JayRacer37
20th January 2009, 11:08
Gidday again, after round two at Levels in Timaru.
We have now moved up the island again, based at the North South Holiday Park in Christchurch. Levels was an interesting weekend. Before you read on I’ll just give you this little fact to show how fast the pace is this year; my race time in race two on Sunday would have won me last year’s fastest race with about an 8 second lead…
We tested on Wednesday at Levels and had a good look around. The track had been resealed in the first corner the night before so it had had 9 hours to set when we got on it… you could smell the new tarmac and there was very little grip. We decided that we needed to try lighter springs in the front, but didn’t have Robert Taylor from Ohlins until Friday so persevered as we were for the day. We used the last two sessions trying out different compound tyres to see how they lasted and how the lap times looked.
For Friday we got the springs we were after, which of course changed the behaviour of the bike. We tried a different shock setup and then changed it completely for something with different dampening features to try and make the bike turn better in the middle of the corners. The day started late and finished early so we only got three runs on the track, leaving us wanting more.
After talking overnight the decision was made to try a completely different shock again. For the first session this felt fairly good but the bike still wasn’t as fast in the middle of the corner as I wanted. We then raised the bike’s ride height overall to make the centre of gravity higher so it would turn a tighter line once it was passed 45 degree lean angle. The trade off would be that whenever it was above 45 degrees it would turn slower, but this was already our strong point so we made the change. This worked well but the increased weight transfer was overcoming the dampening and pushing the front end. We changed the damping spec of the front end which really helped.
During qualifying I came into the pits once to change the shock compression damping clicker as the extra damping in the front was making the rear end lose traction on drive which was really hurting the lap time because of the long straight after the most difficult exit on the track. We improved this a bit but not enough and I qualified fifth, on the inside of the second row. This was disappointing as I was really hoping to get on the front row as the start is so important at Levels because of the tight little turn one. After qualifying we had a really long talk and decided to change a number of things in both ends of the suspension. Putting all our information together we changed almost everything on the bike just before racing.
Race One
I tried the new bike in the three lap scrub and it felt good so we raced on it. We missed the calls for our class and missed the gate for entering the track for the first race. This meant I would need to start from pitlane, however the clerk of course let me out for the second warm-up lap, so I joined the start without disturbing anyone. My start was not that great, I got elbowed and then blocked by Dennis Charlett into turn one, and then John Ross passed me when Dennis broke early and in front of me. I got back past John on the first lap and chased Dennis, Nick Cole and Sam Smith who were battling in front of me. I stayed close but made a few mistakes and still didn’t have the drive grip I needed, so while I kept the gap consistent I couldn’t catch Sam, ending the race in sixth place. After the race the steward of the meeting came over and advised we would be given a 20 second penalty for missing the gate. This was later amended to a ten second penalty after I argued his clerk of course had okayed me to join the course and I hadn’t disturbed anyone by doing just one warm up lap, and also that a pit lane start loses you perhaps five seconds, so a 20 second penalty isn’t representative. I believe I was seventh for this race, although I’m not certain. We always seem to end up on the wrong side of the officials for stupid reasons, often through their own mistakes!
Race Two
I was a bit amped up after the penalty and we had changed the ride height and preload on the shock to try and get more grip. I got a good start and this time and was determined to beat Dennis to turn one, which I managed. Unfortunately, I made a little mistake halfway round the lap and let him past. He got past Sam and Nick quickly in this race, but this time I was right there as he did. Nick got past Sam and I was keen to chase him so after a couple of laps and a near highside at the back of the track I had a little opportunity to pass him so I dove for it. It was a fairly late pass in the corner and we both ran a bit wide but I had to do it or be stuck behind him. Later in the same lap I was presented with a chance to lap a backmarker, again very late in the corner, but in a spot that meant Sam wouldn’t be able to get through for a couple of corners. This gave me the gap I needed and on my lap board I could see that Sam was dropping back. I put my head down and was catching Nick slowly, but on the second to last lap I hit some gravel and ran very wide at the hairpin, increasing the gap to more than I could catch. I took it easy on the last lap and came home fifth… without a penalty!!! Whooohoooo!
Well that’s that. Although we are much faster than last year, everyone else is a bit faster again. This gives us something to aim for this weekend at Ruapuna in Christchurch, so we still have our chins up and are looking to improve.
Bye for now, talk to you in a week!
Jay #3
We have now moved up the island again, based at the North South Holiday Park in Christchurch. Levels was an interesting weekend. Before you read on I’ll just give you this little fact to show how fast the pace is this year; my race time in race two on Sunday would have won me last year’s fastest race with about an 8 second lead…
We tested on Wednesday at Levels and had a good look around. The track had been resealed in the first corner the night before so it had had 9 hours to set when we got on it… you could smell the new tarmac and there was very little grip. We decided that we needed to try lighter springs in the front, but didn’t have Robert Taylor from Ohlins until Friday so persevered as we were for the day. We used the last two sessions trying out different compound tyres to see how they lasted and how the lap times looked.
For Friday we got the springs we were after, which of course changed the behaviour of the bike. We tried a different shock setup and then changed it completely for something with different dampening features to try and make the bike turn better in the middle of the corners. The day started late and finished early so we only got three runs on the track, leaving us wanting more.
After talking overnight the decision was made to try a completely different shock again. For the first session this felt fairly good but the bike still wasn’t as fast in the middle of the corner as I wanted. We then raised the bike’s ride height overall to make the centre of gravity higher so it would turn a tighter line once it was passed 45 degree lean angle. The trade off would be that whenever it was above 45 degrees it would turn slower, but this was already our strong point so we made the change. This worked well but the increased weight transfer was overcoming the dampening and pushing the front end. We changed the damping spec of the front end which really helped.
During qualifying I came into the pits once to change the shock compression damping clicker as the extra damping in the front was making the rear end lose traction on drive which was really hurting the lap time because of the long straight after the most difficult exit on the track. We improved this a bit but not enough and I qualified fifth, on the inside of the second row. This was disappointing as I was really hoping to get on the front row as the start is so important at Levels because of the tight little turn one. After qualifying we had a really long talk and decided to change a number of things in both ends of the suspension. Putting all our information together we changed almost everything on the bike just before racing.
Race One
I tried the new bike in the three lap scrub and it felt good so we raced on it. We missed the calls for our class and missed the gate for entering the track for the first race. This meant I would need to start from pitlane, however the clerk of course let me out for the second warm-up lap, so I joined the start without disturbing anyone. My start was not that great, I got elbowed and then blocked by Dennis Charlett into turn one, and then John Ross passed me when Dennis broke early and in front of me. I got back past John on the first lap and chased Dennis, Nick Cole and Sam Smith who were battling in front of me. I stayed close but made a few mistakes and still didn’t have the drive grip I needed, so while I kept the gap consistent I couldn’t catch Sam, ending the race in sixth place. After the race the steward of the meeting came over and advised we would be given a 20 second penalty for missing the gate. This was later amended to a ten second penalty after I argued his clerk of course had okayed me to join the course and I hadn’t disturbed anyone by doing just one warm up lap, and also that a pit lane start loses you perhaps five seconds, so a 20 second penalty isn’t representative. I believe I was seventh for this race, although I’m not certain. We always seem to end up on the wrong side of the officials for stupid reasons, often through their own mistakes!
Race Two
I was a bit amped up after the penalty and we had changed the ride height and preload on the shock to try and get more grip. I got a good start and this time and was determined to beat Dennis to turn one, which I managed. Unfortunately, I made a little mistake halfway round the lap and let him past. He got past Sam and Nick quickly in this race, but this time I was right there as he did. Nick got past Sam and I was keen to chase him so after a couple of laps and a near highside at the back of the track I had a little opportunity to pass him so I dove for it. It was a fairly late pass in the corner and we both ran a bit wide but I had to do it or be stuck behind him. Later in the same lap I was presented with a chance to lap a backmarker, again very late in the corner, but in a spot that meant Sam wouldn’t be able to get through for a couple of corners. This gave me the gap I needed and on my lap board I could see that Sam was dropping back. I put my head down and was catching Nick slowly, but on the second to last lap I hit some gravel and ran very wide at the hairpin, increasing the gap to more than I could catch. I took it easy on the last lap and came home fifth… without a penalty!!! Whooohoooo!
Well that’s that. Although we are much faster than last year, everyone else is a bit faster again. This gives us something to aim for this weekend at Ruapuna in Christchurch, so we still have our chins up and are looking to improve.
Bye for now, talk to you in a week!
Jay #3