k14 07 Nationals Rd1 Report

[k14]

Well, in short probably not a weekend to remember but here goes.

Friday: Left home just after 0600 for the drive down to Teretonga. I arrived at the track around 0900, unloaded everything from van and got sign in sorted etc. The day wasn’t too bad, quite a gusty south easterly blowing which would be a bit of a problem down at the old hairpin but not too bad.

After riders briefing at approx 1000 the first session was up. The 125’s were with F3 and 150’s. I missed the first session due to a few minor things I had to do to bike but the second session came around soon enough and I went out to get a feel for the track. I hadn’t ridden for over two months, this was the first time my bike had been run since a full engine rebuild and on top of that this was the first time I had ridden Teretonga in the dry. I was taking it pretty easy just getting back into things, checking for gearing etc. The wind was a bit of an issue and you had to allow for a bit of error down the straight, if you went too far to the right to get the best line you could easily have been blown off the track. I did a plug chop at the end of the session to see how my jetting was and came into the pits.

Once returned to the pits I took the plug out and made a small jetting adjustment. Back out in the second practice session I was feeling a little better, not pushing yet, still just trying to work out reference points and getting the lines right. On about the third or fourth lap I was just getting on the power out of the last corner in first gear when my bike popped into neutral. Before I had a chance to react I had lost the front end and I was sliding over the track, over the ripple strip and onto the grass. Hmm, not a good start to the weekend at all. Damage was fairly substantial. The stinger was bent up under the seat, completely stuffing the expansion chamber. The peg had been ripped out of the rearset, gear lever had dented the tank and the normal handlebar/clutch lever combo gone.

Back into the pits I got going on swapping over parts and cleaning off the dirt etc. I had spares for everything that was stuffed so didn’t have to start begging. Took about 3 hours to get everything sorted but I finally was able to get back out on track in the last session of the day just after 1500 to check just to make sure everything was ok. It seemed to be fine so I bought her in after 5 laps, packed up for the day and went and checked into my hotel for the night.

[k14]

Saturday: Well the weather reports were for a front to hit around 0900 and be through by around 1600 in the arvo. For once the weather forecasters were pretty much bang on and the heaven opened right on schedule just before the first qualifying session was about to get under way. I put the wets on and readied myself for the soaking I was about to incur. After the crash on Friday as well as being very inexperience at wet weather riding (only once before) I was taking things very cautiously and just circulated at a comfortable pace not pushing it at all. After 20 minutes, qualifying was over and I had put down the 11th fastest time out of 16 125’s. Not too bad thought I could go faster and thought I had a good chance of getting a top 10 qualifying time.

Due to the rain getting worse and there being some minor flooding, they stopped all classes for about two hours. Due to this they changed the remaining qualifying sessions to only being 10 minutes long. The second qualifying session came around, with the rain still coming down by the bucket loads and I only managed to better my previous time by 2 tenths to a 1.23.2 which meant I dropped a position to 12th on the grid. Was a little disappointed but I’d kept it upright (which was the most important thing) and in the big scheme of things, grid positions mean stuff all, 9 times out of 10 you will end up where you deserve to be regardless of grid position so no biggie.

A few hours later the first race came up, by now the rain had stopped and the wind seemed to be drying out the place fairly quickly. A mate and I went to see the first couple of laps of the F3 race, which was right before our one and we could see a dry line forming. The majority of the F3 field were on wets and it certainly was a wet race. We had to return to our pits by now to get ready for the race. Seeing as I was by myself I didn’t think I had enough time to change both wheels over to slicks so decided to keep the wets on, anticipating most people still being on wets as well as the track still being predominately wet. How wrong was I. I got to the dummy grid and found myself to be one of only three still on wets. It got worse when I went out for my warmup lap. I found the track 99% dry, with just a few small damp patches right off the racing line, oh darn.

I took my 12th position on the grid and the lights went out. I got a awesome start, rocketed straight to 3rd before the first corner but after then it went way downhill. I think by the end of the first lap I was down to about 10th and kept going lower. I knew it was a waste of time trying to battle against anyone on slicks. Having hardly ever ridden on wets in the wet, I had certainly never ridden in them in the dry. They felt horrible, sliding all over the place, it felt like I was riding on jelly. Having no confidence in them at all I just held in there for the race distance trying to be as easy on them as possible and came home in 13th, helped by a couple of crashes. Came in at the end of the race and the wets had shown the abuse they had just been given. They were torn up pretty badly on the left side but not as bad as I expected, certainly not usable in the wet again though.

[k14]

Sunday: In contrast to the previous day, Sunday dawned very pleasant. With a very slight breeze and sunny skies I knew this day was going to be a lot better than the previous. I put my other rims back on, shod with brand new tyres. The previous one had endured nearly a year of racing and no less than 5 crashes, I decided that was enough and I don’t think they are even for a bucket now, still you never know. I went out for the 5 lap scrub in session to get the new slicks scrubbed and sort out jetting etc for the day. Now for some reason the bike had developed a new problem. It wouldn’t rev past 9 or 10 thousand revs in 4th gear and higher, so I just kept out there for the remainder of the scrub session to try and get the tyres scrubbed and came in to try figure the problem out.

Upon removing the airbox I found the sparkplug to be slightly loose in the head, leaking under compression. So I tightened this up and thought my problem would be solved.

About an hour later the first race of the day was up again this was 10 laps, as per the race on the previous day. On the warmup lap I again felt the bike cutting out above certain revs in 4th gear and higher and just couldn’t get any speed. We gridded up again and I got another not too bad start. The bike was fine on the first lap and I was in about 7th or 8th coming onto the straight. I was gaining on a bike infront right up to 4th gear, then the problem came back again. As soon as it happened I had to roll off the throttle and coast to the end of the straight pretty much keeping it pinned through the first corner when I could get it going again. It went like that for the first half of the race. I caught up the pack through the infield and even managed to pass a few of them once or twice but as soon as I hit about 150kph I started going backwards. On about the 5th or 6th lap I gave up trying to get infront of anyone and just settled for my 11th place. Still infront of a few guys but still miles of where I knew I should have been.

After the race I changed a few things to try solve the problem. At this stage I thought it was a fuel starvation issue due to my airbox being too efficient at pressurising the intake air and the fuel tank not being able to supply enough fuel to the float bowl. I removed the ram air intake, to force the airbox to run at atmospheric pressure and also removed the fuel tank pressurisation hose.

The final race was around and I was confident that I had fixed the problem. On the warmup lap it felt ok but as soon as the race was started the problem was back. Now it had got worse, the cutting out was happening as low as 3rd gear and I wasn’t able to get my speed much above 140k. After two laps I bought it in knowing that I was wasting my time being out there and possibly damaging my bike.

This pretty much discounted my theory on the fuel starvation issue and after talking to a few guys we thought it may well have been electrical. I swapped the spark plug and coil over for different ones and was kindly allowed by the organisers to go out in the warm up lap of the clubmans race. With the new bits in it seemed as though the problem had been remedied. Likely explanation is that in the rain on Saturday a little bit of moisture made its way into the coil and stuffed it, although it could be the sparkplug seeing as I put a brand new one in on Saturday morning. I didn’t have any issues on the Saturday which probably points to the sparkplug being ok and the coil being at fault.

Oh well, that’s what happens sometimes. I still managed to finish two races and it can only get better from here. Looking forward to levels next weekend, hopefully the bike will be not give any more trouble and all other conspiring factors will have abated.

This is k14 over and out for first round of 07 nationals.

[Ivan]

so they run 125 with F3?

[k14]

so they run 125 with F3?
Only for the practice day.

[James Deuce]

Gaaah!

Mind you it's NEVER a waste of time. Sounds like a good "learning experience" weekend.

Better luck next round and thanks for the groovy write up.

[k14]

Gaaah!

Mind you it's NEVER a waste of time. Sounds like a good "learning experience" weekend.

Better luck next round and thanks for the groovy write up.

Yep exactly, so long as you learn and take something from it then it wasn't all a waste of time.

[Joni]

Yeah K14 will kick butt at Levels and Ruapuna, he knows those tracks like the back of his hand.

Keep that spare coil handy Kirk...

And go for glory matey... :sunny:

[Phurrball]

It was great to see you in action over the weekend Kirk - even if it wasn't a particularly memorable one for you...

Glad you got that issue sorted - saw you pop out for that last spin round the track, and thought your ride looked happier!

Not surprised that even the odd machine might've been grumpy because of the poxy, poxy weather on Friday - that's what I'd blame...

Hope to see you at levels next weekend - look forward to watching you kick arse!:scooter:

[gav]

How often has your bike popped out of gear like that?
Thought looking at ya times you were running ya old bike! :msn-wink:

[Buddha#81]

A good tradesman will never blame his tools, harden up you big blouse and pull ya finger out ya bum.

Good luck for Levels and the weather gods should be smiling.

[Sketchy_Racer]

How often has your bike popped out of gear like that?
Thought looking at ya times you were running ya old bike! :msn-wink:

Yeah, mine did it once or twice

Aparently (reading US forums) the way to get around it is to undercut the gears (dunno which ones)


i found once i started giving the gears a more 'sure' change, it didnt happen again..


ohhhh, maybe K14 didnt put his gear box back together properly :dodge:

;)

[Kickaha]

ohhhh, maybe K14 didnt put his gear box back together properly :dodge:

;)

Maybe it's just because he's so hard on gear :bleh:

Sounds like this season has started like your last Nationals :yes:

[k14]

Yeah the last 2 crashes I've had have been because of the bike popping out of gear. Due to my long legs and the strange angles I have to run the gear lever at I sometimes inadvertently rest my foot on the gear lever or just don't give the lever a good enough hit up to get into first gear. It all happens rather fast and I have no way of getting my foot under the lever to change down once in the corner. Bit of a pain but thats what you have to deal with being a 6 ft 125 rider.

[k14]

How often has your bike popped out of gear like that?
Thought looking at ya times you were running ya old bike! :msn-wink:
Well if my old bike didn't break down I would have been faster. Reckon I would have comfortably been able to go 2 seconds faster had my bike been functioning properly. That would have put me into the 1.09's and been around the top 5. Will be up around there this weekend.

[Cleve]

Good write up. All the best and see you at Minefield.

[k14]

Here's a few pics: oh yeah, big thanks to lynda blair for taking all the photos, i'll post up some more of the other kb contingent later.

[k14]

And a few other randoms:
1.) Hayden Fitzgerald on his CBR1000 2. & 3.) Saturday afternoon 4.) Jay Lawrence on his ZXR600 5.) Aftermath of Auzzie Chris Seaton dropping his R6 6.) Jay Lawrence dominating in the Spirit of Speed race on a Honda RS250GP, with the times he was doing on it he would have been top 6 in 600's, very impressive.

[svs]

nice photos. the nats are always a learning experience. what happened to chris seaton?

[Ivan]

Jays fast as,
Looks like fun Aussies bike a bit munched

[sugilite]

Hi Kirk,
Was great to meet you. Well done in the way you faced all that adversity :rockon:
Superb race report too.
See you at levels :yes:

[k14]

nice photos. the nats are always a learning experience. what happened to chris seaton?
I think he tucked the front on the 2nd turn, that was on saturday arvo. He also crashed again on the sunday (can't remember if it was the r1 or r6 though).

[Racey Rider]

A Frustrating few days by the sound of it.
But thanks for sharing it all. It helps us to be motivated to sort out our own problems when we know, we're not the only ones that finds racing difficult at times.

Heres hoping for Better Luck next weekend.
Keep the reports coming.

Racey

[Toast]

Good write-up K14. Good results considering the problems you had too.

[Toast]

And a few other randoms:
4.) Jay Lawrence on his ZXR600
6.) Jay Lawrence dominating in the Spirit of Speed race on a Honda RS250GP, with the times he was doing on it he would have been top 6 in 600's, very impressive.

Are these two pics on the same corner? He's getting off of the bike so much on the 600, both ass cheeks seem to be off the seat, yet not on the 250. What's up with that?

[k14]

Yeah its the same corner but they are taken at different points of the corner. The 600 one he is pretty much on the apex and the other one he is still coming into the corner. My guess anyway. Also the 250 wouldn't need as much muscelling around aswell as having more ground clearance than the 600.

[Torque]

Great to meet you for the first time mate and thanks for the gear to get my bike on the track. See you at the levels:yes:

[Tim 39]

A few hours later the first race came up, by now the rain had stopped and the wind seemed to be drying out the place fairly quickly. A mate and I went to see the first couple of laps of the F3 race, which was right before our one and we could see a dry line forming. The majority of the F3 field were on wets and it certainly was a wet race. We had to return to our pits by now to get ready for the race. Seeing as I was by myself I didn’t think I had enough time to change both wheels over to slicks so decided to keep the wets on, anticipating most people still being on wets as well as the track still being predominately wet. How wrong was I. I got to the dummy grid and found myself to be one of only three still on wets. It got worse when I went out for my warmup lap. I found the track 99% dry, with just a few small damp patches right off the racing line, oh darn.

I took my 12th position on the grid and the lights went out. I got a awesome start, rocketed straight to 3rd before the first corner but after then it went way downhill. I think by the end of the first lap I was down to about 10th and kept going lower. I knew it was a waste of time trying to battle against anyone on slicks. Having hardly ever ridden on wets in the wet, I had certainly never ridden in them in the dry. They felt horrible, sliding all over the place, it felt like I was riding on jelly. Having no confidence in them at all I just held in there for the race distance trying to be as easy on them as possible and came home in 13th, helped by a couple of crashes. Came in at the end of the race and the wets had shown the abuse they had just been given. They were torn up pretty badly on the left side but not as bad as I expected, certainly not usable in the wet again though.
yea I must say riding that dry race on wets wasnt much fun!! however was a good experience, to be able to ride on a marshmallow bike i supose. My wets wernt much worse, they were munched when I put them on and absolutely chewed to shreds when I took them off!

[Tim 39]

oh oh oh and with a lot of strange feedback from the bike and some scary kneesliding through the hairpin I managed to get an 11th. I wouldve been stoked if it had rained (the only time I have ever wished it would rain, and it didnt)

[Shaun]

keep at it KIRK, you will get there

[Sketchy_Racer]

Nice photos man!!

Bloody Jay and those 250s aye!! he loves the things.

Yeah, he has got a weird riding style on the 600, he gets a extra cut of leather added into the crotch of his leathers, so he can get his legs apart more.

Must remember to give him shit for his gay leathers next time i see him

[Sketchy_Racer]

Yeah the last 2 crashes I've had have been because of the bike popping out of gear. Due to my long legs and the strange angles I have to run the gear lever at I sometimes inadvertently rest my foot on the gear lever or just don't give the lever a good enough hit up to get into first gear. It all happens rather fast and I have no way of getting my foot under the lever to change down once in the corner. Bit of a pain but thats what you have to deal with being a 6 ft 125 rider.

haha, you're not alone there mate!!

Im 5'10, and Ivans well over 6ft.

Whos the dumbass that made these bikes so small??

[JayRacer37]

Are these two pics on the same corner? He's getting off of the bike so much on the 600, both ass cheeks seem to be off the seat, yet not on the 250. What's up with that?

Hey Toast, that there is me! haha
The story is pritty much as Kirk said, the 6 you have to hold down into the corner a little bit, the whole time your steering it. Also, on the 600 i'll still be trail-breaking, whilst on the 250 i'lll be railing the middle of the corner and holding some turn speed up. This means that i want to be off the 600, incase the front starts to tuck or walk at all, and to hold the bike down. And on the 600 at the exit, if I have my weight off the inside, the bike will be more upright when I get on the gas to get outta there. On the 250, i'm holding about 10km/h more apex speed, and leaning more. 'Cause i'm not loading the front on the brake's, i dont have to prop the bike up, i'm already heading for the exit onto the straight. As the bike is much lighter, it doesnt require as much 'body-english' to turn the thing. Hanging that far off the 250 just makes it unstable, and promotes front end chatter. In faster corners (that corner is the slowest on the track) i'll be off the bike with my head and shoulders more, right to the inside of the bubble. This helps the bike turn.
Hope this helps explain the diffrences!!
Cheers!!:done:

[Cleve]

Hey Toast, that there is me! haha
The story is pritty much as Kirk said, the 6 you have to hold down into the corner a little bit, the whole time your steering it. Also, on the 600 i'll still be trail-breaking, whilst on the 250 i'lll be railing the middle of the corner and holding some turn speed up. This means that i want to be off the 600, incase the front starts to tuck or walk at all, and to hold the bike down. And on the 600 at the exit, if I have my weight off the inside, the bike will be more upright when I get on the gas to get outta there. On the 250, i'm holding about 10km/h more apex speed, and leaning more. 'Cause i'm not loading the front on the brake's, i dont have to prop the bike up, i'm already heading for the exit onto the straight. As the bike is much lighter, it doesnt require as much 'body-english' to turn the thing. Hanging that far off the 250 just makes it unstable, and promotes front end chatter. In faster corners (that corner is the slowest on the track) i'll be off the bike with my head and shoulders more, right to the inside of the bubble. This helps the bike turn.
Hope this helps explain the diffrences!!
Cheers!!:done:

Bloody hell. Thanks for the lesson Jay. :Punk: I just brake, lean over, go around the corner without falling off and then accelerate out when I think I can... I see I have a LOOONG way to go ...

[Steve_R6R]

Thats a great write up, :yes: Jay

Just call me thick but what do you mean by this;

"In faster corners (that corner is the slowest on the track)"

ie hairpins or sweepers?

Cheers:Punk:
Thick

[JayRacer37]

Thats a great write up, :yes: Jay

Just call me thick but what do you mean by this;

"In faster corners (that corner is the slowest on the track)"

ie hairpins or sweepers?

Cheers:Punk:
Thick

ah sorry, my mistake, by faster I meant higher speed, not longer or shorter.
the faster your going, the more gyro effert there is holding the bike up so I get off it more to turn it.

[Ivan]

haha, you're not alone there mate!!

Im 5'10, and Ivans well over 6ft.

Whos the dumbass that made these bikes so small??

and made leathers so samll:innocent: