Well I was stoked with the first round as I managed a pb of 1:23 not once but three times and, a 3rd and 4th in class for the day
I couldn't do the practise day due to working and come Sunday I arrived at the track, signed in and scrutinered and got out first up for Post Classics qualifying. It was great finally having a dry track and the qualifying seemed quite relaxed and I managed a 1:25 which was my previous pb. This put me in 10th position and that was fine by me.
It was great to see a couple of other older Gixxers out there, especially bike No 88 which looked pretty immaculate.
R1. Despite some shower activity in the distance, the track stayed dry and I got off to a pretty awful start really. But I managed to gain some ground, get past a few folk and the bike felt good. Amazing what a difference a dry track does for ones confidence when running street tyres. These Pilot Road 2's have certainly seen me right so far and today was no different. No sign of slippage except once coming out of Higgins on the first and coldest lap. I'd given the bike an oil change the week before and that seemed to have kept her happy
Had a great battle with Natasha Hollows who got me in a great move on the inside of the hairpin before I finally manged to get past again out of Toyota a couple of laps later thanks to a slight edge in horsepower.
By the time the white flag came out the shower had just started to make it's appearance and everyone slowed down fractionally. I wouldn't call it wet, but there was just enough moisture around so as to be able to see the lead bikes tyre tracks. So with just a bit of caution applied out of Dunlop it was past the chequered flag and I was totally rapt to see 9th overall, 4th in class and 3 laps at 1:23, a whole 2 secs faster than my previous pb
R2. Got a better start this time and again managed to find some free track space. Got past about three bikes during the race but I was was on my own for most of it. I think I was slowly closing on the leaders in the distance but this may have been delusional thinking lol. I did manage however to lap a couple of bikes during the last lap which was a first.
Finished 8th overall with a 3rd in class - stoked, and it all felt relaxed with no major moments.
So, so far so good and I'm loving this exploration of an classic elderly racing machine who just seems to be getting better and better
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