It was a very interesting weekend for us in Fielding with mixed results for both the guys I help in the F1 superbike class.
After a good result (5th overall) in the first round, Anthony on bike 71 (green ZX9R) was looking forward to some good racing. We had a weird problem with the rear brakes locking up which was eventually traced to corrosion on the brake pedal pivot after being left out in the rain the night before . A few drops of 3-in-1 oil fixed that but we missed out on the first practice session, eventually qualifying 6th.
Sean on the silver R1 qualified 3rd.
In the first race, on the first lap, Anthony had a huge tankslapper coming out of Higgins onto the back straight which ripped the steering damper mounting right out of the frame.At one stage, he gave serious thought to jumping off the bike! He managed to recover but there were some interesting black rubber marks on the track down the back straight (and maybe some down his undies as well
). One of the guys behind thought that the rodeo had come to town and he kept a healthy distance back. Anyway, he finished 10th (i think) with the steering dampner flapping in the breeze.
I think Sean got a 5th.
The heavens opened up for the second race and it was a frantic change to full wets and both Sean and Anthony rode a cautious ride to finish 9th and 11th respectively.
Anthony disappeared for a while to get his head back in order, still uncertain as to the cause of the tank slapper and it started to dry out. We changed Seans tyres back to slicks but because anthony was still on his walkabout, we couldn't change his tyres until we figured out what he wanted to do. I took a punt and changed his rear anyway but we ran out of time to do the front.
It wasn't too bad a race, Sean got 4th and Anthony finished a respectable 7th with a completely shagged front wet. (I'll try and post a picture later.) So much for, "I'll just take it easy and see if the tank slapper comes back" - it's hard to keep a good racer down!
We think we figured out what caused the tank slapper - we're pretty sure it was related to running a 190 tyre (we're used to 180s) and the profile is very different.
Anyway, we're looking forward to the next round. Meantime, I've got some jetting changes to do on the 9 and will do the usual prep work checking out all the bits that get loose etc.
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Yep that front sure is shagged lol...
Originally Posted by dickytoo
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