Test day on the Friday dawned pretty shitty, but I got to the track early nonetheless... I was sharing with a certain Mr Harris you see... didn't want to be late and have the Gremlin getting on my back.
As is turned out, it was a very quiet morning sitting there with the www.tyrewarmers.co.nz on and waiting for the track to dry suitably for me to go out with my Conti Race Attacks on. And besides, Shaun didn't arrive till almost midday.
I'd had asked Shaun during the week about making a subtle change to one of the settings on the bike. He arrives and tells me to pop the tank up so he can have a look at something. In fiddling around and take the front tank bolt off, my knuckle touched the top head-stem bolt and it fell off... I shit you not! It fell off and I just stood there looking at Shaun with my eyes widening, and he started shaking his head in shame. It must have come loose at Round 5, and my relaxed check on all the nuts and bolts on the bike in the week prior to this had not picked up on this. So anyway, possible nightmare/disaster averted, we made the change we wanted, set the bike back up and I went out to test.
I probably managed four test sessions all afternoon, and was feeling pretty comfortable by the end of the day, hoping that I might have dropped a couple of seconds off my 1.26.531 PB. But only the transpondered qualifying session and races the next day could prove that.
Saturday dawned quite nicely and I again got there early to welcome KS34 to the garage. I had the key to his bike to, so he was going nowhere without me.
Qualifying came around early enough. But there was a bike in our session dropping oil all over the track. Don't know what their number was, but there was smoke coming out of the bike for the whole session, and no-one black flagged them to get off the track. It wasn't until the session ended that they stopped him/her in the pit lane and oil spewed out everywhere. Regardless, I felt that based on my previous afternoon spent trying different things, and being comfortable on the bike, that I might have dropped some time and qualified well. Imagine my disappointment to find I had only done a best of 1.30.571 and qualified 18th out of 19... four spots further back from my qualifying effort at Round 5.
A review of the laptimes in this session lead me to think something was wrong with the timing system... Dave Walker qualified on pole with a 1.18.259, but he did a 1.17.032 on lap 6. Travis Merkel qualified 2nd with a 1.18.346, but he did a 1.17.316 on lap 6. And there are other interesting times from that session that do not translate to the grid. But anyway, there we are.
Race 1 came around, and I get my legendary poor start, and was last into turn one. To be fair, there was only one person behind me on the grid, but my start didn't do me any favours. I managed to round up a couple of guys on the first lap, and set about chasing down Phil Chandler on his FZR600. We were quite tight for 3 or 4 laps, and I had just pulled up alongside him coming down the backstraight and diving in to Dunlop when the red flag came out.
Judging by the marks on the track, Corey Mudge had highsided his way to the gravel (it's not really gravel, is it?) trap, and suffered a serious leg injury. Hope you heal up well Corey!
We sat around in the pit-lane for what seemed like an eternity (28 mins between the start of leg 1 and leg 2), and just when I thought they'd declare the race and tell us to go back to the pits, they sent us out for a four lapper on cold'ish tyres.
So we gridded up again. I bogged the start again, but I think I may have taken a couple of guys on the run to turn one. I spent the first two laps trying to pull Phil back again, but to no avail. I was aware of the Ducati of Malcom Foster behind be, and was trying to ride defensibly into the corners in the hope he wouldn't poke it up the inside. But my own concentration let me down in the end, as I duffed my gearing in the infield, piled up to the hairpin and banged it down a gear (just like every other lap) only to find I had now selected 1st! The damn thing pretty much stood up on it's nose, and while I was mentally telling myself not to wind on the gas like I had been previously through there, Malcolm was gone. I tried everything to stay with Malcolm with the intent of pipping him on the line, but he got far better drive than me out of Dunlop and beat me by an easy margin.
Turned out I was 17th in the first leg with a 27.515, and 16th in the second leg with a 27.167. Still almost half a second off that PB, and kinda proof that fo a slow coach like me you need to be racing with someone to get those times down.
Race 2 came with the rain. I went out on the warm-up lap, and was cruising around reasonably comfortably until I came out of Higgins, wound on the gas and the revs hit the redline and the bike was going nowhere. I figured that with Race Attacks on, and the weather looking like it was only going to get worse, I would just pull in the the pits at the end of the warm-up lap and leave it to those either braver than me or with more money for wet race tyres. As it happened, I think the race was cancelled after about 3 laps with only half of the field left out there.
So all in all, a disappointing meeting in that I didn't get to better my times. But I'm still committed to giving the Clubmans class a go for the full season next year, and we'll see where we go from there. For me it's not about winning, as I know I'm unlikely to ever be at the front of the Clubbies class, let alone SS! Next year will be all about achieving PB's and milestones that I have set for myself along the way.
I've really enjoyed being around the club for the entire season, and racing in the last two rounds. VMCC, thank you for a great spectacle. You all do a great job. The marshalls, we couldn't do it without you!
And to everyone else that has supported UnRulious Racing in one way or another this year... THANK YOU!
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Originally Posted by Marknz
Shame I missed this round, I was super-keen to get back out there. Instead, I had to stare at this all weekend.... 
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