First ever race; vmcc round 1

[glice]

This was my first race on a motorbike, and second time riding the 125. I was really excited about it; even the bad weather forecast didn’t change that. On Friday I finished work and went straight up to collect Walter, and then we were off for Taupo. Friday evening we had our tutorial with Steve where we went over what would be happening the next day and what we would need to do, which was all very helpful.
We got up nice and early on Saturday so we could have breakfast and get out to the track. Steve and mike had already set the garage up the day before, so all we had to do was get ourselves ready and then relax, I wasn’t very good at this, I kept pacing and sitting on the bike to try prepare myself.
Just as we were heading out for our practice/qualifying it started to rain, so we were sent back to the garage to get wets on, all we had time for was to put a front wet on and still had the rear slick. I went out and pretty much just rolled round for the first lap just to get a feel for the track and find out how much grip there actually was, turned out there was a lot at the front with heaps of feel, but the back was sliding all over the place. My visibility was also very poor, because my visor kept fogging up, but I made it through and manage to get a time.
I qualified 5th on the grid which I thought wasn’t too bad. Once we were lined up on the grid it all happened very quickly, I thought there would be more time. I had a terrible start; I let the clutch out too quickly and bogged down. By the first corner I was hanging way off the back of everybody, but quickly caught up and started passing people and got back to 5th place again. Second lap I almost had a high side on the first turn, I was thrown up onto the tank and thought it was all over, so I tried to chill out and slow down. But I felt as though I could catch 4th place so picked up the pace again only to low side on turn four on the third lap, sending me for a slide. I picked the bike up and pushed it over to a wall to rest it on and watched the rest of the race while telling myself off inside my helmet. I got back to the pits still pissed off and thinking my day was over, but Gareth and the boys quickly got to work putting the fairings off the spare bike onto mine and putting slicks on so I could ride in the next race (cheers guys).
Second race I wanted to make up for my stupid mistake in the first only to match it by stalling on the starting grid while trying to find neutral, and then being unable to start the bike (too bad I couldn’t have big Gareth there pushing me huh). I thought never mind, you will be able to go once they are all gone, but I was told to jump over the barrier and wait till the race was over to move. It was a very good view point from there and I think I managed to learn a bit from watching Kyle win the race (congrats again!).

Things I learnt from my first race:
 Don’t be in a rush to get fast, give time and work hard.
 Wet tyres can be a bit unpredictable in the dry.
 If you do crash, make sure you have stopped before you try to get up.
 Listen to mike and try to ‘break the clutch’ for starts
 Don’t stall on the grid, find neutral rolling up to your spot or just stay in gear.
 Practice starting on my own
 If it seems foggy it’s probably in your visor not outside.
 Need to learn to switch myself on and off from race mode so I can relax.
Thanks to Steve and Mike for running the academy and sharing all your info (and sorry again Steve about the bike, hopefully that’s the last one). And cheers to Gareth and the other mechanics for helping out.

Hopefully I can resist the red mist next time and keep my cool.

Glen, motoacademy bike #15.

[Clivoris]

Nice read Glen. Keep at it man. You will soon be flying past me like all the other academy brats have.

[koba]

Great attitude! your so right about the learning thing aye:niceone:

[Sketchy_Racer]

Things I learnt from my first race:
 Don’t be in a rush to get fast, give time and work hard.
 Wet tyres can be a bit unpredictable in the dry.
 If you do crash, make sure you have stopped before you try to get up.
 Listen to mike and try to ‘break the clutch’ for starts
 Don’t stall on the grid, find neutral rolling up to your spot or just stay in gear.
 Practice starting on my own
 If it seems foggy it’s probably in your visor not outside.
 Need to learn to switch myself on and off from race mode so I can relax.


Hey Glen,

It's Glen here, I stopped in your pit and said gidday, I used to ride for Motoacademy.

That is a good list of things you have learnt, and while the day may seem unproductive in points and the championship, you have learnt many vital parts of road racing right there, and goes to show how preparation makes such an impact to your result. (Eg the fogging visor)

For the starts, At manfeild you can get away with doing practice starts down pit lane usually. Ask Steve and he will tell you if that is ok and use that time as a chance to practice. The 125's are difficult to get off the line well, just ask Kyle.

And with the switching off so you don't get stressed. I usually let myself get a little bit anxious before a race, I find by letting some of that anxiety through early makes it easier to cut it off so I can be more relaxed for racing. Being relaxed and comfortable also makes big differences to how fast you will go, or how much information you will be able to pick up and utilise while on the track. Everyone has different pre-race preparations but I always try make sure that once I am on the bike, I am happy and comfortable and not stressed!

I hope that helps, and just take from that what you will. I am still learning largely myself!

Cheers,

-Glen

[ajturbo]

good to see you have your first race all sorted!!

now the learning really starts

[glice]

Hey Glen,

It's Glen here, I stopped in your pit and said gidday, I used to ride for Motoacademy.

That is a good list of things you have learnt, and while the day may seem unproductive in points and the championship, you have learnt many vital parts of road racing right there, and goes to show how preparation makes such an impact to your result. (Eg the fogging visor)

For the starts, At manfeild you can get away with doing practice starts down pit lane usually. Ask Steve and he will tell you if that is ok and use that time as a chance to practice. The 125's are difficult to get off the line well, just ask Kyle.

And with the switching off so you don't get stressed. I usually let myself get a little bit anxious before a race, I find by letting some of that anxiety through early makes it easier to cut it off so I can be more relaxed for racing. Being relaxed and comfortable also makes big differences to how fast you will go, or how much information you will be able to pick up and utilise while on the track. Everyone has different pre-race preparations but I always try make sure that once I am on the bike, I am happy and comfortable and not stressed!

I hope that helps, and just take from that what you will. I am still learning largely myself!

Cheers,

-Glen


Thanks for the advice.
Yea a little bit of stress is good, but I was feeling it all day! All of it was from myself though, I was trying to be fast straight out of the box, even though I knew it wouldnt happen. I took practice nice and easy, but forgot how competitive I can get, and just ended up trying too hard in the race. Hopefully I wont be doing that again!