Pukekohe Testing/Track days

[racefactory]

Yesterday I had my first experience on the Pukekohe circuit and thought I'd do a little write up for those thinking about going along to these.

Open testing days as they called, are in a nutshell the most simple way to get yourself and bike onto the circuit. According to the current calendar they are held almost every week and cost only $90 for the entire day from 10.30am till 4.30pm. This usually equates to 5 20 minute sessions on the circuit which is a good amount of time and too much for some. Cars and bikes share the track taking turns in succession. There is an ambulance and medical staff on site and minimal rules.

I split my way through Auckland rush hour traffic on my new bike in the morning to get to the circuit and met up with kb members SPP and Ramyy at the circuit and sharing a pit amongst some sweet cars and race bikes. I actually had trouble finding the circuit gate as the sign posting is not very clear. There are no instructions on where or who to pay or anything so you have to find out yourself and ask around. I ended up disturbing some horses and their owners after asking where to get in. There is no eftpos there so you have to withdraw cash beforehand as I later found out. Go over to the white house down towards the turn 1 sweeper and see the old man and he'll sort you out.

The cars generally go on first and it's pretty intense hear and see them rip down the straight from the pits. All kinds- expensive porsches, fast FWD integras, semi slick race prepared subaru sti's, mazda MX5's and S15 silvia's to name a few!

After not long they start to come in and the race bikes charge on straight away screaming at insane speeds down the front straight while we are still kitting up and getting ready to go on. I follow SPP on his mint CBR600RR accelerating for the first time out of the pits to learn the circuit, at first it is quite daunting immediately doing 130 around the bumpy turn 1 but as long as I followed his lead I knew it'd be fine. Braking for the hairpin for the first time at 250 was just awesome and amazingly physical. Trying to keep your head looking straight against the massive wind resistance was far harder than I expected as I dumped out the clutch repeatedly to 2nd gear. Coming around back up to the mountain on SPP's tail I was already having so much fun. The suspension felt excellent and we hooned into turn 1 over the bumps for how many laps I can not remember. We were shoftly starting to lap at 1.15/1.14 and I was quickly finding myself braking past the 200m board closing up hard on the brakes. My camera fell off it's mount but luckily hung on until we got back to the pits. I can definitely say it was super helpful having someone to follow around.

The rest of the day was spent chatting with the other car and bike people, watching the cars hoon around and taking turns with them. I got 4 sessions in for the day and missed 1 due to having to go get more fuel. Time went very quickly!

Aside from thinking on how I can change my riding at different points of the circuit and learning which gear to use, some of the other highlights of the day for me were chasing a GSXR1000 race bike around trying to gain time on him on brakes. Getting a sweet slide out of the hairpin in 1st gear. Also, being 3 abreast with other bikes going into turn 1 and subsequently seeing a ZX6R race bike zoom up my inside, barrelling through!

At the end of the day with still much more immediate room for improvement I had got a timed 1.09 ( I know it's slow). Steadily building up getting faster and faster every time was good to see. I'd like to get this down to 1.05 next time.

This is a video of the second session before the camera was getting real dodgy hanging on. I quickly jimmied up a mount with a sponge on the steering damper to hopefully reduce vibration and cable tied the camera on to it. You wouldn't believe how dodgy this was. At this point still looking for another gear on the straight, unintentionally clutching on upshifts and using the wrong gear in turns lapping at 1.10 or so.



Was a fantastic experience for the first time on circuit and awesome to get used to the new bike. I split my way back through traffic to the North Shore very tired and with a filthy bike! Keen to get a 400 or something and do streetstock or F3, that would be insane fun.

[racefactory]

I would be interested to hear what times you racing guys have managed around pukekohe on different bikes

[CHOPPA]

I would be interested to hear what times you racing guys have managed around pukekohe on different bikes

57s for me. I think the lap record is 56 for a 1000 and 58 for 600

[CHOPPA]

1.09 is a very good start point!

[racefactory]

1.09 is a very good start point!

Thanks man.

Watching a lot of you on youtube man, totally insane.

What do you reckon can be realistically expected for a stock road bike 600 with mirrors, plate and all that stuff?

I'd very much like to get it down to a 1.05 next time I head there (can't wait eh).

[MaxCannon]

Regarding laptimes.

It's fun to get around the track quick - right up until you stack it.

I've crashed twice, once at Pukekohe and once at Hampton.
The first was due to exceeding my own limits (and doing something stupid), the second from exceeding the limits of the bike (or more accurately the road tyres).

I was very fortunate both times to come away with no injuries and only cosmetic damage to the bike.
Rode back to the pits both times.

There is a big difference between a race bike and a road bike and those seconds a lap are hard won. Comparing times between the two is somewhat pointless.

I'd target small improvements each time and if you want to get faster get the advice of some professionals.
Last ride day at Hampton Downs Lee from CSS gave me some pointers and I dropped a couple of seconds a lap while actually feeling like I was going slower than before.
Not pushing so hard mean I was riding safer but also quicker.

[racefactory]

Where did you crash at Puke and what were you doing? What tyres?

I'm on Pilot Powers with mirrors and stuff, I'm 75kg. I'm looking to go fast but I want to go very steadily and I believe I am capable of limiting myself.

Another question, I've got the stock screen which is very low but I'm getting over 270 indicated down the straight, is a double bubble likely to improve straight line drive at all? I believe I'm still in the wind stream tucking in.

Apart from slicks, I'm not sure if it makes much difference being on a racebike... what is there in it- 10kg in weight max? Mirrors, lights, tool kit, indicators... actually that's not even 10kg. Eeven if you have suspension, pukekohe doesn't offer much advantage does it?

[MaxCannon]

I crashed on the back straight.
Was feeling like a bit of hero tagging along behind a faster rider on a faster bike.
Tried to make a pass on a couple of slower riders and one started his braking much earlier than I anticipated while also moving a bit to the left (right where I intended to go).
I put the bike onto the grass doing around 250kph.
The grass was a bit wet so the brakes did next to nothing.
Didn't think it was safe to try and get back onto the track as there were so many bikes so i aimed for the sandtrap past the hairpin.
Probably went into somewhere between 120-150kph. Bike dug into the sand and sommersaulted. I landed next to it on my backside.

So really the short story was I was being a dick and riding beyond my limits in pursuit of faster laptimes.

The second crash was out of Turn 4 at Hampton Downs.
Too much throttle, too much lean. The M3 on the back let go and the bike and I slid down the road.
I'd been watching the superbikes and seeing how hard they were getting on the gas. Thought I'd try it myself.
I think heat may have been a contributing factor as earlier in the day I'd been putting just as much power down but the tyre was gripping better.
Late afternoon on a very hot day and I think I'd cooked the tyre.

My main point is this.
Have fun and be careful.

[FROSTY:Me]

depends on what you are riding.
At CLUB level doing 109's on a F3 bike is pretty reasonable but wont see you top ten finishing at nationals.
Club level 104's even 105's will see you mid pack or back of mid pack in F2 but nationals you need to be 102's
well actually I dont think they are a shit load quicker 104 is still ok but you need to be close to the minute mark for nats.

[NinjaBoy]

Apart from slicks, I'm not sure if it makes much difference being on a racebike... what is there in it- 10kg in weight max? Mirrors, lights, tool kit, indicators... actually that's not even 10kg. Eeven if you have suspension, pukekohe doesn't offer much advantage does it?

Most 600 riders use DOT rated tyres (treaded race tyres) although still stickier than road tyres. The more grip the earlier and harder you can get on the throttle. As someone on KB said an extra 1km/hr out of Castrol is worth 10km/hr at the end of the straight (or something similar)

Most of the weight savings is from the removing the standard exhaust esp. if they have a catalytic converter. This on the ZX is 5-6kg alone plus stock headers and all the other road gear. So 10KG+ is not unrealistic.

While Puke doesn't work the suspension as hard as other tracks there are still places it helps heaps... hard braking for the hairpin, over the hill and all those bumps through turn 1. Every little bit inspires confidence and the more confidence you have the harder you can push, as the most important component is still the rider and their capability.

[racefactory]

Most 600 riders use DOT rated tyres (treaded race tyres) although still stickier than road tyres. The more grip the earlier and harder you can get on the throttle. As someone on KB said an extra 1km/hr out of Castrol is worth 10km/hr at the end of the straight (or something similar)

That's interesting, I'm already nearly hitting the rev limiter down the straight with a 280kmh indicated on a 1.09 lap and I had poor speed entering the back straight. Do people go up from stock gearing at pukey?

[NinjaBoy]

That's interesting, I'm already nearly hitting the rev limiter down the straight with a 280kmh indicated on a 1.09 lap and I had poor speed entering the back straight. Do people go up from stock gearing at pukey?

Generally stock gearing is OK for Pukey otherwise you hit the limiter in top gear before the kink. Well looks like if you're maxed out on the back straight you'll need to find some more time in the other places.

[FROSTY:Me]

That's interesting, I'm already nearly hitting the rev limiter down the straight with a 280kmh indicated on a 1.09 lap and I had poor speed entering the back straight. Do people go up from stock gearing at pukey?

Pukie is a bugger of a place to gear for. You'd think you want to gear the bike so its at top speed end of the straight but that just doesn't work. If you gear that way you are set up wrong for the rest of the track.
Not that I'm an expert but I actually set my gearing so I was not accelerating any more when I got to the kink. It seemed to work for the rest of the track.
Remember you start accelerating for the start/finish straight at basicly the hairpin and castrol for the back straight.