Glen’s Nats Attack
What a weekend! So many ups and downs…. Like a yoyo!
Being my usual slack arse, nothing is sorted out until the Friday afternoon before. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the Friday test day, due to work commitments.
Saturday, practice 1:
I was fairly anxious heading out the gates and onto the track. This weekend was going to show me the level of my ‘real’ skill. I have done fairly well in street stocks, but 125GP is a step ahead of that.
I was circulating at a medium pace, getting the feel for the track and the bike. I have only ridden the 125 at manfeild at a track day before, so there is still much to learn about the bike. Near the end of the session I notice that the temp has jumped through the roof, and also that the bike has lost a lot of power.
When back in, I check the water level to find that its lost half of the water! Didn’t know where that went.
Replaced the head O-rings, as I thought they might be leaking. Topped it up and gassed up for the next practice/qualifying. I was 8th at then end of this session with a best lap time of 1:20.730
Saturday, practice 2:
My head was in totally the wrong place for this one. The bike lasted 2 laps before loosing all power and the temperature whet through the roof. In the end I got really frustrated, and when another rider passed me, I followed them into the sweeper, in which I stuffed it up and ran off the track. Wow. That was scary. I scrubbed as much speed as I possibly could before leaving the track, and into the gravel. I dunno why, but the gravel doesn’t last very long before it goes back into grass. I panicked when I saw the tyre wall coming, and gave a little too much front brake. Dropped it at walking speed, and felt like a real twat. Ugh.
Back into the pits to take some tape off to try get the temp down. I did half a lap, with Zero tape on the Rad and my temp reached 80 degrees! I limped it back to the pits, and shut it down.
I pulled the head and barrel as obviously I hadn’t fixed my water leak. And the water was getting into the combustion chamber. Thankfully Steve was there as I was inspecting things, as I hadn’t noticed the HUGE crack right through my VHM head insert! Yay! This is a good thing, as I have found the problem. Luckily I have several VHM heads, so put a new one in and put the engine back together. Gassed it up for the first race.
Saturday, race 1:
I qualified 11th overall, so not great positioning, but thankfully a great start helped me into 6th place. I was hanging in there right behind K14, until the 3rd lap where I stuffed the corner up and went moto’x’ing yet again. Got back onto the track in second to last place. Took a couple of laps to get my head together. Once I was settled, I could see a group of bikes ahead of me, so I rode hard and got past them. That was fairly easy. By that time I could see another group further up, but with the laps running out, and me running outta steam, I settled for where I was in 11th place. So semi salvaged it. Got a best lap of 1:19.257
Sunday race 1:
After a nice sleep on the concrete in the juggins pit, I had plenty of time to think and analyze what I was doing on the track and where I could improve. My worst corner was Dunlop (the sweeper) so I spent a lot of time trying to find ways to improve.
We hold out qualifying grids from Saturday, so I’m still in 11th.
Once again I get a good start and am in 7th place unfortunately I loose contact with the group ahead of me, and end up alone for most of the race, until the end, where I get caught napping, as a bright orange TZ passes me! Crap, I do my best to get him back, but his bike is Fast! Or, should I say mine is really really slow. Had a good dice with him and finished 8th in that race. Cant complain. But I know I can go faster Best lap time of 1:17.703
Sunday race 2:
Im gonna do my best to keep with front group this time. I get another good start and am in 6th place, right behind K14. I get passed down the straight by another bike. I hold onto him, and he makes a mistake on the exit of Dunlop, and I get past. I catch right up with k14 and nearly crash into him into turn 1!! Him and Gregor Stevens were holding each other up, and I came rushing in. After my nights thinking, the sweeper and turn 1 have become my best corners. I can make a lot of time there. Every lap after then I would loose them down the straights and catch them back up through these corners. But never enough to make a pass. Or if I did make a pass, it wouldn’t stick, due to a straight coming up.
My worst corner was the hairpin, exiting it, my gear ratios are all wrong and as I come from 1st to 2nd I have trouble keeping traction in the rear. I think the tyres shagged. So after having trouble to get the power down, then I click 3rd gear, which has a huge gap in the ratios, and the bike falls outta power band, I lost about a second on everyone just on the exit of that corner. .
At the end of battling it out, I never did make a pass, and the bike that ran wide at the sweeper got past me down one of the straights (manfeild has too many straights) So I finished 6th in that race.
Summary:
I am fairly happy with how I went. I KNOW there is at least 2 easy seconds of improvement needed from me as a ride, and maybe a second and a half with the bike being fixed up. $2000 on the bike will have that sussed, and I just need more track time. This is the third time I have ridden the 125, and im still learning how to ride the thing!!
Watch out next year, as I will be there in full force for the full national series!!
Cheers guys,
Glen
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Bert
Bookmarks