2011 Feb: 1st in OZ Period 6 F750 winner!

Hi all!



Off we went to Wakefield Park for the Sunday Feb 6th races with the PCRA NSW. As well as entering for the brand new Period 6 (New Era 1983-1990) Formula 750 races, I also cross entered in the 1995 Premodern Unlimited (PM) class for the extra laps. This worked out very well as we got the extra laps in during both qualifiers and when it started to rain I chose to miss the PreModern race so I could swap tyres from slicks to wets and be competetive in my class. Others were also frantically doing so all around me, in particular fellow Team Cooranbong members Graham and Martin who were on 1996 Suzi 750Ts. It was later found out that somehow Martin's rear was already missing a wheel bearing, and it was only the design of the bearing spacers which kept it all tight, relying on the hub bearing instead for support. Luckily all worked out OK and Martin had a good day. Steve Butler had a DNS for the whole day as he went home at 8am vomiting: either from heat stroke on the unusually hot 45' saturday raced there with St George, or from being worried about being beaten on the 1990 F750 Suzuki he was supposed to be riding! We'll see you next race Stevo!

The upside down forks the bike was bought with and previously raced with were swapped for conventional forks with help from Metros to make the bike eligible for the 80's Period 6 class, where only bikes originally fitted with upsidedown forks were allowed to have them. That's OK, as I set these up and tuned them for better and better handling, they turned out to get the same laptimes anyway.


In the first F750 race I fared OK, racing on the same grid as the 1200cc Forgotten Era and Alcohol fueled post Classic bikes. In the F750s Stuart Ellis, Peter Hope and Rob Cole beat me, as I found that the now quite used Dunlop rear was moving around a fair bit. Still I was only .6 seconds off Peter's fastest 1m12s lap, finishing 4th, only 1.6 seconds behind. It started raining soon, and the aforementioned mad rush for wets?intermediates?oh-my-god-what-should-we-put-on? proceeded!

So I missed the first PM race while I put treaded tyres on. There's a video of the 2nd PreModern race which as you can see started damp, though the raceline did clear up a bit. As I missed the first one I had to start at the back of the grid for this, but that was OK as this let me concentrate on getting my mind into gear ready for the F750 races to come later. Still had a good run amongst the more modern 90's bikes.

The second F750 race saw me with 1m11.0 second laps winning the F750 class! I was third outright with the Lap record holding 1260cc P&M Kwaka of Keith Higgs and the OzLaverda/Middleton methanol burning 1000cc Laverda in front of me. Rob Cole's Suzi had a DNF with an electrical gremlin on the battery line, which was just as well considering he set a blistering time of 1m 09.5! But as they say you've gotta be in it to win it!

Race 3 saw me take another .6 seconds off as the track dried more to again get 1st in class!

What an awesome day! In almost 20 years of racing I can say that will be one of the more memorable events in my mind! Almost up there with coming 2nd in the NZ TT.

Thanks again to PIRTEK NEWCASTLE, HOURGLASS PHOTOGRAPHY, Metros at Silverwater and Emtek Racing Accessories! Thanks To Rick 9Ham and Thumper500 for the pics too!

YouTube Vidoe of the mixed Premodern race:

2010 nov 13 14 retro fz750 vs moderns at eastern creek pirtek hourglass ...

2010 Nov Wakefield Park, 3rd in class and 3rd in 1hour race!

What a weekend! After getting hit at eastern creek from the outside by a maniacal modern desperate to not be beaten by a Retro, I  found the exhaust had been broken! Off to the exhaust place near work and $20 later it's fixed. Ready to go!

For a change, I was packed and ready 24 hours early so I took it all to work so I could leave from there.

Saturday am was tender steps on the bike, getting the feel for it seeing it had not been raced here. It was awesome! Everything worked well all weekend. Still had the same old dunlops on from the Creek, and they were still gripping well at my pace.

Brett Clarke and Nigel Taylor were at the head of the pack about 8 seconds ahead, but hey, they're both A graders on superduper superbikes.

Between races 1-4 I finished I got 3rd in class. My racing got better and better as I got more and more familiar with the bike. It was a pleasure to ride even though it's quite underpowered, being an almost toally stock motor still with the original type twin muffler road exhaust. Worked well apparently a couple of times as people couldn't hear me at their heels and didn't open the gap allowing me to sneak in under or around them.

There are videos available for your viewinig please on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/zoltanp1967?feature=mhum

The 1 hour race was awesome! I forgot to set the camera up for the Le-Mans start, and pressed the start button on about lap 3 I think. There's some good dicing, with my positions moving between 7th to 11th and back to 5th, before handing over to Stewar Lomax. Stu normally rides a 95 YZF750 and got 2nd in class for the day in the heat races. He enjoyed the FZ although it is very different from his superbike spec yzf. He got within half a second of my time on it, not bad on a strange bike he didn't want to crash.

There was even a safety car slowing progress for a few laps for Stu when one of the riders fell off and needed to be checked. He was fine.

The other chaps from Team Cooranbong had various results: Martin on the T750 went better and better, and only ran off once. However Graham's bike played up with a fuel supply problem and he spend most of the weekend working on it. Had it mostly sorted by the last races.

Again Thanks for the support from Vanessa's Hourglass Photography, PIRTEK NEWCASTLE / HUNTER and the warmers from Emtek worked well.

The next race isn't on for a couple of months, I'll post something on the RetroRacing website.

on-bike Videos from Eastern Creek races

Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/user/zoltanp1967?feature=mhum

Eastern Creek, Retro vs moderns = 3rd place trophy!

Wow! after months of tinkering nd rebuilding, we hit the track at Easter Creek Raceway for a round of the Honda / R-Jay's Series with St George Mcc. Retros are invited, though entries are a little down as everyone's saving their bikes for the big Post Classic meeting at wakefield for the following weekend.

Retros are to line up on the same grid as up to 2004 Clubsport bikes. This should be fun! And it was! it's not often I have had to start near the backend of a grid, but my aim to carve through and pass on the outside where possible paid off.

The bike shows great promise, and after fixing a loose airbox robbing my power during qualifying, it fares ok in race 1. race 2 was also similarly fun. So I figure to maximise my fun, I'll cross enter into the modern a-d grade grid! Sunday's first practice results ina  lost gearchange circlip, quickly remedied for first race. After a promising start, the bike runs out of puff! In I come, working madly, checking basics to spark plugs. Nothing concrete is found, and the bike fails even more in Sunday's first retro race. This time the problem is found: a dodgy earth to the fuel pump!

For the rest of the day the little old fz750 fares very well. At the end of the day, even though a couple of races are missed, I win a 3rd place overall trophy for solid finishes in the good heats. Apprantly I was not the only one with mechanical gremlins, and a couple of falls by others placed me in the points. Fair enough, you've gotta be in it to win it and all that.

Thanks to my sponsors, Hourglass Photography, Pirtek Newcastle and Emtek Racing Accessories!

NEXT race: this weekend, nov 20-21, at Wakefield Park near Goulbourn.
Zoltan

Progress report & New PERRINI Leathers

Hi all. The Fz is coming along fine. Prepping the wiring to race spec, removing all unneccesary components; wheels and some fairing is painted in Marlboro colours; waiting for side fairing and seats; Had it running the other night with semi-prepped wiring to check all systems are go, and it sounded great. WP rear race shock feels very good since coming back from being fitted with a remote reservoir, allowing compression adjustment; new wheel bearings are going in; fork OD has been machined to allow dropping the bike down if desired to improve geometry, though we will see what it does on track first.

Got a new pair of leathers recently; PERRINI form the US. They feel great and are custom made for me. Contact me and I will let you know where to get them from. They are very good value, coming under $500.

Vanessa at Hourglass Photography is very excited - as so am I - seeing we're setting up a shop at Carey Bay, near Toronto! More later.

Organising signage for Pirtek and Hourglass for the leathers and the bike. Should be all GO soon!

4 Hour Team relay; 200kph crash, sunshine and hail

(leaving pits at a change point. This is me; black helmet, white number plates.)


Hi all. Martin Balls asked me to ride in this 4 hour team relay on his K3 GSXR750, as well as Steve Butler and Graham Allot (K2 1000). The race is basically a 2-4 member relay; no refueling is allowed on pitlane, so the idea is to relay bikes as well as riders, hence the 2 bikes. We would have ridden the fz750 but it's not quite ready for racing; the rear shock needs improvement and needs racewiring and paint. Greg Dunn (Mr Bones) and Steve's son in-law Mark were crewing...Thanks to PIRTEK NEWCASTLE and Hourglass Photography, partial funding was organised and off we went. Wakefield is in the middle of freezing sheep country, and it rained all week. The track started drying out on saturday at practice, and seeing that Graham and Martin had never raced, if rain was going to be the order of the day, they asked me to do more laps not less... so wet practicing we go.. Intermediates were put on; treaded tracktyres; but well into the first session the back came around for me at about 210kph and while i did manage to drift it around turn 1, and straightened it upright, I ran out of room and went onto the mud. Slide left, bounce right, oops this ain't good! Time slowed down and I stepped off it and pushed it away, not wanting it to hurt me anymore than I expected to be hurt anyway. After the bike flipped mid-air and landed and I stopped sliding (keeping my helmet up to avoid damage) I stood up and was amazed that I was able to! In fact I felt no pain at all! Good old worn out Walden Millers (aust made for MCA about 15 eyars ago?) and the back protector! The bike also looked OK, apart from more mud than I've ever seenon a roadbike, and some obvious cracks in the fairing and one slightly bent handlebar. Yet not even the screen was broken! I checked it over, fired it up and rode it back! Thanks to my gueardian Angel, we both came out of it reasonably ok. Back to the pits, hose her off. Lucky someone brought the fibreglassing kit and ducttape! Thanks to the crew, Martin rode it for the rest of the day! Steve and Graham also went out on the 1000 to get some laps in. RACEDAY: we each had a session to warm up. It was decided that while Steve would qualify on the 1000, Graham would start the LeMans start with help from Martin. After all, this whole exercise for their initiation. And what a way to start racing: leMans start, endurance race, team relays, imminent rain, wetspots on the track, A grade superbikes mixing with many D graders and some first-time racers! Graham made a good start at the rear 1/4 of the field,and settled into a rhythm. good effort considering this was not only his first LeMans start, but his first race start! All went well, everyone was setting slightly faster and faster laps and settling into racing. Steve and Martin all had their stint, and while Martin had a couple of wobbles and ran off the track a couple of times when spooked by fast passing supers, he managed to keep it upright, with some huge bruises around the inside of the knees/thigh to show for it from the bike slapping him around. When my turn came, I picked up some positions and passed people while being passed by the Superbikes. Then a couple of guys crashed and the pace-car came out, so i signalled to come straight in as per the plan. The rider / bike change went smoothly and we had graham out again for his second stint. While the riders were out, we discussed the imminent rain circling around the region. You could actually see the rain a few Ks away, but the clouds kept being blown around the track. I reckon Barry Sheene was giving it his best to delay rain, but ran out of puff with about 20 minutes to go, when suddenly it hailed and poured at the same time, with most riders out on slicks! There was a mad rush on to finish putting the wets on the 750 while graham circulated in torrential water on slicks. What a job! he kept it upright for about 3 laps before coming in and sending Martin out on wets for the first time in his now 3hr 45min racing career :) And that's how it was finished: with rain bucketing down. This was the first time I'd done the 4 Hour relay and I thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to do it again next year, but definately on my own retro bike.