Marty Race report... TOP 10!!!
I had been working hard to get the new bike ready for this round for the past month. I decided not to paint the fairings untill I had ridden it to make sure they fit up ok and don’t need to be modified.
Friday Test Day:
Arrived to an EXTREMELY cold Manfeild Friday morning. After having Robert Taylor set the sag on the bike I hit the track.
First time ever on the bike. I just took it easy for this round to scrub in the brakes, tyres etc and to get the feel of the bike. And to try to warm up a bit… But with fully vented leathers that’s kind of hard to do.
Came back in and made some changes to the bike. Mainly simple things like gear lever position and brake lever position etc. The bike felt pretty good, but I could tell there was still plenty of work to do yet.
The following sessions were spent slowly increasing my speed and getting all the levers in the correct positions.
I had been talking with Robert all through the day and had made a few adjustments each time I rode the bike. The final session I pushed it a little more to put the bike through its paces. It was handling really well and the brakes were incredible!
I finished the day with a smile on my face. The bike is amazing! Bog standard apart from the suspension and im confident I could ride it faster than anything else ive had out on the track.
Saturday Race day:
Another cold morning, but took a couple hard pills and got out there.
F1 Qualifying Saturday 20th:
Spent the first lap making sure the bike, tyres etc were nice and hot and working the way they should. Then on the 4th lap I sped up to set a suitable time. The bike was feeling really good and I was feeling comfortable too.
Ended up in 14th place on the grid with a 2.07 laptime. I was pretty happy with this as I knew that both myself and my bike had more to come.
F2 Qualifying Saturday 20th:
Did much the same as F1 qualifying. Spent a lap or too wamring up then set a couple fast laps. I didn’t stay out the whole time as I knew I wasn’t going to be going any faster in that session as I had just done.
Times came out to find id dropped my lap time by 2 seconds to a 2.05 to qualify in 11th place on the grid.
F1 Race 1 Saturday 20th:
I got off the line pretty good, but once we got to the 1st turn I got swamped and lost lots of places. It felt like the whole field went past me!
So the whole race was spent playing catch up. I managed to latch onto a small group of riders and have a bit of fun. I could keep up with them, but just didn’t have enough in me to get by them yet. Bruce Williams and I were having a bit of fun battling for position throughout the race, but he had a blinder of a last lap to get by a couple other riders to finish ahead of me.
So ended up in 18th place and fastest laptime of 2.04. I wasn’t unhappy with this as it was the first race on the new bike.
F2 Race 1 Saturday 20th:
This was the class I cared about, so was a little nervous coming up to the start line to be honest. Robert had given some more advise and we had raised the ride height up to max height as the bike was drifting a little wide mid corner. We had already dropped the bike on the forks by 3mm in an earlier session.
I got another fairly good start, and left my braking a little later so I didn’t get swollowed by the field again.
I did get passed by a few riders, but I wasn’t too concerned.
I latched onto another group of riders and settled into the pace. I found that the bike could handle a bit more corner speed then my previous bikes so took advantage of that. Bruce Williams, Biggles and I were having a pretty good battle for the top 10 which was stupidly fun! We were swapping positions all over the show. I don’t think our bikes could have gotten any closer together at a few parts of the race. I managed to get past Biggles and Bruce on the last lap to take 9th with a best lap of 2.03.
I had learnt heaps in this race about what I was capable of doing with the new Honda.
I was stoked to have made the top 10 and to find id dropped my laptime by so much from the morning session. Specially as the bike still felt stable in the turns.
Ended the day on a high although I was starting to feel the body getting tired and stiff.
Sunday Raceday
F2 Race 2 Sunday 21st:
I had decided not to do the Superbike 10 lap race to conserve my tyres and the body for this race.
I had learnt from the Saturday races that I needed to be more aggressive in the first turn to keep from lossing too many positions.
There was a group of about 4 of us battling for position throughout the race. Nick Prestige, Bruce Williams, Biggles and a mystery R6 rider were battling for nearly the whole race which kept the heart rate up. I was told that there was a smooth line on the very inside of the big left hander so thought id try and find it. Only thing is I went a bit too far inside and ended up with both tyres sliding and throwing me out of the seat. I managed to stay on and keep my place, but decided not to try that line again funnily enough. Bruce and I managed to put some space between us and the other riders in our group and kept battling untill the final lap. But I just didn’t have anything else to put in and ended up in 9th close behind Bruce with a lap time of 2.03.
My shoulder ended up feeling very average by the end of the race though. I could barely hold onto the right hand bar as it was so painfull.
But I was again stoked to be in the top 10 again, and to have really worked hard to get there too was just awsome! So I congradulate Bruce on a fine race. He can make that old bike move that’s for sure!
The meeting was called before my next race due to lack of time and lack of Ambulance as there had been a few crashes happening during the day.
I finished the day in 9th overall in Supersport which im totally stoked with.
I had been roaming around the pits talking to other riders and found that everyone was having issues with their tyres. I must say that mine were mint! So thanks to Pirelli for a good set of rubber. The bike felt fantastic! So a special thanks to Robert Taylor and the team at Crown Kiwi Technical for all your help throughout the weekend.
There is still so much to do to the bike, so to know that I can run in the top 10 is a huge boost for my confidence. Watch this space is all I can say.
Antoher huge thanks to Pat, Carol and the team at Motomart, Pirelli, Motul, Capital Chem Dry and Alpinestars for all your help getting me to where I am now.
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Originally Posted by Toast
of yours a bit and see how it really can be done lol.
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