Another cold weekend. I didnt get up to the Friday testday, but from what I heard it was a cold and wet day anyway.
I had had the fairings painted up on the Thursday and Friday so the bike was looking awesome. We didnt have enough time to get the decals done before the weekend, but its a start. And looks HEAPS better than the matt black it was for round 2.
F1 Qualifying:
First time out for the day. The track was cold and had small streams running across the track on several corners. So I just took it easy for a few laps to get the feel for everything, then slowly sped up to set a half decent time.
The track felt cold and slippery, so I wasnt too happy but knew it would dry out as the day went on. I ended up doing a 1.22. Which I wasnt surprised about as the track conditions were not the best.
F2 Qualifying:
The track was heaps dryer now but still cold. I spent a few laps warming everything up and checking out the parts of the track I needed to take care on. Once I felt happy with everything I put my head down to set some good lap times. I felt pretty good and knew I could push it a lot harder but I still wasnt totally happy with the lack of grip so made sure I kept the bike rubber side down.
Turns out the lap times were lower than I thought. I had got down to a 1.17 which is one second off my personal best lap time. I was very surprised to see this as I really wasn't pushing that hard at all.
F1 Race 1:
I was fairly down the field, but I wasnt too worried. I got off the line well and positioned myself on the outside for turn 1. The rest of the race I spent dicing with a few other riders. The bike was handling well but I could feel my brakes starting to get spongey. Then I looked down to see that I was about to run out of petrol! As this wasnt my main class I decided to pull in instead of getting stuck out on the track. As I was riding down the pit lane I saw they were waving the white flag. Bugger!
Once the times came out after the race I was very surprised to see that I had set a personal best lap time of 1.15. AWESOME! I wasnt even pushing myself yet. And the track was still wet in places. So was looking forward to getting out there again.
F2 Race 1:
Time to start pushing it. I got off the line good again and positioned myself on the outside in turn 1 again. I had told myself that I needed to be more aggressive on my starts, so really focussed on getting into turn 1 and not lose any places. This worked. I even made up a few places as I got around the outside of a few bikes all battling for the inside line. As the race went on I found myself battling for a top 10 position with the usual suspects. I was pushing it hard on the entry to corners as I was down on horse power compared to the other 600 machines. As we battled for position I found that I could carry a lot more speed into the corners than the other bikes in the group. So I took advantage of this and got passed a couple bikes. By the time I got some clear track infront of me I put my head down for the last lap to catch up with Lee and Bruce who were in a race of their own. I managed to get right up behind them but just didnt have the power to out drag them to the finish line. I ended up in 13th place. But was still stoked as I had battled hard for that 13th place and with a bit more time on the bike knew I could get further up the field.
Once the lap times came out I was stoked to see I had dropped my lap times by another 1 second! My new personal best lap time is now 1.14. WICKED!
I sat the 2nd F1 race out as I didnt want to tear my tyre up too much.
F2 Race 2:
I knew this race was going to be another tough battle. I got off the line well again and pushed hard into turn 1 again. We settled into the race in much the same style as race 1 with me chasing Lee and Bruce again. Then disaster for Bruce. He lost the front while entering the left hander in the Esses. That slowed me up for a bit until I got my head back into the race. I spent the rest of the race chasing Lee down. The final lap came faster than I expected, so I had to really push hard to catch Lee. All day I had been making up a lot of time through the Castrol Esses, so pushed it hard to get right up behind Lee by the hairpin. I thought not to pass him yet and to wait for the final turn and try get him at the line, as he brakes really late and didnt want him to do that to me again. So I sat behind him for the next few corners and tried the outside/inside pass on the exit of the Dunlop sweeper. I got really good drive out of sweeper and got up the side of Lee coming to the finish line. But the bike slipped out of gear just before the line so I didnt manage to get passed before the line. I wasnt too gutted about it as I had a huge amount of fun throughout the whole day and kept the bike upright.
So finished the day on a high. Beat my last personal best lap time by 2 seconds. And stayed upright. All up an extremely good day at the track once again.
Id like to thank a few people...
Pat, Carol and the team at Motomart, Pirelli, Motul, Alpinestars, Capital Chem Dry and Robert Taylor at Crown Kiwi Technical.
Without these people and products I wouldnt be where I am now.
Thanks everyone very much.
Martin Billing #55 CBR600RR
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. Gonna do the Manfield Nationals round?
Originally Posted by Drew
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