VMCC Round 5
What an awesome day we had…. The sun was out, the sky was clear. And finally there was some heat in the track. I was really looking forward to the day.
Qualifying
I was really keen to get out in front to get some good laps in, so I made sure I passed everyone down the pit lane onto the track. I did one warm up/sighting lap to make sure there aren’t any different holes or bumps from last time I raced, which there wasn’t so I was free to go hard. Second lap, time to start giving some beans got my knee down on the first corner of the lap, which surprised me! Through the infield and particularly through splash I can go quite quickly on the lil 150. There are two patches on the outside and a paint line on the inside. What I was doing was not braking at all, but just laying the bike on its side and letting the front end scrub the speed off. The patches have quite a high lip on them so it is very bumpy to ride over them, but great to use them as it slight 'berm' so to speak. It works really well until you pop over the bump!!
Even though the gearing on the KR is sorted, it STILL hasn't the power of the other 150's. Gah.
Third lap of practice. There is a looong sweeping left hander that comes from the new circuit back onto the old circuit. It’s a great corner, except the damn join through the middle. The join is really really bumpy on the 150s crappy suspension. I hit the join quite hard and in the worst place on this lap. The back end lost traction and came around on me. Lucky the 150 is light so when it re-gripped it didn’t highside me! But in stead I found myself in the grass at about 80kph. Not a very fun thing!! I kept it up so was all good. But I couldn’t get back into the groove again and stuffed up at least four corners the next and final lap.
I wasn't overly happy to find out that I had only qualified 3rd behind Neil Chappell and Jason (Vtec)
My qualifying time was a 2:24.246. That is the same as my best lap time on the long circuit last time! So I set my goal at a 2:20.
Race one - streetstock
Third on the grid, with Jason and Neil on the right of me. I got a good start and was right next to Neil, but unfortunately, I was on the outside, and was not able to pass him into turn 1. If I remember correctly I passed him up the inside at the hairpin. My goal was to stay with Jason on the 250 for as long as I could. But for the first time, I was running out of ground clearance on the KR. The fairing and the peg were scraping at the tight hairpin on the New circuit and on the sweeper coming onto the front straight. Well, time to hang off the bike some more! I felt like a twit hanging off, but I needed to so try stay with the 250. Nothing really exciting happened this race. I came second and was 7 seconds behind the 250 after four laps with a best time of 2:20.xxx Awesome. I have already reached my goal! Neil was a further 10 seconds behind me I believe. (memory is not the greatest.)
Race two - Streetstock
I took a better tactic to this race, instead of trying to out launch Neil, I let him get ahead of me so I could move over to the right of him and go up the inside under brakes! Awesome. The move work and I pulled it off smoothly. Now I caught up to Jason through splash. Now I know I wasn't going to beat him this race, but I wanted to prove a point. So coming into the hairpin, I didn’t brake until I was complelty pass Jason. It was a bit risky and I ended up running a bit wide originally, but I just flopped the bike on its side and hoped like hell the tires and suspension were upto the task. A bit of shuddering and we were away. YEAH! Im in first place yeah yeah yeah! Damn the straight. Woosh. Gone. That was the end of my winning streak. It was fun while the 5 seconds of it lasted. Well. I did what I came to do. Get my 2:20 lap time and prove my point to Jason on the 250 lol. I really relaxed in this race making sure I just finshed the race in one piece. Once again, why go faster than need be? I couldn't catch the 250 and I was a comfortable distance ahead of the other two 150 riders.
Best lap time of the day: 2 minutes and 20 seconds
Best scare of the day: In the grass at 80kph
Scraping the fairing: Priceless
Big thanks to,
-My Father for getting myself and the bike to the track
-Racey Rider for saving me a Pit. Thanks heaps mate!
-Vic club for organising these meetings.
Cheers,
Glen
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Originally Posted by skelstar
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