k14
31st January 2008, 15:50
After the previous two weekends results I knew that this was the weekend for me to show what I can really do. I like the track a lot and it also suits my bigger frame having less really slow corners. I arrived out at the track Friday morning to a nice and sunny day. The forecasters had said there would be some showers but it looked ok for a start anyway.
On talking with some Jay Lawrence’s pit crew I decided before the first session to start out with a stiffer rear spring. I fitted this and made it onto the track for the first session of the day around 1100 and I just went out to see if the rear felt ok. The conditions were quite good, a little bit overcast but no wind. I managed a few laps in the 1.08 bracket and came in at the end of the session to make a few small adjustments. On further discussion I also decided to go firmer in the front springs, so whipped the fork caps off and swapped over them too. It is a bit of a lengthy procedure when you’re doing it yourself and I just managed to get everything sorted before the next session. Coincidentally, during this time the only bit of precipitation during the weekend fell. A mere sun shower by Invercargill standards but held up the day for 30 mins or so whilst the track dried.
I went back out and further explored the new feeling of the bike. It felt quite stable through the very long and fast turn 1, it also felt good out of the old hairpin over the back of the circuit. I was experiencing some headshake through the very highly cambered castrol right hander but was comfortable with this. I again made a few minor changes between sessions and went back out for the final session of the day. By now a fairly gusty southerly had developed and could be felt quite strongly on various parts of the circuit. I did a good string of laps in the mid to low 1.08’s but thought it could go faster than that. I wanted to get into at least the 1.07’s knowing that the qualifying pace would surely be in the 1.06’s but had to settle for that. I packed up and headed back to the motel to get ready for the weekend ahead.
Saturday again dawned bright and sunny, perfect conditions. We were up for our first qualifying session straight after the 600’s first qualifying session. I went out at the front of the pack to try get some good clear track. Having an onboard lap timer is invaluable for these sessions and I put my head down for 3 fast laps. The first was a 1.08, then a 1.07 and then a 1.06.4. That was a good improvement over the previous days time and I pulled into pit lane to take off some radiator tape and check some suspension settings. Again I went out and tried to find some clear track. I was in a bit of traffic so pitted again to find the best time to go out have a few clear laps. I managed a 1.06.9 and 1.06.6 and pulled in for the end of the session. I was quite happy to see on the time sheets that I had provisional pole, fastest in the session by just over a tenth of a second.
This left me in quite a comfortable position for the second qualifying session, with a high chance of a front row start I could focus more on a small problem I was having. I had found during the session that I had being having a strange engine hesitation around the loop and old hairpin. When I would crack open the throttle on corner exit I would quite often have the bike cut out for a millisecond and then cut in again. It would unsettle the bike quite dramatically and the rear and front would slide quite unpredictably. I spent the next session doing one lap at a time and then coming in to change a jet or needle in my carb to try and solve this problem. I wasn’t able to make any headway in the issue and only managed a best lap time of 1.07.9. This wasn’t to be too much of an issue though as my first qualifying time had put me in third place on the grid. I was more than happy with this but my carburetion issue was something I was feeling a bit uneasy about. Never the less I had run out of time to do anything about it and would just have to ride around the problem.
I put a new front and old rear on (seeing as my other brand new rear got flat spotted after 8 laps in my crash at Ruapuna) and prepared myself for the race. We lined up on the grid and the lights went out. I got a good initial jump but then the engine bogged, doh, too much clutch. I pulled the clutch in a fraction and managed to make it second into the first corner. Then the carburetion issue appeared and I lost a lot of time mid corner. Adam Chambers was in front of me and I was still holding onto second position but by the end of the first lap he had a 1.6 second lead. I was just too hesitant on opening the throttle out of the corners to keep up. I just wasn’t riding confidently and the race showed, I gradually fell further back down the field. Till eventually on lap 8 I was down to 8th position. I wasn’t very happy with this and Gregor Stevens and Ashley Weller were ahead of me. I put my head down for the next two laps and slipstreamed them off the end of the front straight. I knew they would be right on my tail for the whole lap and I put in my best lap of the race a 1.06.8 to cross the line 0.9 seconds ahead of Ashley to take 6th place.
Even though I was down the field some way I was pretty happy with the race. Lots of passing which is always good fun and coming back in those last two laps was quite satisfying. Definitely the best first race of the weekend in the nationals series so far. During the race I was also having some strange front suspension issues. The bike felt very unstable under brakes and in the same corners as felt in qualifying. On talking to various people I stumbled upon the reason, the forks were bottoming out! A quick talk to Robert Taylor and some fork oil was sourced. I pulled the fork caps off and topped up the oil level ready to test in warm up the following morning.
Again Invercargill had put on a spectacular day for racing. I prepared the bike for the morning warm up session and went out at the head of the bunch to get some clear laps. The bike was transformed, I could go harder into the corners and have a very smooth front end feel. The bike was running wide out of the corners but this was probably because I was entering faster and carrying more speed on exit. The fuelling issue was still there and I would just have to ride around it for the days two races.
An hour or so later it was time for the second race of the weekend. Again we lined up and the lights went out. I got a good start this time but so did the rest of the front row. I couldn’t quite get the holeshot and was passed around the outside through turn 1 so was sitting in 4th when we came across the line for the first lap. I slipstreamed past James McKay down the straight and moved into 3rd. I held this for the next three laps. Due to the tussling for position Adam Chambers and Tim McArthur had created a gap back to me which would be difficult to peg back. Then on lap 4 I had more troubles to contend with, Cameron Jones and Nick Cain both came tearing past down the straight. I kept my nerve and outbraked Nick into turn one and so it was a three way freight train for the next few laps. We were making multiple passes per lap and as the laps counted down I was crossing the line in anywhere from 3rd to 5th position. I crossed the line for the white flag in 3rd position but as in previous laps both came past relegating me to 5th by turn 1. I kept close on the wheel of Nick in 4th for the whole lap and was busy deciding what to do coming up to the last corner. All race I had noticed they were braking earlier than I can coming into the tight left hander onto the start/finish straight. I decided to make a move on at least one of them and went straight past both of them, rear wheel waving in the air and still had a good run onto the straight.
Cameron got a small slipstream and pulled out just a hair behind me. I was ducking down as far as possible behind the screen and tucking every possible extremity. I kept it pinned and right on the line I saw out of the corner of my eye a yellow bike flash past and take the chequered flag literally a hair ahead of Cameron and myself. The final gap was 47 one thousandths of a second from Nick to Cameron with me sandwiched in the middle. Also turned out that Tim and Adam had a bit of an altercation at the final corner with Adam crashing out. This left me in 3rd position, consequently with the 2nd fastest lap of the race, a 1.05.7. I was absolutely stoked with the race, the best I’ve ever had, such close racing ending in one of the closest possible finishes. Picking up 3rd was a good outcome too. This also meant that if I managed to beat Adam and Cameron in the third and final race of the weekend I would take third overall in the weekends standings.
The day kept heating up more and more, it was 24 at the track when the third race was ready to start. I still had the fueling problem slowing me down but didn’t want to experiment so left the bike exactly the same as it was after race two. The lights went out and this time I got a ripper of a start. I got the holeshot and crossed the line after the first lap with a 0.7s lead. This kept like this for the next three laps till the usual happened and this time Tim came flying past down the straight and went up the inside of me into turn 1. I tried the best as possible to keep on his rear wheel but by now my rear tyre was showing signs of fatigue. I had one moment hard on the gas out of the final corner when the rear stepped out unexpectedly which showed me down along the straight. This allowed Cameron and Kenneth Jones to get past me.
On talking with some Jay Lawrence’s pit crew I decided before the first session to start out with a stiffer rear spring. I fitted this and made it onto the track for the first session of the day around 1100 and I just went out to see if the rear felt ok. The conditions were quite good, a little bit overcast but no wind. I managed a few laps in the 1.08 bracket and came in at the end of the session to make a few small adjustments. On further discussion I also decided to go firmer in the front springs, so whipped the fork caps off and swapped over them too. It is a bit of a lengthy procedure when you’re doing it yourself and I just managed to get everything sorted before the next session. Coincidentally, during this time the only bit of precipitation during the weekend fell. A mere sun shower by Invercargill standards but held up the day for 30 mins or so whilst the track dried.
I went back out and further explored the new feeling of the bike. It felt quite stable through the very long and fast turn 1, it also felt good out of the old hairpin over the back of the circuit. I was experiencing some headshake through the very highly cambered castrol right hander but was comfortable with this. I again made a few minor changes between sessions and went back out for the final session of the day. By now a fairly gusty southerly had developed and could be felt quite strongly on various parts of the circuit. I did a good string of laps in the mid to low 1.08’s but thought it could go faster than that. I wanted to get into at least the 1.07’s knowing that the qualifying pace would surely be in the 1.06’s but had to settle for that. I packed up and headed back to the motel to get ready for the weekend ahead.
Saturday again dawned bright and sunny, perfect conditions. We were up for our first qualifying session straight after the 600’s first qualifying session. I went out at the front of the pack to try get some good clear track. Having an onboard lap timer is invaluable for these sessions and I put my head down for 3 fast laps. The first was a 1.08, then a 1.07 and then a 1.06.4. That was a good improvement over the previous days time and I pulled into pit lane to take off some radiator tape and check some suspension settings. Again I went out and tried to find some clear track. I was in a bit of traffic so pitted again to find the best time to go out have a few clear laps. I managed a 1.06.9 and 1.06.6 and pulled in for the end of the session. I was quite happy to see on the time sheets that I had provisional pole, fastest in the session by just over a tenth of a second.
This left me in quite a comfortable position for the second qualifying session, with a high chance of a front row start I could focus more on a small problem I was having. I had found during the session that I had being having a strange engine hesitation around the loop and old hairpin. When I would crack open the throttle on corner exit I would quite often have the bike cut out for a millisecond and then cut in again. It would unsettle the bike quite dramatically and the rear and front would slide quite unpredictably. I spent the next session doing one lap at a time and then coming in to change a jet or needle in my carb to try and solve this problem. I wasn’t able to make any headway in the issue and only managed a best lap time of 1.07.9. This wasn’t to be too much of an issue though as my first qualifying time had put me in third place on the grid. I was more than happy with this but my carburetion issue was something I was feeling a bit uneasy about. Never the less I had run out of time to do anything about it and would just have to ride around the problem.
I put a new front and old rear on (seeing as my other brand new rear got flat spotted after 8 laps in my crash at Ruapuna) and prepared myself for the race. We lined up on the grid and the lights went out. I got a good initial jump but then the engine bogged, doh, too much clutch. I pulled the clutch in a fraction and managed to make it second into the first corner. Then the carburetion issue appeared and I lost a lot of time mid corner. Adam Chambers was in front of me and I was still holding onto second position but by the end of the first lap he had a 1.6 second lead. I was just too hesitant on opening the throttle out of the corners to keep up. I just wasn’t riding confidently and the race showed, I gradually fell further back down the field. Till eventually on lap 8 I was down to 8th position. I wasn’t very happy with this and Gregor Stevens and Ashley Weller were ahead of me. I put my head down for the next two laps and slipstreamed them off the end of the front straight. I knew they would be right on my tail for the whole lap and I put in my best lap of the race a 1.06.8 to cross the line 0.9 seconds ahead of Ashley to take 6th place.
Even though I was down the field some way I was pretty happy with the race. Lots of passing which is always good fun and coming back in those last two laps was quite satisfying. Definitely the best first race of the weekend in the nationals series so far. During the race I was also having some strange front suspension issues. The bike felt very unstable under brakes and in the same corners as felt in qualifying. On talking to various people I stumbled upon the reason, the forks were bottoming out! A quick talk to Robert Taylor and some fork oil was sourced. I pulled the fork caps off and topped up the oil level ready to test in warm up the following morning.
Again Invercargill had put on a spectacular day for racing. I prepared the bike for the morning warm up session and went out at the head of the bunch to get some clear laps. The bike was transformed, I could go harder into the corners and have a very smooth front end feel. The bike was running wide out of the corners but this was probably because I was entering faster and carrying more speed on exit. The fuelling issue was still there and I would just have to ride around it for the days two races.
An hour or so later it was time for the second race of the weekend. Again we lined up and the lights went out. I got a good start this time but so did the rest of the front row. I couldn’t quite get the holeshot and was passed around the outside through turn 1 so was sitting in 4th when we came across the line for the first lap. I slipstreamed past James McKay down the straight and moved into 3rd. I held this for the next three laps. Due to the tussling for position Adam Chambers and Tim McArthur had created a gap back to me which would be difficult to peg back. Then on lap 4 I had more troubles to contend with, Cameron Jones and Nick Cain both came tearing past down the straight. I kept my nerve and outbraked Nick into turn one and so it was a three way freight train for the next few laps. We were making multiple passes per lap and as the laps counted down I was crossing the line in anywhere from 3rd to 5th position. I crossed the line for the white flag in 3rd position but as in previous laps both came past relegating me to 5th by turn 1. I kept close on the wheel of Nick in 4th for the whole lap and was busy deciding what to do coming up to the last corner. All race I had noticed they were braking earlier than I can coming into the tight left hander onto the start/finish straight. I decided to make a move on at least one of them and went straight past both of them, rear wheel waving in the air and still had a good run onto the straight.
Cameron got a small slipstream and pulled out just a hair behind me. I was ducking down as far as possible behind the screen and tucking every possible extremity. I kept it pinned and right on the line I saw out of the corner of my eye a yellow bike flash past and take the chequered flag literally a hair ahead of Cameron and myself. The final gap was 47 one thousandths of a second from Nick to Cameron with me sandwiched in the middle. Also turned out that Tim and Adam had a bit of an altercation at the final corner with Adam crashing out. This left me in 3rd position, consequently with the 2nd fastest lap of the race, a 1.05.7. I was absolutely stoked with the race, the best I’ve ever had, such close racing ending in one of the closest possible finishes. Picking up 3rd was a good outcome too. This also meant that if I managed to beat Adam and Cameron in the third and final race of the weekend I would take third overall in the weekends standings.
The day kept heating up more and more, it was 24 at the track when the third race was ready to start. I still had the fueling problem slowing me down but didn’t want to experiment so left the bike exactly the same as it was after race two. The lights went out and this time I got a ripper of a start. I got the holeshot and crossed the line after the first lap with a 0.7s lead. This kept like this for the next three laps till the usual happened and this time Tim came flying past down the straight and went up the inside of me into turn 1. I tried the best as possible to keep on his rear wheel but by now my rear tyre was showing signs of fatigue. I had one moment hard on the gas out of the final corner when the rear stepped out unexpectedly which showed me down along the straight. This allowed Cameron and Kenneth Jones to get past me.