Frosty race report AMCC Round 2

**FROSTY:Me** · 28th March 2007, 19:02

Yet another sunny day at Pukiekohe.
I'd organised to ride in Pro twins and formula 3 as well as Doug (dougal) racing in formula 2.
After my abismal performance at the nationals I'd decided to take it all back to basics.
HAVE FUN--fuggit thats why Im racing
Relax --I go slower when Im trying hard
Get a better setup on the bike.
Forget placings and get the lap times back down
Practice better starts
First practice and i cruised round to do a 1.09 which had me gridded in grid 7
suited me just fine.
Doug came in after his first practice shaking his head at how bad the bike was to ride
Second practice and Im doing the same sort of times
Doug told me the same thing that Shaun and others have been telling me for months--MY BIKE SETUP SUCKS. Basicly the bike isn't balanced andis very hard to change direction on and slides the front under brakes.
There were a bunch of other things he was muttering under his breath
We spent the time before my next race playing with the bike --changing the rear suspension and lowering the forks heaps through the tripple clamps.
I really diddn't know what to expect when I got out on the track.
Lights went out and I got a pretty good start.Found myself in 4th or 5th place but the hairpin braking let me down again.
The bike felt strangely more stable yet easier to turn so was like a new bike.
I ended up in a battle with stu dawe for 5th place and he beat me by a fraction of a second.
Next race and Im feeling pretty good. Got a really good launch and was mixing it with the lead bunch of 900's and abuel race bike. --right around into castrol when the opene3d the taps and dissapeared into the distance.
I stuck with Mango on his tard 900 and Wiggles on his ER6 for a lap but made a stuffup ona gear change and they pulled a few meters on me.
Back to game plan and I just realxed and enjoyed the ride
I finished in 6th place but happy with my riding and that the bike seemed to be going in the right direction suspension wise.
Couldn't figure out why Dougal and Madduck were jumping around like mad things -Turns out that according to her stopwatch I had done pretty consistant 1.08s with a dip into the 1.07's --
Diddn't feel fast but then it never does.
The rest of the day I pretty well cruised to be honest.
Last race and i had a great start -felt good mixing in with the big bikes--
Then 4 laps in my chain broke -smashing the clutch pushrod and hacksawing its way into the crankcases before flying out the back
HMM--Dont think Ill finish this race i thought
All in all a pretty good day with improvement in both my riding and the bikes performance.
As allways thanks to my loyal pit crew Madduck --helping out even with a bung ankle --Dougal for his help with setup.

**ajturbo** · 28th March 2007, 20:17

wow...
get back into enjoying it!!!
stop worring about the out come, just have fun..= better times and places!!!

well done!
bummer about the chain!

now if you had a buell...

**JayRacer37** · 29th March 2007, 09:59

Originally Posted by ajturbo

now if you had a buell...

You'd have a Harley motor. Potatoe potatoe potatoe MISSFIRE potatoe

**FROSTY:Me** · 29th March 2007, 18:52

mind you jay--iffn ya remember my bike in the south island.....
cough cough splutter pop --Thank god for Red at RRR for saving my bacon

**ajturbo** · 29th March 2007, 19:01

Originally Posted by JayRacer37

You'd have a Harley motor. Potatoe potatoe potatoe MISSFIRE potatoe

hahhahahha..

but i love it...
want to buy a rental car off sniper??..

**slowpoke** · 29th March 2007, 19:34

Your initial bike setup reminds me of my ol 916.
It was quite unstable and slappy but strangely heavy to steer at the same time. Took me ages to figure out I had too much preload on the REAR shock. Once I softened up the rear it was stable as and I could drop the forks and even run the steeper steering angle to sharpen up the front end. We live and learn but sometimes the learning process isn't much fun eh?