Nicko Race Report - AMCC Rnd 2 - Pukekohe
KTL Motorcycles, Anglo American MC Club, Motohaus 2008, Bike Tranz
After a winter off the track I was flattered to be asked to ride the KTL/Anglo American 999 race bike...my answer of 'does a duck with a hard-on drag weed' confirmed that yes indeed I would love to. I joined Rob, Cherry and Dave from the Anglo bike club on the Friday to pick up the bike and this was the first time we set our hands on the 2005 Ducati 999R that we'd be racing 2 days later at Pukekohe.
First impressions...looks....tick....trick parts.....tick....sound...holy shite that's *******! The bike is immaculate and has a fair bit of bling parts on it so spent Sat avo giving it the go over and drooling in the garage.
Sunday race day and took both my 675 and the 999 to the track, racing the 675 in F2 and the 999 in F1 and pro-twins. The tyres on both bikes had already done a meeting and were 8 months old but still had a bit of life left and we decided to leave them on as this was a chance to have a shake down after over 8 months off the track for me and the bikes and to get to know the duke, even had to drain the gas in both as they'd been sitting idle for so long.
Out on the 999 in practice and gingerly headed out with an open mind and a not too open throttle, the bike is fantastic and plays with your head a bit as you've got so much ground clearance and the chassis can take any line and what seems like any speed. I barely got my knee down in the first practice and kept running over the inside white lines of the corners as it just loved turning tighter and tighter into the corner. First time with a bike with a slipper clutch as well and keen to explore this component a bit in the future, still was in the habit of keeping on the clutch into the corners. Torque is fantastic and top end not bad for a twin, would keep up with the 1000's out of castrol until they got the legs down the straight and took off. Brakes not bad although think they could use some new fluid and didn't have quite the front end feedback under brakes that I'd like so this will be one of the goals for setting up next weekend at Manfield. First practice session got into the 64's.
Into the racing, F1 and F2 were ok races just mixing it up mid-pack getting my head back into race mode. Was kept real busy during the day and had back to back races swapping bikes which made things interesting adjusting between the triple and twin. Riding 675 was like getting back on the horse so will talk about the Duke mostly, had a couple of 'oh shit' moments when a Kwaka locked up into Castrol and I nearly ran into him and again into the hairpin during first lap of F1 race when I heard a lock-up right behind me, gassed on as much as I could and the guy on a GSXR thou must have just missed me as looked back and he was into the kitty litter, hope he's ok as race was red-flagged and ambulance picked him up.
Pro-twins was a bit of fun, clutch on the Duke is quite sensitive making it a little unpredictable off the line, this caught me out in the race as I feathered the clutch and the bike shuddered a few times which was deemed as a jump start...since when does Auck club enforce jump starts??Ah well, do the crime, do the time! So punted around and crossed the line first but with a 20 second penalty relegated me back to 3rd, luckily the team hadn't mentioned jump-starts when they talked about punishable offences!
Next race and threw the chain off taking off from the start line - what is it with me and starts! Parked the bike up and watched the F1 race from the outside of turn 1, not a bad vantage point if you get the chance. Fixed another chain back on the bike and went out in pro-twins, started off back of the grid and gently eased away well after the lights went out to avoid any of those nasty time penalties...got through the field and about the 4th lap....black flagged! Man, not my day, came in and apparently had a bit of smoke coming off the bike, turns out there was a tiny nick in one of the cases from the chain off that when pressurised was leaking drips of oil onto the exhaust, came in and we decided to call it a day from there as we'd already had 6 races and 3 practices so we were all happy to pack up the trailer and satisfied with a reasonable first outing on the bike. Got down to 62's and I can now say I've learned how to ride the duke but definitely need some more track time before I learn how to race it, lots of potential and the bike can definitely handle more than I was throwing at it so looking forward to exploring what it can offer!
We'll be at Manfield, Wanganui, Taupo, potentially Nelson, Paeroa, Sound of Thunder this summer so come say gday if you see us in the pits!
Thanks again to Kerry at KTL Motorcycles, go see him if you need any Euro/American sports/race/cruiser, Anglo-American MC Club, Motohaus 2008 and Biketranz.
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