OS Racing 2012 & Nats. Intro + Round 1

[SWERVE]

First let me give you some background......... as one of two people who pick up most of "the tab" i am going to give my view of why im here and how i see things happening.
I have been involved in Motorsport since i was 15 (30yrs) started as a motorcycle flaggie... club racer bikes & cars... tech for Lotus Elise series..... crew chief for European motorcycle drag race team (12 yrs).... move to NZ..... club racer.... trying to develop a junior team.
After taking 3 months to recover from a reasonably small crash..........i decided to concentrate on younger talant.

So..........this year we had a SV 650 Pro-Twin thats Ants had ridden in the south island rounds of 2011 Nats to finish in 10th. After a few issues with Ants (he is still a teenager after all.. 17yrs. He decided he wanted to do the hard yards pre season. And contest the current series.
Having been involved in MCC (committee member) and being soooo impressed wth the commitment to progessing junior riders i decided to buy a new Kawasaki Ninja 250 and use it to help junior riders too enter into the sport. So why is current champ Seth Devereux riding it you say.......... well as it was not completed untill early Dec........ i decided to offer Seth the ride for 2012 as he had ridden similar / was the current champ.... and we thought it would be a good PR for next year. (note to self........ dont think too often)
So we went to the Tri series as a pre-nats test for the 250 and for laps on the SV.
RD1 RUAPUNA.
ANTS..... Last year the biggest hurdle for him was fitness (he thought being 16 meant he was fit / riding at Nats soon proved otherwise) So after 8 months of hard training this was resolved) Only now we have to work on the riding... Ants is not a natural talant..but he has talant.. it just takes time to develop it and make him believe in his own ability. So qualifying saw him actually go slower than he had on the friday as he was trying to play "mind games" in qualifying with his opponants. Nothing wrong with that .........but still gotta put in quick laps!
His fitness regime had paid off as he always set his fastest laps in the last two laps generally.
The meeting saw him have top 3 results in the first two races and a slightly dissapointing 4th in the GP. But left 1st round in second place. We know that our bike is slightly down on HP with some of the others....... but that is a scenario we cant rectify easily.
OVERALL very pleased after RD1 and his performance.

SETH.
Seth is also riding a 125gp bike (this is his baby and so i will leave reporting of this to him)
Qualified pole which was great...... but surprisingly(at that point) Sam croft was within 1000ths. Race 1 saw him harrass Sam all race and he just got too close at the hairpin and hit Sams back wheel sending him face first into the tarmac. Post race we found out that he could have re-started the bike and fininshed 3rd (maybe 2nd) if he had realised that the "tip switch" had activated and a simple turning off of the key would have enabled him to restart. So a DNF & a nomination for the "OPPS AWARD"
next race saw him try a similar manouvere on the final straight only to be beaten by 1.1 thou of a sec by Sam.
GP saw him take an early lead only to crash at the infield sweeper and (turn ignition off) to restart and take 4th.

SUMMARY.
Ants has got to qualify better......... push himself earlier in the race... always a bit cautious in the first 2 laps. With races being reletively short the first 2/3 laps are sooo crucial.
Seth needs to "pull on the reigns" careful preparation and focus will reap more success than "ride it like you stole it" racing.
ME...... well im learning some things too (will sumerise in last report) but in the short term... im improving at repairing fibre glass / going without sleep / not eating and have an in depth knowledge of a Ninja 250 (cheers Seth)

Would like to say a special well done to Sam Croft.... 3 wins..NZGP...dream day eh.
Jake Lewis.... the next BIG thing to come from NZ....... and living proof of MCC junior development. (one of the reasons i wont give this all up for an easy life!)

Also thanks to
HAMILTON SEED LTD (Pete & Jackie) for being our MAJOR sponsor
TOTAL OIL
KAWASAKI NZ
KSS (top service /top product)
DWAINS SERVICE CENTRE / Tapanui (Seths parents)
GEOFF HAMPTON ENG (my boss & entry fees for RD1) and for turning a blind eye.. when i spend more of my working day on bikes than business..mmmm
RACE SUPPLIES (awesome products / stronger than bike!)
SPEARS RACING USA (for tech help)
SOUTH ISLAND VEHICLE FINANCE
SKF NZ
BILLY (Race fairings) (special weighted ones eh)
SHORAI BATTERIES (Ed Smith) awesome product
DEAN JAMES - WENDY GUY - ROCHELLE HENWOOD-SPARKS - ROB LEWIS for organising such an awesome NZGP
ALL THE RUAPUNA CREW
NICKI SINGER/BILL STANLEY (Ants mum & partner) for your help & support
JOHN TWISS (paintwork - beyond the call of duty during xmas)
CINDY (Seths girlfriend) for keeping us fed.
WADE VAN DE AREND (for being so organised in the pit garage........ wanna job)
WOODY (Ants support crew) 18yr old apprentice painter who bought new set of leathers for his best mate (now thats a MATE)

PS.......... if your name isnt on this list......it is specific to RD 1....................... RD 2/LEVELS to follow............................................ .....

[slowpoke]

Goodonya Merv! It's all about learning at this stage and it sounds like the young fella's are doing plenty of that so I'd say it's mission acomplished no matter what the results are. Looks like the talent is there with both riders and crew (that'd be you!) so great effort by all.

And yep, the Motorcycling Canterbury team put on a great event I thoroughly enjoyed both as a spectator and participant.

[wayne]

rnd 2 and rnd 3 updates please
what tyres work best in the wet at invercargil ?????????
and in the dry ??????????

[Deano]

All I can say is that Ants certainly doesn't lack in the balls department, pulling out two fairly keen moves on me at Ruapuna and Invercargill.

It's been some great close racing with him !!

[SWERVE]

Yeah agree Deano..... bigger than mine..... but hey at that age they do rule everything eh.

Im not about to give away special tyre secrets...wayne! might have to put security on, to keep out spy,s..hahahaha.

next report at weekend.

[Edbear]

Yeah agree Deano..... bigger than mine..... but hey at that age they do rule everything eh.

Im not about to give away special tyre secrets...wayne! might have to put security on, to keep out spy,s..hahahaha.

next report at weekend.

Goodonyer mate! Those two will do okay, I reckon! Hope to catch up with you again soon!

[SWERVE]

After doing the normal strip down of both bikes between rounds, it only left me 2 nights to repair a reasonable amount of damage to the ninja bodywork after 2 crashes at previous round. I managed it (just) but Seth would have to put up with some unpainted repairs for the nexttwo rounds.
I couldnt ask my painter again so soon.... as he had repainted them previuosly on boxing day.

Friday at testing saw the clouds drop plenty of rain. Seth took the 250 out once during the day just to get a feel of things. He had never ridden the 125 on wets... so concentrated on that for the day. Ants was happy... hoping it would rain all weekend as he like the wet racing. Was looking very comfotable in the worsening conditions.
Saturday saw the rain replaced by warmth and wind.
Ants qualified 5th... he was dissapointed as he thought he had done enough to get higher......... it was close with all the protwins together on the lap sheet and only 0.6 sec seperating them in 1st session. He reported a couple of missed gearshifts... i checked out bike and couldn,t see a problem.
Seth qualified Pole on the 250 and was again surprised by the ability of Sam Croft to learn a new track so quickly.

Ants gearshift problem steadily got worse during the day...... particually on the 1/2 shift at the start. He dropped places in each race into the first corner... and with only one line thru T2 - T3 due to an oil spill, he couldnt start making places untill the back straight. He battled real hard in all races and ended up with a tally of 4th - 4th -3rd. He was a little dissapointed with the weekend as he likes Levels and had hoped to do better than this.
One the bright side - no crashes - valuable points and 3rd place in the series.

Seth seemed a little more relaxed than he was at Ruapuna. Race one saw him battle hard with Sam and take his first win of the championship in Prolite.
Race 2 saw another epic battle with them swapping the lead. However due to an incident the race was red flagged.... the race was split into 2 parts. Although Seth had been in the lead when red flagged - the result was taken from previuos lap... meaning Sam took the win.
The re- start saw the battle commence for 4 laps with Seth taking the win this time.
Race 3 saw Seth take an early lead - he tried to gap sam early but came to grief at the hairpin. He re-mounted only to find he had no right side footrest.( said he doesnt use back brake much at levels anyway) After doing two laps with his foot in mid air, he found a home for it on the exhaust can. It was too late to make the places he had lost and he finished 7th.

So all i had to do this week before leaving for Teretonga on thurs..... is strip/check bikes and find why the SV is not changing gear properly mostly on the downshift but on the upshift of the startline. I have spare parts for the ninja footrest and the damage to bodywork was minor. *Note... Seth is still crashing - but breaking less each time* suppose i should be grateful for that eh.
Ants still has to be more agressive in the opening laps.... bad starts made this harder but looking at the lap charts shows it to be a problem. He can run at the pace in later part of race but loses time in laps 1/2. Suspension tell-tales and tyres are showing that he is not pushing the front enough into the turn, relying on gassing it early and exiting fast...... early gas/fast exit is good..we just need to add fast entry!

My special congrats for this weekend are Johnny Small for his first 600 superstock win. Sloan Frost for hanging onto Robbie (love that beemer)
We all left Timaru with a heavy heart thinking of Cam after his accident earlier in the day......

Again i would like to thank the people who have helped us get here
HAMILTON SEED LTD (as always huge support from pete & jackie)
KAWASAKI NZ
TOTAL LUBRICANTS
SKF
RACE SUPPLIES (rearsets still holding up / securing bolts broke first)
KSS ( once again TOP product - TOP service)
SOUTHBRIDGE 4 SQUARE - Carmen & Gary Williams (Anthonys entry for this round)
DWAINS SERVICE CENTRE
WADE VAN DE AREND (once again great pit crew / shame your not at Teretonga)
CINDY (for feeding us again)
WOODY - PIT CREW ( and now clothing sponsor)
SHORAI BATTERIES (every race bike should have one)
BILLY (race fairings) they are getting heavier - but holding up damn well.
SOUTH ISLAND VEHICLE FINANCE
WHITES WHOLESALE

........................ next time.............. Summer in Southland!!!!!!

[Deano]

Thanks for the report Merv - always a good read ! Did Ants/you sort the gear shift issue by lever adjustment ?

[SWERVE]

Cheers Deano.
I will explain the shifting issue in next report from RD3.

[SWERVE]

With only 3 evenings to do the post race strip downs / find the gearshift problem with the SV / and repair the Ninja (again) - the midnight oil was gonna be burning.
With the usual checks done the damaged rearset on the ninja was repaired and the brake lever pivot tig welded.. I strippped the clutch from the SV so i could inspect the shift mech and actuator...all seemed ok. I put it down to the shift rod on the rearsets. After breaking the stainless original at Manfield i had made a mild steel replacement at work.it was exactly the same but only thing that had been changed since we started to get random selection probs. Kev from Race Supplies had had a delivery of spares from the US, so i would pick a new one up at the weekend.
Friday was spent setting up the SV for the weekend... with help from Robert Taylor we sorted it using up our old race rear tyres as "sacrificial lambs". Saturday would tell with a new tyre on. Seth felt comfortable on the Ninja... but was not happy with the times showing on the stopwatch.
Saturday saw Ants qualify 5th. But we were glad to see that after fitting the new shift rod he had no missed shifts. I think the slightly weaker steel one was possibly flexing (only my theory).
Seth was right to be worried about his times.... he qualified 4th... but their was only .4sec between the whole front row. He said that he was giving it everthing and thought times would be better.
Ants had a race long battle with Dean Bentley for 5th/6th spot... they posted the 2nd/3rd quickest lap times for the class showing what a battle it was. Ants came in a little dissapointed with the placing but saying he had learned heaps in that battle and was looking forward to improving on Sunday.The set up time on Friday had paid off..the new rear tyre was looking mint (Thanks KSS)
Seth used all his local knowledge of Teretonga to hold onto Sam Croft and it was a drag race to the line ... with Seth taking the win by 0.004.

We had actually managed 2 dry days together so far ...so it HAD to rain on Sunday!!!!!!
Unfortuanately we do not have a spare set of wheels for the SV.. so judging the weather has become crucial... and i have become quite good at changing wheels & tyres..however it still takes about 20/25 mins to do a swap. So first race saw it dry very quickly in the last 1/2 hr before the race (as meeting had been decleared wet at beginning there was no extratime for tyre changing) We took the gamble (as did others) to stay on wets as there was the possibility of it raining during the race. It didnt rain it got dryer....... so Ants got in about 3 laps before the wets gave up. He kept circulating and it paid off as leader Bryan Hill and Camoran Moir both crashed...so Ants scored a 4th place.
It stayed dry and seemed to have cleared so we put the dry tyres on the bike. Then about 12 mins before the second race it just poured. Even the guys with spare wheels struggled to change in time for the start. So we got it wrong again (BUGGAR). I asked Ants if he wanted to go out as conditions were pretty bad by the start. He said he would just circulate and pick up points. He managed to stay upright and bring it home 2 laps down but still picked up 6th place. I was gutted for him on Sunday and felt i had really let him down with the tyres. He put on a brave face and told me not to stress about it.... showing that he has matured this year also (last year he would have spat the dummy!)
Seth was struggling and the ninja seemed to be down on mid/top speed. Sam just gapped him early and he had no answer..Sarah was also closing in on him and managed to out drag him to the line in race one, he finished 3rd. Race 2 was a similar affair but Sarah left her charge too late and Seth finished 2nd.

So we left Round 3 with Ants in 3rd place in the Protwin champs and Seth in 2nd place in Prolite. Im reasonably happy with our current placings,but as always they could have been better....... Im certainly learning a few things that need changing with my/our approach / structure and planning........ i hope the boys are learning things too. (focus & organisation spring to mind)
My special mentions of the weekend are:
Aaron Hassan - riding well and showing great promise.
The Honda duo of Ryan Hampton & Jeremy Holmes.... for nearly pulling of a double in the wet........... hard luck guys.
John Ross....for getting back on..how many times! (might have done it differently in hindsight maybe ) Front brakes help too..ay John.

So its time for a rest. Big strip downs for both bikes. Got to find why we have lost power on the ninja (have some ideas) and get it re-painted properly...again! Also gotta try and earn some money to pay for it all.
Once again so many thanks to all our sponsors/supporters who made it possible.
HAMILTON SEED LTD (without you guys it wouldnt happen)
KAWASAKI NZ
TOTAL LUBRICANTS
SKF
RACE SUPPLIES
KSS (and for not partying too late - next door..haha)
DWAINS SERVICE CENTRE
SOUTHERN SUZUKI (for help & loan off workshop on sat eve)
WOODY - PIT CREW & SPONSOR
SHORAI BATTERIES
BILLY (Race Fairings)
SOUTH ILAND VEHICLE FINANCE
WHITES WHOLESALE

[wayne]

congradulations on your huge effort,
alot of hours and hard work ......................
planning and preperation sometimes = the third p.........points
i hope you get some good luck in north island re tyre choices

[SWERVE]

We now have a spare set of wheels......... so it WILL NOT rain for rest of championship