Race Report Round 6 VMCC Winter Series - Clubman’s Class, Bike 2008 ZX6R
My weekend began at Taupo on Friday at the MotoTT track day. First session I just rode around, and used my HD camera to capture my riding style. In session two I tried to concentrate on hanging off the bike with my top half more, and keeping my spine in line instead of only hanging off with my bottom half. Got a bit of riding advice from the Merkels, and Philip, which seemed to make the bike easier to turn, and hold a line.
Practice/Qualifying -
Managed to be the first one out onto the track in the morning, and tried to lay down some fast smooth laps straight out of the box. I had a clear track in front of me for 3 of the 4 flying laps, which helped my concentration and pace. Felt very happy with the bike, and dropped my braking markers to somewhere more reasonable too. The track was nice and dry at the moment, but the clouds were closing in.
Best Lap 1:53 - Position 8th
Race One -
Between Clubman’s qualifying and race one the clouds had begun to move closer, but the track was still nice and dry. Luckily qualifying 8th meant I was on the outside of the second row, which was a good position for the outside line into turn one. Got a reasonable start, and was sitting 7th by turn 3. I ended up running by myself in 7th, slowly catching Malcolm B, Moose and Ant having a bit of a battle in front of me. On the last lap I was right with them coming out of the hairpin and through the right hander I got the outside line to show Malcolm a wheel turning onto the old circuit. He stayed ahead until the end of the straight where I got a good draft from him and managed a banzai out braking manoeuvre to hold the 750 SRAD off to the line to take 6th. This was also a new PB lap time for Taupo, 8 seconds faster than my best lap on my ZXR400.
Best Lap 1:49
Race Two -
A common theme had transferred over from round 5 VMCC, as between races it had begun to rain and soaked the track. I was stoked to see the change in the weather, as I was confident I could get at least 5th in the wet without too much trouble. Got a good start, up to 5th by turn 2, and settled into a rhythm, this was the first time I had ridden on a full wet setup and the grip was as good as on my dry tyres in the dry, except a little less stable at the rear under braking. I passed someone else early in the first lap and was sitting in a comfortable fourth to cross the line on lap two. A little way ahead of me I could see Ant Blenkinsop on his GSXR-600, so I got my head down and pulled him in by the final lap. I got by him around the outside going onto the old circuit, and held him off to the line, after getting very loose on the brakes coming into the final turn before the long back straight. Crossed the line in 3rd place with a bit of Schwantz style celebrations, my first podium of my racing “career”, and I was naturally very happy with this and looking forward to the final race, where I was sure I could repeat my performance.
Best Lap 1:59
Race Three -
As the meeting had begun to run late due to the weather the third set of races were canned and a non points race organised for bikes 600cc and below. I decided to give it a shot, to see if I could run with the big kids who race in F2/Supersport. Got and average start, and the first 4 600’s left me pretty quickly by the first half of lap one. I caught up to a 675 Daytona which is usually campaigned in the supersport field and passed him on the uphill esses on the final lap. I kept him behind me for the rest of the race to finish 5th from 6 F2 bikes and 9 starters, sadly there were no transponders on the bike but my laps felt faster than previously in the other wet race.
So – to wrap up the season with a podium was great, and a good place to start from when I return to racing next year. I finished 7th in the championship out of 31 entries total, and had the 3rd race been run for points it would’ve been 5th overall.
See you at the track!
Josh
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Originally Posted by RDjase
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