Well, it was the 29th of December and I was still a bit knackered from the two previous days of racing. So stayed in bed as long as I could. Didn't have far to go I was sleeping in our pit garage.
For those of you who can't be bothered going through my first email about the preceeding two days, I'll give you a run down about the bike. 2005 Suzuki GSXR600, Leo Vince race exhaust system, Yoshimura computer, and some aftermarket rear sets. Standard suspension. Cost $7000. We bought it specially for the race, and Glen wanted to step up to supersport anyway so it was an easy decision.
Well the forecast was for rain, and it wasn't going to dissappoint. Most rain I've ever seen while racing. I was really annoyed, because this was the biggest event I had done for nearly two years, and I had never had the opportunity to race on wet tyres before, so I was a relative novice and was sure I'd get spanked.
Glen went out in the first practice session on the slicks that I'd been using the day before, the rain hadn't yet set in. He set a blistering pace, was only 2 seconds off Hayden Fitzgerald while it was still dry. Doing about 1.40. I got out for the last few minutes, but it started to spit and I'd seen how dangerous taupo circuit can be with just a little bit of moisture, so I took it real easy, still forgot that it was the 3.5km long circuit, and ran off the track at the point where it meets the old club circuit thinking it goes straight ahead, stuffed it up again on my second lap aswell. Only got two laps and had to pull in. Then it really started to hose down.
We only had a free set of wets that Phillip Endean had given to us that he'd used before on several occassions, they were the old style wet block tread and were pretty worn in the middle. They were as soft as chewing gum, and I've seen wet tyres destroyed in about ten minutes on a dry track so I had no idea how they were going to last 3 hours. I did a lot of nervous pacing around the pitshed before the start. Eventually I always manage to get my head to a good space and I calmed down once I've sorted my riding plan out in my head. This was pretty rough though, I wasn't sure how I'd be able to maintain a good race pace in badly worsening conditions. Took the bike out in the second qualifying/practice sessions for just a couple of laps to get a feel for the wet tyres. Felt remarkably good and I was definitely one of the quicker riders. This made me pumped again.
The start of the race was a Le Mans style to help prevent carnage at the first corner. All the bikes lined up on one side of the track with all the riders on the other side. When the flag drops you have to run to the bike jump on get it started kick it into gear and get away. Glen had qualified us in second position out of the 20 bikes which put a lot of pressure on me. Still I did a lot of athletics and I've not met anyone who could get out of the blocks faster than me on more than the odd occassion. Glen had a busted knee, and with our plan of 45 minute stints it would mean that Glen would get to do the run to the chequered flag, being the faster rider.
The organisers were having trouble working out how to do the start with the flags, but eventually when the green flag dropped. I bolted, and not being used to sprinting in 10kg's of wet leathers and another 5 kg's of protective gear I just about over extended and fell flat on my face luckily I recovered and found myself first to the bike, had it started and got away. Was neck-a-neck with Fitzgerald. Brilliant, let him into the first corner in front, good I'd be able to follow him round while I learnt to ride on wets. But after the first couple of corners I realised he wasn't going very hard, and so, when I saw him looking back expectantly for someone to take the reins I thought bugger it, I'm going to make all the ground I can. So I went past on the brakes into a corner. Wasn't long before the Merkel/Rajek team came through on me though. Merkel being a 2 time World Superbike Champion, and Rajek one of the current top supersport racers in the country. That bike had a lot more pace so i couldn't stick on it. Another bike came through, and then Hayden obviously got more comfortable on the wets and went through aswell and cleared off. I was in 4th position, and a little worried, because my aim was 3rd place, but then I realised that there was another few hours ahead, and with the track conditions rapidly worsening and the puddles getting deeper than the tyre tread, there was definitely going to be the odd mishap amongst the front runners.
Now that I was out on my own, I could settle down and try and work out how to ride on the wets properly and gain pace. It's the most amazing feeling being able to ride a motorcycle around corners as fast as wet tyres allow you to do. Quite frankly it's unbelievable. A few puddles that you hit at well over 200kph were now too deep even for the wet tyres, and you could feel the handlebars turn slightly and the revs spike to redline as you skim over them at full throttle. The odd lapped bike that I came up on was spraying up huge rooster tails of water, so I wonder what I looked like.
About halfway through my 45 minute stint, I could see Hayden up ahead, he must have slowed down after getting a few frights from the aquaplaning. I slowly drew him in over a couple of laps, and could see that I was using more throttle down the straights and braking later comfortably than him. I was also trying to be gentle with the tyres, because we were genuinely very concerned about the safety of them towards the end of the 3 hours. So I wasn't giving it too much welly out of the corners, was trying to use the front tyre more than the rear, and standing the bike up before getting on full throttle. Every lap coming onto the front straight, the painted gridlines around that last sweeper entry would cause the bike to dive on each one, now that was scary. Also on full throttle on the front straight the gridlines were constantly cutting the rear tyre loose. Soon I realised that Hayden's pace was noticeably slower than I felt I could maintain and he was spraying water and road grit all over me, so I decided to make the pass and clear out. I think the softness of the standard suspension was really well suited to the wet conditions, and Glen had backed the preload and compression dampening off when it had started raining. I don't like to think about the mechanical stuff when I get in race mode I just like to think about the riding, so it was great to be in a team with Glen, cause he was obsessed with the engineering side of it. I'm not stupid, I just have a very focussed mind, and feel like crap if I can't focus on the riding. Now I was out on my own and hauling ass, got down to 1.55's in the torrential conditions. I played with touching the knee down on some of the tighter corners... cool. Was also keeping the bike quite upright but getting my weight really far over. I need to employ that riding style more in the dry conditions and I'm sure I could gain A LOT of time.
I got us to our first pit stop in third position. Glen was really stoked, and quite a few people commented on me catching up and passing Hayden. My head swelled to bursting haha. Apparently when I'd upped the pace I'd actually stopped the frontrunners from making ground away from me. So we were still in the running and easily on the lead lap. Our pit grew consisting of Malcolm, Andrew, Leigh and my mate Paully were busy pouring two fuel cans in the petrol cap at the same time, fuel running all over the bike, hilarious. Glen jumped on and cruised out. Soon settled into a good fast pace easily matching my pace. His prior experience on wet tyres paying dividends. Found out that I'd managed to get down to a very respectable 1minute 55seconds in the worst conditions I've ever seen at Taupo, which was noticeably quicker (2-3 seconds) than the Fitzgerald/Holmes team but noticeably slower (2-3 seconds) than the Merkel/Rajek team. Glen upped the pace further once the rain eased and managed to get down to 1 minute 52 seconds. Maybe the puddles were no longer causing aquaplaning. He'll no doubt do a decent write up. I was sure he was going to drop it riding like that but he managed fine.
continued...
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Originally Posted by scracha
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