quickbuck
20th December 2011, 14:09
The first round of the Suzuki Tri Series took us to Hampton Downs, in the North Waikato. I got my Ninja 250R converted from Road bike to Race Bike on the Wednesday preceding race day. I changed the oil, and fitted my new Dunlop Sportmax a-12H tyres. I also put the smaller front sprocket on to lower the gearing a little.
It had been quite some time since I had ridden at Hampton Downs, but was confident I remembered how the track went, and as I remembered it the shorter gearing was perfect. For the Tri Series, the Ultralite class is a mixture of Mini-lites, Pro-lites, and Street Stocks all fighting for the same points. In essence, the Mini-lites are 4 cylinder 250’s, the Pro-lites are twin cylinder 250’s and the street stocks are 150cc single cylinder 2 strokes. As it happens, the 4 cylinder bikes tend to have an advantage over the rest of the field, right up until it rains, apparently…..
I was also tailoring a road bike through to Auckland, so had both bikes loaded onto the trailer on Thursday night, with all my gear loaded into the ute, ready for quite a long drive on Friday. The drive to Auckland was pretty uneventful in the heat. Luckily my ute has Air-con, so I used that quite frequently. I managed to get to the camping ground in Huntly around 7:30, and caught up with Blair Mason. He had managed to get a Kawasaki Green shirt for each of the Kawasaki Riders in the Ultralite class, complete with our names and race numbers embroided on them. I ate my Subway Sandwich tea, had a chat to Blair, and got a rather early night.
We had a 6:45 depart from the camping ground as Hampton Downs is around 20 minutes away. We arrived at Hampton Downs, and set up out pit area on the Skid Pan. We were then greeted by a young guy by the name of Seth Devereux who was wearing little more than a sleeping bag…. Seth is the New Zealand Pro-lite champion, and a bit of a hard case. He then proceeded to tell me how to make my Ninja go faster, and told me that I have a little disadvantage due to being 80kg….. What a nice young man… The truth is I am closer to 100kg than 80!
Practice/ Qualifying:
We rocked up to the dummy grid and were released out onto the track. I immediately realised it had been a very long time since I had seen the track. May be a Track Walk would have helped…. Not to worry, practice was 8 laps, so plenty of time to scrub the tyres, and then put in a good lap at the end of the session…. As it turned out, I did my best lap on lap 3 with a 1:29.547. I was pretty wrapped, as the lap times at Hampton Downs are about the same as Manfeild for most classes of bike, and I hadn’t been below 1:31 there. I was 11th on the grid though, and the 4 cylinder bikes were really flying! Seth was flying too... It became apparent that the competition for the Tri Series is a step up from the winter series. I did qualify ahead of Blair on his fast little GPX250.
Race 1:
I left the pits and got some heat into the tyres, suspension and brakes, and found my way to the grid. I then remembered it was a Flag Start. I had never done a Flag Start before as we have always had lights. Well, the flag dropped, and we were off. I accelerated to the first corner, and got it into 5th gear, which is the gear I use when I have to slow for the corner. So I just kept it pinned, and took a wide line around a few bikes. After a hectic first lap we all settled down to the race. I can’t remember the bikes around me as I was too busy riding the track. It is very busy compared to Manfeild. Tyler Lincoln had a Big High-Side in turn 4 on lap 4, but was okay. His bike left what turned out to be water on the track, but the Surface Adhesion flag remained at that corner all race, as the marshals were in no position to tell exactly what it was. Blair was behind me, and we got locked into a huge battle once the lighter riders gapped off into the distance. In the closing stages of the race we were fighting for every corner, and on the last lap Blair came around the outside of me at Turn 1. I thought this would get a little interesting if he mucks that up… As it happens all was good. We came around turn 2 and saw a red flag. I thought that was it, race over. Then I caught a glimpse of red in Turn 4 to confirm my thoughts. That turned out to be a marshal in red overalls! When we got to turn 5 I didn’t see any more flags, but was a little confused. Then by turn 6, no more flags, so the race was still on! Unfortunately Blair didn’t realise this, and got passed by Jacob Stroud on his KR150. So I finished 8th, and Blair 10th. My best lap was a 1:29.008. I stopped by the Marshal and told him to keep the flag away until the race was over. At Hampton Downs, the Gate into the pits is opened up between turns 2 and 3 so the riders don’t have to do a full lap after the chequered. After the race was over, it became apparent that Sarah Elliot on her CBR250 was really flying, and 6 of her 7 flying laps were below the previous lap record for a Mini-lite. She almost lapped us! Hence the Marshal was getting his red flag ready….. A real shame for Blair, as he deserved at least 9th in that race ;)
Race 2:
I had a think about things for Race 2. I knew Blair would be in for a fight for this one. Once we were out on the track formed up I looked out to the distance of turn 1, and decided to commit to a fast line around the outside again. The flag went up, and dropped. I got a ripper of a start, and got around turn 1 in front of quite a few bikes. I was battling with a whole bunch including Tyler and Blair. The race between us went for 4 laps, and finally Tyler managed to gap me and chase down Jacob Stroud. Blair and I had an even better race than the previous one, with us swapping positions corner by corner. I knew I had the measure of him through turn 5 and 6, so was really enjoying the battle, and keeping mistakes to a minimum. On the last lap I had a look behind after turn 5 to ensure Blair was still there, but not going to catch me as I headed to turn 6. As I exited turn 6 Andrew Croft went flying past me. I then wondered where he came from. Apparently his last two laps were flyers, and he was hiding behind Blair as we headed down the straight after turn 5. I finished the race in 10th place with a fastest lap of 1:28.697, and Blair finished 11th.
Over all, another great battle, and I am currently 9th in the championship. The prize money is paid out for the top ten at the end of the championship. Our next round is at Manfeild on December 17th, so looking forward to that. The weather forecast is for rain, so that will make things interesting for us all. I’m really looking forward to it.
Thanks go out to:
Pro-Rider – for the fuel vouchers.
Kawasaki New Zealand – For the flash Shirts. Team Green looks awesome!
Blair Mason – For organising the shirts, and the close racing all day.
Dunlop – The new tyres are working really well.
City Honda – The team there were most helpful in getting me sorted for the weekend.
Neil Chappell – For the use of his Transponder for the series.
Race Fairings
Celtic Leathers
RNZAF
It had been quite some time since I had ridden at Hampton Downs, but was confident I remembered how the track went, and as I remembered it the shorter gearing was perfect. For the Tri Series, the Ultralite class is a mixture of Mini-lites, Pro-lites, and Street Stocks all fighting for the same points. In essence, the Mini-lites are 4 cylinder 250’s, the Pro-lites are twin cylinder 250’s and the street stocks are 150cc single cylinder 2 strokes. As it happens, the 4 cylinder bikes tend to have an advantage over the rest of the field, right up until it rains, apparently…..
I was also tailoring a road bike through to Auckland, so had both bikes loaded onto the trailer on Thursday night, with all my gear loaded into the ute, ready for quite a long drive on Friday. The drive to Auckland was pretty uneventful in the heat. Luckily my ute has Air-con, so I used that quite frequently. I managed to get to the camping ground in Huntly around 7:30, and caught up with Blair Mason. He had managed to get a Kawasaki Green shirt for each of the Kawasaki Riders in the Ultralite class, complete with our names and race numbers embroided on them. I ate my Subway Sandwich tea, had a chat to Blair, and got a rather early night.
We had a 6:45 depart from the camping ground as Hampton Downs is around 20 minutes away. We arrived at Hampton Downs, and set up out pit area on the Skid Pan. We were then greeted by a young guy by the name of Seth Devereux who was wearing little more than a sleeping bag…. Seth is the New Zealand Pro-lite champion, and a bit of a hard case. He then proceeded to tell me how to make my Ninja go faster, and told me that I have a little disadvantage due to being 80kg….. What a nice young man… The truth is I am closer to 100kg than 80!
Practice/ Qualifying:
We rocked up to the dummy grid and were released out onto the track. I immediately realised it had been a very long time since I had seen the track. May be a Track Walk would have helped…. Not to worry, practice was 8 laps, so plenty of time to scrub the tyres, and then put in a good lap at the end of the session…. As it turned out, I did my best lap on lap 3 with a 1:29.547. I was pretty wrapped, as the lap times at Hampton Downs are about the same as Manfeild for most classes of bike, and I hadn’t been below 1:31 there. I was 11th on the grid though, and the 4 cylinder bikes were really flying! Seth was flying too... It became apparent that the competition for the Tri Series is a step up from the winter series. I did qualify ahead of Blair on his fast little GPX250.
Race 1:
I left the pits and got some heat into the tyres, suspension and brakes, and found my way to the grid. I then remembered it was a Flag Start. I had never done a Flag Start before as we have always had lights. Well, the flag dropped, and we were off. I accelerated to the first corner, and got it into 5th gear, which is the gear I use when I have to slow for the corner. So I just kept it pinned, and took a wide line around a few bikes. After a hectic first lap we all settled down to the race. I can’t remember the bikes around me as I was too busy riding the track. It is very busy compared to Manfeild. Tyler Lincoln had a Big High-Side in turn 4 on lap 4, but was okay. His bike left what turned out to be water on the track, but the Surface Adhesion flag remained at that corner all race, as the marshals were in no position to tell exactly what it was. Blair was behind me, and we got locked into a huge battle once the lighter riders gapped off into the distance. In the closing stages of the race we were fighting for every corner, and on the last lap Blair came around the outside of me at Turn 1. I thought this would get a little interesting if he mucks that up… As it happens all was good. We came around turn 2 and saw a red flag. I thought that was it, race over. Then I caught a glimpse of red in Turn 4 to confirm my thoughts. That turned out to be a marshal in red overalls! When we got to turn 5 I didn’t see any more flags, but was a little confused. Then by turn 6, no more flags, so the race was still on! Unfortunately Blair didn’t realise this, and got passed by Jacob Stroud on his KR150. So I finished 8th, and Blair 10th. My best lap was a 1:29.008. I stopped by the Marshal and told him to keep the flag away until the race was over. At Hampton Downs, the Gate into the pits is opened up between turns 2 and 3 so the riders don’t have to do a full lap after the chequered. After the race was over, it became apparent that Sarah Elliot on her CBR250 was really flying, and 6 of her 7 flying laps were below the previous lap record for a Mini-lite. She almost lapped us! Hence the Marshal was getting his red flag ready….. A real shame for Blair, as he deserved at least 9th in that race ;)
Race 2:
I had a think about things for Race 2. I knew Blair would be in for a fight for this one. Once we were out on the track formed up I looked out to the distance of turn 1, and decided to commit to a fast line around the outside again. The flag went up, and dropped. I got a ripper of a start, and got around turn 1 in front of quite a few bikes. I was battling with a whole bunch including Tyler and Blair. The race between us went for 4 laps, and finally Tyler managed to gap me and chase down Jacob Stroud. Blair and I had an even better race than the previous one, with us swapping positions corner by corner. I knew I had the measure of him through turn 5 and 6, so was really enjoying the battle, and keeping mistakes to a minimum. On the last lap I had a look behind after turn 5 to ensure Blair was still there, but not going to catch me as I headed to turn 6. As I exited turn 6 Andrew Croft went flying past me. I then wondered where he came from. Apparently his last two laps were flyers, and he was hiding behind Blair as we headed down the straight after turn 5. I finished the race in 10th place with a fastest lap of 1:28.697, and Blair finished 11th.
Over all, another great battle, and I am currently 9th in the championship. The prize money is paid out for the top ten at the end of the championship. Our next round is at Manfeild on December 17th, so looking forward to that. The weather forecast is for rain, so that will make things interesting for us all. I’m really looking forward to it.
Thanks go out to:
Pro-Rider – for the fuel vouchers.
Kawasaki New Zealand – For the flash Shirts. Team Green looks awesome!
Blair Mason – For organising the shirts, and the close racing all day.
Dunlop – The new tyres are working really well.
City Honda – The team there were most helpful in getting me sorted for the weekend.
Neil Chappell – For the use of his Transponder for the series.
Race Fairings
Celtic Leathers
RNZAF