Nicko Race Report - Sound of Thunder 09
My 3rd Sound of Thunder and this year I had the privilege of racing the KTL/Anglo full blooded Ducati 999 Superbike. This was the first time I'd gotten down to Friday practice and was glad we had an opportunity to relearn the track and work on improving the setup of the bike and my ability to ride it! The practice day was a lot of fun, we were using the same tyres which had done Manfield (albiet only 4 laps), a few track days at Puke and the day at Paeroa. One of the things we are learning about the bid Duke is the clickers actually work and small changes in spring rate, dampening speed and geometry really change the bikes handling characteristics which is a bit or a double edged sword for setting up the bike as you can make lots of improvements but you can also be a loooong way out.
Saturday and only had a couple of races, Best of Italian and Formula 1. Had a new set of Pirelli rubber on for the morning, Robert Taylor from Ohlins was down and brought a heavier spring which we fitted first thing, still didn't have quite the feeling from the tyres we were after and lap times didn't improve too much and finished 3rd in Best of Italian behind another 999 and a 1098. The heavens then opened and we had a very wet F1 race, was pretty nervous going into this one as wanted to keep the bike in one piece for the Sunday and first time on the 999 in the wet, let a lot of the field go on the first lap (few too many as my team mate Vicki dusted me into the hairpin on lap 1! - nice!), the bike felt pretty good in the wet and got consistantly faster across the race, no great result but good to experience a twin for the first time in the wet.
Sunday we got 4 laps practice in the morning on a 95% dry track then a big break till after lunch for our 2nd F1 race. Still working on setup and lack of feel from the bike, the tyres were billiard table smooth each time we came in and needed to work in getting more feel and heat into them on track. Dropped the front end 5mm and hello now we're getting somewhere.
Tried heaps of new stuff across the day including going out in the conti cup race on new tyres, standard (heavier) front rim, Vicki's rear shock and new settings all round - change one thing at a time....whatever! Felt pretty good even with all the changes and back to normal for the next race. A grade got 7th in first race out with big gaps either side of me so bit of a lonely race. 2nd A grade race and things just clicked, the tyres were working, I was getting a lot more movement on the bike and things were feeling great, latched onto a group in 2nd-5th and diced with Jamie Galway on the 675 a bit, tried everything to get past
him and Mark Taylor on the 1098 but couldn't quite get there and finished 5th. Went 3 seconds quicker in this race and was pleased with how the bike was finally feeling (if only it felt this good at start of the weekend!).
Finished the day out in the North vs South race, almost got the holeshot but Paul Dobbs got through and I tried to hold up Dan Ornsby as much as I could to give Dobsy a gap, finished up 3rd in this one and Dobsy held off hard charging Dan to bring the cup back up North.....again! Shot Dobsy!
A very cool weekend and thanks to the organisers and other competitors for another stellar SOT! Making great headway with the bike and the team is learning all the time about how to get some fast out of it, can see at least 3-4 seconds at Ruapuna we could brush off with improvements so encouraging we're heading in the right direction.
Big thanks to Kerry and the team at KTL for all your support, Anglo American bike club who were all in fine form at the meet, Dave, Rob, Cherry and Jared for all the help in the pits and encouragement across the weekend (you guys were awesome!), Vicki for getting the bike down, helping polish my bike and getting an AWESOME 1st in B grade, Johan for the garage and grip tape, Robert Taylor from Ohlins as always for his continued support of the team.
Also thanks to James Smith and Mark Taylor for their great hospitality and to MV Nut for the wicked ride to Akaroa on Monday!
A lap of Ruapuna...
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Great to see yourself and Vicki moving in the right direction all the time NickO. It's awesome to see the support from the whole team paying off. It seems like a total team effort.
SPONSORS OF Paul Dobbs ON THE FLYING DUCATI'S 749R & 999
Very nice indeed
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