news from manfield?

[Dave]

How did it all go? not too windy and wet i hope.
Unlike the motoGP-that was scary just watching the start!
Gotta say that the four strokes have to be the best thing to happen to racing in a long time.

[bluninja]

Well the track was damn wet to start with, but no wind and no more rain during the day, so the track gradually dried out. Racey Rider, and Mitch had got through the day with no problems, but I can't remember their results.

I managed to lose the front on the last lap of practice on the last right of the esses and had a good slide part across the track before rolling over and over onto the grass and coming to rest against the bike. Damage to the bike was a broken front brake lever and bent bar. Borrowed Greg Sharpe's bars and fitted a new brake lever and all was well apart from the mud everywhere.

Naturally it shook my confidence and even though it dried later I just wasn't willing to throw the bike over into the corners, or carry much corner speed. I think I got 7th, 6th, 5th place finishes, and how's this for consistency.....2 laps in the same race matched to 1 thousandth of a second? Ok so 1 min 35.843 isn't flash.....but it's amazingly consistant.

TTFN

[Mitch]

Great weekend, Good to see Si taking the 'Mud Baby' title I claimed at Taupo.  :D What a mess he was, good riding though. Saw a couple of your races and you were still looking pretty smooth Si. 

Yes it is true I did manage to keep my bike upright for 3 whole races!!  However I would have to attribute that to the fact that I was riding like a nana for the first 2, my last race was by far the best and I ended the day with a huge smile on my face!!

Great to meet Racey rider and his wife down there, unfortunitly I didn't manage to catch any of your race's though racey, How did you go??

Roll on July 26th!!!!!!!!!!  :p

Where were you Dave??

[Racey Rider]

June 29th 2003
Manfeild, Feilding

After 12 months of planning, and a long wait for my Race Licence to come through, I was finally off to my first race.
It rained all night in Feilding, and this was my 3rd night of broken sleep, due to “race fever” (anticipation)!

I signed on as the rain was just stopping, my 150cc class and the 125GP bikes run together and are first out on the track , so my first practice session was on a wet track which suited me fine as it slowed others down a bit closer to my speed. A lap time of 1min50sec wasn’t flash but a good bench mark for improvement on my first day. Got through the practice session without falling off ... always a good start!

Heading out for the warm-up lap for the first race, the track was obviously drying and the wet weather was holding off. My qualifying time had put me 11th on the grid out of 17 riders in my class. It seems I have a reasonably good starting technique as in all three of the races I was able to pass riders down to the first corner. Heading into the first corner for the first time, I found myself in a good position to the outside of the first few riders. I saw a rider take a fall to my right, right at the bend, and knew that was going to hold up a lot of other bikes. So coming out of the first turn in the first race, I found myself in third position! Not a concern in the world about the carnage behind me. I seem to remember holding this position for a good half a lap before being blitzed in the corners by smoother, more experienced riders. By the end of the race, I finished 9th in my class and reduced my best lap time to 1min43sec, 10 seconds a lap slower than the leading rider.

Race 2. Off to a good start once again and starting to get the hang of the corners better but still the occasional one stuffed up badly causing great loss of speed. Finished in 8th place. Best time 1min40sec.

Race 3. Due to an organisational blunder (Not my fault I’m sure!), I (and two others) unfortunately missed the warm-up lap and became aware that the riders were all ready formed up on the start line ready to go. Zipping down the track exit the wrong way allowed us to stop at the back of the field just as the green flag was about to drop. No time to gather your thoughts, no time for the bike or tyres to warm up, just Go Time!!! The combination of this caused me to lock up the rear tyre coming into the second turn which caused a bit of a slide and wobble but nothing too scary. Must have had four or five bikes go past me at that point. Finished that race in 10th place with the same best time as before. Frustrating to feel you’re catching up with the guy in front of you, but knowing you’re running out of laps to pass him!

It may seem funny but it’s a cool feeling having the 125 GP race bikes (more horse power than us 150’s), zoom past you. At one stage I had the leading two 125’s pass me one on each side, it’s great to get a close up of them doing their ‘thing’ for a few moments before they disappear into the distance. I didn’t get any “One finger waves” from them, so, can’t of done anything to bad to get in their way.

Overall I had a great day. The weather was warm (for June), no wind, track was drying, club was well organised and I can’t wait to get back and brake those personal best times.
Next race - Sat 26 July :niceone: :banana: :banana: :banana: :niceone:

[bluninja]

Racey, what a corker of a day you had....know the bit about missing the practice lap. Been there done that at my first race:o  Well, 1min 40 on a 150 at your first race meeting at a pretty damp meeting. Pretty damn good....especially when my best on the day was a 1min 35.843. Look forward to seeing you again on 26th July.

TTFN

[Kwaka-Kid]

ohhh man stop it stop it!! :(  Damn you guys, haha sounds like u all ejoyed yourselves.  And my 250 is add'd in the TE for thursday.  Hope yall enjoy ya next race whenever it is and sad to hear about ur off Si.

damn this wet weather riding, i think im going to stick to open practise days on good weekends untill ike septemberish

[Coldkiwi]

Racey, how much track time had you had before getting out on the track in the weekend? Had you done manfield before?

 

[Racey Rider]

Absolutely No track time!
Never riden on Manfield before! First time I saw the track was round one of the series as a spectator. Have dabble in a bit of Motorcross/Trail riding, and enjoy the occassion blast around the block (Good quality country roads).
Country roads practice tip #134 - Don't try your race start technique outside the same house each time! Specially on a two stroke!!
:cool:

[gpercivl]

No Hair Racing Race Report
Victoria MC Club #2, June 29 2003

Hee hee hee...I'm happy again!

After struggling in round 1 with the wrong jet settings on the carbbies, I was fairly sure I had gone in the right direction by reducing their sizes but I hadn't had a chance to find out until race day. Much to my surprise, all is good! The motor now has smooth power delivery all the way to 11,000rpm then surges away to over 14,500rpm with ease(I hit the rev-limiter a couple of times).

Bob and I had entered both Formula 2 and Formula 3 again to ensure maximum track time and it paid off as we both picked up lots of points in both classes.

It had been raining all night so the track was wet for our qualifying sessions, I managed 10th in amongst the 600's in F2 and 7th in F3 with the 400's to set my grid positions for the day.

Needless to say, I had huge gobs of fun now that the motor was pulling everywhere through the rev range. Bob improved his times tremendously over that of the first round and lapped slightly faster than me in the 2nd F3 race. After that, the track dried out enough for us to go to 'dry' tyres and in the last race I managed a new PB of 1 min 24.16 secs (about 4 secs off my 600cc PB) and Bob 1:25.38 (go Bob!).

In that last F3 race I managed to hold 4th place for 3 laps before finishing in 6th. Bob had commented that he was catching me under brakes and so in that last race I tried hard to brake later, but I still have a lot to do to improve. I'm not too bad once I've apexed the corner and am putting on power, and the 400 now has almost the same power as the top guys in F3, but I'm letting a lot of people pass when braking into the corners.

Only one 'chook chaser' (super motard bike) got past me all day and that was Dennis Charlett so guess I shouldn't be too ashamed. After 2 practice sessions and 6 races, I'm still feeling a bit sore today but it certainly was worth it for a great day of racing!

My results in F2 were 10th, 14th, & 12th and in F3 were 5th, 7th, & 6th which by my calculations puts me 10th in F2 for the series and 9th in F3.

Thanks again to our sponsors, Haldane Motorcycles (Bob's grooved rear - awesome in the wet!), WEBDES.CO.NZ, and SSSLodge. We're off to MX on July 6th at Slater Park, then road racing again at Manfeild on July 26th so if you see us there, drop by for a chat (and ask 'Billy Bob' for a cuppa).

Cheers, Greg

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

[Racey Rider]

Having missed the race meet on the 26th July due to Flu, I was hanging out to get to the Aug. meet. :)
Saturday the 30th Aug was forecast for showers all day, :( But the day dawned fine with threatening clouds all around. By 7:15am I was in the queue of vehicles waiting to get in the gate and get a good pit bay.
Saw the Mitch mobile heading away from the queue, looking for another way in??? :Oops: GOOD TRY MITCH!!
First race of the day and I had my first little off on the 150! Coming through the S's a little fast, bad position on the track, thought I better ride this corner out onto the grass.:( Braked as hard as I could before leaving the track,,think'in,, I can control this,, across the grass,, controling it,,,controling it,,, NO! A lovely roly poly right in front of the grandstand! :o
The next two races on the 150 went well. Improved my Best Lap time by 7 seconds from the last meet.:niceone:

This also was my first race day out on the KR 250. Tootilled out onto the track with all the other F3 bikes, and after a slow qualifying run, was quite happy to form up at the back of the grid.:sleep: It's a funny thing that the RG150 is such an easy bike to ride that I can go just as fast on that around the track as the 250. Still,,, the KR has "KK" tyres on it, and I still have to sort tyre pressers, clean out brake calipers and jet it to make it go faster. But race three was a milestone on the 250. It had just started to rain lightly before the F3 warm up lap. Heavy rain may have washed the track clean a bit, but those few drops of light rain made the surface as slippery as,,,,,something very slippery! I had the KR safely round the track a couple of times, and was in a good position behind the leading group of 5 or ... 15 riders ahead of me. Coming down the front straight I made a nice gain on them, as for some reason they were braking quite slowly. :confused: Easing around the outside of the corner, (Should make up two places here at least!), Not too hard on the brakes,, not too much lean,,, CRASH!! :shit: The front end was Outta there! The bike's gone off on it's own, and I'm left sliding along the track in my T-shirt and jandels,,,(no,, no,, that's another post!),,, sliding along the track getting a "remember this" mark on my new leathers and visor,,, thinking "I hope nobody runs over me!!! :eek: I stand up and look around for my bike,, then look around some more for my bike,, and find it lying a ways away from me in the "Clay" trap, happily idling away as if to say, "I'm ready, let's go!" But on picking it up I see it's not so ready looking no more!:( Broken foot peg bracket, missing oil filler & radiator cap,,, and that lovely green paint job!!!:gob: :o
So here is todays lesson for all the newbees like me: Light rain,, Not Good!
On the plus side, my first minor & meduim size off's are out of the way, (after reading all that, I'm sure you won't want to hear about my future one's):rolleyes: And I got to walk away and laugh/learn about it.
I'll be Back!
So see you out there!
Racey
:p :o :p :o :p :o :p :o :p :o :p :o:p :o :p :o :p :o :p :o:p :o :p :o :p :o

[wkid_one]

Well done RR - good to see you got out there and enjoyed yourself........who cares about the offs - that is part of racing......

Hopefully some of us will see you out there on the track too

[Kwaka-Kid]

koooooooooooooool! *looks up to RR* i wanna just just like dat! cept without too much embarrasment of crashing and stuff :o   but all good! well i cant wait to get that bloody VFR out eh! my race one.. well im finishing pipe tomorrow.. i tried to make dad weld it in palce and its just left f-ing messy welds and a VERY leaky exhaust.. and nearly run outta acetenlyne or whatever the other gas bottle (not oxy) is on the DX gas welders.  argh.. must get out... and on "KK" tyres for the first few runs to see what it feeels like.. then apparently maybe some Bridgestone BT090's. $400 a pair? hmm.

[Racey Rider]

Originally posted by Racey Rider
June 29th 2003
Manfeild, Feilding

.... Heading into the first corner for the first time, I found myself in a good position to the outside of the first few riders. I saw a rider take a fall to my right, right at the bend, and knew that was going to hold up a lot of other bikes. So coming out of the first turn in the first race, I found myself in third position!

Ok,,, So, hands up who got their photo on the front page of a prestiges NZ motorbike Mag, (Well,,, Bike Mart anyway! issue 76), in their First Ever Race??!! :D

#41
Go That Man!! :cool:

Please no comments about the "Commuting" riding style! :eek:

[Kwaka-Kid]

fuck dude ! thats mean! good on ya, and nice enuf bike looking in that pic.. even in a shoddy pic like that i still would hope it wasnt me as you could see hte gouges all thru my fibreglassing - lets just say ive got alot to learn... and cant b fucked putting anymore then 3x coats of gelcoat on and get sick of sanding.