Levels
Round 2 of the NZ superbikes 2009
THe scene of so much carnage last year - lets see if we can do any better.
Wednesday: Test day. Arrived in the morning, and waited till lunchtime to do a half day testing. Spent most of the afternoon pootling around trying to learn the track. Stunningly slow - only sitting in the low 1:15's.
Friday: Unofficial Practice. Decided that I couldn't get the bike to hold tight lines in the corners, which is something you need at levels. So spent quite a lot of time messing with setup. Reducing pre-load at the front to get the bike to turn better, but then went too far an the thing was bottoming out under brakes. Got better slowly through out the day.
Saturday. Practice and qualifying. Still trying to get bike setup better as it's taking so much effort to pull the bike round I'm completely buggered after a couple of laps. Made a couple more changes before the start of qualifying and got 1 1:14.1. Still slow, but enough to qualify 16th.
Sunday: Race day. Made a couple more changes just before the first race and got a kind of average start. Got held up behind Greg in the first lap and then made a few mistakes while trying to get past him, so he got a couple of seconds ahead. After about 8 or 9 laps, the fast guys started catching up so I spent a bit of time looking behind to try and make sure I didn't get in the way. Garath Jones and James Smith are really in a different league - those guys were flying. Finished 1 lap down in 14th. Oh well, a point is a point. Fastest lap was a 1:13.1 - about 1.5 seconds faster than last year, but I really wanted to get around 1:12.5
Race 2: Much better start, but then again so did everyone else. Had a half hearted attempt to get round Greg in turn 2, but he ran wide so I had to sit behind him down the back straight. I knew I was going to get past him at the end of the straight into the fast lefthander, so I just waited until he braked then went up the inside. Couldn't keep with the guys ahead, so just put my head down to stay in front of greg until the end. Still not out the 13's but that circuit is hard work. Finished 14th and a couple more points.
In christchurch now. Test days tommorrow and possibly wednesday so still need to work on bike setup.
But greg got his photo on the back page of the timaru herald (behind garath) so that was cool. http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaruherald/4822707a6434.html
The championship will go down to the wire (barring incidents) between james smith and garath jones at the moment, although dennis will be strong at Ruapuna.
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Originally Posted by svs
LOL
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