It was great to start a Friday morning by heading OUT of Wellywood on the Hornet,
the tank back full of tools, and the rest of the world heading into work !!
After a nice ride I arrived at Manfeild for the free practice (but $100 ain't exactly free :-) I claimed a spare stall, paid the fee and practiced getting the Hornet ready to race. I have just about got that bit "weighed off" as sailors say. It only takes 15-20 minutes to remove the bits that aren't required and attach the bits that are. It had been 30 years since I last raced at Manfeild and almost as long since I watched a race there so all the new buildings looked impressive. Sadly I don't think anyone has done anything to the track surface in the intervening period, F%$K it is rough !!
The practice sessions went O.K. I had no idea what times were but got a bit of a feel for the layout. Being out on the track at the same time as some of the "big boys" certainly highlights the speed differential !!!
I sat out the last couple of sessions as my rear tyre was starting to wear a bit and I wanted to save some of it for race day. I spent a bit of time at the last corner watching the fast guys to see if I could learn anything. As far as I could tell about the only difference was that they were going really FAST !!
Race day was great weather I didn't feel at all embarrassed about wearing the Metservice T shirt :-)
Clubmans qualifying was uneventfull ( for me anyway ) and I managed a 1:27 which put me 12th on the grid which was 4 places higher than I qualified for round one so was happy with that.
Race one I got a reasonable start but cold tyres makes Kevin a cautious boy (or frightened old fart) and anyone I managed to pass in the drag race to the first corner passed me back going into it ( and a few others as well ) The guys that were in front of me kept getting further away and I seemed to be circulating all by myself. I would have finished in the same position I started if Nick Longstaff had not had a DNF ( I don't what happened to him but he was about 2 sec a lap faster ).
Race two was pretty much more of the same, a reasonable start and crap first 3 - 4 corners I thought everyone who was going to pass me had done so when Jonathon Hoy passed me on his RS125 ! I tried to keep up with him but any gains I made on the straights he more than made up for in the corners and gradually keep pulling ahead until he had the entire length of the start finish straight on me !! Even though I seemed to be in my own little race I was having fun and the longer race enabled me to get in the grove a bit better and I felt I was doing better than race one but had no one around to compare with. I noticed I seemed to be gaining on the bike ahead of me and soon realized he must have been having problems and I managed to get right behind him coming into Dunlop for the last time and knew I could pull away on the exit and beat him to the line so I just followed him round but he got slower and right in the middle of the corner an R1 blew past both of us on the outsideI did pass Jonathon but thought I had lost the place to the R1. It turns out I didn't loose the place but had been lapped !!!!
I now have 2 clues (from round 1 be careful dicking with tyre pressure) and DON'T ease off on the last corner of the race.
It was a great day and I enjoyed the longer race and managed to knock a couple of seconds of my lap times ( 1.25.5xx is still a long way of the pace :-)
Good work VMCC a great day !!!
Bring on round 3
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Originally Posted by wharfy
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