JayRacer37 nationals/Pukekohe

[JayRacer37]

Well, here we go...never had a go at doing a thread or report, but there is a first time for everything.....

To understand how "we" ('we' being myself, my dad Andrew ('The ultimate pit bitch' for those at prizegiving...), and my mechanic Hamish (Mishy)) headed to Pukekohe you first must withstand me quickly going over the previous four rounds.

Competing in the 600 Sports Production championship.

Round one - Teretonga, Invercargill
This was our first go on Continental's new race tyre, at the outset we knew we were going to struggle, Conti's production line had broken down and we had basically qualiflying coumpound rear tyres to do at least 20 laps...this situation wasn't going to change over the first 3 rounds, all the south island ones. So yes, struggled thru and never gained a decent result, not helped by the gearbox crying enough and loosing first gear.

Midweek between Teretonga and Levels
A week of midnights and more was spent in Andy Bolwell's workshop (Colin Clyne Motorcycles, Oamaru) splitting the cases and pulling the gearbox apart and hand undercutting first gear so it was operatable over the remaining rounds. Big, HUGE thank you to Andy for this.

Round two - Levels, Timaru
A rather uneventfull weekend, tyres going off after about 7-10 laps, and sliding and spinning to the finish from there. Had a dice with Stroudy over a few laps, led him a couple of laps, and faded towards the finish.

Round three - Ruapuna, Christchurch
Same as Levels, got thru the weekend without any mishaps, but without great results either. Picked up a top 5 (5th) in the GP, due to a skittles incident in the final chicane.

Between Ruapuna and Manfeild
Decision was made to leave well alone and not break into the bike to have a go at the gearbox.
Landed the 2nd generation Continental race tyre - YAY!!! Fronts that would last the required 40 laps and not much more (previous fronts were run for 200+ laps and showed no sign of deterioration...) and two compound rears, a medium and a medium medium soft. Unfortunatly only four of each, so we had to decide which ones we would run where...Manfeild is harder on rears than Puke, so used the mediums there..well, three of them, 1 for practice, 2 for the races, and 1 med med soft for qual. This left the slightly softer ones for puke.

Round four - Manfeild, Feilding
This is what I would call my home round, and was the first one we were going to and looking for serious results, as the tyre situation was looking up. To be honest, we were expecting podiums and no less from here on in.

Anyhoo.....on friday, we had gone under the existing lap record quite easily. In about session three, I was railing in behind Scotty Charlton, and looking to give him a bit of an eye opener as I came past. Unfortunalty, as I tipped into Higgins, bike jumped out of 2nd on the downchange and left me freewheeling. As you are using the engine to brake all the way to the apex there it was a little disastous, I ran off at quite high speed, saw I was going to clout the wall, and bailed out. I went for a tumble thru the gravel trap and the bike hit the wall, fairing damage only though. Apart form the gearbox, which had just shown it had done to 2nd what it did to 1st at Teretonga....

We took the bike to a freinds place in Feilding and stripped and repair 2nd gear, at 2 in the morning when we came to tighten the main bearing journals into the crankcase, two of eight threads pulled in the cases, and the bike was out for the rest of the weekend.
A very good freind (now, at least.. ) Tony Cottle lent me his R6 ROAD BIKE to race for the rest of the weekend. We got this at three in the morning, it had race glass hastely chucked on and the head and taillights pulled out...it still had the bloody horn!! On saturday morning Brian Bernard lent us one of his spare Ohlins shocks, and some gearing, so we were close on gearing and had two sessions to set up a COMPLETLY 100% stock bike, bar the shock, to race the next day. Hurried sessions and changes put me on a time that was reasonable, but a second or so slower than we had anticipated on the usual race bike. Ended up 5th in race two, and VERY close to both of Brian Bernard's race preped bikes with Scott Charlton and Chris Seaton on them, on a stock bike, so we were happy considering the circumstances....

Between Manfeild and Pukekohe
Bit the bullet and had the WHOLE gearbox completly professionally spark eroded, undercut, faced, matched and what-have-you. Gearbox is now in the best state it has EVER been (well better than new). Helicoiled the stripped threads and all the others to make sure in the cases so thats sweet too now . Put it all back together, dynoed, found a few more top end BHP's for Puke's back straight, and headed up there.

[JayRacer37]

Round five - Pukekohe, Auckland

This is what this whole speil is supposed to be about so here we go....grab your reading glasses!!

Friday

FP1
Using old tyres to dial the bike in. Went out and had an uneventful session, came in a few times and made small but significant changes. Gradually improved the bike, whilst i got my head back round the track. Wildly undergeared, on the limiter and rolling the throttle at the kink...thats about 2/3 of the way down the straight. Best time around 60.5.

FP2
Same tyres. Changed gearing so this is ballpark now. same again, in and out of the pits trying to get the bike working better. Come back at the end of the session and bike has a horrible knocking rattling noise....Stress levels go thru the roof. Decide that noise is from top end, maybe a shim, and we will strip it that evening to check. Sigh's of relief all round, we did think we were going to be out all over again. Best session time of 59.9.

FP3
New set of tyres. Put a med med soft rear in, and a new front. Went out to chase a better time, by now Sam Smith has already posted a low 59. Small changes throughout, but never got rid of the slightly nervy front end feeling I had on the bike, and not happy with how the med med soft rear is working....a few txt's to Germany (well, Monza, Italy, where Continental is having there first go on the tyres we have been racing for two weeks...gotta love that lead development rider thing we got happening... ) confirm that this tyre is not, for whatever reason, behaving exactly as it should be, they are getting the same thing from it there, a slightly greasy feeling. Unfortunalty, we only have one of the medium compound, instantly the decision is made to save that tyre for the TT title race. We have one 20 lap old medium from Manfelid, and have run 60 or so laps on an identical tyre throughout practice without a serious degradation in laptimes, so we will use this for race one. This means we have to use a med med soft for qualifying, but thats ok, the bad feeling only comes up once they overheat (we suspect) after about 5 laps.

Go to bed happy with progress, and that we still have a bike capable of fighting for at least podiums. End day 2nd fastest (we belive) with a 59.5ish.

Saturday

Practice one
Same tyres as yesterday FP3. Try a geometry change to try and get the bike to 'hook up' a bit better over the hill and on to the back straight, two areas crucial at pukekohe. Nervous front end still apparent, and taking some weight off the front doesn't seem to help....as going through turn two, late in the corner, just as I try and flick the bike into castrol, the front end folds.
I ride it on my knee for a good distace, but the bike falls, I spin around. I hit my elbow on the kerb as I bounced across it, sore but this fortunatly doesn't hinder me on the bike later in the weekend. Unfortunatly for the bike.....it hit the milk bottle bags relitivly hard, twists the yolks (triple clamps) so the forks don't point where they ought, broke a footpeg and clutch lever, and the front fairing mount so fairing is hanging low.
Marshals run up and stare at it on top off the wall, looking slightly increduolus. I say "can you pull it off for me please.......???" and they jump too it...perhaps they wern't expecting racing bikes too fall down sometimes?? Anyway, marshall one jumps on his radio "bike #37 down, will need a recovery vehicle." I take a quick look, run my hands over the cases and check for leaking oil or water, which there isn't any, check i've got a brake, and say to the marshall, "nah, you won't I can ride this back no worries!!"
He replys "mate look at it, that thing isn't going anywhere" and I get more incredulous looks as i fire it up and ride away...

Hurried work back at the pits sees everything pop back straight as soon as the pressure is taken off, so thats all good. Much duct tape is employed to hold the intake snorkle together, as this holds the fairing up, and the instuments, and is hollow to breathe air...a very weak part for the job that it is made to do, and no suprises it has shattered with the impact it took.

Whilst the work is being done a very sheepish Dad says "I've found why you had the nervous front end, and the crash....." Unfortunatly, on friday afternoon, when we were doing a hurried tryed change, he had forgotten we had two diffrent compound front's, and grabbed and endurance compond...basically a road tyre. No wonder.....59.4s on a road front tyre and a crash is the results from that session.

Practice two
Bike feels good again with a softer front on, more improvements and we are ready for qualiflying.

Qualifying
New tyres both ends. I go out and set my own pace by myself, without the aid of a draft. Do five 59.1 laps consecutivly. Try some more changes and don't imporove. Put the bike back and head out to try and find a draft, but see chequred flag at start of first flying lap, do'h!! 3rd on grid, First front row of the year, so happy...dissapointed still that I wasn't any higher.

Sunday

Race one
Starting with a 20 lap old rear tyre. Due to the earlier tragedy, races have been shortend to 15 laps apiece. Get a very strong start, to be 2nd to turn one behind Sam Smith. With draft down the straight i can jjuuuusssst hang with him, that thing is a jet! He is a bit weak on the brakes for the harpin on lap one so naturally I slot it down the inside and lead through the corner...leading is nice, havn't done that at the nat's for a couple of years now. Unfortunatly the kawa has a VERY high first gear, and I fall out of the power trying to tighten my line up to hold Sam, and get blown off down to the two lefts. Finish the first lap 2nd. Heading up the straight for the second time, both Scott Charlton and Andrew Stroud draft past. I have a much better run over the hill than Stroudy and pass him on the 4th or 5th lap down the front straight on the outside, brushing shoulders and the grass, but i'm not about to back out of it. As i go past the Start, I see a board being held out. Now at 139mph (timed fastest 600 down the front straight in qual, thats around 235km/h) you can't read chalk on a board being help out. Next lap I take a long hard look at my pit board, and the lap after that. Sure enough....it reads P7 in the top corner. FAAAAAARRRRRKKKKK!!! and etc goes through my helmet for the next few laps. I'm fuming, but calm down a little and pull away from Stroudy and Craig Sherriffs over the last two laps. Get back to the pits after finishing third on track and I was struggling to contain myself. That was my first 600SP podium, and it was going to be taken away from me by an official standing on the other side of the crown of the track who can't even see my starting line to deem wether I had crept too far. Sure, I will readly admit to creeping...but about 2 inches, and certainly no more than Sam or Scotty beside me. Anyway, get pinged, do my best to have it revoked but other things that are happening at the track mean that it gets largely ignored. Ah well, SHIT HAPPENS. Just seems to be a frequient thing for us this season...... After 20s penalty knocked back to 7th place.

Race two
Fired up and ready to show what I can do again. New rear tyre this time.
Get another good start to be in a similar position after lap one. I notice the taped together snorkel is flapping quite a bit....my nervousness is not helped at ALL when I'm coming down the front straight at the ned of lap one and the flamin' STEERING DAMPER comes off the fork mount and swings from the frame between the fairing and my knee!! Tuck it out of the way the best I can, but whilst concentration is wether its guna jam the steering or not, Scott comes past me. I tag on and try to forget about whats hitting me in the leg rather than taming Puke's numourous bumps. We hang with Sam for four laps. In lap four or five Sam plays silly buggers and intentionally runs wide to let Scott past at the hairpin. I don't think he realised I was there, but when I went in underneath too, I have my nose cut roundly off, and have to get on the brake in the middle of the haipin..unfortunatly this leaves me with out a tow. At about ten laps I get a slapper coming on to the back straight, this is enough to leave Stroudy close enough to pass me on the brakes at the hairpin, and Craig muscles his way past too. By now I am feeling frustrated, and I'm not going to let a steering damper stop me getting that podium in the TT. Same lap as they come past me, I get over the hill on the limit, sideways, but driving, and blow past Craig round the outside under braking for turn one. The next lap I do the same to Stroudy, and pull away from the two of them, beginning to reel Sam and Scott in as they dice. They go a little faster and I run out of time to finish third in the 600SP TT 2007.

On the track afterwards and Mishy spots the hanging damper, so does Warren New who pulls a funny face. Doesn't say or do anythng though, so thats all good.

And thats it....season finishes with a strong third in the final race, with the steering damper stopping dragging on the ground with my knee.

I need to say a HUGE thank you to my title sponsor Museum Hotel Wellington, for their continued support and backing, long may it continue in NZ. Also Darbi accesories, with products that we use such as HJC helmets, Spool apparel, Spectro Oils, DID chains and JT sprokets.

To my offshore sponsor Continental.....thank you very much. By the end of the year we had, in my opinion, if not the best tire, then very close.

There are countless people that have offered support, kind words, hands, products, equipment...the list goes on. You people know who you are, and I thank you all so much.

To those of you that have read this right though....good on ya!! Sorry its so long but lots happened this year....

Thanks a bunch, have a good one guys!!!

[Deano]

Great report Jay - bugger about the 20s penalty but shit happens eh.

[James Deuce]

Really good report dude, keep it up! Bugger about the 20s penalty too.

[JayRacer37]

Ah yes...forgot to add the motor noise on friday was a sticky camchain tensioner...cleaned up and the noise dissapeared.

[svs]

nice one jay - shame it all came together at the end of the season. but 3rd in the TT ahead of those fellas is nothing short of spectacular - shame about getting pinged in the first race.

[Cleve]

Followed by some brilliant riding that was an outstanding report too Jay. Much appreciated, the very personal insight from a very talented young up and coming rider.
I can't believe you didn't mention the big rear wheel slide in the 2nd race as you flick right and put on the power to come up and over the hill!
I had a heart attack as it happened but you just carried on as if it was nothing !! (maybe it was...)

All the best for whatever you decide to do for the rest of 2007.

[boomer]

What a bloody good read and fantastic riding!! Way to go mate
I heard the penalty come across the tannoy and wondered if your pitts had told ya.


gotta chuckle at Sam playing silly buggers, he's fast huh!

[cowpoos]

your were awesome out there mate...watching you fang it over the hill was shit hot... and having a larf with ya in the pits!!

[Toast]

Damn Jay, that was a great read. Awesome result at the end!! Good on ya

[Maido]

I read your result this morning, great stuff, you were pushing a poduim all year (pity about the tyres!!).
Kawasaki kit manual has a part listing for manually adjustable tensioner.
Also it is nice to be able to talk to someone who has walked away from a crash over the hill. (your mechanic will be buying you a beer for the steering dampener incident )

[Matt Bleck]

Good stuff Jay!!

[Shaun]

Good skills Jay, I have seen some very impressive skills from you this year mate, crashes as well I guess that Number still has some life left in yet eh

[Ivan]

hey jay,


Great read, Great riding very good to see you get a 3rd you really deserved it you have been trying hard all season I can tell I could tell from the way you rode at Manfield


And sorry bout the 2 am text hope it didnt wake you and you woke up on your own accourd

[R6_kid:Me]

good stuff bro, sounds like there is gonna be some real talent to ship overseas in a year or two. Wish i could have made it out to see you guys race, but your race report is pretty actionpacked as it is! Best of luck for the off-season and 2008 Road Racing season.