I was pretty calm leading up to this event, since I only intended to circulate, and get the hang of the thou, but the weather soon put an end to my zen like state.
I made the wrong call, and went out in qualifying on slicks, and paid the price pretty dearly with a grid spot of fourth to last. And whilst changing to wets I missed out on free practice to boot.
So Superbike race one was essentially my first time out on appropriate tyres, the bike felt good, and I had some fun sliding out of turns, but when I tried to turn it on, the front wheel tucked into turn two and I went for a ride accross the grass, (only to see if I could find more grip there). Finished the race just infront of young Johnno, way the hell back in twentieth.
Superbike race 2. The track had dried out by now, and we had chucked the slicks back on the beast (though they were mismatched it turned out, and not a good combination at that). I was feeling heaps more confident, and wanted to give it a nudge this time out.
Leaving the line, I made up quite a few spots, but wasn't even slightly interested in going round the outside of turn 1 to make up a few more, instead I waited for the back straight to demonstrate why I opposed the "standard cam rule", and went hurtling past a few more punters.
From there I began to just ride a bit faster, and actually managed to ride at a pace which illustrated a setup issue, (one would think that a bad thing, but I was encouraged to know I was at least finding the limit of one aspect of the bike.) Whenever I left a turn with anything resembling a bit of power on, the front of the bike would get quite violent, and the bars were near going lock to lock, forced to short shift into 5th gear from the hairpin, before I could get on the gas.
I managed to hold off Spud, and Johan though and finished 12th this time.
LG litre bike race. Making a couple changes to the bike for this race, I was not too sure how it would go, turned out the advice of some skinny Whitetrash mofo, was right on the money and the bike felt great. Lap one was quite surreal, I'd started near last, and went past a few bikes, out of turn one I found myself on the back wheel of Eddy, and trying not to run him over, him and some others found their stride though, and after he got by Derek McAdam slowly pulled away from me over the duration of the race.
After a couple laps I got past Derek aswell, and finished 6th.
The long and short of it I guess, is this... I had a blast, am feeling comfortable on the 1000, and I'm really looking forward to the season.
Thanks heaps th Phill Snodon(sp) for the use of his tyre warmers, something I possibly should have sorted before the day we were leaving.
And a huge thanks to our sponsors, who have made this all possible.
Pete and Rob for getting me a bike to race, The Station Sports Cafe and Bar for the accommodation, Zany Zues, Sue VFRyou're a star, and a big big thanks to Stew at TSS Red BaronBecause of Stew, we can now also thank AGVSport Leathers, Pirelli Tyres, EK Chains, EBC Brakes, Clover, and Repsol Oils.
Another huge thanks to my lovely lady Rach, your help and support is fantastic. Thanks also to little bro Luke, and Frenchy for your help with tyres and wheel changing, it made my day so much easier.
Bring on the next round, where Dean and myself will be utilising our new sponsorship, and being better equipped to do the bizzo.
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Originally Posted by PrincessBandit
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