So finally, after coming back from the Aussie bucket racing scene in early 2004, talking about maybe this and maybe that for a few years, dealing with the Owen Brunton tragedy in July 2005, and then my own little health episode in August 2008, I finally got to attend a VMCC race meeting as a bonafide entrant rather than spectator. My mate Grant and I had attended each and every round this season, just to see what was going on and how the various people prepared with garage gear and all that. So by the time test day came around on Friday, we thought we were pretty much good to go.
Manfield Test Day
So I turn up early at the track ‘cause my sister and family live only about 10mins away from Fielding. It’s still pretty damp, and a cautionary look from trackside shows a whole gang of Higgins workers cleaning up around ‘Splash’. Doesn’t look too bad I reckon, and I decide to go for a ride on the mountainbike round the circuit and see what it’s really like. A ride through Splash shows that they’ve inserted new ‘whatever-it-is-you-call-its-cause-I’ve-just-forgotten-the-name’ on the right-hander into splash, splash itself, and on the exit on the other side of the track. That’s good to know. I then get through the hairpin and am confronted by a mass of water. I ride through that and while it is expansive, it’s not actually that deep, so I figured it wouldn’t take too long to clear that up. Up through Higgins and the down the back straight, and it looks pretty much the same heading towards Dunlop. Not quite as expansive, but relatively shallow all the same. I get back to the pits, unload the van, wait for Grant to arrive. We check on a few nuts and bolts just to make sure I had put the bike back together again properly, and then buggar off in the Fielding for coffee, morning tea, rags and tools that might come in handy. We come back at midday to the advice that the track is open and it’s half price for the afternoon… Bonus!
So I’m gridded up for the -600 practise and realise just as we’re about to be let out on track to scrub in my brand new Continental Race Attacks, and bed in some brand new EBC sintered race pads, that I haven’t yet dropped the pressures on the tyres down to the recommended settings! Too bad, I’m here now. Out I go and the tyres feel like bloody rocks! Honest, I felt like Fred Flinstone out there trying to stop that thing and get it turned through corners. So I came in after a couple or three laps, dropped the settings to what they should have been and then thought nothing of heading back out straight away in the 600+ group. Well wholly-snapping-duck-shit that was a mistake! Those guys and girls are way too quick and good for me, and I had the crap scared out of me more than a couple times so came back in the pits after a couple of laps and figured I was lucky to just be running in Clubbies for the weekend.
I did one more session with the -600’s later in the afternoon, and that was it for my day. Being a not particularly fit and lithesome chap, I decided that the two days of racing with more laps than usual would probably be enough to tucker me out.
Day One - Qualifying
I only got in half a dozen laps of qualifying, with a best of 1.30.157 which put me 14th on the grid. All I wanted to do was qualify so that if there were dry races on the weekend, then I could compete. Wet races would have seen me happily watching from the sidelines.
Race One.
Now the bullshit stops. On the grid and I’m wondering how the hell I’m even going to see turn one from there on the inside of the grid. Anyways, we seem to all get a relatively clean start. I had the front wheel in the air for what seemed like 70-80 metres, but it was likely only about 5 metres. I didn’t make any ground on anyone heading down to one, and got mobbed by most likely everyone in the field as I braked way too early. It was a pretty lonely race to be honest, and I don’t remember a helluva lot other than passing the dude on the Bonnie and trying to keep him at bay for the rest of what was a very tiring first race back of 11 laps. In all honesty, I was just bloody happy to finish with no scratches on the bike, no bumps and bruises for me, and the congratulations of my family and friends when I got back to the garage. Laptimes are mostly in the 29’s & 30’s, but I find a PB of 1.28.211 hiding away on lap 6, and 5th place in the class.
Day Two - Race Two
I have another cautionary start with far too early braking for turn one, and that shows with a standing lap of 1.37.372 which is a couple of secs slower than the starting lap the day before. But I settle in to a smoothish race pattern again, dealt with the Bonnie a little earlier this time, and had a race long battle with a 125GP bike that it seemed I leapt away from on the straights (as you would expect), but almost every lap he was right up my clacker coming out of the hairpin. Really struggled with arm-pump on the last 4-5 laps, and couldn’t believe it everytime I came on to the straight and didn’t see a white flag. The more tired I got, the smoother and more ‘chilled-out’ I tried to ride, not trying the demon late-braking and all that. Was very pleasantly surprised to find a PB of 1.26.531 on lap 11, despite placing 8th in the class.
Race Three
Spoke quickly to Shaun Harris on the dummy grid about the laptimes dropping in the last race when I was most knackered… he smiled that “I’ve got new teeth’ smile of his, and asked me if I’d figured it out yet. Being the smug bar-steward that I thought I was at the time, I figured ‘that’s it, I’m gonna give it heaps this time’.
Got on the grid and jumped the start by so much that I had to have been the one responsible for the red flag, either me or the dude on the Bonnie who may even have gotten in to turn one before anyone else.
On the grid for the restart and I got away really well. Possibly made up a couple of rows as there may have only been 6-8 bikes infront of me coming out of turn one. Figuring there were more bikes behind me than in front for a change, I settled back in to laps of frantic late-braking rather than smooth cornering. The lap-times suffered with a best of only 1.28.305, and a placing of 6th in class. I tried like hell to catch on to Luke #124 when he passed me coming out of one with I think a lap to go, but he was way too good for me. Big ups to Luke for his efforts in his first race meeting… that lad could have a future in this game.
So all in all, a number of things achieved…
- Got back in to racing after all those years off
- Got back in to racing after emergency brain-surgery
- Completed the meeting and wasn’t ( I hope?) a hindrance to the other racers
- Set a PB of 1.26.531 and now have something to aim for at Round 6 and beyond.
- Loved every minute of it and am very, very pleased to be back doing it.
I just want to acknowledge the support of some people who have helped me immensely, especially in the last year. My lovely wife Janice ( If it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t be here today), Grant my pit-man, Jimbo600, Deano, Jimmy the White-Trash, Sketchy Racer and Choppa. I want to thank Shaun Harris for his encouragement, advice and technical assistance, Robert Taylor and CKT for the rushed ‘level 1’ work on the forks for me, Sparky Bills at Motomart for his assistance and support, Crasherfromwayback at WMC for the outstanding little Suzuki GSX-R600, and Johan Bruns from WMC for helping me with the initial setting up work.
I also want to acknowledge all of the VMCC, and all the volunteers and track marshalls that help make our meetings run as well as they do. With out you guys n girls, we’d all just be sitting here bleating away on KB telling people how good we think we are.
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Originally Posted by White trash
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