vtec
16th October 2006, 22:03
Me again. I just had another crazy weekend of racing. This was the final round of the Victoria Motorcycle Club Series, and it was held on the full Taupo Circuit 3.5 k's around, including a lot of corners.
Before this weekend I was comfortably ahead on points in the Streetstock racing Series, but I could still blow my lead if I crashed out or had engine failure, and I was fairly concerned about how the running characteristics of the CBR250 had changed. I had tried checking the valve clearances and rebuilding the carbs, but it didn't fix the problem of it missing at low revs. I've put it down to either electrical problems or loss of compression, either way the bike was still running quite well at high revs which is where it counts.
The CBR600 I didn't bother doing anything to, as I'm still only treating Supersport as a learning experience at the moment, and to be quite honest I don't really know anything about setting up a bike. I'll do the oil changes and put on a suitable sprocket.
Anyway better get to the racing before I lose my audience (that's you). This time I couldn't find anything out about a practice day, so that meant I could work friday and make a bit more moolah. Got down to Taupo by about 10pm Friday evening, and was quite excited about getting out on the full Taupo circuit for the first time. But I was plenty tired enough to get to sleep rather easily.
Got to the track by about 8am. Setup our fancy new ezy-up, thanks again dad. Unloaded the bikes and tools and signed in, luckily just beat the hordes to the queue by about 2 minutes. Gavin turned up with his apprentice and pit bitch Jay who is just getting into bikes and will be joining us racers soon, and they joined us under our ezy-up. Dad took off in the truck to get mum and sis, and fill up the petrol containers. He didn't get back in time for me to fill up the 250, so I just had to do scrub in and practice with the fuel that was left in from the previous meeting.
I had a new GPR70 on the front of the CBR250, and I was chomping at the bit to get out there and break it in. I had never raced on a new front tyre before, and I was pretty sure that the degradation of the old front had hampered my cornering ability, despite my wins in the previous rounds. I went out in the Scrub in rounds behind the pace car with about 100 other bikes, I think the pace car on scrub-in was ingenious, prevents the fast guys from endangering the slower bikes by treating it as time to get some extra hot laps in. Slowly worked to the edge of the front tyre by tipping the bike in while leaning my body out, as you couldn't really get enough speed to get the bike right down, plus it was safer that way because the bike was much less likely to lose traction on the edge of the tyre with my weight pressing down as opposed to sideways. After about 2 or 3 laps, I felt that the tyre was ready for a good thrashing. Came into the pits, and went straight out again for the Streetstock practice. I was riding well within myself while getting adjusted to the track, but was keeping up with the fastest of the streetstock guys and a fair few of the 125's while just behaving myself, and the new tyre just gave me heaps more confidence in the handling of the bike. After a lap or two, I noticed something sticking out the side of Glens bike just up ahead, as I had been following him round to see how he was doing. His fairing was peeling off his bike into the wind, and he had to shoot back into the pits to rectify the situation. I thought he had buggered up his chances of getting second in the series, as it was to come down to the last race to decide 2nd and 3rd place getters. If he hadn't managed to get a reasonable qualifying time, he'd never be able to fight through the whole field to battle Neil.
At the end of the Streetstock practice I came into the pits in a hurry, and had to jump straight on the 600. Damn every time I get on this bike I find myself feeling so damn foreign, it takes quite some time for me to get comfortable on it. Straight out in the 600 practice, and just warming up the tyres for about the first lap and a half. Then I get sick of people shooting past me, and I take up the chase on a few guys. Can't remember much else from the practice session, apart from having to work really hard with my arms to get the bastard to turn into corners. Cruise back into the pits feeling a little bit nervous about the impending F2 race, wasn't able to get comfortable with the handling in that time.
In the Streetstock class the new front tyre really showed its worth. I qualified just under 5 seconds ahead of second placed Neil with a 2:01.621. In F2 I qualified 21'st out of 32, which was actually an improvement over my previous (and first) F2 race meeting at Manfeild, with a mediocre 1:53.464 I was definitely cornering better on the 250 than on the 600, and the 600 is about 13 years newer, and has WAY better suspension and tyres. I'm just so damn used to the CBR250.
Cutting to the chase... The first Streetstock race. They again let the 125's go about 30 seconds ahead of us, which is a good idea, seeing as most of them are really crap off the mark when they bog down too low in that freakish 125 gp power curve. The guy with the green flag waves his hand signalling us to lift our revs, I lift them a bit, and then spike them when the flag drops. Got a reasonable launch, held first place, took a really defensive line to the first corner, and braked hard and late to keep the guys from having an 'around the outside' opportunity. Then peeled it out of the first corner, and just got straight into taking fast lines, as opposed to defensive ones. Looked back to see Glen comfortably behind me at the end of the first lap, so I could just settle in and play my own game... First goal for the weekend was to secure the championship, and I was pretty sure that meant that I couldn't afford to crash out at all, so I still had to leave plenty of safety room with my riding, but I was feeling pretty flash on that new front tyre. Going into the last lap, I noticed that there was a few 125's not too far ahead. Made good ground around the first part of the track, but they left me behind down the big straight before the chicane just before the last corner and the finish straight. I made up about 100 metres on the brakes, and then I was right on him entering the chicane and got past in the chicane, which left me the last left hander to make enough ground so he couldn't repass me before the line, I think I just managed it. Was pretty happy with a 20 second lead, and with a 1:59.244 I was 3 seconds a lap quicker than Glen in Second. Nice, now I could just about relax. That was until I got into the pits, and had to jump straight onto the bucking bronco that is the CBR600 of mine. Sweat was already pouring off me, and I didn't get any break.
Before this weekend I was comfortably ahead on points in the Streetstock racing Series, but I could still blow my lead if I crashed out or had engine failure, and I was fairly concerned about how the running characteristics of the CBR250 had changed. I had tried checking the valve clearances and rebuilding the carbs, but it didn't fix the problem of it missing at low revs. I've put it down to either electrical problems or loss of compression, either way the bike was still running quite well at high revs which is where it counts.
The CBR600 I didn't bother doing anything to, as I'm still only treating Supersport as a learning experience at the moment, and to be quite honest I don't really know anything about setting up a bike. I'll do the oil changes and put on a suitable sprocket.
Anyway better get to the racing before I lose my audience (that's you). This time I couldn't find anything out about a practice day, so that meant I could work friday and make a bit more moolah. Got down to Taupo by about 10pm Friday evening, and was quite excited about getting out on the full Taupo circuit for the first time. But I was plenty tired enough to get to sleep rather easily.
Got to the track by about 8am. Setup our fancy new ezy-up, thanks again dad. Unloaded the bikes and tools and signed in, luckily just beat the hordes to the queue by about 2 minutes. Gavin turned up with his apprentice and pit bitch Jay who is just getting into bikes and will be joining us racers soon, and they joined us under our ezy-up. Dad took off in the truck to get mum and sis, and fill up the petrol containers. He didn't get back in time for me to fill up the 250, so I just had to do scrub in and practice with the fuel that was left in from the previous meeting.
I had a new GPR70 on the front of the CBR250, and I was chomping at the bit to get out there and break it in. I had never raced on a new front tyre before, and I was pretty sure that the degradation of the old front had hampered my cornering ability, despite my wins in the previous rounds. I went out in the Scrub in rounds behind the pace car with about 100 other bikes, I think the pace car on scrub-in was ingenious, prevents the fast guys from endangering the slower bikes by treating it as time to get some extra hot laps in. Slowly worked to the edge of the front tyre by tipping the bike in while leaning my body out, as you couldn't really get enough speed to get the bike right down, plus it was safer that way because the bike was much less likely to lose traction on the edge of the tyre with my weight pressing down as opposed to sideways. After about 2 or 3 laps, I felt that the tyre was ready for a good thrashing. Came into the pits, and went straight out again for the Streetstock practice. I was riding well within myself while getting adjusted to the track, but was keeping up with the fastest of the streetstock guys and a fair few of the 125's while just behaving myself, and the new tyre just gave me heaps more confidence in the handling of the bike. After a lap or two, I noticed something sticking out the side of Glens bike just up ahead, as I had been following him round to see how he was doing. His fairing was peeling off his bike into the wind, and he had to shoot back into the pits to rectify the situation. I thought he had buggered up his chances of getting second in the series, as it was to come down to the last race to decide 2nd and 3rd place getters. If he hadn't managed to get a reasonable qualifying time, he'd never be able to fight through the whole field to battle Neil.
At the end of the Streetstock practice I came into the pits in a hurry, and had to jump straight on the 600. Damn every time I get on this bike I find myself feeling so damn foreign, it takes quite some time for me to get comfortable on it. Straight out in the 600 practice, and just warming up the tyres for about the first lap and a half. Then I get sick of people shooting past me, and I take up the chase on a few guys. Can't remember much else from the practice session, apart from having to work really hard with my arms to get the bastard to turn into corners. Cruise back into the pits feeling a little bit nervous about the impending F2 race, wasn't able to get comfortable with the handling in that time.
In the Streetstock class the new front tyre really showed its worth. I qualified just under 5 seconds ahead of second placed Neil with a 2:01.621. In F2 I qualified 21'st out of 32, which was actually an improvement over my previous (and first) F2 race meeting at Manfeild, with a mediocre 1:53.464 I was definitely cornering better on the 250 than on the 600, and the 600 is about 13 years newer, and has WAY better suspension and tyres. I'm just so damn used to the CBR250.
Cutting to the chase... The first Streetstock race. They again let the 125's go about 30 seconds ahead of us, which is a good idea, seeing as most of them are really crap off the mark when they bog down too low in that freakish 125 gp power curve. The guy with the green flag waves his hand signalling us to lift our revs, I lift them a bit, and then spike them when the flag drops. Got a reasonable launch, held first place, took a really defensive line to the first corner, and braked hard and late to keep the guys from having an 'around the outside' opportunity. Then peeled it out of the first corner, and just got straight into taking fast lines, as opposed to defensive ones. Looked back to see Glen comfortably behind me at the end of the first lap, so I could just settle in and play my own game... First goal for the weekend was to secure the championship, and I was pretty sure that meant that I couldn't afford to crash out at all, so I still had to leave plenty of safety room with my riding, but I was feeling pretty flash on that new front tyre. Going into the last lap, I noticed that there was a few 125's not too far ahead. Made good ground around the first part of the track, but they left me behind down the big straight before the chicane just before the last corner and the finish straight. I made up about 100 metres on the brakes, and then I was right on him entering the chicane and got past in the chicane, which left me the last left hander to make enough ground so he couldn't repass me before the line, I think I just managed it. Was pretty happy with a 20 second lead, and with a 1:59.244 I was 3 seconds a lap quicker than Glen in Second. Nice, now I could just about relax. That was until I got into the pits, and had to jump straight onto the bucking bronco that is the CBR600 of mine. Sweat was already pouring off me, and I didn't get any break.