Tri-hard wharfy

[wharfy]

Practice

Rode up on Friday with tools in tank bag and paddock stands and tyre warmers on the back of the Hornet. Set myself up in a stall, pleasantly surprised that power was still free in stalls.
Did one session on my old Conti Sport attacks, enjoyed the new track surface. I then had the new Race Attacks fitted (thanks Shaun). Did a couple of sessions on the new tyres, they seemed pretty good, a bit different to the old ones so I didn't push to hard ( I seemed to be running a bit wide on the exit )
Shaun had a look at the new tyres and added some pre-load to the rear shock (thanks again Shaun)

Qualifying

Pretty uneventful, clubmans ran with the post classics and I qualified 7th , 2 sec slower than my personal best so I was happy with that for qualifying.

Race 1

I have to say the start was a cluster-fuck ! Clubmans were to start behind the posties but a lot of people seemed very confused about where everyone should be. Then OIL was discovered on the track and I was told to go back to the pits. Everyone stopped in pit lane, after a 5-10 minutes I went back to my pit along with several others. When it looked like things were ready to go I joined everyone in pit lane only to wait what seemed like forever while another oil spill was cleaned up.

After the warm up, we gridded with only slightly less confusion than the first time, I was in the front row of the clubmans and got a not bad start but had to work my way through half a dozen posties before turn 1. I had a pretty good race, but could not catch Dwayne Bishop or Bruce Williams so came third in clubmans. My fastest lap was 1 ½ seconds slower than my best so was a wee bit disappointed.

Race 2

This was wet and there seemed to be a few gaps on the start line, but there was no waiting and with warm tyres I got a good start and was the first of the clubmans into turn one, a bit of passing and being passed by posties and then I seemed to be in a little world of my own. That didn't last long and Bruce Williams shot past me on the brakes going into Higgins and promptly disappeared into the distance. There I was back in my own little race finished second. The Conti Race Attacks (medium) seem pretty good in the wet, plenty of warning when starting to loose grip and not really scary, someone with more talent and balls could probably have a lot of fun with them.

Katie's brother came up in his ute for a gander so I loaded the bike on that and didn't have to ride back to Wellywood in the wet. I was pretty happy heading home second in the clubmans points.

This is pretty cool fun, I enjoyed sharing the garage with Craig, Flame, Nic O and the KTL crew. Thanks to Shaun Harris for taking the time to help a clubmans plodder even though he was working on the set up of his own bike.

Roll on Wanganui !!!

[Toast]

Good on ya Wharfy. Fine effort getting out there and being competitive on DOT tyres in the wet. Respect that!

[roogazza]

Riding to meetings ! I don't know how long you can keep doing that Wharfy ? I mean we all have woopsies !
Must be time for a trailer or ute ? Having said that I like your style, I had a mate in Aussie who did that in his early days . Rode to the first 6 hr. at Amaroo, changed his bars etc , won it or got second and rode home !!! Mind you he was very special..... Gaz.

ps sounds like I'd better come out and keep you honest huh ?

[wharfy]

Riding to meetings ! I don't know how long you can keep doing that Wharfy ? I mean we all have woopsies !
Must be time for a trailer or ute ? Having said that I like your style, I had a mate in Aussie who did that in his early days . Rode to the first 6 hr. at Amaroo, changed his bars etc , won it or got second and rode home !!! Mind you he was very special..... Gaz.

ps sounds like I'd better come out and keep you honest huh ?

No, it's OK really, you don't need to, I'll be OK....

[roadracingoldfart]

ps sounds like I'd better come out and keep you honest huh ?

Do i smell the aroma of a comeback for the old fella ????

Yahooooo

[roadracingoldfart]

No, it's OK really, you don't need to, I'll be OK....

Take the challenge ... you know you want too.
bitchslap the old bugga lol

[Shaun]

Thanks for the thanks Wharfy

[wharfy]

I had entered Wanganui in F1 as they had no clubman's and the Hornets engine capacity precluded it from any other class.
The organizers of the event phoned me the day after entries closed and asked if I would mind running in Post Classics to make room on the F1 grid for overseas riders, what can you say ? Yes of course !

Katie's brother kindly loaned me his UTE to transport the Hornet to Wanganui and Taupo (Cyber Electrical Wanuiomata).
I travelled up on the evening of the 25th and found a wee corner to set up in.
Walked the course with Deano who gave me some useful tips like “you should get your knee down here Wharfy” .
I had a tent but couldn't be arsed pitching it so just slept in the UTE.

Got examined by the scrutineers early on race day , it was a cracker day hot as.
Being a newbie I got a special familiarization session before the normal class practice. The course is VERY bumpy and the road markings are VERY slippery even on a nice hot day.

Practice/qualifying session 1
Over a minute to get round - about 5 seconds of the pace - completely stuffed up the Robert Holden corner every lap and bounced off the kerb of the traffic island on one lap and almost lost the front end on the road markings in another !!
I had reduced the pre-load on the rear shock for this event but wasn't sure if it had made any difference so I returned it to the previous setting.

Practice/qualifying session 2
Pretty much the same as session one only worse – the bumps seemed bumpier and the road markings more slippery and I went from 7th to 11th fastest, bugger....
Merged times put on grid number 9.
I returned the pre-load on the shock to the settings for session 1. I know, I know, this is arse about face and very un-scientific, but knobs are for twiddling right ?

Race 1
I got a not bad start but any advantage I had was quickly swallowed up by the time we got through turn 1 and I had a very scary moment when I almost lost the front end going into turn 2, I managed to regain control ( or more correctly stopped doing what I was doing to loose control ) and bounced round the corner. The rest of the race became a bit of a blur but I was really enjoying myself, especially the esses, the front end on the Hornet hardly ever comes off the ground on a track but crossing the crown of the road gives it a nice little loft that is very gratifying. I was still unable to get Robert Holden corner right and on lap 4 #750 Tony McQueen (who I'd managed to get the jump on at the start) slipped inside me. I chased hard and got close to him a couple of times but to no avail, I couldn't get past.
I was disappointed to see the chequered flag, I didn't want to stop. After much waiting the results of race 1 were up - 6th – and best time of 58.9 very happy with that.
I resisted the temptation to twiddle with the shock pre-load again.

Race 2
Shaun had finished racing for the day and said I could use his generator for my tyre warmers, a little boost for my confidence. Thanks mate.
Another not bad start and once again the guy's in front of me pulled away, I had a couple of interesting moments coming into turn one hard on the brakes after coming down the hill I could feel the back end coming off the ground, yee – haa, that had never happened before in a race !!

I was having so much fun – again I didn't want to stop and was disappointed to see the chequered flag 6th again but lap time down a second to 57.9

This is an awesome meeting, I only used second gear except for about a 50 metres in third down the start finish straight, the Hornets lack of top end was not an issue. It was a real buzz having the front wheel come up (even if only a small amount)

At the after match function when my name was called I did say “ I can't take that my bike is not a post classic” but was told to “just take the bloody thing” , so I did. I hope none of the post classic racers are too pissed off at me. I headed to Taupo as happy as a pig in shit

Race 1 6th 58.964
Race 2 6th 57.950

Round 3 Taupo RR Sectacular

I Arrived in Taupo from Wanganui at about 11:00 pm and decided that I would spend my prize money (YES PRIZE MONEY !!) from Wanganui on a motel (I had been planning on camping).
I arrived at the track nice and early and feeling pretty pleased with myself, found the garage I was sharing with Craig, Vicki, Nicksta, sugilite (who arrived with tyre warmers and paddock stands on the back of his bike ) and one another whose name I can't remember (sorry dude part of getting old). Managed to get through scrutineering OK.

Practice
Missed it because I didn't read the instruction properly, Bears, clubmans and post classics were supposed to go out with F3 for first session Doh !!! This session wasn't timed so not too much of a problem.

Practice/Qualifying 1
Felt good to be on the track again and I quite liked the shorter version, the Hornets top end is limited a bit for a 900. I followed Flame around for almost the entire session, I had never been able to keep her in site before ! I even managed to sneak past her on the back straight ! I was pretty pleased to see my time was 1:22.76

Practice/Qualifying 2
This session also felt pretty good so I was surprised to see the time was slower
1:23.03 ?

Race Day
During practice I had only been using second gear and a bit of third on the front straight so for race day I dropped one tooth on my front sprocket. The theory being I would get a bit more drive out of the turns and get into third round the sweeper and on the main straight. I went out for the scrub session just to test my theory and it seemed to hold up.

Race 1
Got a pretty good start (the Hornet has quite a good launch if I get it right) not very good turn one and a pretty good race I thought. I had no real clue as to how I was doing as the field contained Clubmans,BEARS and Post Classics. I new that the best I could hope for was third as there were a couple of guys in Clubmans doing 1:13s and 1:14s (which would have qualified them in the top ten in 600 supersport !!)
I was not to disappointed with the eventual 4th place and 1:20.39

Race 2
The grid positions for this race where from the results of race 1 so I was a row further up the grid for this. Another good start and I new that #66 Bruce Williams (Busted) was behind me at turn one so was trying extra hard to keep him there. After a couple of laps he managed to pass me coming out of turn one, quickly followed by sugilite (post classics) I followed his lines as best I could and he managed to drag me to a 1:19.9 and another 4th place.

I was pretty happy with my riding and and had a great day, great company and an awesome BBQ

Big thank you to the organizers and volunteers and of course my fellow racers, I had a great time.




Thanks for all your support Katie xxxx

[Shaun]

Hey wharfy, if you are still interested in a 600, I will have a GSXR k7 600availlable after ch ch in january.

Yoshi pipe
Yoshi ecu
Yoshi footpegs
Loads of sprockets
Power commander
Front and rear stands
Spare wheels with discs

NO PHOTO's Now, as still finishing it!

$ 9k cash

NO ROAD GEAR AT ALL