Friday - Track Day
Got off to a slow start and took a while to get back to the times I did last outing. (The photographer said to me at lunch time "I'm going to gave to work hard today to make you look good today!" Harsh
)Got there in the end so all was good. The only change I have made to the bike was new rearsets (thanks ryan
) and worse brakes. The night before I left I found one of my brembo calipers leaking fluid so had to go back to standard calipers.Saturday
Of the 2 entries for pre modern it turned out I was the only starter
So it was going to be one old fart on an old dunger amongst a bunch of late model 600s being ridden ridiculously fast by over talented young uns Qualifying
Was on a mission this weekend not to go like a bull at a gate. Start steady and build up. I got the first part right just forgot the build up part. Qualified 12th (out of 18) with a time a bit over a second off my best.
Race 1
Got the best start ever and managed to tack on to a small group of 4 and stayed with them for the distance. Took half a second off my previous PB so was happy with that. Actually put in a faster lap than the guy in front of me but couldn't (didn't have the balls to) get past. Finished 10th outright. (first in class though
)Sunday
Rain
Woke to drizzle and it stayed that way for half the morning. Finally got to use the wets I bought over a year ago. Morning warm up was full wet track which was sort of fun feeling for the limit of the tyres.
Race 2
Track still too wet for slicks so went out with wets. The grid was down in numbers for this one. Got an average start and managed to keep it upright (just). The track was drying and for me it was just about getting around so no real battles. Think I finished 10th again.
Race 3
Rain has stopped and track was dry but cold. Back to slicks. I was having a bit of a running joke with my pit buddy who was on a 600. She (yes she) was just out for a run before racing on her 125 in a national series next weekend and was running around about 3 seconds off her best. This was still just a bit faster than me but she was getting crap starts. I told her if I beat her into tune 1 I was going to make the Yamaha as wide as I could
This worked for about 3 laps before her and one other came around me. I tried to stick with them but couldn’t hang on this time. This is about the time of the weekend when my lack of fitness catches up with me .Race 4
Got my worst start of the weekend and rode a fairly lonely race but got the times back to something half respectable.
Summary
Tough weekend, tough competition. Got a new PB so happy with that. Got it following someone which I am not so happy about. If I can repeat the times with clear track I will be much happier.
I have 6 weeks until the next outing. Lots of time to over think, over analyse and tinker
