Levels Nationals Rd2
We were meant to be down there on the Friday for the unofficial practice, however first Divvo couldn’t get the day off and then my boy at work fell down a 6 metre bank and fucked himself up, so instead it was a early start on Saturday morning to get down there
All loaded up and ready to go and the mighty turbocharged, intercooled, slash cut equipped Ford Transit Vangina made the trip fly by
Unloaded signed in, scrutineered (failed) and back to our pit, where Divvo makes himself some bar end plugs out of a bit of tree he finds lying around
After Denny fibre glassed the broken fairing during the week for us we find some bits don’t quite line up anymore and we have to apply a bit of force to make things fit but we get it all fitted up and roll out for our first qualifying
Q1 Saturday
It apparent fairly early on that the new outfit handles the left hand corners that Levels is primarily made up of far better than the old on, gassing it up and sliding it and changing gears and generally having a ball, the outfit is fairly twitchy into the decreasing radius so Divvo decides to check some stuff out
In between sessions we check and change the toe in and camber on the chair wheel after the tyre temps indicated it was a long way out and he winds in a bit more castor on the front
Q2 Saturday
With the changes the outfits feeling much better and we knock another 3 seconds off our first qualifying times, Darren has a bit of a moment when he ½ goes off the back of the 666 outfit and to give his arm a bit of a hammering when he gets his arm jammed in between the wheel and bodywork, we put back in and put it up on the stands and give it a look over
Race 1 Saturday
We’re 8th on the grid, row 4 on the inside and we get a good launch, unfortunately Leighton in front of us doesn’t and we get blocked in on the run to turn 1, we chase down Dags/James and make the past and have them all over the back of us for the next few laps, I miss my footing once through the chicane which causes a big slide and then Dags/James get back past us off the end of the straight, Jim Coyles carbon fibre muffler catches fire but he has to put his knee’s out before he can extinguish the muffler, we come in 8th and knock another 2 seconds off our qualifying times to get down to 1:18.962 with the fast guys in the 1.13 bracket
We get a visitor from the UK in the shape of Sean Hegarty who tells Steve Bron he’s not riding hard enough, the outfit is up on the stands and we check it over and gas it up, we reckon a change of gearing would work a bit better as we’re a bit tall geared but due to a addition by the previous owner it’s a bit of a prick to change so we leave it as it is
We pack it up for the night and head off to Glens where we have accommodation, a bbq and drinks later and it’s obvious it’s going to get noisy here so we decided to sleep at the track, I end up on an airbed in the trailer and Divvo somehow fits himself across the front seats of the van
Up early and off to the clubrooms for a shower then after Divvo wakes up as Denny is trying to duct tape the van doors shut me and Divvo head off for breakfast as a local group is doing a very tasty mixed grill for brekkie
Riders briefing comes and goes and then it’s into the scrub sessions, a few of the outfits go out but we decide to conserve our energy and don’t bother, Joni turns up and immediately starts pushing water bottles into our hands to keep us hydratedas the temperature looks like it’ll be getting up a bit
Race 2 Sunday
Our turn rolls around and we head up to the dummy grid and out onto the track,Divvo positions the outfit slightly to the right on our grid and as the lights go out we get a good launch and take down two outfits before we hit turn 1, we’ve got 4-5 bike lengths on Leighton when we hit the straight but by the time we’re ½ way down it he’s pulling out to pass, we’ve got Dags/James all over the back of us and when we run into the decreasing radius a bit wide he goes up the inside, a couple of laps latter Brian/Darren do the same and we set off after them, a couple of laps latter and we’re on there tail through the chicane and pass them into Turn1, they get back past us turning into the sweeper onto the back straight and we pass them at the exit, Graeme cocks up turn one and bounces over the ripple strips, off the track, spins twice and dumps Paul off the side (that’s a slab of beer you owe Paul) we keep in front of Brian/Darren and finish 7th with our best lap within ½ second of last years
Paul gets a massage on his neck which he’s hurt when he came off and is squealing like a girl, we’ve got the outfit back on the stands and give it a check over and then start dicking about, Joni has got the drink bottles out shoving them in our hands and we’re drinking heaps of water and before you know it we’re up again
Race 3 Sunday
Gav gives us a push on the dummy grid as we have a flat battery problemand we line up in the usual spot, another good start and we’re alongside Leighton, the Lawrence’s are on the outside and moving over into us, for a moment it looks like the whole three wide thing isn’t going to work and then we’re past Leighton and turning in, we hit the straight with a gap back to Leighton, it takes him 2 laps before he gets by and the Dags/James are trying the same and make it past us as well, Brian/Darren take another 4 laps before they can pull a pass, we chase them but can’t get them back and finish 9th
We’ve had a fairly good run and got a bit more used to the outfit, I reckon I’m still overworking a lot of the corners but it’s so much easier to move around on than the old one and out lap times don’t drop off as much in the later part of the race as we’re not getting as tired as on the old one, it handles the lefts much better as you can gas it up earlier and harder and it feels like I have much more time to move around
Racing over we’re packed up and ready to go, lucky Joni has driven down as I end up getting her to drive me home as after the weekends over and the adrenaline level goes down I’m a bit more tired than I thought, I’m pretty fortunate I have her support for my chosen sport
So now we have a bit of bodywork to fix up and give the outfit a bit of a check over and then in about a month we’re off to Manfield for Rd 3 (for the sidecars)
And a very well done to the Scrivy/Sidecarbob double act for taking another 3 out of 3 wins
Originally Posted by scracha
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Bob, I could go on for hours about ............ 
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