Clivoris
11th January 2009, 14:12
I had heard a lot about this gig, so after a night camping with my very keen 6 year old son, I was about to sample it for the first time.
Day 1.
Keen to make the most of this practice day and with my bike full of nice slippery Q8 Oil (MY WONDERFUL NEW SPONSORS), I got to the track nice and early and set up in the pit garage I was to be sharing with several others. With 3 practice/qualifying sessions ahead my plan was to use session 1 to re-familiarize myself with the track layout and try to find a combination of rear suspension setting and tire pressure that would eradicate a tire wear problem I had suffered here before, and improve traction. Rather unsurprisingly, my ham-fisted suspension twiddling and experiments with tire pressure didn’t seem to do anything other than encourage my already worn and now rapidly-shredding rear tire, to new heights of bad behavior. This led to qualifying 14th out of 30 with a best lap of 1:22.02 after the 2nd practice.
With the best advice from my son being a less than helpful “Just go faster Dad”, I consulted with some more experienced racers. The consensus seemed to be to get my new rear tire on, stick with slightly lower tire pressures and make a relatively minor suspension change. With these changes in place I was out for the 3rd and final qualifying session before racing tomorrow. The new rear tire took a couple of laps to scrub-in before I could risk pushing the pace but the bike immediately felt more settled. Even though sliding the rear is a bit of a laugh I needed fewer chuckles, and the more consistent shove out of the corners. At session end I pulled into the pits convinced that I had improved my time and hopefully qualifying position.
It isn’t a good look for a fully grown man to cry over minor disappointment, so my son will never know that I was hoping for better than 16th qualifier with another best lap of 1:22.02. The lap scorers must have mixed me up with someone else.:rolleyes:
By the end of day one, my awesome wife had arrived with the other 2 children and set up our family tent at the track. It turns out the Saturday night can be very social at the track camping area, but like any serious racer I abstained while filling Scracha with as much Vodka as I could. No point having the competition any more clear headed than necessary.
Day 2.
Today was even hotter than yesterday. While waiting for F3 (race 1), the starting positions were re-jigged and I found myself shifted to 17th on the grid. This placed me on the inside of the track which isn’t somewhere I like to be at Taupo. Turn one tends to turn into a traffic jam on the inside, and it is often easier to take the long way around and avoid the drama. No such luck for me this time. A rider in front of me had problems off the start which required me to take evasive action, letting several riders past me into turn one and leaving me in the heavy commuter traffic.
This was intended to be a 6 lap race so I didn’t have a lot of time to spare for recriminations and settled down to work on reeling some bikes in. 3 or 4 laps in I had managed to grab several places back only to have a couple of pesky 125 GP bikes slip through on the inside. Both well ridden by a couple of young Vic Club members who were reveling in the tight Taupo circuit. The corner speed they carry meant I couldn’t hold onto them and they soon disappeared. While this was going on I also had a SV 650 on my tail-pipe and showing me his front-wheel on the short straights. I managed to hold him off to take 17th out of 31. While disappointed with my placing. I was pleased to see that my lap-times had come down to 1:21.48.
Fairly soon it was time for my second and final (10 lap) race. My determination to get a better start had no influence on reality at all and it is something that I will need to work on. It didn’t take long for the field to spread out and I found myself in a battle with the same 650 as last time, Scracha on his Honda and a 250 2-stroke. We all swapped places for a bit until the 650 and I managed to pull away for the final 3 laps. All attempts to pass him (politely of course) were fruitless with a novel choice of line in the final corner coming close but seeing me crossing the finish line .26 of a second behind him, in 18th place (out of 31) with another reduction in time to 1:19.10. It was a great race despite having to manage forearm cramps for part of it.
I ended the day wishing there were more races, and initially disappointed with my placings. It was my wife who put it in perspective by pointing out that I was the 4th 400 home in both races and my lap times had steadily come down.
I enjoyed this meeting and must add my congratulations to the crew who put it on. A great gig with my only complaint being the large number of scrub in sessions on race day that were effectively treated as practice by most out there. Personally I would have liked some of this time to be used for longer races, or an extra race per class. Each "scrub session" seemed to take as long as another race would have.
Day 1.
Keen to make the most of this practice day and with my bike full of nice slippery Q8 Oil (MY WONDERFUL NEW SPONSORS), I got to the track nice and early and set up in the pit garage I was to be sharing with several others. With 3 practice/qualifying sessions ahead my plan was to use session 1 to re-familiarize myself with the track layout and try to find a combination of rear suspension setting and tire pressure that would eradicate a tire wear problem I had suffered here before, and improve traction. Rather unsurprisingly, my ham-fisted suspension twiddling and experiments with tire pressure didn’t seem to do anything other than encourage my already worn and now rapidly-shredding rear tire, to new heights of bad behavior. This led to qualifying 14th out of 30 with a best lap of 1:22.02 after the 2nd practice.
With the best advice from my son being a less than helpful “Just go faster Dad”, I consulted with some more experienced racers. The consensus seemed to be to get my new rear tire on, stick with slightly lower tire pressures and make a relatively minor suspension change. With these changes in place I was out for the 3rd and final qualifying session before racing tomorrow. The new rear tire took a couple of laps to scrub-in before I could risk pushing the pace but the bike immediately felt more settled. Even though sliding the rear is a bit of a laugh I needed fewer chuckles, and the more consistent shove out of the corners. At session end I pulled into the pits convinced that I had improved my time and hopefully qualifying position.
It isn’t a good look for a fully grown man to cry over minor disappointment, so my son will never know that I was hoping for better than 16th qualifier with another best lap of 1:22.02. The lap scorers must have mixed me up with someone else.:rolleyes:
By the end of day one, my awesome wife had arrived with the other 2 children and set up our family tent at the track. It turns out the Saturday night can be very social at the track camping area, but like any serious racer I abstained while filling Scracha with as much Vodka as I could. No point having the competition any more clear headed than necessary.
Day 2.
Today was even hotter than yesterday. While waiting for F3 (race 1), the starting positions were re-jigged and I found myself shifted to 17th on the grid. This placed me on the inside of the track which isn’t somewhere I like to be at Taupo. Turn one tends to turn into a traffic jam on the inside, and it is often easier to take the long way around and avoid the drama. No such luck for me this time. A rider in front of me had problems off the start which required me to take evasive action, letting several riders past me into turn one and leaving me in the heavy commuter traffic.
This was intended to be a 6 lap race so I didn’t have a lot of time to spare for recriminations and settled down to work on reeling some bikes in. 3 or 4 laps in I had managed to grab several places back only to have a couple of pesky 125 GP bikes slip through on the inside. Both well ridden by a couple of young Vic Club members who were reveling in the tight Taupo circuit. The corner speed they carry meant I couldn’t hold onto them and they soon disappeared. While this was going on I also had a SV 650 on my tail-pipe and showing me his front-wheel on the short straights. I managed to hold him off to take 17th out of 31. While disappointed with my placing. I was pleased to see that my lap-times had come down to 1:21.48.
Fairly soon it was time for my second and final (10 lap) race. My determination to get a better start had no influence on reality at all and it is something that I will need to work on. It didn’t take long for the field to spread out and I found myself in a battle with the same 650 as last time, Scracha on his Honda and a 250 2-stroke. We all swapped places for a bit until the 650 and I managed to pull away for the final 3 laps. All attempts to pass him (politely of course) were fruitless with a novel choice of line in the final corner coming close but seeing me crossing the finish line .26 of a second behind him, in 18th place (out of 31) with another reduction in time to 1:19.10. It was a great race despite having to manage forearm cramps for part of it.
I ended the day wishing there were more races, and initially disappointed with my placings. It was my wife who put it in perspective by pointing out that I was the 4th 400 home in both races and my lap times had steadily come down.
I enjoyed this meeting and must add my congratulations to the crew who put it on. A great gig with my only complaint being the large number of scrub in sessions on race day that were effectively treated as practice by most out there. Personally I would have liked some of this time to be used for longer races, or an extra race per class. Each "scrub session" seemed to take as long as another race would have.