Cruised upto Manfield from Wellington Friday morning cursing the bands of varying intensities of rain most of the way.
Gate was opened at 8 and in rolled a few of the usual suspects for the "test day", yay not many rotorys, V8s or European or little english cages, not many of anything else for that matter.
Set up and waited for the day to make up its mind what it was doing until it was the bikers turn
No takers accept for one mad bugger Reece Pickett on his R1 every one else waited and watched for the track to claim him at splash or the hairpins he just keep on going round knocking his time down every lap.
More cars arrived the rain stopped and the track began to dry out until it was the bikers turn again this time everyone went out.
New tyre scrub in + wet track = stupid equation, had a number of vicious wobbles on the start/finish straight everytime my rear hit a line and a potentially nasty high side type backend wheel spin out of Higgins that seriously had me wondering if i should just go home (wish i had)
Day began to clear round noon and everybody started to play with a bit more intensity including me until i lowsided applying gradual throttle (spanking it) just out of the apex of the turn at the end of the start finish straight, man am glad i slid from one side of track to the other this stopped me from being run over by Luke J, he later commented that i looked really cool right up to about the time i used my visor to slow down my face on the asphalt, truth is i could hear him laughing all the way round the next three corners.
......wrist felt a bit sorish
......bike was looking a bit ugly
watched everyone go past me for the next 10 minutes and rode back to pits
......strapped wrist
......put some make up on the bike to make it look pretty
bout this time a few people started looking at my new tyres with side ways glances fuck they were corsa111's not supercorsa111's anyway spent the rest of the day doing the sessions without a mishap, wrist was still really sore though.
Round 6
Well after keeping my hand in the fridge all night and worrying about the weather forecast from hells freezer the day dawned overcast but dry.
Got set up in the pit garage and tried not to get blown away during track briefing.
After the tyre scrub session and some more discussion about my new corsas i decided that this rubber would provide the grip i needed for the round.
Qualifying - 7 laps of good clean fast riding stayed out there for the full session and felt i had worked hard for a good position.
Best lap 1.22 043 good enough for Grid Position 8 on the second row, there were 3 riders in the 19's and 2 in the 18's! Bruce Williams and Kevin Waugh were also in the 22's my competition in clubmans B, because of my wrist i was having trouble in the two left hand corners but managing ok.
Race One Disaster.
Clubmans Race One came around and we did our warm up lap and took our places on the grid, i was thinking that i had a good chance of sitting with the front runners if i just got a good start, a good start would mean half the work was done, i was concentrating on a good start.......
.....i got a really bad starti dont know what happened i think i must have put the R6 in reverse or something shit! Kevin (wharfy) was infront of me i didnt care bout anyone else he was my mark and it took 4 laps and a few passing manuoveres to catch him on the back straight i think i was running 8th in the field. I ended up dueling with some guy that was just heaps better into, round and out of the corners , but trusty Yamaha horsepower keep giving me the edge on the straights until we went back into the infield where he was leading me again, i was feeling good adrenalin had taken care of my wrist, i was zoned, i was pumped, i was.....watching my bike skidding off the track out of the infield hairpin fuck! my wrist, my bike, the race, what will my wife be thinking, in that order. First thing i did when i stopped rolling was stand up so my better half could cancel a sudden heart attack.
Two low sides in two days i was gutted, i didnt feel i had over reached my ability like i had the previous day, was it my tyres? my suspension? or just bad luck i dont know but i will need to find out maybe someone out there can help both times it involved throttling on out of the corner with the front losing traction.
Now my wrist really hurt and my engine casing had a hole in it so that was the end of my day.
Looking at my race lap stats my last 3 laps were 1.20's which i only managed to crack once at round 5 so from that point of view i had improved.
Sorry this thread is long i guess its therapy, long story short i just want to say thankyou to everyone that helped me pack up and get me on the road, as i write this my left arm is in a cast and i have a suspected wrist fracture best case two weeks worst case eight weeks, go hard or go home i say.
Ill be enjoying my fortyith tomorrow and going hard cast and all, cheers and peace out.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Her_B4
Karma ... Justice catches up eventually !! 
Stink about your weekend but as every one tells me when i fall off you learn from your mistakes thats why i'm an expert! 
Hope to see you back out there soon and maybe on some different tires, try a number of things and make up your own mind on what works best.
Bookmarks