Race Report Round 4 VMCC Winter Series - Clubmans Class, Bike 2008 ZX6R
My weekend for round 4 began with a VMCC trackday on the Saturday where my aim was to drop my braking markers as far as possible.
Fortunately the weather was great so it was just down to my riding which would hinder me. I went out in the Medium class for most of the day and found the usual problem of too many bikes on track. Halfway through the second session I lost the bolt/thread from my gear lever mount on my rearsets which almost meant a trip back to Wellington!
The last session of the day I went out in the fast group with Aaron, Chappy and Steve Repko which helped my riding heaps and has got me sold on going in the fast group from now on.
The biggest change for this round was the entry list – 18 bikes instead of the the usual 13-15.
Practice/Qualifying -
I’ve been doing very slow times with comparison to my race times in the previous rounds during qualifying so I made an effort to go faster than usual and actually lay some good laps down. After two laps to warm the tyres and myself I got my head down for a pair of flying laps.
Best time 1:28 - Position 12th/18 entries.
Race One -
Due to my qualifying I had been put on the grid right on the outside of row 3, generally my favourite starting position. However on the lights this time I got held up and pushed towards the wall by a ZXR750 which put me back to 17th by the end of the first lap. I managed to catch one of the Suzuki SV’s by lap three and hold him off to the line. Since last round I’d dropped the forks through the clamps 10mm so they wre flush with the top triple clamp, to cure the bike feeling “twitchy” on turn in (something I put down to too much rebound in hindsight) – this had the effect of making the bike run horribly wide out of corners to the point I was having to roll off the gas to get the bike turned, especially at the hairpin and Higgins. Finished in 16th place, my worst finish this year where I have been inside the top 10 all season.
Best Lap - 1:27
Race Two -
After lunch I’d had a bit of time to consider my start – so I’d planned to go up the middle instead of around the bogging ZXR. On the grid I dialled in 9000rpm and got an excellent start from 12th on the grid to 4th by turn one. Got swamped partially due to my still understeering bike and cold tyres, ending up in 10th by turn one. Had a bit of a dice with Malcolm Foster whos 749 now has a 999 engine, until he well out powered me on the exit of Higgins. Lost a couple of places at the hairpin in the next few laps and ended up a lowly 15th over the line. The bonus of this race is that I had started to gain some more confidence on the brakes and could at least match people’s corner speed when they try to outbrake me.
Best Lap 1:26
Race Three -
I was determined to get another good start and actually hold my ground in this race – after lunch Alex and I dropped the nose of the bike by 5mm to help cure the understeering problem.
Got a good start and was holding probably 10th by the second lap when I got into the hairpin there was a rider in the middle of the track and another one up the bank along with two 675’s on their side.
I backed off and raised my hand as the red flags came out – the guy on the track seemed to be unconscious, so the Ambo was brought out.
After a wait in the dummy grid I returned to the pits and a restart was called. I’d got a bit of water down me and noticed the bike was handling better again, so I was pretty sorted for the race. Lap one, another good start, but beaten through turn 2 by a couple of guys. I was outbraked by one of the other 675’s into Higgins, but repassed the rider into Dunlop and held them off into turn two just in time to see a gsxr600 bounce through the mud into the tyre wall. I got a slow line through the hairpin (still my least favourite corner) and the Daytona managed to sneak by until Higgins where I had gained the upper hand on the brakes. I held the 675 off until the tried to go around the outside into Dunlop, but I kept my line and got off the brakes earlier to repass them before the turn in point, narrowly avoiding another crashed Suzuki on the exit of turn one, this time an SV1000. The pace calmed down a little from there I think everyone was getting a bit nervous after 4 crashes in one race/restart.
Finally an ok finish, crossing the line in 8th
Best Lap 1:28
After a quick walk around of my bike I’ve noticed the rear tyre in stuffed with the familiar manfield heavily worn right side. So the plan before next round is – get my suspension sorted out at both ends, fit the Supercorsa’s I bought a couple of months ago, and ride faster!
Thanks from this round to Team Airforce Racing – it was great to be pitted in with you, Alex Butson for the hand on the pits and Steve Repko for some riding advice, and Stimpy for some cool pics. Also thanks to the other Racers for some great races to watch! Cool to see Jaden beating almost all of the 1000's on his R6 and to see Avalon out on a 600.
Hopefully Evan who binned his daytona is getting better, if anyone's heard from him i wouldn't mind a PM.
http://stimpy.smugmug.com/Motorsport...W105606-XL.jpg
Cheers!
Josh Walby
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Originally Posted by crazy man
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