Hey there guys. Sorry this is a little late in coming to you, I have been sleeping after the first round in Christchurch, combined with a little travelling, but I’m here now and ready to go!
FRIDAY:
We arrived at Ruapuna Raceway in Christchurch on Friday morning. After a little time spent setting up and signing in, we were relatively late out on track. I don't think the first bikes got out on track until after 10am. The sessions were also very short, just ten minutes each. With the long track at Ruapuna this gave just five or six full laps in a session, and made it all but impossible to come in mid session to test different setups on the bike. We worked through different fork constructions in relation to the Ohlins damping contained in them, and the exact spec of the rear Ohlins. About halfway through the day we settled on what we thought would be our final bike, bar minor adjustments. We kept trying little things out until we had a package I was happy with, for the day. I was keen to try things on Saturday in the practice sessions when I could go right back out and try the change, see the effect directly. Friday ended happy, and with what we believed to be the second fastest times of 600 Sports Production.
SATURDAY:
After sussing out what the days programme was going to be, we saw that we were going to get two practice sessions, and then a qualifying session later in the day. The sessions today would be twenty minutes long so we could have a proper look at the track, come into the pits, change something and then head back out to properly evaluate the change (something we weren't able to do on Friday). Over the two morning practices this let us fine-tune the setup of the bike even more. The only point I was less comfortable with the bike was throwing it into corners really hard, and trusting the front end to load up and grip. This was slowing my corner entry down slightly, and whilst we improved it a little with the clicker adjustment on the suspension, it was still there heading into Qualifying.
SATURDAY QUALIFYING:
Whilst this should be a very in-depth segment of this report, it actually turns out to be very short lived. I went out with a new set of Continental RaceAttacks on and in my first flying lap set a 1.35.1, a good base lap for the session particularly considering the freshly dumped oil on the circuit from an exploding sidecar. On the next lap I pushed harder again and had lined together a good lap, but coming into the final complex of the lap I had a BIG front push from the bikes inability to be thrown around hard. This killed my lap and I pulled into the pits for a quick breather and to make a slight change we thought might help. I headed back out. The first time I tried to use the brakes the lever felt spongy. Being a very hot day, I put this down to sitting in the pits and overheating the brakes, so I left them alone to cool down for a bit. At the end of this lap, and starting the next, I used them to give myself a good run to the line. Well, I tried to use them. As I grabbed the lever, the pressure went away and the lever came back to the bar. With a LOT of back brake, I managed to avoid running off and went up the pit-lane. Fortunately it was in the right place. Quickly the culprit was found; an old brake line fitting that Dad had put together had come loose, breaking the system and bleeding pressure. I jumped on the second bike, but my slight unfamiliarity with its setup meant that I was not going to be able to do a better lap that my first. So, even with just one flying lap, I was able to put myself 4th on the grid, my best qualifying position in 600SP to date.
SUNDAY:
After the uncomfortable front-end feeling of yesterday, mechanic Hamish worked with Robert Taylor from Ohlins Suspension to create a better front end for me, and the scrub was the place to try this. It felt good, and we decided to continue with it and race this setup.
RACE ONE:
I had a good start and got away in fourth place, behind the Sadowski brothers and Dennis Charlett. I put in three steady laps, losing a bit of time to them, then Matt Sadoski crashed, causing the race to be red flagged.
In the restart, I got an even better start to follow Dennis. Halfway round the lap I saw a bike rush up close to me, on a course he couldn’t possibly miss me on. I moved out of the way, and gave him just enough room to not crash us both. This guy then tried to turn underneath me and fat the throttle to get passed me. This was never going to work, and I heard his bike spin up, and then hit the ground as he high-sided. It turned out to be Dave Sadowski, so both brothers crashed going way faster than they could hope to. I rode a steady race for the rest of it, controlling the gap behind me and saving my front tyre (we can change rear tyres between races, but not fronts).
The race was counted as a split race, so though both the Sadowskis crashed out they scored points with it, though only half. I was credited with fourth in the first half, and second in the next.
RACE TWO:
Another good start put me in third after turn one, although I had to do a hard out-braking manoeuvre on James Smith to get passed him on the way in. Matt was ahead of me, and holding me up. On lap two I managed to move past him, but Dave came with me and did his best to run me off the track while he allowed Matt to come back passed me. To be honest I would rate the Sadowski brothers as two of the most out of control riders I have had the displeasure of sharing a track with. On the other side of the track, two riders came together and crashed, causing a red flag.
In the restart I made my best start yet, being very close second in turn one. I put my head down and stayed close to Dennis, but eventually he pulled away. My gap on the lap board was +0 every lap, indicating someone behind me. I had thought it was Dave, so was giving myself room for error if he came barging past somewhere inappropriate. On about lap 7 I made a mistake at the hairpin, which left room for the man behind me to ride past into the next corner. It turned out it was James Smith, so I settled down to follow him. My lap board was now reading +5 and I couldn't figure out why one of the Sadowski boys wasn't closer. I found out later that Dave has crashed again and Matt had retired too.
I settled down behind James for a couple of laps, before planning and executing a pass under brakes for the harpin. After that I kept a steady pace and really put my head down on the last two laps to beat James by 3 or so seconds, finishing second in the GP race.
The weekend was over, and very sucsessfully we think. Although we were beaten by Dennis, he has done 5000km (his estimate) around Ruapuna since November, so track knowledge was definitely on his side. We now look forward to moving on to Levels, in Timaru.
Cheers guys,
Jay #37
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Originally Posted by JayRacer37
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