The weather forecast indicated some early morning rain but after looking out the window after waking up at 5:30 the ground was dry and the sky was clear. This will be a good day for racing, I thought to myself.
We were down at the circuit at 6am and setup in the pits soon after. We were pitted with and about 10 mins later had the misfortune of Kwaka Kid showing up and pitting right next to us, although Two Smoker was with him so not all was bad.
We got scrutineering and riders briefing out of the way by around 7:45 and then we were off for the 4 lap familiarisation with the circuit for new riders. After that the first round of qualifying started. We were supposed to have 2 qualifying sessions, the first a 4 lap one to just get any problems sorted and get used to the track and then a 6 to 8 lap one where we could get some qualifying times down. The first came around and I went out just trying to get a feel for the circuit. Knowing nothing at all about setting up suspension, I had taken other peoples advice and backed off the compression and rebound damping on the front and rear by a turn or two just to see what would happen. It seemed not too bad, but the circuit was still pretty bumpy and I was getting some headshake through the esses when I changed direction, nothing too major though.
The second qualifying session came around after waiting about 10 mins on the dummy grid, we were told just as we went out that we would get 3 laps, so not much to try and set a good qualifying time. After the 3 laps we came in and that was the end of qualification. I ended up 27th on the grid out of 40 bikes in F3. I wasn’t too unhappy with that, first time ever racing at a street circuit and less than 10 laps to get familiarised with the circuit, but still room for improvement. The bike felt good, the low gearing was very manageable although that meant a lot of gear changes seeing as it has such a small power band.
After what seemed like an eternity we were up for our first race. We were out on our warmup lap and then ready on the grid, green flag raised. It dropped when I wasn’t expecting it and then got a severely crap start. Looking at the timing sheets it showed that I was 34th bike across the line, so very bad indeed. The first corner was very interesting. Not having my preferred outside line I went straight up the middle and had to come to a near complete stop due to the bikes in front slowing drastically mid corner. I got out of there without incident and then set about gaining some places. I out braked 1 or 2 guys coming up to the railway lines on the first lap and then again got 1 guy at Robert Holden corner. Got good drive out of there and went round the outside of 3 supermotards at the next right hander. At the end of that lap I had managed to gain 10 places from the start and was up to 24th. Again I was later on the brakes at the first corner and picked up another place or two. I kept going hard, loosing time to the guys in front down the straights but more than made up for it under brakes. I was having trouble changing down gears, there was a bit of play in the lever and I was always missing atleast 1 gear under braking on every corner, I lost time on many occasions coming out of a corner 1 or 2 gears too high, on a 125 that’s a major error, no power below 9000rpm and if I wasn’t in the perfect gear I was stuffed for speed till the next corner. I managed to pick off the RGV250 in front of me that I had been following for 2 laps or so. Then on the 2nd to last lap coming into Robert Holden corner I braked too late and again missed a gear or 2 and ran it wide. Not the best place to go wide as there is a traffic island in the middle of the road. I managed to stop in time and turn in alright, loosing 2 places, the RGV and also a motard. I got back on line and through the next couple of corners to see the white flag, last lap. I was right on the arse of the motard coming out of the 2nd corner and he pulled a small gap down the straight. As with most of the bikes in F3, he braked a lot earlier than I needed to and I went round the outside of him coming into the railway crossing. I was behind the RGV again and had a small go coming into Robert Holden again but didn’t risk it too much, again I missed a gear or 2 on the down change but didn’t let the motard back past. I managed to hold that position to the end to secure 20th position.
I was pretty happy with that result, ended up finishing in 20h position after qualifying 27th. Could have had 19th but not to worry. After looking at the time sheets my fastest lap was a 57.8, which was the about the 14th or so fastest lap out of the F3 guys, so was pretty happy with that too.
After that race I just did a few small alterations on my bike, although most of the time was taken up by Kwaka Kid bitching and moaning about how slow his bike is and how unfair it was. I think he even mentioned something about “just wanting equal machinery”, sounds like some other guy but can’t quite place it. I made a small adjustment to the angle of the gear lever hoping it would solve my down changing problems.
A few hours later the second F3 race was up. Expecting to grid up at 27th again I was stoked to find out that our final positions from the first race were our grid positions for the second race, so that left me with a better starting position, hopefully I could get a few places higher this race. We lined up on the grid after the warmup lap and the flag dropped. I got a much better start this time and picked up 4 or 5 places at the first corner after there was a small amount of contact between a few guys ahead of me (including Kwaka Kid), no one down though. I found myself just behind the same RGV from the first race again at the end of the first lap. Coming into the first corner of the 2nd lap I saw a motard rider down and he was rolling around looking fairly hurt. A few corners later I saw the red flag and so proceeded to the run off at the first turn to wait and see what was going to happen.
After a 5 min delay we got the signal to go around and grid up again for a restart. This time I got fairly average start and was no where near as far up as in the pack as the first part of this race. I went hard trying to make up as many positions as possible. I had a bit of a moment going through the esses, had a fair amount of headshake just as I was changing direction from left to right. If there’s any place on the circuit that you don’t want that to happen that would be the place. Only thing to hit is hay bales. I managed to get it under control and headed into Robert Holden again. Trying to make up time on the guys ahead I was braking way too late and for 2 laps I over ran that corner again, as well as having the same gear selection problems. For the next lap I decided to smooth things up and brake a bit earlier. I realised I was trying to be too aggressive and in the process was becoming very untidy, doing the cardinal sin of too fast into the corners and consequently very slow out. The first lap I decided to brake slightly earlier to try and get things under control I made up time on the RGV guy, it was my fastest lap of the race/meeting too. I had some more gear selection problems with the worst one coming onto the start/finish straight in 4th instead of 2nd loosing quite a bit of time and getting passed by a motard just as I came over the line for the last lap of the race. I passed the motard going into the railway lines and by that stage knew the RGV was out of touch. I made sure the motard stayed behind me and finished the race.
As in the first race I finished 20th again with a new best time of 57.6, which I was very pleased with. After that race I decided to pack it up for the day, knowing that there was still a race which I had a chance of qualifying for but assuming I would be right at the back of the field. This was the invitational race which was for the fastest 40 non-qualifers from the Robert Holden memorial race, that was for that top 30 qualifers. It turned out I qualified 21st out of 40 for the invitational and regretted not racing in that race but not much I could do about it.
All in all it was a incredible day. Had a heap of fun and learnt many important lessons for the future. Can’t wait for next year, hopefully I’ll have a newer 125 and might be able to challenge for a top 10 in F3, will have to wait and see.
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furr-got .. 
Great to see someone getting out there on a GP125 (all the rest of them are wossies) And to top it off, putting out a great performance too!!!
Originally Posted by Milky
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