Nicki’s VMCC round 5, 24th September 2011
After the excitement and success of round 4, we set about a few changes to the ER6 before round 5. BumbleBee took a trip to CKT and I was lucky enough to have Robert Taylor work his magic on my rear suspension. I am now the proud owner of an Ohlins shock and wow what a difference it has made to the handling! I took Friday off to test with the new set up and I instantly noticed a difference; stable under braking and so settled in the corners.
Qualifying: 4 laps
F1 heads out and I’m up next. I turn the ER6 on to warm it up for the day. I grab my back protector to get suited up and notice smoke coming out of the engine! Smelling oil I quickly turn it off and the boys in the shed come over quickly. I see a trail of oil down the engine and we start tracing where it has come from. The call for our practice is made and I tell the boys to get ready. Frenchy arrives and we start pulling the tank off. Long story short, we find oil in the airbox, but it is an easy fix. I miss practice but the bike is back together and I can race, thank you Frenchy for working your magic.
Race 1: 6 laps
Starting at the back of the grid, I knew I had a lot of places to make up. Its spitting as we round the warm up lap and we’re all on dry tyres. Lights go out and I nail my start. I make my way to the inside of Turn 1, round the corner and I see Tom loose the rear, it spits him up and he tumbles off the side and his bike kept going straight through Turn 2! Amazingly everyone misses Tom and his bike. I settle into chasing down the pack in front of me as it had Jon Medlin who is 2nd in the championship. I start reeling the pack in, lap 3 and I’m rounding the hairpin, all of a sudden I hear a scraping noise and I look down to my right; I see a bike spinning out and I don’t know how it missed me. I compose myself and accelerate away but the pack has gapped it on me. I cross the line in 4th, 5 seconds behind the pack. Best lap was a 1:21.6 and it starts raining.
Race 2: 6 laps
After an early lunch due to the rain, we had all changed to wets as the puddles were huge and track sodden. 2 races before mine the rain stops. We roll out on to the track with wets on, we round Turn 1 and I realise the track is dry. There is only a few puddles to cool our wets with. Lights go out, my start isn’t the best but I pick off a few rows. Tom is in a battle in front of me with a F3 bike. I set to chasing them down but the wets are sliding in the dry. There is a big puddle down the back straight and I start riding off the race line to the other puddles to preserve my tyres. I’m getting used to the bike sliding in the corners now but I’m cautious under braking, as I don’t want to loose the front. I catch Tom and the F3 bike on the white flag, he looks back and sees me and pushes hard through the infield. I chase hard but we catch a bunch of bikes at Higgins. Down the back straight and another F3 bike pushes between Tom and I round Dunlop, I’m a bit behind coming out. I’m pushing hard to the line and the red flag is out? No chequered! The race is stopped and they take the placing back to lap 5. This puts me in 4th, 0.5 of a second behind Tom.
Race 3: 6 laps
The sun is out and we’re back on dry tyres. Last race and I get a good start, I set to chasing the pack down again as they are in sight, but I have a F3 bike in front of me. He is slow in the corners but out brakes me. I pass him and he passes me back under braking. We battle for 3 laps, on the 4th he out brakes me into Turn 1 but runs deep, I duck back up the inside and gap it through Turn 2 and splash and set on making the pass stick. He doesn’t come back at me and the pack is almost at Higgins as I come out of the hairpin. I have my work cut out to catch them but I run out of laps. I cross in 5th, 3 seconds behind the Pro twin in 4th. I finish with a 1:21.5 fastest lap.
It turns out that consistency was the key on the mixed weather of a day, 2 different riders didn’t finish 1 race each, so the results had me placed in 3rd overall for the day.
It was a pleasure to have Dave and Donna from Kiwibike Insurance at the track for the race day again; Thank you very much for your support. Big thank you to the Vic Club and their volunteers for another awesome day at the track. Thank you Frenchy for all your help again as the best pit crew a racer could have. My racing is also made possible by the help and support of Pirelli Tyres, EBC brakes, New Plymouth Motorcycles, Future Grafix, Autolink and Andy at Bikesportnz.com – Thank you all very much.
With the last round to go at Taupo, I’m very excited. It’s been 3 years since I’ve raced there so It’s a bit of a home coming and on the ER6 its going to be a new challenge. See you all there!
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good results and good write up !
Originally Posted by Nicksta
Frenchy thinks you look a bit like Vin Diesel.. you might be in with a grin!
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