylaps. I then settled down to get 4th place with a best of 1:35.067. The best bit was my start, with a 1:39.290 standing lap. (That is just shy of a 110km/hr average).
So finally I found all my reference points. Now it is a matter of trusting my new rubber, and increasing the corner speed. Hopefully next time I am back at the short track I can get below my PB of 1:33.659.
All in all, not a bad weekend. Kept the bike upright, and bagged 57 championship points.
Next meeting is long track, and I haven't on that since I had my GSX600 on a track day back in 2002! Looking forward to it.
Thanks to:
Dunlop
Celtic Leathers
racefairings.co.nz
pipson for the photo's
And a HUGE thanks to Skunk, and the rest of the Vic Club Team, for a great day.
QB
(Team Air Force Racing #42)
239158