Friday 26th February
After spending Friday test day getting to grips with the Hyosung GT250R, I was set for the weekend. I still had a lot of room to improve but I could feel the bike had some serious potential. The physical size of the bike was a big change from the Rg150 but I must say that the handling and torque through the corners was amazing. Thanks Fergus for getting your hands dirty while changing the sprocket only to find it didn’t improve the performance of the bike, but it was worth the try. Also the support, tips and pep talks pushed me a little more each session throughout the day and kept my confidence up.
Saturday 27th February
Practice/Qualify
The day started with a practice first where I did a lap time of 1.31 nearing the end of the session. I had Malcolm Nabbs on his Rg150 pushing me from behind harder every lap. I was getting into the rhythm of maneuvering my way through splash until the side stand bracket caught the track, giving me quite a fright to be honest. I stood up on the pegs and ran wide onto the grass. I stopped, took a breather and went right back to correct my mistake. Qualifying went along the same lines. I was basically on my own leaving me with as much room as needed through the corners. All of my lap times were very consistent, slowly but steadily working my way from 1.33’s to 1.31’s.
Race 1
My first race was at the end of the day on Saturday. I didn’t get off to a very good start because I hadn’t practiced ‘a start’ at all on the new bike. I anticipated the lights flicking over to early from red, which gave me a jittery start. I made my way through Toyota, the first corner then splash relatively smooth and gained 2 places. I was able to hold Daniel Mettam on his KR150 through out the corners but once we hit the straights he flew past. Once Daniel was out of the way, I made my way closer and closer to Ben Oxyam on the Ninja 250r but as we only had a 5 lap race I didn’t catch him. I finished the race 3rd in my class, knocking another second off my best lap time.
Sunday 28th February
Race 2
My second race started at 2 o’clock on Sunday. I had a pretty good start but ended up being wedged between Daniel Mettam and Malcolm Nabbs. I had two choices; I could either drop back and work my way around or hang in there and push my way through. I chose to hang in there, which worked out relatively well where I picked out 9th place and stuck right on Ben’s tail. I pushed the Hyosung through the corners where I was able to gain on Ben but pushed a little too much into the center hair pin which had me hard on the brakes losing time on him. I rushed my way back up to Ben but was unable to pass him. I picked up another place somewhere along the line, finishing 4th in my class. I had consistent 1.29’s and even hit the 1.28’s at one point. My personal best lap time.
The last race was unfortunately cancelled due to an accident in the 600 production sport class. Heal fast Jamie. I was quite disappointed but I had a great weekend and I am very, very thankful for the opportunity to ride for Hyosung NZ on there GT250R and would happily recommend the bike to anyone wanting to either start racing or move up from F4 or 150 street stock.
Thanks, Tyler Firn
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