JayRacer37
2nd February 2013, 21:19
A few months ago I was contacted by Kevin Grey of the NZPCRA and asked if I would like to bring the GSX1100 I raced at the Barry Sheene Challenge in October to the 20th International Island Classic at Phillip Island in late January 2013. It seemed like a great idea, so hasty planning was implemented and all too soon my mechanic Brett and I were at Phillip Island unloading the New Zealand container and getting ready for Thursday practice.
Well, first thoughts on seeing the track for the first time since 2005 were just how huge it was! If any Kiwis have seen only our tracks, the scale of the circuit is just staggering, with turn one and two hidden in the distant haze from pitlane. A number of corners are faster than New Zealand’s best sweepers, with four corners run in fourth or fifth gear (of five on the generation of machine we were riding!) with your knee on the ground and throttle on the stop – magic! The track management had just had the track completely resurfaced, and the 20th Island Classic was lucky enough to be the first to use it in a race meeting. The track was certainly primed and ready to go.
On our first session on Thursday I quickly discovered why the ‘Forgotten Era’ class we were running in was referred to as ‘Forgotten Rulebook’. The difference in speed between my bike (which is pretty decent versus the bikes in New Zealand) and even the midpack Aussies in a straight line was crazy; it felt like a shared session between Formula 3 and Superbikes at times, so great was the difference. Some of the ‘Katanas’ over there were pulling 280km trap speed with no fairing, and were reputedly making 195hp at the wheel! It didn’t help my speed that I spent the session staring at the apex of corners, forgetting to bring my eyes up and look ahead – again, the difference in scale to what we have here meant that this technique is crucial, something that can almost be forgotten in New Zealand with our very low mid corners speeds. The rest of the day was hot (reaching 37 degrees air temp) and sessions were spent doing laps and learning my way around (something that would be continued throughout the weekend really!).
Friday was much cooler and gray, raining on and off throughout the morning and leaving us with a wet or damp track until lunch time. First qualifying was in the afternoon, but unfortunately we had misjudged just how many rear tyres would be necessary on the new surface and were running the same rear tyre we had run through Thursday. At this point it was looking pretty second-hand, but during the qualifier for Fogotten Era I ran a 1:48 putting me provisionally 8th on the grid. Following that session was the first qualifying for the International Challenge – the event I had been asked to come and attend. I managed to get a tow down the front straight and put in a pretty good lap, another 1:48 but good only for 18th or 19th in this more competitive class.
We fitted a new rear tyre for Saturday morning (oh, the luxury!) and I went out in the final Forgotten Era qualifier with the mindset of improving fairly drastically upon the best time of 1:48 I had put in on Friday (this was at that point two or three seconds better than the next Kiwi). With the new rear tyre, a couple of setting changes and some words of advice from Damian Mackie overnight, I made good my intention to go quicker, ending up 7th with a 1:46.4 on my final flying lap of the session. I sat up past the chequered flag and coasted though turn one, rolled the throttle back on and was met by the dreaded death clatter. I pulled off track and was ferried back to the pits where a hurried strip discovered a holed piston (number four cylinder ran lean with a standard fuel tap not flowing enough for the outside carb, d’oh!) and the end of our weekend. Or so we thought.
Peter Smith, who I had met for the first time on Wednesday, suggested that he would like to see what his Period 6/Pre ’89 GSXR1100K could do, and asked me to do their last qualifying session and the first race on Saturday, and see how we went from there. I was a little reluctant at first but given the effort Brett and I had made to get there, and the enthusiasm Peter was showing for me to ride his bike made me go for it. It was all a bit hurried so the first time I sat on the bike was riding down pitlane to qualify. Peter had said just go out for a look around and make sure you are comfortable – we were aiming at doing about the same speed I had on the GSX before its demise; a 1:46. When I rode out on track though, it all felt like home (I had an 1100K road bike a few moons ago) and on the last lap where I managed to get the gears right and even hit a few apexes, I did a 1:42.8, enough for 3rd on the grid behind a pair of trick Honda RC30s (which were competing in the 750 class, rather than the Unlimited one I would be in) and two seconds under the existing Period 6 Unlimited lap record. To say we were a little surprised would be an understatement – it all came together very easily and comfortably, and we couldn’t believe I would be starting from the front row!
Race One was later in the afternoon. There were a few things I had changed, including the front tyre to a Bridgestone slick which eliminated the front end chatter I had experienced with the tyre I qualified on. My first start was okay, although a misjudged line following someone slower around turn one cost me, meaning I ended the first lap 4th, behind Ryan Taylor on the Kawasaki (another Unlimited class bike) and both the RC30s (one ridden by Steve Martin, 2009 World Endurance Champion, the other by Scott Campbell). Unfortunately, Damian Mackie of the Kiwi contingent (who was a massive help to me earlier in the weekend) got tangled with another rider and had a big fall, causing a red flag and ending his weekend in hospital. On the restart I planned my turn one, learning from mistakes made in the first go, and led from turn one to Siberia, about halfway through the lap where both the RCs passed me together. From that point the race was a little lonely, seeing only Steve Martin’s RC30 expiring, leaving me 1st in unlimited and 2nd overall for Race One. We were pretty pleased with how Saturday had gone at this point and Peter asked me to stay on the bike for Sunday also.
Sunday dawned much sunnier and Period 6 had a full programme with three races to be run over the day. Having been thinking about the bike and things I needed to change on track overnight, I was excited to get going and see if we could make some improvements. My good mental space was ruined when on the warmup lap Steve Martin’s hastily repaired RC30 visibly smoked and smelt oily around the first half lap and then pulled off, not to be seen running again for the rest of the meeting. After some dramas on the grid with Scott Campbell telling organisers about the potential half lap oil spill, I completely fluffed the start by not holding enough revs, and stalling in front of a pack of 40 bikes. I can assure you it was the scariest moment of my career – do I put my hand up to try and make myself prominent, or hit the button and hope it starts? I got on the starter, fortunately it fired up fairly quickly and I didn’t get hit from behind, but it meant I left the grid almost last, flustered, and with only three laps to make time up. The first lap was hectic, dodging bikes left, right and centre. Lap two was pretty clean, passing just one bike which put me in 5th overall. Lap three I chased down American Jimi Mac, but got too late on the brakes at turn five and ran wide, letting him come back past me. It took me until the entry at MG to pass him again, and I got turn eleven and twelve just right, ending the race in 4th overall which wasn’t too bad compared to where I was at the start!
Race Three was pretty uneventful; a careful but not great start left me 4th into turn one behind Ryan, Scott and Jimi. I passed Jimi going into turn three, and Ryan going into turn twelve on the first lap, and then kept my head down chasing Scott. I was about six seconds behind at the line, but Scott had a jump start penalty meaning I won the race outright!
The final race was easily my best performance of the weekend; I (finally!) got the start right and lead though lap one, keeping Scott on the last surviving RC30 behind me. We pulled away from the others chasing us, and I could hear the RC30 droning away behind me at every corner. I knew that our bike was better in a straight line, and at the end of lap one he was still behind me, so I thought I had a chance of making it to the finish line ahead of him. Coming over Lukey Heights on lap two, Scott went around the outside of me and beat me to the braking zone for MG, but I had the better line down the hill and outbroke him to the apex. Same again around lap three, I could hear him behind me but knew if I didn’t make any mistakes I may be able to bring it home ahead of him. Coming up to Lukey Heights, I thought about how he had been quicker than me through there the lap before, and corrected my line, using a little more track in the middle of the corner and squaring it off across the summit to beat him to MG. It worked, but slightly too well – I arrived at MG’s braking zone with more speed than I had all weekend, outbraked myself and just couldn’t quite get it stopped at the apex, running about two metres wide. Unfortunately, this was enough for Scott to beat me up to turn eleven, and he pulled enough of a gap through twelve that I couldn’t catch him for turn one. This meant that at the end of lap four he beat me to the line by about a second. Even more upsetting, there was a crash causing a red flag as we crossed the line on what would have been the last lap meaning there was a countback and the end of lap three was taken as the result, meaning I was 0.5 of a second and three corners away from winning a race properly! I was stoked to have run so close to a bike like the RC30, but gutted that a rookie error running wide cost me the chance to beat it on track – c’est la vie!
With results overall, I won the Period 6 Unlimited class from Ryan Taylor (and would have been second overall to Scott if they ran a combined result rather than separating the 750 class). I also took the new Period 6 Unlimited lap record with a 1:42.730 on lap three of the final race – it could have been even quicker if I hadn’t missed that apex!
Many, many thanks firstly to Peter Smith for giving up his ride for the rest of the weekend so I could keep on riding; I couldn't imagine a man more generous. It’s one thing to lend a spare bike, but quite another to step down from a ride for someone else’s benefit. Secondly to Brett my mechanic, who had a difficult weekend pulling apart a terminal bike to diagnose it, then spending the rest of the weekend helping people rob bits from it to keep their bikes running – not easy to spanner a bike you know no one is going to ride! Many thanks also to Steve Bryan, who provided the ill-fated GSX1100 – up until the point where it broke, we were comfortably the fastest Kiwis in the International Challenge, and would have only gone faster with more track time. The hours of preparation Steve put into the bike back home prior to the event made it the best it’s ever been for me to ride. We were only let down by a small part that would never be an issue in New Zealand. The Bridgestone tyre was awesome, putting the front on in favor of what was on the bike gave me so much more confidence to trail brake to the apex, an area that was a strength on track – it’s just too bad I didn’t have a correctly sized rear there to fit also! The rest of the New Zealand team were also fantastic; everyone chipped in to help out, it was a great atmosphere. Finally, Damian Mackie, thank you SO much for just a few words of advice. He spoke to me a couple of times, and every time when I had an issue I could identify (usually with line selection or references on track) he helped me come to a solution I could put into effect immediately. I would say he was worth three seconds a lap to me right of the bat. It also makes me KNOW that I need to do the Californian Superbike School when he and Ash have it running again in Taupo – from my small taste of the advice he can give it will be so worth it! Heal fast mate, hope those ribs don’t hurt so much now... :S
Onboard footage from my races can be seen on Youtube – links below;
Race one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju-L-PEgk6Q
Race two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VskMbyimtA
Race three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyoP_ONTqxk
Race four
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8n125FgW6k
Well, first thoughts on seeing the track for the first time since 2005 were just how huge it was! If any Kiwis have seen only our tracks, the scale of the circuit is just staggering, with turn one and two hidden in the distant haze from pitlane. A number of corners are faster than New Zealand’s best sweepers, with four corners run in fourth or fifth gear (of five on the generation of machine we were riding!) with your knee on the ground and throttle on the stop – magic! The track management had just had the track completely resurfaced, and the 20th Island Classic was lucky enough to be the first to use it in a race meeting. The track was certainly primed and ready to go.
On our first session on Thursday I quickly discovered why the ‘Forgotten Era’ class we were running in was referred to as ‘Forgotten Rulebook’. The difference in speed between my bike (which is pretty decent versus the bikes in New Zealand) and even the midpack Aussies in a straight line was crazy; it felt like a shared session between Formula 3 and Superbikes at times, so great was the difference. Some of the ‘Katanas’ over there were pulling 280km trap speed with no fairing, and were reputedly making 195hp at the wheel! It didn’t help my speed that I spent the session staring at the apex of corners, forgetting to bring my eyes up and look ahead – again, the difference in scale to what we have here meant that this technique is crucial, something that can almost be forgotten in New Zealand with our very low mid corners speeds. The rest of the day was hot (reaching 37 degrees air temp) and sessions were spent doing laps and learning my way around (something that would be continued throughout the weekend really!).
Friday was much cooler and gray, raining on and off throughout the morning and leaving us with a wet or damp track until lunch time. First qualifying was in the afternoon, but unfortunately we had misjudged just how many rear tyres would be necessary on the new surface and were running the same rear tyre we had run through Thursday. At this point it was looking pretty second-hand, but during the qualifier for Fogotten Era I ran a 1:48 putting me provisionally 8th on the grid. Following that session was the first qualifying for the International Challenge – the event I had been asked to come and attend. I managed to get a tow down the front straight and put in a pretty good lap, another 1:48 but good only for 18th or 19th in this more competitive class.
We fitted a new rear tyre for Saturday morning (oh, the luxury!) and I went out in the final Forgotten Era qualifier with the mindset of improving fairly drastically upon the best time of 1:48 I had put in on Friday (this was at that point two or three seconds better than the next Kiwi). With the new rear tyre, a couple of setting changes and some words of advice from Damian Mackie overnight, I made good my intention to go quicker, ending up 7th with a 1:46.4 on my final flying lap of the session. I sat up past the chequered flag and coasted though turn one, rolled the throttle back on and was met by the dreaded death clatter. I pulled off track and was ferried back to the pits where a hurried strip discovered a holed piston (number four cylinder ran lean with a standard fuel tap not flowing enough for the outside carb, d’oh!) and the end of our weekend. Or so we thought.
Peter Smith, who I had met for the first time on Wednesday, suggested that he would like to see what his Period 6/Pre ’89 GSXR1100K could do, and asked me to do their last qualifying session and the first race on Saturday, and see how we went from there. I was a little reluctant at first but given the effort Brett and I had made to get there, and the enthusiasm Peter was showing for me to ride his bike made me go for it. It was all a bit hurried so the first time I sat on the bike was riding down pitlane to qualify. Peter had said just go out for a look around and make sure you are comfortable – we were aiming at doing about the same speed I had on the GSX before its demise; a 1:46. When I rode out on track though, it all felt like home (I had an 1100K road bike a few moons ago) and on the last lap where I managed to get the gears right and even hit a few apexes, I did a 1:42.8, enough for 3rd on the grid behind a pair of trick Honda RC30s (which were competing in the 750 class, rather than the Unlimited one I would be in) and two seconds under the existing Period 6 Unlimited lap record. To say we were a little surprised would be an understatement – it all came together very easily and comfortably, and we couldn’t believe I would be starting from the front row!
Race One was later in the afternoon. There were a few things I had changed, including the front tyre to a Bridgestone slick which eliminated the front end chatter I had experienced with the tyre I qualified on. My first start was okay, although a misjudged line following someone slower around turn one cost me, meaning I ended the first lap 4th, behind Ryan Taylor on the Kawasaki (another Unlimited class bike) and both the RC30s (one ridden by Steve Martin, 2009 World Endurance Champion, the other by Scott Campbell). Unfortunately, Damian Mackie of the Kiwi contingent (who was a massive help to me earlier in the weekend) got tangled with another rider and had a big fall, causing a red flag and ending his weekend in hospital. On the restart I planned my turn one, learning from mistakes made in the first go, and led from turn one to Siberia, about halfway through the lap where both the RCs passed me together. From that point the race was a little lonely, seeing only Steve Martin’s RC30 expiring, leaving me 1st in unlimited and 2nd overall for Race One. We were pretty pleased with how Saturday had gone at this point and Peter asked me to stay on the bike for Sunday also.
Sunday dawned much sunnier and Period 6 had a full programme with three races to be run over the day. Having been thinking about the bike and things I needed to change on track overnight, I was excited to get going and see if we could make some improvements. My good mental space was ruined when on the warmup lap Steve Martin’s hastily repaired RC30 visibly smoked and smelt oily around the first half lap and then pulled off, not to be seen running again for the rest of the meeting. After some dramas on the grid with Scott Campbell telling organisers about the potential half lap oil spill, I completely fluffed the start by not holding enough revs, and stalling in front of a pack of 40 bikes. I can assure you it was the scariest moment of my career – do I put my hand up to try and make myself prominent, or hit the button and hope it starts? I got on the starter, fortunately it fired up fairly quickly and I didn’t get hit from behind, but it meant I left the grid almost last, flustered, and with only three laps to make time up. The first lap was hectic, dodging bikes left, right and centre. Lap two was pretty clean, passing just one bike which put me in 5th overall. Lap three I chased down American Jimi Mac, but got too late on the brakes at turn five and ran wide, letting him come back past me. It took me until the entry at MG to pass him again, and I got turn eleven and twelve just right, ending the race in 4th overall which wasn’t too bad compared to where I was at the start!
Race Three was pretty uneventful; a careful but not great start left me 4th into turn one behind Ryan, Scott and Jimi. I passed Jimi going into turn three, and Ryan going into turn twelve on the first lap, and then kept my head down chasing Scott. I was about six seconds behind at the line, but Scott had a jump start penalty meaning I won the race outright!
The final race was easily my best performance of the weekend; I (finally!) got the start right and lead though lap one, keeping Scott on the last surviving RC30 behind me. We pulled away from the others chasing us, and I could hear the RC30 droning away behind me at every corner. I knew that our bike was better in a straight line, and at the end of lap one he was still behind me, so I thought I had a chance of making it to the finish line ahead of him. Coming over Lukey Heights on lap two, Scott went around the outside of me and beat me to the braking zone for MG, but I had the better line down the hill and outbroke him to the apex. Same again around lap three, I could hear him behind me but knew if I didn’t make any mistakes I may be able to bring it home ahead of him. Coming up to Lukey Heights, I thought about how he had been quicker than me through there the lap before, and corrected my line, using a little more track in the middle of the corner and squaring it off across the summit to beat him to MG. It worked, but slightly too well – I arrived at MG’s braking zone with more speed than I had all weekend, outbraked myself and just couldn’t quite get it stopped at the apex, running about two metres wide. Unfortunately, this was enough for Scott to beat me up to turn eleven, and he pulled enough of a gap through twelve that I couldn’t catch him for turn one. This meant that at the end of lap four he beat me to the line by about a second. Even more upsetting, there was a crash causing a red flag as we crossed the line on what would have been the last lap meaning there was a countback and the end of lap three was taken as the result, meaning I was 0.5 of a second and three corners away from winning a race properly! I was stoked to have run so close to a bike like the RC30, but gutted that a rookie error running wide cost me the chance to beat it on track – c’est la vie!
With results overall, I won the Period 6 Unlimited class from Ryan Taylor (and would have been second overall to Scott if they ran a combined result rather than separating the 750 class). I also took the new Period 6 Unlimited lap record with a 1:42.730 on lap three of the final race – it could have been even quicker if I hadn’t missed that apex!
Many, many thanks firstly to Peter Smith for giving up his ride for the rest of the weekend so I could keep on riding; I couldn't imagine a man more generous. It’s one thing to lend a spare bike, but quite another to step down from a ride for someone else’s benefit. Secondly to Brett my mechanic, who had a difficult weekend pulling apart a terminal bike to diagnose it, then spending the rest of the weekend helping people rob bits from it to keep their bikes running – not easy to spanner a bike you know no one is going to ride! Many thanks also to Steve Bryan, who provided the ill-fated GSX1100 – up until the point where it broke, we were comfortably the fastest Kiwis in the International Challenge, and would have only gone faster with more track time. The hours of preparation Steve put into the bike back home prior to the event made it the best it’s ever been for me to ride. We were only let down by a small part that would never be an issue in New Zealand. The Bridgestone tyre was awesome, putting the front on in favor of what was on the bike gave me so much more confidence to trail brake to the apex, an area that was a strength on track – it’s just too bad I didn’t have a correctly sized rear there to fit also! The rest of the New Zealand team were also fantastic; everyone chipped in to help out, it was a great atmosphere. Finally, Damian Mackie, thank you SO much for just a few words of advice. He spoke to me a couple of times, and every time when I had an issue I could identify (usually with line selection or references on track) he helped me come to a solution I could put into effect immediately. I would say he was worth three seconds a lap to me right of the bat. It also makes me KNOW that I need to do the Californian Superbike School when he and Ash have it running again in Taupo – from my small taste of the advice he can give it will be so worth it! Heal fast mate, hope those ribs don’t hurt so much now... :S
Onboard footage from my races can be seen on Youtube – links below;
Race one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju-L-PEgk6Q
Race two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VskMbyimtA
Race three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyoP_ONTqxk
Race four
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8n125FgW6k