VMCC Round 5 Race Report

[loosebruce]

Well as Daryl said the weekend got off to a slow start with the wheel bearings collapsing in the trailer, at a convienet time and place for it to do so, cheers for the help Death, and thanks to Manukau Auto and Tyre for the use of their trailer, got to H/town Daryl had cooked me some dinner like the bitch he is and we loaded up and headed for feilding all be it three hours behind the orignal plan.

Huge thanks to Spudchucker & Family fro the hospo, can't say thanks enough mate, all the best with the new arrival due soonish.

Got a call from twosmoker at 6.30 in the morning, was like what the hell are doing mate, asking if we wanted a pit box but me and Daryl had a plan that meant we didn't have to get up so early.
Got to the track signed in had a pie and red bull got all sorted, i had to dump the glycol quickly that i forgot about, opps, and off in the scrub session, mainly to get the edge of the front tyre scrubed in and bed in the new brake pads.

Decided this time round not to do the test day, save the body and a bit of money, i found after doing a hard test day i was lapping well, next day i'd do good in the qualifing and 1st race and then drop away as the day went on, everyone else was getting faster and i was getting slower

In qualifing i was really struggling with rear grip from the new supercorsas it was sliding and spinning almost everywhere, i didn't feel very good about the bike after and was surpirsed to have qualified 5th with a 1.59,145 (something like that) but my previous fastest lap was 1.59.108 so i was straight back to my pace with bike not feeling good, only i qualified 5th last time and didn't like that grid position the one time i got off the line well for me and i got boxed in on the apex and watched 4-5 bikes plough round the outside always got some work to do then.

Before the first race i backed a little rear compression off to try and get the rear to bite instead of slide, i didn't know if it would work until i get out for the race, so fingers were crossed.
Lining up on the grid no muppet moments from a certain someone and we were off for the first turn, i got away ok this time, think 3 bikes had gotten past me, Daryl, McAdam and Carey, tucked in behind Daryl for a lap or so and had Jason Hulme dicing with teh three us, he got past once or twice and me and Daryl would make up for our crap coner speed and out grunt him down the staright, i got a run on the R1 down the front straight and blasted past held a tight line into turn, praying drayl hadn't got the red mist and was about to punt me off with a late must pass bruce braking move put my head down and latched onto to Carey Brier on his new trick 06 ZX10R, funny to say he was holding me up and i was looking for a way past, but it wasn't easy and there was nothing wrong with the 10's straightline performance, almost hit him a couple of times, came up beside him on the outside at the sweeper, maybe to say er hello and i've got the pace to get past you dont make a mistake, i knew he could hear me and on the last lap he made a mistake braking into the outfeild hairpin and run off the track, finished the race in 5th, McAdam was a little ahead, with a few more laps i could've reeled him him but wasn't to be.
I finished with a best lap of 1.58.8XX, wicked touched the 58's. Seemed the slight change on the rear had helped a fair bit which was pleaseing.
Shirrifs had run a 1.53.611, i was feeling pretty good and thinking 57's would be a go, and that wouldn't be far off the pace from Shirrifs and Co, but a 53.6, fuck, where the hell am i gonna find 5 secs, i'm not in any means expecting to kick it with him, but be nice to get close(ish) i'm happy to find half a second a lap, but 5 seconds!!!!! The man i s a tool round manfeild thats for sure.

Race 2 shortened to 7 laps much to my liking, even though the body was still feeling pretty good, no changes to the bike, warmers off and out to the grid, really got to get my starts sorted so i concerntrated on the flag and off i went, Daryl much to my dismay came up beside in the run into turn one, braking he left too much of a gap and i sneaked in and held the line into turn two, wow i had held position and was still in touch with the front group, i imediatly latched onto Sugi's new ZX10R, he had some interesting lines much different to mine, was faster in some spots and i was faster in some others, i found i could hold onto him easy enough, but getting past would be another story, i found i was strong on the brakes in a couple of areas, but tried to bide my time and wait for a mistake, which would be a miracle with the way Sugi rides, he got a good rear slide out the first right on the long cricut and had to back off slightly, argh so did I though, but the second right had a slow line and he knew it too, i got good drive to come up beside but he covered his line more than usual coming across the track to defend and blocking any chance of a pass, smart man he is! Last lap i got little out of shape coming into turn three and run wide and almost off the track Sugi pulled a second on me and after getting back into my stride he was too far for me to catch again so i backed it off had a big gap back to Carey and brought it home in 5th again.
Was pleased with this result i had run a 1.58.2 real comfy behind Sugi and knew i acould find that extra to get a 57, but a 53!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck Knows, i'm sure even Jay is scratching his head to how fast Shirrifs is.
Two 5ths saw me 4th overall for the round, and everytime i get on the bike, i am going faster and improving all the time, i'm identifying areas that need improvements on me and the bike, like the need for some etxra coner clearance, hence a set of rearsets on it's way, my fitness and strength is improving and being in my first season with only really three race rounds behind me am learning all the time. i moved upto 7th in the championship with only scoring points at 3 of the 5 rounds, from crashing out in my first ever race and not attending round 2.
I look foward to taupo, the bike again should be much imrproved with braided lines, rearsets, maybe even race farings, tyre choice will be critical at the Taupo track and will drop the gearing again from last time i was at Taupo, top 5 looks more than possible now.

Thanks for taking the time to read my crap, 3 weeks to Taupo

[Cajun]

Great write up man, awsome work.

[kickingzebra]

Yeeha!! what a machine! Hugely quick laptimes! You guys are an inspiration!

See you in 3!

[cowpoos]

good shit bro....everyone was saying you were flying.....and it sounds like it 57's !!!!

[Fishy]

Good stuff bro!, if you hadn't had the pie before the race you might have seen 56's......

[sugilite:Me]

Awesome effort Bruce!
Yeah, I been picking up those tricky race craft tricks from those sly foxes in the post classic class

I knew it had to be you behind me, love the sound of that yoshie mate, just from not so close up

[emaN]

You're doing the right things bro!
ie-trying different things, watching & learning from others, getting out there racing.... well done!

5secs is gonna happen with different bikes and riders of different (more) experience, innit? give it time dude! you'll get there

[Cleve]

Great write up Bruce. Good to see you again. You were looking smooth and fast out there and well done on some good results. See you at Taupo for final round I hope.

[Matt Bleck]

good stuff Bruce!

[Motoracer]

Awesome shit dude! 1:58s eh? Fuck, that's flying! If that kind of performance got you to 5th, competition must be pretty shit hot this season! Back when I was racing, I think people finishing on pole or in the podiums were getting about that most of the time..

Good work.

[Shaun]

Bruce, its not tyre choice mate, it is spring choice, you have to soft a rear spring in that thing for you, that is why your tyre is tearing up!

Thats half the problem with going with White power, there is no service facility at any track in the country, ie, Robert T and myself with springs on board etc

Those WP shocks are good! if I was you, I would try to sell it to a road rider who wants to upgrade, and grab a Ohlins purelly for the service facillities at the track

[kiwifruit]

looking forward to seeing you in action at Taupo Bruce. Go hard

[skelstar]

Good write-up. Great to watch you battle with Sugi. Look forward to seeing more of the same.

[loosebruce]

Bruce, its not tyre choice mate, it is spring choice, you have to soft a rear spring in that thing for you, that is why your tyre is tearing up!

Thats half the problem with going with White power, there is no service facility at any track in the country, ie, Robert T and myself with springs on board etc

Those WP shocks are good! if I was you, I would try to sell it to a road rider who wants to upgrade, and grab a Ohlins purelly for the service facillities at the track

What would you know anyway, you fast or something

I hear what your're saying about the springs old man, i've been too taupo a fair bit, had a K1 racetec on the rear, but my front was hydraulic locking due to too much oil (you were there that day) and it destroyed the rear, after taking oil out of the front and borrowing a supercorsa from a mate with a K3 the supercorsa wear quite well, but started to get a slight wave pattern off the end of the tread cuts, this was on a stock rear K3 shock, running a slick on the rear at the same settings and track pace i found it too be smooth and not teraing up on the edges, overall wear was very minimal, so i decided to use a front slick as well and even with warmers it cold sheared withen a few laps very badly, i brought the K5 after that rather than spend coin on the K3, this time i run a slick rear and treaded front and had no problems and again very low wear on the rear and front, the WP rear i have already put on a 9.5 up from the stock 8.0 spring which helped no end on corner exit at Manfeild and worked well at taupo, but am reluctant to go any harder in spring rate atm the only odd wear seems to be with the treaded tyres, Chris toasted his supercorsa rear, but seemed he had hydraulic lock on the front end too. But in sayig that Derek Hill also running supercorsa had a smooth wear on the rear, i'm expecting a lot of racers to have issues at round 6, should be interesting to see how it goes.
Although i have not run a treaded tyre with my current setup, so i will try this first, but any sign of the tyre destroying itself i will change over to the slick.

[Shaun]

What would you know anyway, you fast or something

I hear what your're saying about the springs old man, i've been too taupo a fair bit, had a K1 racetec on the rear, but my front was hydraulic locking due to too much oil (you were there that day) and it destroyed the rear, after taking oil out of the front and borrowing a supercorsa from a mate with a K3 the supercorsa wear quite well, but started to get a slight wave pattern off the end of the tread cuts, this was on a stock rear K3 shock, running a slick on the rear at the same settings and track pace i found it too be smooth and not teraing up on the edges, overall wear was very minimal, so i decided to use a front slick as well and even with warmers it cold sheared withen a few laps very badly, i brought the K5 after that rather than spend coin on the K3, this time i run a slick rear and treaded front and had no problems and again very low wear on the rear and front, the WP rear i have already put on a 9.5 up from the stock 8.0 spring which helped no end on corner exit at Manfeild and worked well at taupo, but am reluctant to go any harder in spring rate atm the only odd wear seems to be with the treaded tyres, Chris toasted his supercorsa rear, but seemed he had hydraulic lock on the front end too. But in sayig that Derek Hill also running supercorsa had a smooth wear on the rear, i'm expecting a lot of racers to have issues at round 6, should be interesting to see how it goes.
Although i have not run a treaded tyre with my current setup, so i will try this first, but any sign of the tyre destroying itself i will change over to the slick.

Good luck!