GSVR
16th October 2006, 10:51
The plan at the begining of the series was to complete as many races as possible and learn some racecraft. Comparing my laptimes in Clubmans to what others where doing in F3 last year I knew I could run midfield atleast and was looking forward to some close racing with bikes similar to mine.
Looking back now at the completion of the series is great. Biggest expense by far was tyres as I was doing as many testdays as possible wearing out my partly worn tyres from the meeting before and then putting on a new rear or sometimes both. Biggest mistake I made at the beginning of the series was not having any race wets and this cost me dearly in 2 rounds as all I could do was circulate and try to salvage what points I could.
Talking at the pub after the series Geoff Booth said that when Andrew Stroud fell in the nationals last year that was the first time in 15 years. Andrew Stroud just does'nt crash. I think many entering the sport on limited bugets could learn from this. You don't have to impress anyone really and even if you do win a club race by next year most will have forgotten about it except for yourself. And everyone will get more racing as the support vehicles and ambo won't have to be out on the track every other race.
Going into this last round of the series Phil(svs) was 11 points ahead of Jarrod Wintle with myself 3 points behind Jarrod. To me the F3 champoinship placings where all but decided with Jason Nairn and Glen Willaims comfortably taking out 1st and 2nd and Phil going to hold onto 3rd as he's a seasoned and very consistant rider. I was hoping I might be able to get some points on Jarrod but on the day he was just to fast. Phils 2 DNF's let both Jarrod and myself move up a placing with Jarrod taking out 3rd spot and myself 4th for the series.
The best result achieved all series was a 4th but due to not having any DNS/DNFs I was able to finish ahead of others that at the beginning of the series looked like blitzing me. Glen Williams has been a great help also. Just talking with him at testdays and watching him go past me on the track and seeing how fast he rides is great. His bike has a standard carbed model just like mine with no engine mods and when I look at his laptimes he's just amazing.
Frustration at the moment is not knowing what the F3 rules will be after next year. I would like to do some mods to bring my bikes HP up to aleast that of the fuel injected models but at this stage would potentually make my bike illegal in the future and mean having to buy another motor to become legal again. I don't have alot of money to invest so the other option may be just to put this bike back on the road after Christmas (as I plan to do the Wanganui race).
Thanks to the Victoria Club people. Derek, Mel, Phil, Andrea, Jeremy, Mark, Jane, and all the others that put in so much of the own personal time to make this series so good.
Looking back now at the completion of the series is great. Biggest expense by far was tyres as I was doing as many testdays as possible wearing out my partly worn tyres from the meeting before and then putting on a new rear or sometimes both. Biggest mistake I made at the beginning of the series was not having any race wets and this cost me dearly in 2 rounds as all I could do was circulate and try to salvage what points I could.
Talking at the pub after the series Geoff Booth said that when Andrew Stroud fell in the nationals last year that was the first time in 15 years. Andrew Stroud just does'nt crash. I think many entering the sport on limited bugets could learn from this. You don't have to impress anyone really and even if you do win a club race by next year most will have forgotten about it except for yourself. And everyone will get more racing as the support vehicles and ambo won't have to be out on the track every other race.
Going into this last round of the series Phil(svs) was 11 points ahead of Jarrod Wintle with myself 3 points behind Jarrod. To me the F3 champoinship placings where all but decided with Jason Nairn and Glen Willaims comfortably taking out 1st and 2nd and Phil going to hold onto 3rd as he's a seasoned and very consistant rider. I was hoping I might be able to get some points on Jarrod but on the day he was just to fast. Phils 2 DNF's let both Jarrod and myself move up a placing with Jarrod taking out 3rd spot and myself 4th for the series.
The best result achieved all series was a 4th but due to not having any DNS/DNFs I was able to finish ahead of others that at the beginning of the series looked like blitzing me. Glen Williams has been a great help also. Just talking with him at testdays and watching him go past me on the track and seeing how fast he rides is great. His bike has a standard carbed model just like mine with no engine mods and when I look at his laptimes he's just amazing.
Frustration at the moment is not knowing what the F3 rules will be after next year. I would like to do some mods to bring my bikes HP up to aleast that of the fuel injected models but at this stage would potentually make my bike illegal in the future and mean having to buy another motor to become legal again. I don't have alot of money to invest so the other option may be just to put this bike back on the road after Christmas (as I plan to do the Wanganui race).
Thanks to the Victoria Club people. Derek, Mel, Phil, Andrea, Jeremy, Mark, Jane, and all the others that put in so much of the own personal time to make this series so good.