CHOPPA
19th October 2008, 22:38
Coming into this round i had 40 pt lead in the superbikes and was secong in the supersport 13 pts off sam in 1st and 30 pts clear of johnny and nick but unfortunatly times are tight so i had to make a choice of what bike to ride and the new 2008 ZX10 is just to cool to pass up so it was the first round to ride just the one class which really lowered the costs!
Qualifying,
I felt a bit wierd on the bike and i hadnt fitted my pinlock visor properly into my new Arai helmet so my vision was a bit distorted and I just felt really wierd! I also started running out of brakes, i had only recently replaced my brake pads but they had disappeared over 1 race meeting! Still managed to get a quickish lap in with a low 11 to qualify 3rd...
Race 1,
I got a great jump off the line thanks to the 2008 kawasaki zx10s launch control device into the holeshot, craig dived through the inside in the hairpin but i thought i might as well try to put up a bit of a fight before he had the chance to run off! I managed to get back underneath him into higgins then he got me back in dunlop, i tried to get him back under brakes into turn 1 but couldnt pull it off. I tried to follow Craig the best i could but i wasnt really concentrating about what i was doing rather just looking what he was doing so i started to make a couple of mistakes then he started pulling away furthur and furthur till he had a bit of a slid and handed me 1st place back! By this time even with brand new brake pads my brake was coming right back to the bar so i had a look at my pit board and it said i had a decent gap so i backed off. Then within about 2 laps of backing off a tad i thought i saw the pit board with -0 on it and sure enough i had Peter Tanner right on me and as i looked around he tried to dive up the inside, i managed to hold my line and get my a into g and take the checkered flag for my first win on the 1000
Race 2
I tried to get my brakes sorted better for the second race but apparently the pads i was using caused the rotors to heat up to much and boil the fluid so it will be back to the standard pads and back to the original amazing brakes this bike had. I also had a chat to Robert Taylor about my lack of rear grip and he made some tweaks to the suspension
Again i got a great start but not good enough for the holeshot, i slotted in behind craig again and set off, i managed to hold on a bit better this race with consistant times untill i started having brake problems again then i just backed off and cruised to the flag happy with second place and the overall for the day!
After a good days racing I also managed to win the Superbike class for the series and even without racing the 600 in the final round i still finished 3rd overall in the supersport class, yesterdays racing marked exactly a year since i done my first race that was at the final round of this series last year where i was made to ride clubmens! So from winning Clubmen to winning superbike in 1 year is something im quite proud of but theres absolutly no way I could have done it without the help of SPEED TECH, PIRELLI, ELF OIL, CKT SUSPENSION, MR MOTORCYCLES and a bunch of other guys that have always been to happy to help out like Shaun Harris and Kerry Dukie cheers guys!
Theres a few things we can still need to work on to drop an extra couple of seconds off my times to be where i want to be in the nationals, im aiming for a top 10 position which i dont think is unreasonable providing I can actually afford to get there! I know this is just a club series and Nationals is gonna be a whole differant story but its good to know im heading in the right direction to achieve my goals and I have some good people helping me get there!
Cheers VIC CLUB great series!
Qualifying,
I felt a bit wierd on the bike and i hadnt fitted my pinlock visor properly into my new Arai helmet so my vision was a bit distorted and I just felt really wierd! I also started running out of brakes, i had only recently replaced my brake pads but they had disappeared over 1 race meeting! Still managed to get a quickish lap in with a low 11 to qualify 3rd...
Race 1,
I got a great jump off the line thanks to the 2008 kawasaki zx10s launch control device into the holeshot, craig dived through the inside in the hairpin but i thought i might as well try to put up a bit of a fight before he had the chance to run off! I managed to get back underneath him into higgins then he got me back in dunlop, i tried to get him back under brakes into turn 1 but couldnt pull it off. I tried to follow Craig the best i could but i wasnt really concentrating about what i was doing rather just looking what he was doing so i started to make a couple of mistakes then he started pulling away furthur and furthur till he had a bit of a slid and handed me 1st place back! By this time even with brand new brake pads my brake was coming right back to the bar so i had a look at my pit board and it said i had a decent gap so i backed off. Then within about 2 laps of backing off a tad i thought i saw the pit board with -0 on it and sure enough i had Peter Tanner right on me and as i looked around he tried to dive up the inside, i managed to hold my line and get my a into g and take the checkered flag for my first win on the 1000
Race 2
I tried to get my brakes sorted better for the second race but apparently the pads i was using caused the rotors to heat up to much and boil the fluid so it will be back to the standard pads and back to the original amazing brakes this bike had. I also had a chat to Robert Taylor about my lack of rear grip and he made some tweaks to the suspension
Again i got a great start but not good enough for the holeshot, i slotted in behind craig again and set off, i managed to hold on a bit better this race with consistant times untill i started having brake problems again then i just backed off and cruised to the flag happy with second place and the overall for the day!
After a good days racing I also managed to win the Superbike class for the series and even without racing the 600 in the final round i still finished 3rd overall in the supersport class, yesterdays racing marked exactly a year since i done my first race that was at the final round of this series last year where i was made to ride clubmens! So from winning Clubmen to winning superbike in 1 year is something im quite proud of but theres absolutly no way I could have done it without the help of SPEED TECH, PIRELLI, ELF OIL, CKT SUSPENSION, MR MOTORCYCLES and a bunch of other guys that have always been to happy to help out like Shaun Harris and Kerry Dukie cheers guys!
Theres a few things we can still need to work on to drop an extra couple of seconds off my times to be where i want to be in the nationals, im aiming for a top 10 position which i dont think is unreasonable providing I can actually afford to get there! I know this is just a club series and Nationals is gonna be a whole differant story but its good to know im heading in the right direction to achieve my goals and I have some good people helping me get there!
Cheers VIC CLUB great series!