speights_bud
19th August 2007, 21:16
So he's my brief rundown on the day.
Missed the scrub in session, still unloading bike etc from van and doing rider registration stuff.
Qualifying:
Having missed the srub in session and being a complete manfield 'virgin' as such qualifying was my first chance to try learn the track. Did first lap under yellow as warm up, then second lap was held up through 'splash' by a slower rider before he was blue flagged and had to give me right of way, at which i completed my first and fastest lap for the session, due to the next lap being messed around with the black flag incident.
Qualifying therefore left me with a laptime around 2 min 52 sec from memory and sitting in 9th position on the grid. (My fastest lap for the day was 2min 29, a whopping 23 sec's faster than qualifying)
I found the track surface a bit um... interesting, all the bumps etc just add character in my opinion and make riding more fun, i guess im just spoilt with having only ridden on taupo when it was pretty mint. I'm still trying to find a few good lines, mainly turn one, and the final R/h onto the straight
However in Race one there were several bikes who went down and i managed to poke my way up the pack a bit and finish third, six places ahead of where i started. so pretty happy considering that before starting the race i'd only done 3 laps of the track.
During race two i also managed a much better start and holding the inside line got towards the front of the pack through turn one and battled it out with one or two others, had the best time ever riding against luke! The gpx has no power advantages though and my only real advantage being going late on the brakes and riding the bike hard over on my knee.
This was a new experience for me, although 'getting my knee down' isn't all that new, actually using it to push the bike back up and transfering the weight to control the front end tucking in having an actual effect on how the bike stays upright was quite exciting, definatly going to have to sort some knee sliders out. Needless to say my leathers now need re-stitching and some patches on the knees.(a night infront of the fire and my hand stitcher should fix this) Race 2 resulted in another third place. Which left me a pretty happy boy.
Big up's to AJ, it's great to have a guy like you out there who's willing to put in all the time and effort to help us young fella's (and full-esses). I really appreciated having someone who could tell me what's what with how the meetings run.
Cheers to everyone who pointed me in the right direction, much appreeciated by this noob :)
But it was a awesome day alright, i think the gpx stunned quite a few people, comments such as "GPX's are NOT meant to go like that" weren't unfamiliar. So all in all a great day out, looking forward to next month and the offer to ride Team Cudby's 600 over the two day event.
Missed the scrub in session, still unloading bike etc from van and doing rider registration stuff.
Qualifying:
Having missed the srub in session and being a complete manfield 'virgin' as such qualifying was my first chance to try learn the track. Did first lap under yellow as warm up, then second lap was held up through 'splash' by a slower rider before he was blue flagged and had to give me right of way, at which i completed my first and fastest lap for the session, due to the next lap being messed around with the black flag incident.
Qualifying therefore left me with a laptime around 2 min 52 sec from memory and sitting in 9th position on the grid. (My fastest lap for the day was 2min 29, a whopping 23 sec's faster than qualifying)
I found the track surface a bit um... interesting, all the bumps etc just add character in my opinion and make riding more fun, i guess im just spoilt with having only ridden on taupo when it was pretty mint. I'm still trying to find a few good lines, mainly turn one, and the final R/h onto the straight
However in Race one there were several bikes who went down and i managed to poke my way up the pack a bit and finish third, six places ahead of where i started. so pretty happy considering that before starting the race i'd only done 3 laps of the track.
During race two i also managed a much better start and holding the inside line got towards the front of the pack through turn one and battled it out with one or two others, had the best time ever riding against luke! The gpx has no power advantages though and my only real advantage being going late on the brakes and riding the bike hard over on my knee.
This was a new experience for me, although 'getting my knee down' isn't all that new, actually using it to push the bike back up and transfering the weight to control the front end tucking in having an actual effect on how the bike stays upright was quite exciting, definatly going to have to sort some knee sliders out. Needless to say my leathers now need re-stitching and some patches on the knees.(a night infront of the fire and my hand stitcher should fix this) Race 2 resulted in another third place. Which left me a pretty happy boy.
Big up's to AJ, it's great to have a guy like you out there who's willing to put in all the time and effort to help us young fella's (and full-esses). I really appreciated having someone who could tell me what's what with how the meetings run.
Cheers to everyone who pointed me in the right direction, much appreeciated by this noob :)
But it was a awesome day alright, i think the gpx stunned quite a few people, comments such as "GPX's are NOT meant to go like that" weren't unfamiliar. So all in all a great day out, looking forward to next month and the offer to ride Team Cudby's 600 over the two day event.