Having travelled to Taupo and Manfeild to watch 4 out of the 5 rounds of the Actrix VMCC Superbike Road race series thus far I was obviously interested in racing. It's been great watching the many KB'ers racing and especially the ones I knew from trackdays. With lots of questions from various people about when I was going to have a go at racing and Gah having built himself a race bike, I thought that the last round on the A1GP track at Taupo, a circuit I have done NUMEROUS trackdays on would be the ideal circuit to do my first race meeting on. A couple of nights at Gavin's place got the bike race legal. Thanks Gav!! (And thanks for the advice and loan of the book). Then as a warm-up I did the AMCC Rider training last weekend and used tyre warmers (borrowed) for the first time. Thanks Terry. The entry fee for this event included free membership to the AMCC, which I needed to enter the VMCC race meeting. A few PMs to Bloody Mad Woman Shirley got me straight on what I needed to do/have to enter. Thanks Shirley. Much thought went into what tyres to use - stick to the Pilot Power 2CTs I'm familiar with or get some more track oriented or race tyres. After deciding to stick with what I knew, I even arranged with Chris Mitchell of Chris Mitchell Motorcycles (Taupo) and MotoTT for the option to put some new 2CTs on if I needed them after the test day. He agreed to hold these tyres for me and fit them if I needed them without obligation!! Thanks Chris!! And with Jill being away at MotoGP Philip Island, I got to borrow her tyre warmers for the meeting. Thanks Jill!!
My goals for the meeting were reasonably high - A top three finish was within reason I thought, as I'd run at similar pace to Glenn Mettam at a recent HRC trackday on Track 2, and I knew that he hadn't had much time on the A1GP track. I'd also run at a similar pace to Aria at MotoTT trackdays, though she'd gotten quicker since. These two lead the VMCC Clubmans Series. And some of the others in the series who'd done well at Manfeild probably hadn't done much time on the A1GP track. Issues for me were the race starts, which you don't do at trackdays, and getting onto good pace immediately, rather than slowly working up to it as you do on trackdays. With good advice from Phil, Jimmy and Jason I knew the theory - but making it happen is another matter.
Attending the test day on Friday, the aim was to get up to speed quickly each session and make sure I hadn't forgotten the track. Things went well on the track, and later in the day I went out onto the streets around the track and practiced a few starts. During one of these practices, I lifted the front wheel off the ground for the first time!! It was a fun day sharing a pit with Eddy, Nicky, Matt, Jimmy, Chris, Gavin, Jason and Gah. Thanks Eddy and Nicky!
Even staying at our usual motel didn't help the nerves and I woke up at 2am on race day and couldn't get back to sleep. In my head I was visualising laps around the A1GP track, and figuring out places I could pass Glenn on his GSXR1000 - perhaps at the end of the back straight as he hadn't done many laps on the full circuit, or if I could get better drive out of the final turn out onto the front straight and get inside him, then at the end of the front straight. To reduce the number of variables, I made Gah have breakfast at Burburys - like we usually do on trackdays!
Qualifying
I'd been considering how I might get a good lap in for qualifying with 30 bikes on the track. Getting to the dummy grid after most of the others I decide to hang back and create a gap ahead. Come turn 8 the two race bikes behind get sick of this and go by. Theres no-one in sight on the back straight so I attempt a good qualifying lap. Doesn't work out well though as I'm not really into the groove. On the back straight I've already caught someone probably trying to get a gap themselves. Lap 2 Turn 2 someone comes off in front of me, by turns 8 and 9 I'm in traffic, but as they're smaller bikes I can get by easily under power. Managed a best of 1.45.77 on my 5th lap in traffic which is good enough for 2nd. Looking back, it might have been better to try to go out first but it's unlikely that I could have bettered top qualifier Sloan Frost's time. The video is taken with my new unsorted bullet cam - there's interference on the video, and sounds poor, but at least I've some record of it. Unfortunately I put the video's remote on/off button where I can accidentally turn it off when tucking in, so video finishes on lap 4. Least we get to see a few KBers in action!
Race 1
Real nervous about my first race start, but Jimmy's tip about starts was right and I got a good start and almost past pole sitter Sloan Frost. But he's on my inside and I button off way too early for the turn 1. He gets thru turn 1 in first. Luke Mair meanwhile makes one of his legendary starts and goes round the outside of me on turn 1. I'm ahead of him entering turn 2, but he's got the inside line and takes it. Try to exit turn 5 inside him but that doesn't work. Turn 7 I get around him on the outside and set after Sloan but he's much quicker than me. Did a reasonable job of lap 2 but coming onto the main straight on lap 3 I find I'm in third instead of second, then I make a few more silly mistakes so I tell myself to settle, slow a little as I think theres a little gap back to third. But come the end of the back straight on the last lap I hear Glenn behind me, hold a tight line and manage to get over the line ahead of him. A second in my first race. Very happy with that!! Video of the full race, but its boring after the first half a lap.
Race 2
More nerves before the start. I've qualified second, finished second in the first race. My goal was to finish second again as Sloan's way too quick. On the dummy grid I ask him to slow a little to show me a few lines and perhaps improve my lap times!! Perhaps I shouldn't have thought about it but a crash in the second race would really wreck what has been a great weekend!!. Got moving OK at the start but let the clutch out a little quick and bog a little. So does Sloan. As usual Luke gets a great start, and so does Glenn from grid 6. Luke leads out of turn 1 followed by Sloan and Glenn's coming round the outside of me on one. I get on the gas earlier and am a bit more aggressive going into turn 2 ahead of Glenn and in third place. With Sloan tucked behind Luke I think this is going to be a more interesting race. Going into the sweeper at the end of the old pit straight (I think) Sloan goes inside Luke to take the lead. I follow Luke down the straight and manage to get him round the outside coming onto the front straight. Sloan's not too far ahead and I get a good view of his lines and manage an official 1.42.9 following him. He's pulling away from me and I notice from the time sheets that my times drop to my more usual 1.44s for laps 3 and 4 which is enough to finish second with a better margin over Luke. Managed to accidentally switch off the camera just before the start so no video.
So I qualified second and finished second in both races. Overall second for the meeting. Very happy with that though I can't help thinking what a great story I could tell if Sloan hadn't decided to do his first race meeting on the same day as me!! Nevertheless I had an excellent day. Yes trackdays are fun, but like many of you guys said, racing is better again ( and perhaps addictive?).
Final thanks to Colin for coming down to help on race day, Gah for driving me around this weekend, and Terry and Cherry McCamish for all their encouragement and dinner on Friday night!! And a big thanks to Aaron Slight who's taught me the most about track riding. Oh and thanks to Glenn for the pit garage on Saturday!
One decision made - Eddy can you get me a set of tyre warmers? Yet to decide on race fairings....and whether to continue racing...
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Originally Posted by jrandom
1:42's is bloody good!!!
i cheered when they called your name at prize giving.
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