quickbuck
1st November 2011, 14:35
Hi All,
Round 6 of the Actrix Victoria Motorcycle Club Championships saw us heading to Taupo to compete. It has been a while since I was last at Taupo Motor Sport Park, and that was on my 1992 CBR600 Road bike. In fact it was 2008, when we had a RNZAF only day there with Honda Riders Club. So, I had almost forgotten which way the track went, and the lap record had absolutely no relevance to the Ninja 250R in any case.
As I didn’t want to take 2 vehicles to Taupo, I managed to organise getting my gear up where in the back of Lee Bradford’s Transit van, driven by Neil Chappell, with 2 bikes, and 2 Jet Ski’s in tow. My bike was kindly taken to Taupo by Josh Walby in the back of his van. Josh wanted a bit of time on it at the MotoTT track day the day before hand, as we are entering it in the PMCC 1 Hour enduro in a couple of weeks time. I had ¾ of a tank of fuel in the bike, as I filled it up the last time I had it out at Manfeild coaching with ProRider. Plenty of fuel in the tank for Josh to burn off, and ideal for him to get used to with the extra weight up front.
I had put my original top fairing back on the bike, as Taupo does indeed run the opposite way to Manfeild and the number is painted on the opposite side.
After getting up early in Turangi, and getting to the track and setting the pit area up, I went and stood in the line to sign on. All went smoothly, and fitted the transponder to the bike. I then went out and had a look at the track to remind myself of the layout. I heard the day before there was some oil spilt on the section of track only the Street Stock/ ProLite/ Mini Lite/ F4 classes were using, so a new track had to be “invented”. After riders brief, Andrew Pleasant showed us on the map where the oil was, and the Ad-Hoc track that was going to be used to get around it…. On the map it looked like a real “non-track” area, also known as grass! But in real life it is a huge tarmac run-off pad that some cones were placed on to direct us back onto the long straight.
This was all in aid of preventing boredom, and saving engines on the little bikes, as they would be “pinned” for an extensive length of time down the back straight.
Qual:
I headed out to the track first, and got a good look at it with an uninterrupted view, for about 30 seconds…. It really was like heading out on an unfamiliar road. I had a little idea where the turn in points were, but had no clue where to brake for the corners, and absolutely no idea what gear I should be in. Then there was the Ad-Hoc hair pin that we had to negotiate… That seemed a little weird to get your head around, and I never really got it right. I managed to get a real big slide off the infield hair pin and put the bike up onto the rumble strip on the exit. No drama I thought, but since last time I was at Taupo, there has been some changes made, and there was some very large concrete rutty things at the end of the ripple strip! It was pretty harsh on the 250, and I got pretty excited holding it all together. After 4 laps, I still had no real idea of how to go fast on the track. I also had about 10kg too much fuel on board, and the bike was a little front heavy. As a result, my Qual time was 1:37.202. I was positioned 12th on the grid! This means outside 3rd row, so reasonable, but not fantastic. One thing I did note was Dale Albrecht was 2 1/1000th of a second faster on his CBR250. He can keep position 11 I though to myself, as there is a chance you can get boxed in there.
I went and did some thinking, and caught up with a few people. I stopped and asked Marcus Beegly how to go fast at Taupo. He said, “Don’t ask me man; I haven’t ridden a bike for nearly a year! We had a good chat though. I also caught up with Simon Vollmer who was challenging me for second in the championship, on a Hyosung GT250.
Race 1:
The Class got the call up, and we were out. I knew all I had to do was keep it upright all day, and 2nd place in the championship was all mine as Simon was 20 points behind, and in effect there is no way he could make that up. After the warm-up lap, I had sort of worked out some more reference points, and came to line up on the grid. The lights came on one by one, and I revved the little 250 to somewhere near the red line. As the lights went out, I dropped the clutch, and was off. I passed a few bikes on row 2, including Simon, and followed my team mate (Neil Chappell) through turn one. I then followed suit through turn 2, and saw Blair Mason (another Pro-Lite 250) take to the grass. Blair did manage to recover from that one.
I tried to follow Neil, but he was much faster…. It was almost like he knew the track. Well, after all, he did just step off the 600 and straight onto the 150. After a little while of me floundering around and entering corners in the wrong gear, I got passed by Blair, and Simon, and Sarah Rosacker, and Dale Albrecht, on their CBR250’s, I found myself in a race by myself. So, I took the time to learn the track. After 6 laps were up, I felt I had got a bit more of an idea of where I was going.
I managed a 1:35.761, and all my laps were in 1.049 of a second of each other.
Race 2:
The heavens had opened, and the track was soaked! I went out and tried to gauge how much traction we had on a damp track during the warm-up. As I found out with cold tyres and suspension, it is like a skating rink, and at warm-up lap pace, I was sliding the bike!!
I found my grid spot, well almost; the chalk used to mark it out was washed away.
The lights come on, and then go out. I got another ripper of a start. I kept accelerating until I was well past the 50 metre to go board, and went around the outside of a lot of bikes. I then found myself up behind Neal again, and tried to keep with him. After a lap Simon thought he would have some of the action, and went around both of us at turn one. I though, hell, he is flying, it is amazing the grip he is finding…. Right then he crashed at turn 2! I guessed there wasn’t so much grip after all. After a few laps, I came down the pit straight to see yellow flags. Sam Croft had managed to drop his Ninja at turn one. Many thoughts had gone through my mind, and I kicked myself again for short fuelling the bike at round 5. It was all on! Would there be 25 points coming my way? Just then the red flags came out while the marshals removed the Croft Racing Ninja from the track. By the time all the bikes came back into the pits, we were off again to form up for a restart. There was no chance I would run out of fuel, as I still had half a tank!
At the restart, I got another great start, and caught up to Neil. This time I was 4th on the road. Fantastic effort from 12th! As we came around to the first flag point, we could see the race was red flagged again! This time somebody had stalled on the grid, and dropped their bike trying to re-start it in the rain. We were all called in, and told we would be called up again for a re-run of race 2 in the future.
This would give the weather to sort itself out, and hopefully the track would be a little drier.
Race 2 take 2:
By now I knew my favourite part about Taupo was I knew I was getting great starts, and I was relatively fast in the wet… I guess this is because no body else had learnt the track in the wet, and were all guessing like I was in the morning.
So, form up and wait for the lights to go out. I got another ripper of a start, and got all the way up to 4th again. I followed the leaders, Sam Croft on the Ninja, Neil Chappell on the Rg150 , and La Selle Carr (No Relation) on another RG150 through turn one, and stuck with them for a bit. I then thought I would do some formation flying with Neil, and had delusions of grandeur. Neil had just stepped off the 600 after winning that race. So I was thinking that if the commentator notices that I am actually faster than Neil, I would get somebody looking at me and offer me a ride on a 600! Just then all hell broke loose and the bike was doing all sorts of mad stuff… It didn’t help I was looking at all the white grid lines coming onto the pit straight, and the front sliding on each one!!! Yup, I know what you are thinking. What the hell was I doing looking at paint on the Track! Yes, I should have been looking up the track.
Anyhow after 4 laps of atrocious conditions, the race was red flagged. There is no real point of somebody getting hurt over this. The little bikes aren’t allowed wet tyres, and we tend to run on sticky road tyres that don’t have a lot of rain grooves. There is also no way the suspension keeps warm enough to be compliant, and combine this with the typically young age or little experience of the riders in the class; it is a lot of holes in the cheese.
I did finish the race second in class to Sam Croft, and 4th bike home! My best lap time was 1:48.818. That gave me 5th fastest in the field.
From there the rest of the racing was cancelled due to the conditions, but to keep the riders of the bigger bikes happy, a non-points under 600 race was run, and that was followed by an open class race to finish off the day.
So, that is the end of the Actrix VMCC winter Series.
I managed second in the championship, and for my efforts I was awarded a nice trophy to put in the trophy cabinet. The season has been very rewarding, and given me loads of racing experience. The Pre-race nerves I used to get are gone. Racing seems like a normal day to me now, so I can relax and get on with the job at hand.
Many thanks to:
Team Air Force Racing and the RNZAF for the support all season.
Celtic Leathers – The leathers are comfortable, and I trust they crash well, but never found out! Thanks for the chats all season Sam.
Dunlop Tyres – One set lasted all season, and provided the traction when expected to.
Racefairings – Billy is always there for the junior classes.
ProRider – Karel Pavich has let me loose on Manfeild a few times during the season, while I coach the Students. Her courses also help my riding.
A special that’s goes to the whole team at the Vic club who work behind the scenes to make things happen.
The biggest thanks of all goes to my partner Coral, who has been there for me all season, and understands what racing means to me.
Cheers
Aaron
Team Air Force Racing #42
Round 6 of the Actrix Victoria Motorcycle Club Championships saw us heading to Taupo to compete. It has been a while since I was last at Taupo Motor Sport Park, and that was on my 1992 CBR600 Road bike. In fact it was 2008, when we had a RNZAF only day there with Honda Riders Club. So, I had almost forgotten which way the track went, and the lap record had absolutely no relevance to the Ninja 250R in any case.
As I didn’t want to take 2 vehicles to Taupo, I managed to organise getting my gear up where in the back of Lee Bradford’s Transit van, driven by Neil Chappell, with 2 bikes, and 2 Jet Ski’s in tow. My bike was kindly taken to Taupo by Josh Walby in the back of his van. Josh wanted a bit of time on it at the MotoTT track day the day before hand, as we are entering it in the PMCC 1 Hour enduro in a couple of weeks time. I had ¾ of a tank of fuel in the bike, as I filled it up the last time I had it out at Manfeild coaching with ProRider. Plenty of fuel in the tank for Josh to burn off, and ideal for him to get used to with the extra weight up front.
I had put my original top fairing back on the bike, as Taupo does indeed run the opposite way to Manfeild and the number is painted on the opposite side.
After getting up early in Turangi, and getting to the track and setting the pit area up, I went and stood in the line to sign on. All went smoothly, and fitted the transponder to the bike. I then went out and had a look at the track to remind myself of the layout. I heard the day before there was some oil spilt on the section of track only the Street Stock/ ProLite/ Mini Lite/ F4 classes were using, so a new track had to be “invented”. After riders brief, Andrew Pleasant showed us on the map where the oil was, and the Ad-Hoc track that was going to be used to get around it…. On the map it looked like a real “non-track” area, also known as grass! But in real life it is a huge tarmac run-off pad that some cones were placed on to direct us back onto the long straight.
This was all in aid of preventing boredom, and saving engines on the little bikes, as they would be “pinned” for an extensive length of time down the back straight.
Qual:
I headed out to the track first, and got a good look at it with an uninterrupted view, for about 30 seconds…. It really was like heading out on an unfamiliar road. I had a little idea where the turn in points were, but had no clue where to brake for the corners, and absolutely no idea what gear I should be in. Then there was the Ad-Hoc hair pin that we had to negotiate… That seemed a little weird to get your head around, and I never really got it right. I managed to get a real big slide off the infield hair pin and put the bike up onto the rumble strip on the exit. No drama I thought, but since last time I was at Taupo, there has been some changes made, and there was some very large concrete rutty things at the end of the ripple strip! It was pretty harsh on the 250, and I got pretty excited holding it all together. After 4 laps, I still had no real idea of how to go fast on the track. I also had about 10kg too much fuel on board, and the bike was a little front heavy. As a result, my Qual time was 1:37.202. I was positioned 12th on the grid! This means outside 3rd row, so reasonable, but not fantastic. One thing I did note was Dale Albrecht was 2 1/1000th of a second faster on his CBR250. He can keep position 11 I though to myself, as there is a chance you can get boxed in there.
I went and did some thinking, and caught up with a few people. I stopped and asked Marcus Beegly how to go fast at Taupo. He said, “Don’t ask me man; I haven’t ridden a bike for nearly a year! We had a good chat though. I also caught up with Simon Vollmer who was challenging me for second in the championship, on a Hyosung GT250.
Race 1:
The Class got the call up, and we were out. I knew all I had to do was keep it upright all day, and 2nd place in the championship was all mine as Simon was 20 points behind, and in effect there is no way he could make that up. After the warm-up lap, I had sort of worked out some more reference points, and came to line up on the grid. The lights came on one by one, and I revved the little 250 to somewhere near the red line. As the lights went out, I dropped the clutch, and was off. I passed a few bikes on row 2, including Simon, and followed my team mate (Neil Chappell) through turn one. I then followed suit through turn 2, and saw Blair Mason (another Pro-Lite 250) take to the grass. Blair did manage to recover from that one.
I tried to follow Neil, but he was much faster…. It was almost like he knew the track. Well, after all, he did just step off the 600 and straight onto the 150. After a little while of me floundering around and entering corners in the wrong gear, I got passed by Blair, and Simon, and Sarah Rosacker, and Dale Albrecht, on their CBR250’s, I found myself in a race by myself. So, I took the time to learn the track. After 6 laps were up, I felt I had got a bit more of an idea of where I was going.
I managed a 1:35.761, and all my laps were in 1.049 of a second of each other.
Race 2:
The heavens had opened, and the track was soaked! I went out and tried to gauge how much traction we had on a damp track during the warm-up. As I found out with cold tyres and suspension, it is like a skating rink, and at warm-up lap pace, I was sliding the bike!!
I found my grid spot, well almost; the chalk used to mark it out was washed away.
The lights come on, and then go out. I got another ripper of a start. I kept accelerating until I was well past the 50 metre to go board, and went around the outside of a lot of bikes. I then found myself up behind Neal again, and tried to keep with him. After a lap Simon thought he would have some of the action, and went around both of us at turn one. I though, hell, he is flying, it is amazing the grip he is finding…. Right then he crashed at turn 2! I guessed there wasn’t so much grip after all. After a few laps, I came down the pit straight to see yellow flags. Sam Croft had managed to drop his Ninja at turn one. Many thoughts had gone through my mind, and I kicked myself again for short fuelling the bike at round 5. It was all on! Would there be 25 points coming my way? Just then the red flags came out while the marshals removed the Croft Racing Ninja from the track. By the time all the bikes came back into the pits, we were off again to form up for a restart. There was no chance I would run out of fuel, as I still had half a tank!
At the restart, I got another great start, and caught up to Neil. This time I was 4th on the road. Fantastic effort from 12th! As we came around to the first flag point, we could see the race was red flagged again! This time somebody had stalled on the grid, and dropped their bike trying to re-start it in the rain. We were all called in, and told we would be called up again for a re-run of race 2 in the future.
This would give the weather to sort itself out, and hopefully the track would be a little drier.
Race 2 take 2:
By now I knew my favourite part about Taupo was I knew I was getting great starts, and I was relatively fast in the wet… I guess this is because no body else had learnt the track in the wet, and were all guessing like I was in the morning.
So, form up and wait for the lights to go out. I got another ripper of a start, and got all the way up to 4th again. I followed the leaders, Sam Croft on the Ninja, Neil Chappell on the Rg150 , and La Selle Carr (No Relation) on another RG150 through turn one, and stuck with them for a bit. I then thought I would do some formation flying with Neil, and had delusions of grandeur. Neil had just stepped off the 600 after winning that race. So I was thinking that if the commentator notices that I am actually faster than Neil, I would get somebody looking at me and offer me a ride on a 600! Just then all hell broke loose and the bike was doing all sorts of mad stuff… It didn’t help I was looking at all the white grid lines coming onto the pit straight, and the front sliding on each one!!! Yup, I know what you are thinking. What the hell was I doing looking at paint on the Track! Yes, I should have been looking up the track.
Anyhow after 4 laps of atrocious conditions, the race was red flagged. There is no real point of somebody getting hurt over this. The little bikes aren’t allowed wet tyres, and we tend to run on sticky road tyres that don’t have a lot of rain grooves. There is also no way the suspension keeps warm enough to be compliant, and combine this with the typically young age or little experience of the riders in the class; it is a lot of holes in the cheese.
I did finish the race second in class to Sam Croft, and 4th bike home! My best lap time was 1:48.818. That gave me 5th fastest in the field.
From there the rest of the racing was cancelled due to the conditions, but to keep the riders of the bigger bikes happy, a non-points under 600 race was run, and that was followed by an open class race to finish off the day.
So, that is the end of the Actrix VMCC winter Series.
I managed second in the championship, and for my efforts I was awarded a nice trophy to put in the trophy cabinet. The season has been very rewarding, and given me loads of racing experience. The Pre-race nerves I used to get are gone. Racing seems like a normal day to me now, so I can relax and get on with the job at hand.
Many thanks to:
Team Air Force Racing and the RNZAF for the support all season.
Celtic Leathers – The leathers are comfortable, and I trust they crash well, but never found out! Thanks for the chats all season Sam.
Dunlop Tyres – One set lasted all season, and provided the traction when expected to.
Racefairings – Billy is always there for the junior classes.
ProRider – Karel Pavich has let me loose on Manfeild a few times during the season, while I coach the Students. Her courses also help my riding.
A special that’s goes to the whole team at the Vic club who work behind the scenes to make things happen.
The biggest thanks of all goes to my partner Coral, who has been there for me all season, and understands what racing means to me.
Cheers
Aaron
Team Air Force Racing #42