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gpercivl
15th March 2006, 16:33
No Hair Race Report

Auckland Club Champs #3, March 12th.

March 12th saw us back at Pukekohe for round 3 of the Auckland MC Club Protecta Insurance series. Logan's already written his report so just about me this time. I was looking forward to getting back to Pukekohe to see if the suspension changes made in the South Island plus some tuning work by Henderson Motorcycles on their new dyno would give me an improvement in lap times.

Sunday morning was wet with light north-westerlies and showers across the track so I went out in the practice session with wet weather tyres. Formula 2 was in second to last order and a south west change had come through by this time and a number of dry lines had formed. There was a bit of oil on the track but I had no slides or scarey moments to report and managed to pass a couple of people until the session was halted by Chris Sucish having a nasty off in the left hander by the pit entrance (Chris is recovering in hospital).

Getting back to the pits we swapped back on to the Pirelli Super Corsa road tyres with my best left over front from the Nationals and a brand new rear. I wandered up to the Jennian Homes building to find that I was on front row of the grid in spot #3 due to my overall points in the series. Mixed emotions ran through my head...could I get a good start...how many people would I let through...wow, I'm on the front row etc. etc.

Race 1 and we all zipped out on the warm up lap. I didn't know it at the time but one of the Kawasaki 600's had locked up and gone off the track at the hairpin so we were down to a total of 9 riders. The flag dropped and I got a great start pretty well matching both Hayden & Nick on my right. Iwas a bit worried about pushing the unscrubbed rear so hesitated at the corner letting Dave, Karl & Brookesy past someone tried to go around me on the left hander but went straight ahead across the grass instead, thru Castrol then onto the back straight I had 5 riders to catch. Brookesy's RS-250 is no match for the R6 in top speed but he's better than me around the corners so it took about 3 laps before I got past to secure 5th place. The front four pulled away just like they had in the Nationals but it was nice not finishing last for a change.

Race 2 was similar I again started well and pushed a bit harder in the first corner but again Brookesy passed me but this time exitting Castrol I was much closer and passed him down the back straight to again watch the front four slowly pull away finishing in 5th again. Race 3, and this time I tried hard to stay with the front guys and followed them onto the back straight (Brookesy didn't get me that time) and I put my head down to keep up but with a couple of laps they had large gap between us. Coming over the hill on about lap 3 I saw the front wheel of a bike come alongside on the left but I held him out until the back straight where he passed me under brakes at the hairpin. I was annoyed at myself for not taking a tighter entry and hold him out 'cos I knew that's what he would probably do. I ended up cornering in too high a gear and by the time I sorted myself out he was gone and I couldn't get a tow for the last couple of laps. I think I ended up in 6th that time. I managed to get my on-board lap timer working for the last race and it recorded a best time of 1:05.97 which wasn't too bad as I've only been in the 5's once before on the last day of the Nat's round after 3 days of riding. The suspension changes seem to have worked, it's now much easier to change directions I probably should have entered Formula Auckland as well to get some more track time as I need to change my lines thru turns 2 & 3 where I'm super slow.

Round 4 is only 3 weeks away on April 1st so if it's dry we're gonna have heaps of fun again!

Big thanks again to Henderson Motorcycles (get a Yamaha Adam!), Pirelli Tyres and the MIssus! Thanks also to SSSLodge 'for real horsepower' and www.ezsite.co.nz for their continued support.

Catch u L8R, Greg

No Hair Racing
http://www.nohair.co.nz

Sketchy_Racer
15th March 2006, 20:36
Thanks for thw write up...

I love reading about others fun days out ;)

-RG

Motoracer
16th March 2006, 17:53
Good on ya Greg!

I'll see you in April for round 4 (I'm not racing).

Kwaka-Kid
16th March 2006, 20:46
Good read greg! and wicked stuff on jamming it out ahead of that GP250.

Cleve
20th March 2006, 07:53
Good write up mate.
Race 1, ahh that was me going on the grass.
Also the "Kawasaki" green bike that crashed at hairpin was a young fella called Ricky on a GSXR600 whose rear caliper locked at about 270k's at end of back straight!
You should have seen the tyre afterwards (I did!!)