Woohoo what a day, highs and lows……Due to Bren having commitments outside of the team I got a earlier than expected call up. One that wasn’t going to be turned down, after riding my bike for the past four seasons it will take some time to adapt to the new bike so I thought id take the opportunity.
Shot round to Bren’s on Friday night to find he was too hard on the Factory team FXR in testing at Ruapuna earlier that day and a new throttle cable had to be made so no big deal, bikes loaded and set off for Timaru with a stop in Vagas for Tai tea. No 5am starts for Factory team riders!
Got up on Sat morning knowing I had at least 1-2 more hours sleep mwhahahaha. The day was crisp and clear! Headed out to the track and pitted up did the mandatory tires and fluids.
Practice: the TZR frame feels strange and huge compared to my bike. But that power oh that power….”this is going to be a good day!!!!!” Camo Jones passed me and usually I’d see him riding off into the distance but other than slightly better straight line speed I was keeping pace with a former 125 gp champ, nice!
Race 1: got a blinder of a start and led the buckets into the sweeper onto the back straight but soon had Camo and James on the CBR blow by down the straight dam that 30 kg weight disadvantage. They pulled away and soon I had DeeCee to contend with he had changed his jetting after practice and his MB was back on song, his power out of corners was massive and I can see how he does so well at the street circuits. On the second to last lap he passed me down the back straight and I pulled in for the slip stream, tipping into the left hander off the straight deecee rolled off the throttle and already on the outside of his rear wheel I dropped to 5th and kept it pinned I had a moment on the exit ripple strip but not as bad as DeeCee he had his front end pattering and touched my rear wheel with his front. I checked the gap on the front straight and I had a slight gap but it wouldn’t be big enough, DeeCee passed me on the back straight again so I pulled into the slip stream again and prepared to do the same if he rolled off again but he protect his line well and I had to roll off the throttle too much, with his exit punch pulled a slight gap and pushing as hard as I could had to settle with 4th.
Race 2: Another good start but soon had Camo, James and K14 pass me on the back straight, no way was K14 going to stay in front on a million year old steam powered twin so passed him back using slipstreaming tactics, there was no way I was going to catch the two skinny arses out front so put my head down with the current 125 gp champ on bearing down on me. I seemed to have advantages where it mattered, Al managed to close the gap and without me knowing and I pushed wide to tip into the hairpin and found Al there who was setting up the big pass. We hit each other but stayed upright this gave me some breathing room and let Deecee past Al, I crossed the line in 3rd…..woohoo!!
Race 3: during the day I had small issues with the clutch cable in the perch and rode the warm up lap and gridded up on the front row with the intention of gunning for another 3rd.
On the line I only had ˝ clutch and was dragging badly the engine stalled and I flicked the cable back in place, the cable kept playing up and with extra compression I had issues starting the bike. I pulled to the side of the track as the street stock bikes had already gone and watched the bucket start. I flicked the cable back into place and gathered my composure started the bike and set off in chase to see what I could achieve with a bit of red mist. I was having a blast chasing down the field and was making good inroads but a couple of street stockers crashing red flagged the race ruined my fun.
The factory has some more engine and bike changes to make to improve the bike so I can compete with the young fullas up front.
I had a blast swinging for Dave on the LCR and glad the quality of the field meant that we were only at 50ish%, but are still feeling the effects after two races and a practice. I hope you enjoyed it Olly and it is some thing ya can now cross off ya bucket list!
Thanks to the YL team and Bren for giving me the opportunity to ride the bike, I’m not sure I’ll be wanting to go back to mine at the end of the season…….Hmmmmmm I wonder……………………………………………..
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