Kwaka-Kid
16th March 2004, 19:36
hey guys, and now for my big writeup, duh-duh-duhduuuuuuuh. 5 of us headed down in the camper, 3 racers, 1 pitbitch(thanks rocket!), and 1 mentor.
Fridays practise found me roving around the track like a lost nanna in a supermarket not knowing where to go and doing it all so slow!
Saturday saw the first 2 Qualifying rounds which in Group A (the slower group, backwards i know) i qualifyed poorly i think getting 19th out of 21. Our first race came on saturday arvo and found both me and Gary (racing VFR400) looking at eachother stupidly saying "is that our class on the dummie grid about to go around for their warmup lap?!" so we jumped on our beasts rapidly and they got a harsh warmup around the track, in my case only to roll up to the start line with her firing on 2-3 cylinders above 5,500rpm. I couldnt believe it! she finally let me down right on the bloody start line! so i limped around hte track to get off at pitlane and inspect further... after kicking myself for making my own race loom and a poor joint being the problem i found it was actually the 10A fuse i put in for my homemade derestriction before the ECU... how stupid! after finding this out i was further embarrased by hearing my name called over the loud speaker with a DNF beside it, i swear that really makes you want to shrink and go hide!
So i found myself pondering deeply about why i was riding so slow and nanna-like on saturday night after such poor qualification... Unfortunatly i didnt come up with much solid but just that i really was not prepared at all to crash the bike on a weekend that had already cost me far more then i would have preferred... Come the 2nd race (my first) i shaved 7 seconds off my lap time and all went well apart from the rear tyre starting to slide around one of the right handers which shook my confidence a bit(really dont like that slide stuff). Finished 16th/21 in that race and had a fair amount of fun! But come the 3rd race the track was blistering hot and on a number of corners, in particular the same right hander i slide the rear on the lap before, i felt both tyres moving and ill be perfectly honest here and admit i really am not comfortable with that yet, i swear the front tyre was just starting to slide under and turn INTO the corner as i gentally attempted to go with it more to pull the bike back up, aswell as pressing firmly with my right knee it managed to come back up and save me a repair bill! (is this normal?!) Anyway that was pretty much it, apart from having my left knee down for the first time (had previous troubles making left hand turns) and becomming just as comfortable with lefts as rights, it was a great weekend!
First up id like to thank My old man for the late night before leaving getting everything set and ready, GP Trading for sponsoring the trip down and the Fultons for Billy the Bus, aswell as Jims Sense of humour and cheap eating style (mate, just like me!). Without them this weekend would not have been possible at all.
And Second up but certainly not forgotten Lynda Blair for the chat and getting Kickaha to find me, then Kickaha for the tips and info on the track, Sorry its often hard to follow and try all the ideas you gave me as i seem to loose my memory when im on that bike but for all the things i could remember there was some time shaved im sure (esp going down the front straight on the far far right and turning late, but its hard for my mind to tell my body to do that for some reason).
Well thats enough for me, cheers everyone, hope someone else can share their weekends experience here too. Ohh just lastly i will say despite being dissapointed with myself on the placements etc i learnt just as much if not more this race weekend as the others both race-wise and socially etc and so overall really did enjoy it and would do it all over again!
also: Thanks Dean for the new ZX9R tailpiece, im sure it will mount well to my vfr400 :spudbooge
Fridays practise found me roving around the track like a lost nanna in a supermarket not knowing where to go and doing it all so slow!
Saturday saw the first 2 Qualifying rounds which in Group A (the slower group, backwards i know) i qualifyed poorly i think getting 19th out of 21. Our first race came on saturday arvo and found both me and Gary (racing VFR400) looking at eachother stupidly saying "is that our class on the dummie grid about to go around for their warmup lap?!" so we jumped on our beasts rapidly and they got a harsh warmup around the track, in my case only to roll up to the start line with her firing on 2-3 cylinders above 5,500rpm. I couldnt believe it! she finally let me down right on the bloody start line! so i limped around hte track to get off at pitlane and inspect further... after kicking myself for making my own race loom and a poor joint being the problem i found it was actually the 10A fuse i put in for my homemade derestriction before the ECU... how stupid! after finding this out i was further embarrased by hearing my name called over the loud speaker with a DNF beside it, i swear that really makes you want to shrink and go hide!
So i found myself pondering deeply about why i was riding so slow and nanna-like on saturday night after such poor qualification... Unfortunatly i didnt come up with much solid but just that i really was not prepared at all to crash the bike on a weekend that had already cost me far more then i would have preferred... Come the 2nd race (my first) i shaved 7 seconds off my lap time and all went well apart from the rear tyre starting to slide around one of the right handers which shook my confidence a bit(really dont like that slide stuff). Finished 16th/21 in that race and had a fair amount of fun! But come the 3rd race the track was blistering hot and on a number of corners, in particular the same right hander i slide the rear on the lap before, i felt both tyres moving and ill be perfectly honest here and admit i really am not comfortable with that yet, i swear the front tyre was just starting to slide under and turn INTO the corner as i gentally attempted to go with it more to pull the bike back up, aswell as pressing firmly with my right knee it managed to come back up and save me a repair bill! (is this normal?!) Anyway that was pretty much it, apart from having my left knee down for the first time (had previous troubles making left hand turns) and becomming just as comfortable with lefts as rights, it was a great weekend!
First up id like to thank My old man for the late night before leaving getting everything set and ready, GP Trading for sponsoring the trip down and the Fultons for Billy the Bus, aswell as Jims Sense of humour and cheap eating style (mate, just like me!). Without them this weekend would not have been possible at all.
And Second up but certainly not forgotten Lynda Blair for the chat and getting Kickaha to find me, then Kickaha for the tips and info on the track, Sorry its often hard to follow and try all the ideas you gave me as i seem to loose my memory when im on that bike but for all the things i could remember there was some time shaved im sure (esp going down the front straight on the far far right and turning late, but its hard for my mind to tell my body to do that for some reason).
Well thats enough for me, cheers everyone, hope someone else can share their weekends experience here too. Ohh just lastly i will say despite being dissapointed with myself on the placements etc i learnt just as much if not more this race weekend as the others both race-wise and socially etc and so overall really did enjoy it and would do it all over again!
also: Thanks Dean for the new ZX9R tailpiece, im sure it will mount well to my vfr400 :spudbooge