Rideday and Race, Oran Park Sep 28

Thanks to:
Hourglass Photography (my wife Vanessa )
Campbelltown Motorcycles for helping.
nick nakedtwin at NSW RATs for lending stands and warmers.

I replaced the leaky shock from last round with a 2006 zx6r rear shock: it worked well, put in shorter dogbones to raise rideheight 10mm and increase leverage ratios. worked well.

Lucky for me though, a rats member, Tony, found a fzr1000 fully adjustable shock in the cupboard so I bought it off him! we'll see how that goes for next event. It's inn steve's fzr1000 at the moment to see how it sits.

Saturday: I gave a friend of mine a rideday ride on my yzf. Rick loved it - first time on a track, first time on a 4 cylinder bike, first time on a bike with good brakes n suspension... he's hooked. Rideday Virgin no more!

I also got shown some lines by Murray, ex superbike A grader: found out I was a tourist going up onto the bridge: just cause the track goes wide, and yes normally one uses all of the track, it doesn't mean you need to use all of a wide track: apex later and cut straight up the bridge: ignore the excess. Ta Murray.

Sunday: yep, had an interesting day. Started from 8th position. I did put fuel in in the morning, looked into the tank and saw good depth. Didn't realise that I was looking into the petrol pump pit and the actual tank shape was not real full. So it ran out of fuel with 2 laps to go, and chugged along at half pace. Oh well, i didn't get cranky, though I was disappointed, seeing I was running 4th at that time : of course this put me back for the rest of the day. I knew I had to get used to this bike and will know better next time.

Steve's bike hesitated with all electrics dying intermittently in practice: electrical problem seemed to maybe be the ignition switch: he sprayed cleaner into it and away she went. time for some rewiring mate!

My bike was handling quite well, giving good feedback from slides coming out of corners, nothing like 'I wanna kill you Zoltan!' like the Cb1100R was. I like these Michelin Pilots. The usual suspects were out front on yzfs and T models and zx7rs too, but they were sure pedalling fast... Murray was doing 1m16.9s!

Next race: geez I need an extra 20 horses for the starts! these Ts and Rs and fzr1000s blow the little yzf into the weeds! time for a tune and R1 carbs methinks? Nearly run up Paul's rear on top of the bridge, and got on the back brake and stepped sideways - yeeha? all good though.

I didn't run off on turn 2. it was the 240kph turn 1! I ducked under Harley (cbr400rrrrr RB series bike) just at the end of the straight after he shoulder bumped me going up onto the bridge, me being a tourist and all - not too hard, it was ok - and I jumped on the brakes and dived into turn 1 under him and let the brakes off for the bumpy bit, only to find myself 1 foot too far to the right! I should have hung on to the back brake more! I knew it was gonna be close, but hey, it was fun doing 200 kph across corrugated dirt mounds with slicks on! harley said he didn't think I was gonna make it so he looked the other way! I didn't crash! finished 23rd. Yukk.

Last race started from 23rd of course, finishing in 12th. that was fun! Good lesson in racecraft and forward planning. Took most on the brakes, some by being on their rear on apex and exiting under them. This yzf can take any line, it's my brain that can't! Also, i have stopped fighting with the bike and am riding it more relaxed. It's easier to ride when you're not fighting it! One finger braking, easy on the handlebars. Good feedback.

Steve did real well, good starts and even got 4th in the last race!

One bloke went off to hospital with ribs and collarbone and suspected back injury: in a chopper. Will try to get some info soon. (He's not bad, broken shoulder and ribs only - 6 Oct 08)

I got down to 1m21.4! - 2.5 seconds off my last best. Hope to do another race this year, not the 1 hour though? apparently St George let you enter both the pre96 and moderns if you qualify. Good way to spend an extra $50

will keep updated.

Race results at http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?28/09/2008.RRT

Zoltan