After last month at round 3 I decided that I love racing in the wet. My bike's relative lack of grunt matters less, it seems to handle and turn in very nicely on the wet tyres, and I love the feeling and feedback that I was getting from pushing the bike in corners. Good fun was had as well as my best results ever.
Round 4 was a totally different experience!!
Rocked up at the track and it looked like being one of those pain in the arse days where you're gonna be changing tyres all day...
Supersport Qualifying
Made the call to go for wets and it was good. Took it soft until there was a decent amount of water and then tried to put in some faster laps. Was ridning like crap on the extension part of the track, partly 'cos I couldn't see anything out of my fogged up visor and partly due to slower traffic. Qualified 13th and was a bit gutted.
Superbike Qualifying
Still couldn't see shit out of my visor, felt terrible about it but ended up 5th on the grid in the ever worsening conditions.
Supersport Race 1
We applied some funky Armourall glass wipe things to the inside and outside of my visor and like magic I could see again! So long as I kept moving. Lined up on the starting grid and all of the steam from my radiator was coming up and filling my helmet. By the time the lights were all lit I was 90% blind and couldn't see the lights anymore. Got my worst start for a long time, lost a tonne of places but braked fairly late for turn 1 and came out in about 10th or so.
The first lap I rode fairly aggressively, made up a couple of places, and it was great fun.
By lap 2 it was clear that the track was pooling water up big time. My wets were a bit rounded on the edges from some of the drier races last round, and had no grip at decent lean angles in the river crossings on to and off the extension part of the circuit. Most corners on the old track were ok though, and I made some good ground on people in front of me through the final sweeper especially.
Lap 3 I was feeling pretty confident on the standard track and was feeling pretty confident. Passed someone in to turn 1 and set my sights on turn 2. What unfolded in front of my eyes was one of the most impressive bins I've witnessed, with Jamie Galway on a yellow R6 getting sideways and sending a wall of water forward. This was a good reminder to slow a little around that one! My lap time was slower but I was still passing people as the backed off even more than I did.
Lap 4 was a good one and despite my slowest lap of the race I made up a couple more places including a pass on the last corner and held the advantage to the line for my best ever finish of 4th! Stoked with that one.
A less shagged set of wets and a better start could've seen my first ever podium, but it was still a good experience and I started to feel quite confident about pushing the front (aquaplaning, really) on some of the dodgier parts of the track and just keeping it upright was satisfaction enough.
Felt pretty stink for those who didn't get a race in at all and it is pretty average that an hour and a half of rain can flood the track, despite the fact that there's been heavy rain in the month preceeding. Most dealt with it by drinking which was a great treatment plan, I thought.
Thanks again to the Vic Club and their volunteers for braving such shit weather to give us all a shot at going racing. Catch you all at a dry round 5
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I must admit that I found Minefeild much more enjoyable when I rode in the pissing rain on one of the test days. All the best for round 5 
Originally Posted by Kickha
The wet's great fun, now time to translate some of that to better pace in the dry.
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