Toast
20th November 2007, 11:15
Short 'n sweet:
Was a mint day, no rain.
Awesome to see so many people out there competing, and quite a few spectators as well (in spite of the unreasonable, in my opinion, $10 charge for entry). The last AMCC meet I went to there were about 8 bikes in F2 or something like that. This time there were about 20, with the F1 field being even bigger.
The goal was 1:03's...
Practice F1: The big arse slick that I had to drop 2 teeth at the rear to fit in had made my rear ride height miles high, and it felt like the front was gonna tuck, and the rear was gonna spin out...bit dodgy! Dropped my nuts on the first high speed entry to Jennian and decided that I'd better come back in and change something. Best of 1:08.7.
Pracetice F2: Two turns less preload at the rear and it seemed to work a treat. Not only was the bike sitting very nicely, turning in well but still as stable as a bike with no damper on Pukie can be, and the rear was handling the bumps entering Jennian a lot better than before. Started to get more confident but then got stuck behind a bike coming out of the hairpin, through the left handers and had to jump on the brakes to avoid going up his arse. Best time of 1:06.5. Could've been better, but wouldn't have changed the race results by much anyway if it was, so not too fussed with that one.
Race 1, F1: My fave race of the day. Was stuck behind an '06 R6 for the first 6 laps. Coming up on him in the corners but losing about 20 bike lengths on the back straight and about 10 straight out of the hairpin. The CBR isn't THAT slow, but the new way too tall gearing from the big rear Pirelli exposed the not so ballsy engine a bit. Finally took him around the outside through Jennian as the confidence came up, and managed to hold him off. Spotted a black R1 just ahead of me as I was braking in to the hairpin for the final time, went hard through the left handers and took him on the outside over the hill with enough pace to hold the thou' off to the line. Good fun, and a best time of 1:04.7.
Race 1, F2: Had a mare and ran of the track twice. Did 1:04.9, but did some 1:10's on those laps where I ran off. Marshalls at Castrol must've thought I was a total muppet (I am). Realised I was hungry as and so used that as an excuse for my ineptitude :)
Race 2, F1: Had the blue '06 R6 pretty sussed by now and took him where I was strong, stuffed up his drive on to the back straight and held him off for the race. Got 1:04.5. Was getting a bit tired from all of the heat by now.
Race 2, F2: Chased Sam from Wild West on the '07 600RR for the whole race. Made some big ground on lap 2, which was a 1:04.7 (gotta love the onboard lap timer), but then made tonnes of mistakes and lost touch. Excuse no.27: I work in an office and am unfit.
No idea what the placings in any races were, does anyone know where the race results get posted? It used to be something like mark-time.tk or something, but it doesn't seem to work anymore and just redirects you to some site with tonnes of pop-ups.
So, ended up not meeting my goal of lapping in the 1:03's. Just dropping a tooth on the front sprocket to make 6th useable, and get better drive out of Castrol and the hairpin, might have gotten me there, but there were definitely areas of my riding that I know could have gotten me down that extra 0.5 of a second or more anyway. Good thing that there's always next time :D
Thanks to the AMCC for a great meet, Dad for all of the help with everything, as always, Lindsay from 'Treads for use of the pit tent and good company, Udo of Schuberth helmets for help in the pits, and whoever decided that pushing pedals to make a bike go fast was a flawed idea in the first place. This racing shit is so much fun!!
Was a mint day, no rain.
Awesome to see so many people out there competing, and quite a few spectators as well (in spite of the unreasonable, in my opinion, $10 charge for entry). The last AMCC meet I went to there were about 8 bikes in F2 or something like that. This time there were about 20, with the F1 field being even bigger.
The goal was 1:03's...
Practice F1: The big arse slick that I had to drop 2 teeth at the rear to fit in had made my rear ride height miles high, and it felt like the front was gonna tuck, and the rear was gonna spin out...bit dodgy! Dropped my nuts on the first high speed entry to Jennian and decided that I'd better come back in and change something. Best of 1:08.7.
Pracetice F2: Two turns less preload at the rear and it seemed to work a treat. Not only was the bike sitting very nicely, turning in well but still as stable as a bike with no damper on Pukie can be, and the rear was handling the bumps entering Jennian a lot better than before. Started to get more confident but then got stuck behind a bike coming out of the hairpin, through the left handers and had to jump on the brakes to avoid going up his arse. Best time of 1:06.5. Could've been better, but wouldn't have changed the race results by much anyway if it was, so not too fussed with that one.
Race 1, F1: My fave race of the day. Was stuck behind an '06 R6 for the first 6 laps. Coming up on him in the corners but losing about 20 bike lengths on the back straight and about 10 straight out of the hairpin. The CBR isn't THAT slow, but the new way too tall gearing from the big rear Pirelli exposed the not so ballsy engine a bit. Finally took him around the outside through Jennian as the confidence came up, and managed to hold him off. Spotted a black R1 just ahead of me as I was braking in to the hairpin for the final time, went hard through the left handers and took him on the outside over the hill with enough pace to hold the thou' off to the line. Good fun, and a best time of 1:04.7.
Race 1, F2: Had a mare and ran of the track twice. Did 1:04.9, but did some 1:10's on those laps where I ran off. Marshalls at Castrol must've thought I was a total muppet (I am). Realised I was hungry as and so used that as an excuse for my ineptitude :)
Race 2, F1: Had the blue '06 R6 pretty sussed by now and took him where I was strong, stuffed up his drive on to the back straight and held him off for the race. Got 1:04.5. Was getting a bit tired from all of the heat by now.
Race 2, F2: Chased Sam from Wild West on the '07 600RR for the whole race. Made some big ground on lap 2, which was a 1:04.7 (gotta love the onboard lap timer), but then made tonnes of mistakes and lost touch. Excuse no.27: I work in an office and am unfit.
No idea what the placings in any races were, does anyone know where the race results get posted? It used to be something like mark-time.tk or something, but it doesn't seem to work anymore and just redirects you to some site with tonnes of pop-ups.
So, ended up not meeting my goal of lapping in the 1:03's. Just dropping a tooth on the front sprocket to make 6th useable, and get better drive out of Castrol and the hairpin, might have gotten me there, but there were definitely areas of my riding that I know could have gotten me down that extra 0.5 of a second or more anyway. Good thing that there's always next time :D
Thanks to the AMCC for a great meet, Dad for all of the help with everything, as always, Lindsay from 'Treads for use of the pit tent and good company, Udo of Schuberth helmets for help in the pits, and whoever decided that pushing pedals to make a bike go fast was a flawed idea in the first place. This racing shit is so much fun!!