svs
19th December 2005, 09:47
Not such a hot weekend this time.....
Went up for the practice on friday, missed the first session, out in the second but pretty quickly discovered that my that my tyres were toast. The rear was spinning up in all sorts of places where it shouldn't and I even slid the front into coke after the checkered flag. Got some second hand slicks to try out. I've never riden on slicks before, but it seemed a better idea than munted tyres.
Qualifying went OK, 13th after first session, improved over a second to a 1:20 in the second, but dropped back to 16th! There were 7 bikes within 1 second of each other so there was going to be some close racing.
At this point I noticed that I'd lost the nut off the top bolt holding the rear suspension in place and the bottom captive nut was shattered. Bugger. Some quick fixing, and some advice from Robert Taylor, got the rear set up again - Captive nut still broken, but Robert said there was enough thread left for it not to be an issue.
Race 1: Got a reasonable start, passing a few on the first lap. Then it started raining, it didn't seem to bad in some places on the circuit, but it was getting bad in places. Race probably should have been flagged, but who am I to argue.... Past a couple of others on lap 8, and was taking it really carefully by now. However on the last lap it was all too much and I lost the front through the left hander in the esses. No warning earlier, it just let go. Picked the bike up, but the footpeg and gear lever were too damaged, for me to get back on to complete the rest of the race. Slicks + rain don't work too well.
The 600 race was delayed as it was too wet. They went out on wets, but the race was flagged after a few accidents and the meeting was canned for the day.
Sunday, went out in the scrub session to see if bike was OK, but couldn't shift down gears, due to combination of dodgy gear lever and hand not working properly after yesterday, so came back in after one lap to see what I could do. Adjusted the gear lever and took more stuff to reduce the swelling on my hand.
Race 2: Not to bad to start with. Picked up a couple of places, but about 4 laps in the replacement footpeg I put on broke coming through the esses again - and it was raining again - so I had to pull in. 2 dnf's in one weekend ain't good.
Race 3: Determined to finish. Got a reasonable start, Up to 12th for most of the race, but I was riding like a nana and still not too confident with the repairs and injured hand. Running in the 1:21/2 range. Passed by Anthony on a SV with lots of hp, and trevor on his 400 before fighting it out with a Motard to come home in 14th.
So overall, not the best weekend, but that's racing. Now time for a break before the final round at Ruapuna, get the bike fixed up and ready to go.
Thanks to blondie, Derek Hill and Jeremy, and to Actrix Internet for sponsoring me again for this round.
Went up for the practice on friday, missed the first session, out in the second but pretty quickly discovered that my that my tyres were toast. The rear was spinning up in all sorts of places where it shouldn't and I even slid the front into coke after the checkered flag. Got some second hand slicks to try out. I've never riden on slicks before, but it seemed a better idea than munted tyres.
Qualifying went OK, 13th after first session, improved over a second to a 1:20 in the second, but dropped back to 16th! There were 7 bikes within 1 second of each other so there was going to be some close racing.
At this point I noticed that I'd lost the nut off the top bolt holding the rear suspension in place and the bottom captive nut was shattered. Bugger. Some quick fixing, and some advice from Robert Taylor, got the rear set up again - Captive nut still broken, but Robert said there was enough thread left for it not to be an issue.
Race 1: Got a reasonable start, passing a few on the first lap. Then it started raining, it didn't seem to bad in some places on the circuit, but it was getting bad in places. Race probably should have been flagged, but who am I to argue.... Past a couple of others on lap 8, and was taking it really carefully by now. However on the last lap it was all too much and I lost the front through the left hander in the esses. No warning earlier, it just let go. Picked the bike up, but the footpeg and gear lever were too damaged, for me to get back on to complete the rest of the race. Slicks + rain don't work too well.
The 600 race was delayed as it was too wet. They went out on wets, but the race was flagged after a few accidents and the meeting was canned for the day.
Sunday, went out in the scrub session to see if bike was OK, but couldn't shift down gears, due to combination of dodgy gear lever and hand not working properly after yesterday, so came back in after one lap to see what I could do. Adjusted the gear lever and took more stuff to reduce the swelling on my hand.
Race 2: Not to bad to start with. Picked up a couple of places, but about 4 laps in the replacement footpeg I put on broke coming through the esses again - and it was raining again - so I had to pull in. 2 dnf's in one weekend ain't good.
Race 3: Determined to finish. Got a reasonable start, Up to 12th for most of the race, but I was riding like a nana and still not too confident with the repairs and injured hand. Running in the 1:21/2 range. Passed by Anthony on a SV with lots of hp, and trevor on his 400 before fighting it out with a Motard to come home in 14th.
So overall, not the best weekend, but that's racing. Now time for a break before the final round at Ruapuna, get the bike fixed up and ready to go.
Thanks to blondie, Derek Hill and Jeremy, and to Actrix Internet for sponsoring me again for this round.