Well....... That's race one done and dusted. And to say it was a bit eventfull could be an understatement.
I loaded the van up Friday afternoon and set off to (cough) sunny Anglsey for my first ever race. I met the other two lads there and we set up the gazebo, got the bikes out and chilled out for the evening with one or two cold ones. The weather was, can we just say WET! and...... FOOKIN WINDY!!!
*first note to self. Secure said beer in back of van if you are going to play in the twistys*
We woke up Saturday morning to a half blown away gazebo, and a soaking wet track. I wasn't too fussed to get out as we were not using the race bike, and I didn't want to bin Robs trackday bike for the sake of getting a session under my belt. So.....I showed my concern at the fact they had never been there before and sent them out for a spla......bimble around. By the start of the sessions, the rain had stopped and the skys started to clear......things were looking up!!
I managed to get out on a dry track for the session before dinner. And decided that as Rob and Phill hadn't seen me riding before, there was only one thing for it. I jumped on the '06 zx636 and screwed the shite out of it!!!
The worrying thing was.....after 20 minutes I was absolutely knackered!!!! And we had 40 minute sessions to do the following day!
*second note to self.......drink lots of fluid after a few beers the night before*
In between the sessions we were getting ready for the following day, and the race. Wet and dry tyres got purchased and put on to wheels. The refuelling rig got set up and tried out...and we came up with a pit board scheme so we could keep contact whilst the race was on.......... Many checks on BBC weather and Met Check could not fuel our enthusiasm for a nice dry day though, and we were fearing the worst.
Race day.......We were all up by 7am and moving the vans and gazebo to the pit lane. The skys were looking promising, and clearing up, but the track was wet from the night before......It was a 9am kick off for practice and qualifying and all eyes were on the track to see what tyres we were going to use. Unfortunately it was one of those shitty in between moments when we had to choose. It was too dry for wets, but a bit damp to be pushing an unscrubbed semi slick....... So muggins here was voted to go out first and do the honours
We managed to stay upright anyways, and completed the qualifying. At one point we were 5th in class out of 25, and we were in front of the FastBikes magazine riders. Mine and Robs times were within a second of each other, and we both felt later on, that we could have pushed harder if we had another hour on the bike. I think we could have knocked a good three seconds off the times we posted, which would have put us in the top ten out of 39 bikes. But we wasted time changing pads.....(should have done it before) and qualified 20th.
There was a short briefing before the race........And the weather took a turn for the worse!!! It fookin hooned it down!!! It was all hand on deck, as we had 10 minutes before the race, and we had to get the wheels changed and get kitted up. We got the wheels done and were ready to go by 13:00...... other teams were not so quick, so the race was delayed for 15 minutes, which pissed me off a bit....Not our fault they wernt ready!!!
Anyways............. 'Whos going out on the new unscrubbed wets for the first session'????
'YOU'!!
'GREAT'!!
Now I have heard a few racers saying the wet tyres can be used as if you are riding in the dry. But having never ridden on them, I took that with a pinch of salt. I didn't know how far I could lean, how hard I could brake, or how hard I could accelerate. I didn't know if the lads around me had used them before, or what was going to happen when the flag dropped.......
The format was....leave the pits behind a pace bike in your start position. Do two laps, no overtaking, then go for it when you cross the line after the second lap. Problem is, the pace guy went off at a fair old pace, which the fast qualifiers kept up with. The guys in front of me, obviously had never ridden on wets, or unfortunately didn't buy any and were on drys left a massive gap develop....... I was 3/4 of a lap behind the leaders by the time I crossed the line.
But.......it helped in a way.... I was picking my way through the guys in front that had out qualified us (I think riding all year around gave me a bit more confidence in the wet). Because the leaders had such a head start, they had caught the rest of us within 4 laps and were picking us off.............. That's when I was able to watch how much grip and lean was possible on the wets. And fook me it was an eye opener!!!
It was time to get my head down now, and I picked the pace up and started to push. The tyres were awesome. I have never ridden on anything like them in my life. I was braking as hard in the wet, going through standing water as I would dare to brake in the dry. Going through a river running across the track, cranked over at 120mph.....not a problem. Accelerating out of corners, as hard as you could, the tyres were soaking it all up....And yep, by the end of the day, knee down through puddles.
I was loving it tbh.....and my wet lap times were only 4 seconds slower than the qualifying times we posted.
Then.........35 mins in.......... It stopped!!!
On the wrong side of the track, in the middle of nowhere!! I had to sit in the marshals hut, with two gogs that I couldn't understand for 40 feckin minutes whilst the race went on..... Waiting, hoping that a little mishap, would get the race stopped. And it did. A bike was down and the flags came out (he was ok). The bike got recovered and taken back to the pits......... Tank off, seat off, airbox off, changed the fuel pump, changed the CDI unit, checked for a spark, YES, put it all back together, and a way to go!
We had lost the best part of and hour and 15 mins though, so effectively that was game over. But we carried on, did our pit stops, did our lap boards and finished the race.
I think (I havnt looked officially) we were about 29th out of 39..... And the gutting thing about it is that if we didn't lose that time, and we kept up our lap rate, we would have been in the top ten overall.
So......the bike is now all stripped down again to find the problem. I am now convinced it was down to the sheer amount of water everywhere. There are a few botch electrical jobs on the bike, so I am going over it with a fine tooth comb this week and next, in time for Cadwell on the 7th August.
It was a great experience, if a little stressfull in parts.......But it was well worth it just for those 35 minutes in the pissing down rain...It was awesome!!
