Round 4
I was thinking a lot during the week about what we’d need to do to race in the snow... maybe screws in the tyres? Well luckily the weather turned itself around and wasn’t so bad. (No snow anyway.) It stayed nice and dry, with no wind, which was wicked for a winter series round even if it was slightly chilly, it wasn’t so bad.
Gareth couldn’t make it to the track this meeting which was a bit disappointing, but I had Patrick to sort me and the bike out which was awesome.
Qualify didn’t quite go how I was expecting at the beginning of the day. We were fourth up, so before our call we had the bike out and running to warm up. Just before I was due to get out onto the track a leak was spotted which we thought was oil. Patrick wiped it down and we decided that I would do a lap and come back in to see if there was anymore. There was so we decided to play it safe, placing me last on the grid for the three races to come.
Race one: The leak from the fuel tap was fixed and we thought we were ready to go just as hard as last meeting. I had a pretty good start from the back but was being left behind because the bike was coughing and losing power down the straights in random and different places each lap. So the only way I would get anywhere was to keep as much speed up in the corners as possible. I tried my best to work out a new braking technique, that Patrick had been trying to teach me, to keep my body weight off the bars and relax my arms while braking just as hard as normal, but I was struggling to grasp it, so I was just going to have to keep trying. I finished in 11th which was disappointing but we just had to keep trying.
Race two: Went quite a bit worse... Patrick had done his best to try and sort out the bike. Unfortunately it wasn’t sorted and had actually became worse, to the point where I didn’t feel comfortable completing the race, as the bike wanted to die in the corners, so I would have to slip the clutch to keep it running. I decided to pull into the slip road in lap four. I pushed the bike in from the middle of the track just in case it was something internal and shouldn’t be start. (Turns out it is quite a long and tiring walk with a bike...)
Race three: Again we thought we had sorted the bike and at some points in the race it was running fantastic, but others not so good. It was only really struggling down the straights, so that wasn’t as scary as the previous race. I did manage to work out Patricks braking method and it felt much faster, smoother and easier on my body getting around the turns. I finished in 9th place with my best lap of the day, 1.21.643 which was a second slower than last round.
Even though I didn’t have a super fantastic day racing, I did have lots of fun and I believe I learnt a lot once I nailed my braking and corning. So the weekend wasn’t a waste of time, and hopefully next round will go a lot better.
Thanks Patrick for your help on the bike and my training, you did an awesome job even if we didn’t nail the problem. Let’s just hope round 5 goes better.
Thanks Gareth for having the bike ready to go for the weekend even though you couldn’t make it. Hopefully the whole team can make it next round!
Also a huge Thanks to everyone else who has helped me out, Pacific motorcycle club, Bay Motorcycles, Burrell Signs, Bay Cad services, Saeco Precision and Mum and Dad!
Tyler Firn #94, Doohan Racing NSR250
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks