The prize is all the sweeter when the road is hard travelled’ so the saying goes.
After all last years hassles, (seizing my motor at 4 out of 5 race days), the last thing I needed was for this old motor to pack up again, one week out from the start of my main race series. After 4 great runs with it at the track in recent months, I thought I had it sorted. But having run it two weeks prior, I started it up the day before a Taupo race day/Practice, and found, not only a blown head gasket, but possibly blown crankcase seals as well.
Well, enough was enough! This old motor wasn’t worth paying a shop to fix it in a hurry, so it was time to source another one.
A bit of borrowed money, and a talk to my local bike shop owner, procured a crash damaged KR150 with only 350km on the motor. With three days to go before race day, this was fitted into the race bike and teething problems sorted. This left me packing the car at 9pm before heading to Manfield at 5:30am the next morning.
Test day at Manfield dawned fine. I had got another 50km on the motor before coming to the track and as it had been sitting in storage for two years, and babied around on the road by it’s original owner, I looked forward to running it in further and a full day of sorting out jetting and associated bits.
First time out on a dry track, and I immediately noticed, this new motor did not want to pull like my old one. I had trouble getting enough speed to get it up into sixth gear in places were I had always been ‘humming’ in sixth on the old motor. The external gearing is the same as my old setup, so I put this down to maybe running too rich, (a different carb meant I had to start from scratch with jetting), and maybe more time needed to ‘loosen up’ the motor. I got a couple more runs in, changing the odd thing as I went, but was only halfway through my setup check/changes when a car dumped oil all over the track, and the light rain caused track management to close the track for the rest of the day. So starting on race day I was not where I wanted to be as far as motor setup went.
QUALIFYING
Slept in the car at a camp ground for the two nights till Sunday and saved myself $30 over the cabin price.
(Could only Dream of sleeping in a cabin with someone snoring in it!)
Got to the track at 7:30am just in time to succor two pit bays for me and Bert who was coming to race a ZXR250 for the first time.
Out on the track for Streetstock qualifying, gave things a couple of laps to warm up, then settled down to see what she could do. Halfway through a good lap I caught up with traffic which stuffed that lap for timing. Slowed right down to allow them to get away and give myself more room to get one good lap in. Got a good lap put down which felt good, ... felt alright, ... but was disgusted with myself to see the qualifying sheet show a BT of 1:41. Last year I had done 1:33’s on the old motor. 1:41 put me 9TH on the grid. Row 3. That Sucked!
As I was also entered in F3, I used this practice to test my other muffler that I normally use. This is a standard KR150 muffler off a ‘B’ model (my race bike is a ‘B’ model), that I had hoped to test on Friday but didn’t get time. In theory it should help the motor breath easier, but I didn’t want to risk using it in Streetstock qualifying as the new ‘A’ model motor and carb may have Detonated. If it showed signs of this in F3 practice I thought I could just stop and still be at the same place at the end of the start grid. The motor went alright with it on, and it may have helped with cutting two seconds, ... or maybe I just rode faster, who can tell.
THE RACES
Lined up on the third grid row of Streetstocks Race one. And right infront of me, two rows ahead is a Young Valentino Rossi on his CBR250 who has just cleaned up the field and taken Pole.
“Great. Thats just what you need when chasing a title” I thought.
Flag drops, ... We’re away!
I get a decent sort of start, and hang with the leaders for half a lap, but slowly see them pulling away. Had a good duel with ‘MotoXXX’ I think it was about mid race, but a few stuffed corners, and he too got away from me by the race end. So I was left fighting with one of the mid pack GP125’s. 7th Place of 13 for me . BT 1:38.
Race two in streetstocks was on a wet track which I knew would suit me better, as I had done a bit of wet riding lately. Got another good start, passing a number of 125’s down to the hairpin. Was right in the lead bunch through the first corner, but lost a spot by leaving the door open on the inside. Someone took the opportunity to duck in tight and push me wider. Was able to keep the main bunch in sight, and even made one pass on Rossi Jr. Had another great battle with ‘MotoXXX’ with us changing postions requently. I entered the final lap ahead of ‘MotoXXX’ but a bad gearshift in Higgins allowed him past down the back straight, and he held me off in the last corner for another win over me. 0.2 of a second. Well done chap. I was 6th.
OTHER HAPPENINGS
The rain was falling quite hard when we went out for race two in F3. Not as many bikes ventured out in it, it seemed. After doing a warmup lap (and a couple peeling off back into the pits) we lined up on the grid ready to brave the elements. But race control pulled the pin, and we all cruised round to exit the track. Right decision,, wrong decision , ... I don’t know. But it
was after all a
WINTER SERIES, and I for one was there to race no matter what the weather. I understand that it would be unpleasant for the marshals to stand in, but sort your gear out and make it happen. We all come a long way, to then have it cancelled because of rain. If you don’t want to drop your bike, ... don’t go in that race or go slow. But some of us are up for it. And the points should be on offer for those that are ready to except the risks.
NEXT TIME
OK, so I only had to open page one of my excuse book this time. By next race I should have run my motor a bit longer, and have the jetting sorted out. So excuses will probably have to be explained in more depth.
I’m sure you can hardly wait!
Thanks to my Sponsors for helping this happen :
2Day.com - Web hosting, Domain names, Dedicated servers
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Un-named KiwiBiker
Cheers.
Racey
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All the best for the next round!!!
Originally Posted by Drew
Wet track, slightly rainy, but not too bad.
(Thanks for holding up the bike while I whipped out wheels Guys.)
This race was shorten to 6 laps. Made a break on some of the guys at the tail of the field and was feeling safe in my position going into the last lap. I looked behind to see a reasonable gap back to a green ZXR250 that I thought was 'Bert'. The thought went through my mind that 'Bert' was never going to catch me in the last lap from that distance, so eased off the pace a little.... no point falling off in the last lap eh. So was surprised to see a Green ZXR250 blow past me down the back straight on the last lap. It wasn't 'Bert' at all!! It was Russel! 
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