Teambwr47
16th March 2009, 19:17
Pukekohe as the title says was my very first NZ National meeting and after some decent times/results in the AMCC i was fired up for some good results.
While i know that in many ways you make your own luck, what happened at the end of the race weekend I hope is the end of a somewhat shitty run of race meeting 'luck' that has made me wonder if I want to carry on racing.
Free Practice
Due to the increasing demands of that horrible thing called work, I couldn't make the Friday practice and quickly regretted it on Saturday Morning when the bike felt terrible in 1st free practice. Robert Taylor (RT) and the Ohlins crew were on hand to help with the set up that has felt 'off' since we changed the rear spring in the wrong direction a few meetings ago. Having tried and failed to get the rest of the bike to work with that rear setting we changed the rear spring before Paeroa but had not tested it at Pukekohe before the meeting. The rear felt somewhat soft and tore up the admittedly used rear tyre while the front was alarmingly bottoming out in the turn 1 bump but I managed a 1.00.3 so not to bad and 6th.
Robert got to work over the course of practice, changing the front valving and oil level which got the bike working better at the front with much more of an intimate feel through the bars. With that improvement in place i went out into 2nd free practice still on the used tyre which just tore again and i went slower at a 1.00.8.
RT decided I needed a complete change and my shock was off for a new set up which was done in double quick time with the help of Dave Cole.
Qualifying
The first few laps felt great and the bike transformed!
I was out on a brand new Dunlop 211 rear and the grip level felt good as I upped the pace until I saw the red flag and the remnants of Sam Smiths bike buried in the barrier near the pit entrance. I'd run a reasonable pace to that point and felt really confident in getting back to my best Pukekohe lap pace of mid 59's. The session got underway again and just a lap or two in i pushed really hard into turn 1 and lost the front over the bump. I thought I'd crashed but nope i was still on but to late for the turn left so picked the bike up, braked and took the grass. Still carrying a bit of pace I went for the brake to try and slow down gently but as did the back got away from me and i was off at low speed. What followed was probably funny to watch but very painful. As i left the bike the handlebar caught my bollo*cks with a fair old smack and as I ended up on all 4 feeling like i'd been kicked in the knackers in a soccer match. I looked up briefly at the marshalls who I'm sure were considering a red flag again and a thumb up gestured question I tried to answer by pointing at my balls..... It seemed they got the message and the session carried on.
The bike got parked up by a marshal eventually and when i got to check it luckily all was ok, just a slightly damaged fairing and a bent handlebar.
Not so good was sitting out the rest of the session (most of it) and having to settle for 6th at 1.00.448
Back in the pits i was somewhat annoyed but with repairs made quickly and the confidence of the better set up i went home in search of a massage of my sore bits from the wife....:drool:... a bath was all i got.:weep:
That night I thought about the race and had a plan for the following day that included a gearing change and a different line through turn 1 to that I've run previoulsy.
Race day
The day started poorly as just before the tyre scrub session it started raining and with the meeting declared wet from the previous day (this amazed me as I always thought each new race day started a fresh) we missed the session as did most of the 600's.
Race 1
What followed after this is an embarrassing cock up which i won't be caught out by again. We only had one set of front discs for the weekend so any tyre change has to be accompanied by a disc change and as for the most part I'm rider/mechanic/general gofor and all other roles at the moment it takes some doing.
With the rain still falling and pit lane wet I thought the race would be on wets so made the change then got changed myself. The race before the 600's started was wet and then as the race went on i could hear the commentary saying a dry line was appearing. It was to late for me to change and anyway it still appeared wet in the pit lane and I was stuck with the choice it seemed. As we rolled to the dummy grid I looked over the pit wall to see a mostly dry track which was confirmed on the warm up laps...:Oops:
I thought 'well that's that then' and intended to retire on lap 1 but then the start was abandoned and we were sent back to the pits as they recovered a crashed bike. Now we had another issue, I lent my spare tyre warmers out recently and had not had them back so my unscrubed new race tyres were also now cold....:crybaby:
I rushed like a mad thing to change wheels but missed the warm up laps just managing to make it the dummy grid as the guys rolled to the start. I started from pit lane after the field had blasted by and after some slow warm up laps for my tyres i set about trying to get up the field. I managed to get to 10th and saw a huge gap up to 9th so settled for that place and the hope of a better race 2. The race to me was an embarrassment in front of a good crowd and some people who'd come to watch me and boy was I pissed off....:shutup:
My best lap.... 1.01.3 compared to my PB of 59.5 :bash:
Jamie Rajek came up to me in the pits after the race and introduced himself to talk about how close he was to me etc and sorry mate I was just not in the right mindset.....sorry dude.
Race 2
With the tyres warmed nicely and a new rear D211, I set off for the grid wound up ready to race, or pack in the racing, I wasn't sure which but i did know i was annoyed.
Off 6th on the grid I got away well and was 6th down the back straight. I kept this place but lost a little time with a small mistake in the first two laps. The next 10 laps or so where just a case of me gradually closing the gap to Karl Morgan in 5th and apparently, according the commentary, i set the fastest laps early on eventually getting onto the back of the train that was 1st to 6th.
I felt fairly comfy in 6th but was losing a bit of time through the section to Ford but then gaining it all back and more at Turn 1. Towards the end of the race i was still ok in 6th and thought I had a good chance as the race got towards the end as my tyre still felt good and I felt reasonably fresh in myself. That was until the rear of the bike suddenly started to feel very strange by vibrating and the grip level just seemed to go off badly. Out of Castrol and Ford the bike just wanted to slide and I started to lose touch with the leaders dropping back over the final laps. This got made worse as the blue flags shown to the back markers being lapped by the lead bunch got taken in for me in 6th trying to lap the same riders. I got baulked a couple of time but in truth had no answer anyway to the leaders as my pace dropped off.
The last few laps i rode as hard as could but dropped a few seconds to the lead group to finish 6th and 5 seconds away from Gareth Jones who won the race. My fastest lap set on lap 16 was a 59.3 and other than Gareths blistering lap towards the end of the race the rest of the leaders were all within a tenth of a second of my lap with mine being the 4th best lap of the race.
When i got back to the pits it was obvious that we'd had a bit of a rear tyre issue that some may have seen but for now I can't comment on to much other than to say the tyre was missing a large chunk out of it virtually down to the tyre carcass. In many ways that issue even though a bit shocking can be seen as more bad luck but seeing it, I actually think I was lucky it didn't fail completely, a scary thought when you think of the speed at some parts of the track!
So race 2 didn't end the way i wanted and the weekend was a bit of a disaster but the pace I had in that 2nd race has given me back some confidence that I can run with the front pace of the Nationals and will certainly be back next season for the full series.
The other things to come out of the weekend are-
I need to be better equipped with spares.
I need to get a team together as I seem to be the only one of the front runners in SP600 who's a not in a team enviroment and doing teh one man band thing.
I'm not lending my stuff out anymore!
I've never seen a track dry as quickly in the UK....:crybaby:
So I'm not so annoyed, not retiring and now looking forward to trying to win the AMCC series and put in a serious challenge for the VMCC winter series.
Many, many thanks to all my sponsors for the help in getting me on the grids and to Robert Taylor, Dave Cole and the Pirelli guys (for free Dunlop tyre changes) for their help over the weekend.
While i know that in many ways you make your own luck, what happened at the end of the race weekend I hope is the end of a somewhat shitty run of race meeting 'luck' that has made me wonder if I want to carry on racing.
Free Practice
Due to the increasing demands of that horrible thing called work, I couldn't make the Friday practice and quickly regretted it on Saturday Morning when the bike felt terrible in 1st free practice. Robert Taylor (RT) and the Ohlins crew were on hand to help with the set up that has felt 'off' since we changed the rear spring in the wrong direction a few meetings ago. Having tried and failed to get the rest of the bike to work with that rear setting we changed the rear spring before Paeroa but had not tested it at Pukekohe before the meeting. The rear felt somewhat soft and tore up the admittedly used rear tyre while the front was alarmingly bottoming out in the turn 1 bump but I managed a 1.00.3 so not to bad and 6th.
Robert got to work over the course of practice, changing the front valving and oil level which got the bike working better at the front with much more of an intimate feel through the bars. With that improvement in place i went out into 2nd free practice still on the used tyre which just tore again and i went slower at a 1.00.8.
RT decided I needed a complete change and my shock was off for a new set up which was done in double quick time with the help of Dave Cole.
Qualifying
The first few laps felt great and the bike transformed!
I was out on a brand new Dunlop 211 rear and the grip level felt good as I upped the pace until I saw the red flag and the remnants of Sam Smiths bike buried in the barrier near the pit entrance. I'd run a reasonable pace to that point and felt really confident in getting back to my best Pukekohe lap pace of mid 59's. The session got underway again and just a lap or two in i pushed really hard into turn 1 and lost the front over the bump. I thought I'd crashed but nope i was still on but to late for the turn left so picked the bike up, braked and took the grass. Still carrying a bit of pace I went for the brake to try and slow down gently but as did the back got away from me and i was off at low speed. What followed was probably funny to watch but very painful. As i left the bike the handlebar caught my bollo*cks with a fair old smack and as I ended up on all 4 feeling like i'd been kicked in the knackers in a soccer match. I looked up briefly at the marshalls who I'm sure were considering a red flag again and a thumb up gestured question I tried to answer by pointing at my balls..... It seemed they got the message and the session carried on.
The bike got parked up by a marshal eventually and when i got to check it luckily all was ok, just a slightly damaged fairing and a bent handlebar.
Not so good was sitting out the rest of the session (most of it) and having to settle for 6th at 1.00.448
Back in the pits i was somewhat annoyed but with repairs made quickly and the confidence of the better set up i went home in search of a massage of my sore bits from the wife....:drool:... a bath was all i got.:weep:
That night I thought about the race and had a plan for the following day that included a gearing change and a different line through turn 1 to that I've run previoulsy.
Race day
The day started poorly as just before the tyre scrub session it started raining and with the meeting declared wet from the previous day (this amazed me as I always thought each new race day started a fresh) we missed the session as did most of the 600's.
Race 1
What followed after this is an embarrassing cock up which i won't be caught out by again. We only had one set of front discs for the weekend so any tyre change has to be accompanied by a disc change and as for the most part I'm rider/mechanic/general gofor and all other roles at the moment it takes some doing.
With the rain still falling and pit lane wet I thought the race would be on wets so made the change then got changed myself. The race before the 600's started was wet and then as the race went on i could hear the commentary saying a dry line was appearing. It was to late for me to change and anyway it still appeared wet in the pit lane and I was stuck with the choice it seemed. As we rolled to the dummy grid I looked over the pit wall to see a mostly dry track which was confirmed on the warm up laps...:Oops:
I thought 'well that's that then' and intended to retire on lap 1 but then the start was abandoned and we were sent back to the pits as they recovered a crashed bike. Now we had another issue, I lent my spare tyre warmers out recently and had not had them back so my unscrubed new race tyres were also now cold....:crybaby:
I rushed like a mad thing to change wheels but missed the warm up laps just managing to make it the dummy grid as the guys rolled to the start. I started from pit lane after the field had blasted by and after some slow warm up laps for my tyres i set about trying to get up the field. I managed to get to 10th and saw a huge gap up to 9th so settled for that place and the hope of a better race 2. The race to me was an embarrassment in front of a good crowd and some people who'd come to watch me and boy was I pissed off....:shutup:
My best lap.... 1.01.3 compared to my PB of 59.5 :bash:
Jamie Rajek came up to me in the pits after the race and introduced himself to talk about how close he was to me etc and sorry mate I was just not in the right mindset.....sorry dude.
Race 2
With the tyres warmed nicely and a new rear D211, I set off for the grid wound up ready to race, or pack in the racing, I wasn't sure which but i did know i was annoyed.
Off 6th on the grid I got away well and was 6th down the back straight. I kept this place but lost a little time with a small mistake in the first two laps. The next 10 laps or so where just a case of me gradually closing the gap to Karl Morgan in 5th and apparently, according the commentary, i set the fastest laps early on eventually getting onto the back of the train that was 1st to 6th.
I felt fairly comfy in 6th but was losing a bit of time through the section to Ford but then gaining it all back and more at Turn 1. Towards the end of the race i was still ok in 6th and thought I had a good chance as the race got towards the end as my tyre still felt good and I felt reasonably fresh in myself. That was until the rear of the bike suddenly started to feel very strange by vibrating and the grip level just seemed to go off badly. Out of Castrol and Ford the bike just wanted to slide and I started to lose touch with the leaders dropping back over the final laps. This got made worse as the blue flags shown to the back markers being lapped by the lead bunch got taken in for me in 6th trying to lap the same riders. I got baulked a couple of time but in truth had no answer anyway to the leaders as my pace dropped off.
The last few laps i rode as hard as could but dropped a few seconds to the lead group to finish 6th and 5 seconds away from Gareth Jones who won the race. My fastest lap set on lap 16 was a 59.3 and other than Gareths blistering lap towards the end of the race the rest of the leaders were all within a tenth of a second of my lap with mine being the 4th best lap of the race.
When i got back to the pits it was obvious that we'd had a bit of a rear tyre issue that some may have seen but for now I can't comment on to much other than to say the tyre was missing a large chunk out of it virtually down to the tyre carcass. In many ways that issue even though a bit shocking can be seen as more bad luck but seeing it, I actually think I was lucky it didn't fail completely, a scary thought when you think of the speed at some parts of the track!
So race 2 didn't end the way i wanted and the weekend was a bit of a disaster but the pace I had in that 2nd race has given me back some confidence that I can run with the front pace of the Nationals and will certainly be back next season for the full series.
The other things to come out of the weekend are-
I need to be better equipped with spares.
I need to get a team together as I seem to be the only one of the front runners in SP600 who's a not in a team enviroment and doing teh one man band thing.
I'm not lending my stuff out anymore!
I've never seen a track dry as quickly in the UK....:crybaby:
So I'm not so annoyed, not retiring and now looking forward to trying to win the AMCC series and put in a serious challenge for the VMCC winter series.
Many, many thanks to all my sponsors for the help in getting me on the grids and to Robert Taylor, Dave Cole and the Pirelli guys (for free Dunlop tyre changes) for their help over the weekend.