Biggles08 VMCC Round 2

[Biggles08]

Friday Practice:
Turned up and set up pits next to Darrin (Scuzeme) in one of the horse stalls all ready for a day’s practice. Went out for the first session quite late, as the track appeared to be pretty cold and slippery. When we finally went out I was glad we had waited for so long as my second hand slicks were feeling exactly that...slick and second hand! I was sliding about not feeling overly happy with how the bike was feeling so decided to take it easy and keep upright as it was going to be a long weekend of racing and there was plenty of time for crashing (ahem....scuzeme for that comment)! I missed the last session in an effort to change my slicks over to new METZELER ‘Dot’ Racetechs for the next days racing/qualifying.

Saturday Qualifying and Race day:
Got to the track nice and early to a frosty start of what looked to be a good day brewing. Set up pits with Darrin, Gah, Kevin, and Phil. It was good to see so many METZELER racers all in the same garage (not looking at anyone in particular KevinJ). Speaking earlier in the month to Darrin, we were all keen to make a go at looking professional this race meeting so we tried to keep the pit area nice and clean.

First time out on the track today on new tires was in the scrub session. Already the bike felt heaps better with tons of grip! I was totally pleasantly surprised at this revelation! Second time out on the track was for F1 Qualifying...not that I knew it was qualifying! I was under the impression it was a practice session for F1 and so I went about dawdling around the track behind Jamie Rajek who also thought it was practice only....ended up “qualifying” in grid position 22...lowest on the grid I have ever been!
Qualifying for F2 I knew about so decided to ramp it up a bit to try to save some face within my grid position...managed a 9^th fastest lap here BUT more importantly I was starting to encounter a gearing problem. As I was changing from 2^nd gear to 3^rd gear I was unable to get it to engage correctly and was losing a heap of time trying to get it into gear. At this stage I thought it was just me being lazy on the changes combined with a fully synthetic oil I had just put in (as opposed to a semi synthetic oil I had been running to this point) but something more sinister was at play.

F1 I got a good start and entered the first corner in about 15^th position I think...got the hole shot from 22^nd on the grid!!! One thing I will blow my own trumpet at is my starts are MEAN! The rest of the race though all went downhill pretty quick. The right sweeper before splash I missed 3^rd and coasted around as about 3 bikes overtook me. Exiting the infield left hairpin again missed 3^rd and another 2 or 3 went flying past. This set the tone for the entire race. I would catch the bikes in front only to lose them again from missing gears. Needless to say I was pretty furious and some pretty cool strings of ugly swear words were being shouted at the inside of my visor! I ended up in 20^th position so picked up a couple of places despite my gears playing havoc.

F2 I had even more problems with my gears and was spending half my time concentrating on gear changes rather than race tactics. I was pretty pissed off but scrambled through the race earning myself an 11^th placing in F2 so got some points to make it worthwhile. I was really trying to figure out what was going on with my gears after this race.

[Biggles08]

part two:

Sunday:
Scrub session...went out to see if my bike was ok but still was having issues with the gears so came in and I asked my pit crew (heheheh) to shoot down to repco to get some semi-synthetic oil to do a change but it ended up being too late to complete the oil change before the first F1 race.
I had an average start as I was unwilling to use the entire rev range at the risk of missing second and having a bike behind come flying into the back of me. I was somewhat swamped into the first corner but fought my way to get a clean line through the first corner. This race was the worst my gears had been so far. Pretty much every straight I was missing gears and my poor bike was screaming, bouncing off the rev limiter as I tried desperately to engage the gears. My left foot was stomping on the gear selector to no avail. Lap after lap I was being over taken by about 3 bikes. In the end the final straw was when I missed a change between 3rd and 4th entering the big left sweeper onto the front track again and had to free wheel around that corner, dragging my left knee crapping myself! I decided to pit and have a DNF as it was too dangerous...as I was pitting I looked up only to see the chequered flag being waved...another 50mtrs and I would have finished the race! Talk about salt in an open wound!

I came in from this race absolutely livid with myself but calmed down eventually and Wiggles and Dom changed the oil over in the hope that the problem would go away.

I didn’t go out in the second F1 race two due to the bike not going correctly and instead I watched from the stands....that sucked. However, I was/am more concerned with standings in F2 for the winter series rather than F1 and since the bike appeared to be getting worse every time I went out on the track I made the decision to save whatever I had left for my F2 race.
I decided in my head that my bike was fixed and went out to the race with this attitude. Great start...got second...made it to the first corner in about 10th place. I made it to the exit of the infield hairpin before I missed 3rd again and a couple of other bikes passed me again....grrrrrr......anyway, in the end the race was red flagged due to Phil Snowdon having a bad off at splash and the race day was called. Phew....

It was an interesting weekend and I’m so happy I managed to get some points to stay in 4th position overall in F2 despite a challenging weekend with my machinery.

I need to say a big thanks to all my GREAT sponsors of which have made my racing possible so far. REDLINE track days (check out this thread for info on a Race practice day), Ed Hardy who have a fund raising day coming up on Sunday, METZELER tires for great grip ALL weekend, Autoblast and Reflections Motorcycle Refinishers for making my bike look so puuuuuurdy!
Now to fix my gears.....chow.

[Clivoris]

Hope your problems aren't too major man. The bike looked great, you handled the problems well and it was good to meet you. I agree that you should stop helping Darrin out, unless it's to give him advice like "Always place a mandarin inside your leathers and pressed against the perenium to achieve maximum ground clearance at full lean".

[NinjaBoy]

You still had some awesome racing despite the problems but that's racing .... get that gearbox sorted for next round !

[sinfull]

Yeah ya were looking too good to be having problems mate lol my excuse was i'm fat ! Yours was far more elaberate !

[Tony.OK]

Yeah ya were looking too good to be having problems mate lol my excuse was i'm fat ! Yours was far more elaberate !

Hahaa......................Bill some people need to come up with fancy excuses instead of being honest..........................................I think the truth was Marcus realised he should be ashamed of owning a Kwaka


Bad luck Marcus.................bike and shed looked primo though mate, what was the Metz stand ya had out the front? forgot to have a closer look with Nicki's off.

[Sparky Bills]

Hard luck mate. Bring on next round ha.
Maybe you should put a Honda motor in it?? They are pretty strong

[Matt Bleck]

stink bro, i hope you can get it sorted!

[scuzeme]

Hey Marcus

Huge Respek
Its pretty hard for someone so competitive like you to make a safety call over going out there on a limb, my hats off to you making the right decision.
Still plenty more rounds for you to get some good placings and by the way your going your guna be right up there son

As always your very entertaining on and off the track and i really enjoyed the atmosphere in out garage over the weekend, keep chill mate i hope you get your bike sorted real soon.

[Biggles08]

Hey Marcus

Huge Respek
Its pretty hard for someone so competitive like you to make a safety call over going out there on a limb, my hats off to you making the right decision.
Still plenty more rounds for you to get some good placings and by the way your going your guna be right up there son

As always your very entertaining on and off the track and i really enjoyed the atmosphere in out garage over the weekend, keep chill mate i hope you get your bike sorted real soon.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....FUCKING.......Weeeee eeeeeeeeeeeee

You shouldn't be doing it if your not having fun!!!!

[kiwifruit]

Hope you get it sorted soon bro, still great results so far

[wharfy]

Hey Marcus

Huge Respek
Its pretty hard for someone so competitive like you to make a safety call over going out there on a limb, my hats off to you making the right decision.
Still plenty more rounds for you to get some good placings and by the way your going your guna be right up there son

As always your very entertaining on and off the track and i really enjoyed the atmosphere in out garage over the weekend, keep chill mate i hope you get your bike sorted real soon.

What he said.

Hope you get the gearbox sorted, see ya at round 3

[kittytamer]

Hey Marcus, Sh*t luck with the gearbox mate, hope it's not too major and is all good next time out. Good to hear you doing so well in spite of all this.