Phillip Island race report Shaun Pattenden

**Shaun P** · 18th August 2008, 22:53

Hartwell Motorcycle Club Round 4 Phillip Island August 16/17

It was shaping up to be a good weekend for testing and setup due to the extra practise day on the Friday but work commitments got in the way, so it was down on friday evening for racing Sat/Sun.

Classes in this club are 125GP/250s, Formula 400, Historics, 600 Novice, Over 600 Expert/NE, Over 600 Novice, 600 Exp/N Exp, Sidecar, Thunderbike, Pre Modern and Superlight/Period 3 Historics

Saturday Over 600 Exp

The weather was a bit changeable and had been raining the day before on and off. The morning bought showers for the practise sessions which I skipped due to not having wets or riden the bike before.

There was a good breeze and a break in the weather which dried the track just nicely before the next session a 4 lap qualifying race - there is no lap timing so they make the grids on past perfomances with a chance to improve your position etc so I wound up on the 4th row out of 30 bikes.
So the first time to ride the bike was on a warm up lap to a race start under lights..
First impressions - faaast bike shit, geometry spot on, tracking nicely on 2nd hand Dunlops.
Got away off the line a little slow but clutch had a good feel, was still trying to feel things out on the first lap everything seemed pretty good but the rear was feeling a bit slippery but the 4th lap, finished where I started 13th.

Race 1 5 Laps

Had a better start this time still with the weather holding out but was back in the 5th row this time due to them slotting in others they 'knew'.. tried to sort out the rear with some more comp damping to no avail twas still slidin had a big rear end loss at the bottom of lukey heights but held on, managed around 12th. By now I was having some fun as the bike had a significant acceleration speed advantage over most of the bikes I was around which made it quite easy to haul in the next bike to pass.
Time for a new 2nd hand rear tyre!

Sunday, no practise due to large fields

Race 2 5 Laps

Good close racing against some guys with some more gains in lap speed and feeling alot more comfortable especially with the front end but still having rear end power slide and grip issues even with further adjustment got into about the 4th lap and couldnt put the power dwn hard enough to keep passing. Finished 11th

Race 3 a combined race with faster 600's and 1000's 8 Laps

Another new 2nd hand rear on board! I was shredding them in 5 laps to no return, lucky they wernt brand new $$$$$$$$. They reshuffled the grid again and I was on the 6th row! wtf? oh well. Had a solid start and felt the pace increasing as I shot up the field a bit but was still managing to catch the next bike and pass each time until the last 2 laps when the rear started sliding too much and couldnt put down the bikes driving power anymore to pass, awesome out there though! Very impressed with the R1

Finished 11th again, decided to pack up cause I was out of tyres!

Happy with the progress through the weekend lappin down to 1.42 at this stage, still a bit of work to do but we'll get there!!

Thanks to Sunbury Yamaha and Brian Bernard for your help and assistance also Robert Taylor for the quick turn around.

**kickingzebra** · 19th August 2008, 10:15

Shot Au, racing the big PI in the sky!

**codgyoleracer** · 19th August 2008, 21:44

Cool track aye Shaun, - are you coming over to play inour pond laterthis year ?

**Shaun P** · 19th August 2008, 22:03

Yes cool track doesnt get boring at all gives you that high speed fix

That was the original plan but maybe just NI we'll see
and yes the colour fits in quite nicely thanks ol' chap

**CHOPPA** · 19th August 2008, 22:08

just talkin to the boys about you today askin if they had heard if the bike had arrived!! Good stuff man! Im still thinkin bout comin over for the gp just to watch, are you gonna ride? any track days the day after?