Masters of mac park race report
Hi all.
It was a hard and long struggle to get to this race since I blew my motor up at Broadford in the last round. I was still working on the bike the night before I left for Mac Park (Thursday). I arrived at mac park south australia late Thursday night (11.00pm) as I had to run the motor in before the racing on Saturday. The forecast for the weekend was not good so anything could happen. I had to be up early the next morning to get ready and double check the new motor over. I went and got all the usual stuff out of the way and got ready for my first track run. I had a talk to track officials who gave me the ok to sneak out with some other classes as well as my own class as i had to come back Home Friday at 1.00pm for a funeral. I went out as many times as possible, but as luck would have it I only got 4 runs on the track, with an hour till I had to leave I had a major oil leak. I tried everything to stem the flow and find out where it was coming from. It looked like the oil was coming from the cam chain tensioner gasket so I reinstalled it with some gasket maker. With the bike half reassembled time was up and I had to make a dash for home. When I returned it was just on dusk. I finished putting the bike back together and changed the oil. There were very little metal filings in the old oil so that was encouraging.
I awoke Saturday morning to the very loud rattle of hail on the trailer roof. This was not the start to the day I was hoping for. Lol. i went out for a quiet run with the first group of riders(first timers) and all felt good, at this stage I hadn’t taken the motor above 5 thousand rpm. The next run I had was the one and only qualifying run. I had a m8 stand at the fence on the start straight and tell me when 10 of the 17 minute qualifying session were up. When I saw his signal it was time to open her up and see if I could get a decent grid position. The bike was running with a new set of air filters pods on it as I replaced the stock air box. I had not had time to tune the carbies as I was still trying to run the motor in. I took a gamble and roughly sorted out the jetting. I was wrong and the bike wouldn’t develop any power above 10000rpm’s so I only managed a 1.24 in the wet for the first class I entered (over 600cc) which put me on grip position 21. This wasn’t too bad as there were some rather quick blokes in this class. This was my second choice class to race in (if everything went well I was going to do this class as well as my c20 class). The bike still had no power and was running terribly so I tried to fix the situation by dropping the tank back down on the frame in its original position. The next qualifying was for my class (c20). The bike was running a bit better and I managed to pull a 1.20 which put me in grid position 3.
The first race came along and it was the over 600 class. I was a long way back on the grid which made for a tight turn one with lots of bikes trying to get position. I had changed the air filter system back to the stock air box and factory pro jets and the bike was flying again. I had some good battles and finished well in 17th. The next race was the c20’s. I was starting of 3rd. I got a cracker of a start and came from third to first at the first corner. I led for the first half a lap when a Ducati 998 passed me under brakes. I followed him and got close enough for a pass at the pine tree corner. I slipped under him and led for the final lap. The Ducati rider made a suicide passing move on me at the last corner and beat me to the line by 43 thousands of a second(about a tyre width). So I got 2nd place for the first race. I got back to the pits and stopped the bike. I was all of a sudden surrounded by oil smoke. The bike was still leaking oil. I immediately started to pull the bike apart to try to once again find where the oil had come from. I had another race coming up very soon and couldn’t race with the bike like this as there was oil all over my rear tyre and fairings. I had the torch looking for oil leaks but none were showing up (oil everywhere but nowhere specifically). My mates and my pit crew were scouring the bike with torches to find the oil leak. Then someone said here it is. We had found a cracked oil line. I immediately thought I would have to miss the rest of the days racing until I could get it silver soldered, as i was contemplating what to do another race m8 came along with good news. The club and officials had decided to end the racing early that day just before my next race (phew). I found a guy from another race team(r sup racing) that had some silver soldering equipment and the oil line was sealed. Once again I worked under torch light to reassemble the bike. I ran the bike and checked (in the dark) for leaks, I couldn’t see much so I left it till the morning.
Once again I awoke to hear not hail but steady rain on the trailer roof, bugger not again. My pit crew and I went to the pits to check if the reassembly work had fixed the oil leaks. All seemed ok. All the classes had a 5 minute warm up before racing started so I went out fast and put the pressure on the oil line to see if our efforts had been successful. I came back in and had another good look…bugger, there was oil leaking into the bottom catch tray. I thought my race meet was over. We searched a bit more and found an oil pressure gauge I had put in was leaking at the join. I removed it and plugged the hole. We cleaned up and restarted the motor. We ran it for a while till it was hot and checked again…..hooray the oil was staying where it was supposed to, in the motor. I went out for the next race with my fingers crossed. Lol. I got off to a good start and was second into the first corner. I stuck with the Ducati for a while but then lost touch. A Honda cbr929 poked a front wheel under me at the top of the circuit and went into second, I stuck with the Honda as the Ducati was pulling away. The Honda had pulled of a tight but great move on me as I wasn’t expecting it at all in that Part of the track. I caught back up in a lap or two and put a move on the Honda into pine tree corner. I was back in second with a lap top go. I got 2nd again with the cbr close behind. i was running low on rubber so i decided to only do my main class, c20.
The last race for my class started and I got a good start. But this time it was on a dry track and the two rides (Ducati And Honda) swept around me into turn 3, I gave it everything but just couldn’t hold onto them, they pulled away and were getting quicker. I settled for 3rd and took 2nd overall for the c20 class.
The master of Mac Park was next. compared to the other races this was an endurance test.a 15 lapper. There was a fair bit of waiting but the race finally arrived. I was in with the big boys in the main group. It was going to be hard to stay with the faster guys. I started out of 27th on the grid and after 15 hard laps I came in 20th.
I was going to do the last round of the vrrc titles which I am currently in third place but rebuilding the motor and other expenses has seen me have to cancel the trip.(as well as running low on brownie points) So this mac park race meet will be my last for the year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who sponsored and supported me throughout 2012. Thank you to my pit crew family and friends as without these people I wouldn’t be racing.
I may only be doing a few races next year but am planning on doing the island classic again in January.
thanks steven #36
