Members racing thread
Discussion
Gavia said:
mckeann said:
Any new PB's ??
I wasn't pushing, as didn't fancy explaining to the other show their race was ruined by my lack of ability. No chance of riding the track on pushbikes if it's wet, as I'm a complete wimp with that too
I consistently did 1:43-4 at 90% so that'll be the aim to stay around for the race (although that'll never happen and I'll be getting gradually slower as the race goes on and I'm battered)
I'm not staying on site, but we'll be sticking around Sat night after the race
There's a trackday on Sunday, so they want the garages clear after the race and they'll move everyone to the other paddock who's staying over
mckeann said:
Is anyone staying at the circuit on Friday or Saturday nights???? Are we having a BBQ?? If so , is it little disposable ones from Tesco or shall I throw the Webber in the van and buy some coal
Yep. Staying over both nights. We're building a little courtyard in the overnight paddock with vans and having a right good beer up and food. BYOB would be the motto 
Good start. I'm number ten. They have the wrong bike. I'm on a standard daytona. But more funny, they have my dad's sponsor as big instead of b19 design.
Ehm I'm just gonna ask it. Race starts. How the f
k do you do one. Clutch in 7000 rpm let go? Ive only ever practiced at traffic lights.
this is gonna be good 
That was a lot of fun.
Team 113 started off real well, and ran 45-50min stints keeping consistently on the clearest laps between 1:41 and 1:43 and eventually got up very briefly to 3rd in the Club1000 class, and then one of our team members started to pick the pace up a bit to get us some comfort time dropping into 1:39/40's, and in Protest, his RSV4 decided it no longer wanted to work and cut out on the side of the track just before coppice. We lost around 5 laps or so with him getting the transponder back to the garage, and eventually finished in 6th, which is still super good for us, and we've have taken that before the race, so made up
I did see Mckean out on the circuit a few times and stuck with him for a bit, but he was too quick for me to keep going at that pace for more than a couple of laps.
I'll get some pics up later today
Good to see you all and hope you're all feeling as f**ked as I am today
Team 113 started off real well, and ran 45-50min stints keeping consistently on the clearest laps between 1:41 and 1:43 and eventually got up very briefly to 3rd in the Club1000 class, and then one of our team members started to pick the pace up a bit to get us some comfort time dropping into 1:39/40's, and in Protest, his RSV4 decided it no longer wanted to work and cut out on the side of the track just before coppice. We lost around 5 laps or so with him getting the transponder back to the garage, and eventually finished in 6th, which is still super good for us, and we've have taken that before the race, so made up
I did see Mckean out on the circuit a few times and stuck with him for a bit, but he was too quick for me to keep going at that pace for more than a couple of laps.
I'll get some pics up later today
Good to see you all and hope you're all feeling as f**ked as I am today
What an absolute blast. Thats my first race weekend out the way and it won't be my last.
I finally got my race license at the end of May, and then I got chatting to a fellow Euro Trackdayer when I was at Brno at the end of June. He was struggling for numbers to do this 1000Km race as a mark of respect and remembrance to his old team mate who died suddenly at the start of the year, so I offered to join them and help get the numbers up.
In the end, some riders dropped out, some joined in and we ended up with a 4 rider team. 1 hadn't raced since last year, 2 of them hadn't raced much in the past couple of years after having big accidents, and I had never raced at all.
I arrived on Friday night after a 6 hour drive. Got piled into Garage 17, met the rest of my team and did introductions. None of us were very fit, so during our pre race team meeting, despite me suggesting we do 45-50 minute stints (which I'd never done before but stupidly thought, how hard can it be) they decided on 30 minutes. It was decided I would be first out in qualifying. I think this was mainly decided as it was raining on Friday night when we had the meeting but forecast was dry for Saturday, so there was a chance of a damp track first thing. As the new boy, I got the rough deal
Saturday dawned bright and sunny. I'd not had the greatest prep for this event with 2 weeks of nightshifts, so I had a st sleep on Friday night and was wide awake at 0430 on Saturday. I decided to get up and go for a track inspection on my bicycle. Did a couple of laps, stopped a lot and tried to check cambers and gain whatever info I could to try and help speed up the learning process. The track was damp but the sun was up and it looked like it would dry quickly.
I was out first for qualifying and thankfully it was 95% dry. Just a couple of damp patches offline when going down craners, which would be fine if I could manage to get on the right line but I was all over the place. Did a sighting lap to see conditions then started pushing. Started at 1.49 and finished at 1.41's despite a yellow flag at the last corner on my quickest lap. The other guys in the team managed 47, 47 and 51 which gave us an average laptime of 1.47 and put us 35th on the grid of 46.
It was decided that as I was fastest, I would start. As the only one never to have raced, I was nervous about the start. The start procedure takes 10-15 minutes, so it's a long time from tyres coming off the warmers to actually going. I did my outlap to the grid, sat around during the start procedure counting down and spoke with one of my teammates who's job it was to hold my bike for me. I also checked my tyres with my hand to see how quickly they were cooling down, so I could try to judge how hard to push on the first lap. We got the flag to do the warm up lap, so off I went, just following everyone else around at 75% whilst trying to put some heat back in the tyres. We lined back up on the grid, I hoped off the bike and left it in my teammates capable hands whilst I strolled over to the car side of the track and lined up behind the line, getting ready for the sprint across to my bike. Nerves were really starting to build now as I waited for the red lights to go on. I'm not exactly the fastest runner but I thought I'd give it my best shot. Red lights went off and I'm moving as the guy to my left pushes himself forwards by pushing me back. bd. Now I'm angry. Made it across the track in about the same time as everyone else, as I swung my left leg over the bike I already had the clutch in and the starter button pressed before. My arse hit the seat as the engine fired and I'm feeding out the clutch and on my way. I'm moving away before the bikes to my left and right, so I feed out the clutch, point the bike to the outside white line and pin it. As we were in 35th, there were a hell of a lot of bikes all feeding out into my path. I ran it down the white line to give myself as much space as possible. Only one bike got in my way as he took a wide line off the start, got as far as the line, but then kept turning back in which opened the door for me again. I had to roll off the throttle but then pinned it again as the gap reappeared. The rest of the first lap is a bit of a blur. I outbraked a few more bikes into Redgate as I hugged the inside line, running over the inside kerb to avoid contact. I threaded between two more down the right hander of craners, and watched one of the front runners lose it in the direction change in front of me. As people rolled off the throttle with this accident unfolding in front of them, I ran round the outside of another couple of bikes on the left handed, and inside one more into the old hairpins. I got balked into the first left hander at starkeys and had to shut the gas, but I ran round a bike on the outside kerb into schwantz curve and then launched up the inside of two more into McLean's. I only got down 1 gear instead of 2, plus I ran wide on the exit as i'd went in so tight, so one of them dragged back past me up to coppice and then chopped in front so I had to follow him into the turn but as we got on the gas and started driving past the second apex kerb I went to the left and headed onto the exit kerb to outdrag him. Going along the left hand side, I set up to outbrake a cluster of 4 or 5 bikes, but they all spread out to the inside to outbrake each other, so I went right and down the entry kerb on the right into the foggy esses. I got some on the brakes, and turned in next to someone through the left, then got another on the apex of the right hander as everyone stayed off the kerbs which thankfully left me a gap otherwise it would have been right. I went down the outside again as everyone bunched to the inside at Melbourne hairpin except this time it didn't work, but I got great drive up towards Goddard's and slipped past one more bike into the last turn. I got great drive out onto the start finish straight. And looked towards the pitwall to try and spot my team so I'd know where to look for my pitboard. Unknown to me I'd went from 35th to 13th on the opening lap.
The next 29 minutes were a little less exciting which was ok as I don't think I took a breath for the first lap . I got up 1 more place on lap 2, then lost 2 to some national class riders who had regrouped and were recovering from poor starts. I was tagging onto the back of them thinking I could drag myself round and learn the circuit quicker when I launched the rear wheel high Into the air over the bump on the brakes into Goddard's. Next thing I know I'm running out of road as I let the brake off to out the back wheel down and I have to run over the grass. I kept it upright until the tarmac of the national circuit appeared, slammed the brakes back on, hooked it left, and flew back onto the track, albeit 3 places down. I kept an eye out for my pitboard as we had decided as a team to run 30 minute stints instead of just going for as long as we could. Sure enough 3 laps to go, then 2, then Pit In and I had to keep telling myself to pit for the rest of the lap as I'm pretty forgetful. As I exited Melbourne for the last time, I hit the brakes for the pit entry and flicked the pit limiter on, then did a hard left turn into the pitlane, watching the solid concrete wall on the outside and remembering not too push quite so hard next time. Burp..burp..burp..burp from the pit limiter, I spot my guy waving at me, pull up to a halt, and they have the transponder off the bike and my teammates away to do his stint. And breathe. I'd managed to get us back up to 14th overall after my run on, which was 3rd in class at that point.
That was as high as we ever where. A combination of too many pitstops and slower paced teammates meant the rest of the race followed a pattern of us losing some places and me trying hard to gain them all back. I saw Graeme a couple of times in my third and fourth stints. I was pushing hard to make up please and he was pacing himself for the extra 15 minutes but he was going really well. I also saw Gavia, Hebegebe and Fleegle at various points in the race but as they were In a 3 man team and I was in a 4some, it was kind of sporadic. The only other excitement was having 3 huge slides on my first rear tyre. In its defence it had already done a trackday at Spa plus qualifying here, but it had really had it. The second tyre did 3 stints and was still great. If I'd started with a new set, I'd have easily done it on 1 set of tyres.
We finally finished 8th in class and 24th overall. It was an absolute blast although I was physically gubbed. I was surprised that I was incredibly consistent despite the tiredness. I lapped constantly in the 39's and 40's, only getting 3 high 38's, and dropping slower into the 41's if there was traffic. My pace stayed the same over the whole 30 minute stint, but I'm not sure if I could have gone that speed for another 15 mins. Fitness definitely needs to improve before I do another endurance race, but it's something to work on for next year when I hope to do few more of these. We need to get a team PHBB together for a round.
I finally got my race license at the end of May, and then I got chatting to a fellow Euro Trackdayer when I was at Brno at the end of June. He was struggling for numbers to do this 1000Km race as a mark of respect and remembrance to his old team mate who died suddenly at the start of the year, so I offered to join them and help get the numbers up.
In the end, some riders dropped out, some joined in and we ended up with a 4 rider team. 1 hadn't raced since last year, 2 of them hadn't raced much in the past couple of years after having big accidents, and I had never raced at all.
I arrived on Friday night after a 6 hour drive. Got piled into Garage 17, met the rest of my team and did introductions. None of us were very fit, so during our pre race team meeting, despite me suggesting we do 45-50 minute stints (which I'd never done before but stupidly thought, how hard can it be) they decided on 30 minutes. It was decided I would be first out in qualifying. I think this was mainly decided as it was raining on Friday night when we had the meeting but forecast was dry for Saturday, so there was a chance of a damp track first thing. As the new boy, I got the rough deal
Saturday dawned bright and sunny. I'd not had the greatest prep for this event with 2 weeks of nightshifts, so I had a s
t sleep on Friday night and was wide awake at 0430 on Saturday. I decided to get up and go for a track inspection on my bicycle. Did a couple of laps, stopped a lot and tried to check cambers and gain whatever info I could to try and help speed up the learning process. The track was damp but the sun was up and it looked like it would dry quickly. I was out first for qualifying and thankfully it was 95% dry. Just a couple of damp patches offline when going down craners, which would be fine if I could manage to get on the right line but I was all over the place. Did a sighting lap to see conditions then started pushing. Started at 1.49 and finished at 1.41's despite a yellow flag at the last corner on my quickest lap. The other guys in the team managed 47, 47 and 51 which gave us an average laptime of 1.47 and put us 35th on the grid of 46.
It was decided that as I was fastest, I would start. As the only one never to have raced, I was nervous about the start. The start procedure takes 10-15 minutes, so it's a long time from tyres coming off the warmers to actually going. I did my outlap to the grid, sat around during the start procedure counting down and spoke with one of my teammates who's job it was to hold my bike for me. I also checked my tyres with my hand to see how quickly they were cooling down, so I could try to judge how hard to push on the first lap. We got the flag to do the warm up lap, so off I went, just following everyone else around at 75% whilst trying to put some heat back in the tyres. We lined back up on the grid, I hoped off the bike and left it in my teammates capable hands whilst I strolled over to the car side of the track and lined up behind the line, getting ready for the sprint across to my bike. Nerves were really starting to build now as I waited for the red lights to go on. I'm not exactly the fastest runner but I thought I'd give it my best shot. Red lights went off and I'm moving as the guy to my left pushes himself forwards by pushing me back. b
d. Now I'm angry. Made it across the track in about the same time as everyone else, as I swung my left leg over the bike I already had the clutch in and the starter button pressed before. My arse hit the seat as the engine fired and I'm feeding out the clutch and on my way. I'm moving away before the bikes to my left and right, so I feed out the clutch, point the bike to the outside white line and pin it. As we were in 35th, there were a hell of a lot of bikes all feeding out into my path. I ran it down the white line to give myself as much space as possible. Only one bike got in my way as he took a wide line off the start, got as far as the line, but then kept turning back in which opened the door for me again. I had to roll off the throttle but then pinned it again as the gap reappeared. The rest of the first lap is a bit of a blur. I outbraked a few more bikes into Redgate as I hugged the inside line, running over the inside kerb to avoid contact. I threaded between two more down the right hander of craners, and watched one of the front runners lose it in the direction change in front of me. As people rolled off the throttle with this accident unfolding in front of them, I ran round the outside of another couple of bikes on the left handed, and inside one more into the old hairpins. I got balked into the first left hander at starkeys and had to shut the gas, but I ran round a bike on the outside kerb into schwantz curve and then launched up the inside of two more into McLean's. I only got down 1 gear instead of 2, plus I ran wide on the exit as i'd went in so tight, so one of them dragged back past me up to coppice and then chopped in front so I had to follow him into the turn but as we got on the gas and started driving past the second apex kerb I went to the left and headed onto the exit kerb to outdrag him. Going along the left hand side, I set up to outbrake a cluster of 4 or 5 bikes, but they all spread out to the inside to outbrake each other, so I went right and down the entry kerb on the right into the foggy esses. I got some on the brakes, and turned in next to someone through the left, then got another on the apex of the right hander as everyone stayed off the kerbs which thankfully left me a gap otherwise it would have been right. I went down the outside again as everyone bunched to the inside at Melbourne hairpin except this time it didn't work, but I got great drive up towards Goddard's and slipped past one more bike into the last turn. I got great drive out onto the start finish straight. And looked towards the pitwall to try and spot my team so I'd know where to look for my pitboard. Unknown to me I'd went from 35th to 13th on the opening lap. The next 29 minutes were a little less exciting which was ok as I don't think I took a breath for the first lap . I got up 1 more place on lap 2, then lost 2 to some national class riders who had regrouped and were recovering from poor starts. I was tagging onto the back of them thinking I could drag myself round and learn the circuit quicker when I launched the rear wheel high Into the air over the bump on the brakes into Goddard's. Next thing I know I'm running out of road as I let the brake off to out the back wheel down and I have to run over the grass. I kept it upright until the tarmac of the national circuit appeared, slammed the brakes back on, hooked it left, and flew back onto the track, albeit 3 places down. I kept an eye out for my pitboard as we had decided as a team to run 30 minute stints instead of just going for as long as we could. Sure enough 3 laps to go, then 2, then Pit In and I had to keep telling myself to pit for the rest of the lap as I'm pretty forgetful. As I exited Melbourne for the last time, I hit the brakes for the pit entry and flicked the pit limiter on, then did a hard left turn into the pitlane, watching the solid concrete wall on the outside and remembering not too push quite so hard next time. Burp..burp..burp..burp from the pit limiter, I spot my guy waving at me, pull up to a halt, and they have the transponder off the bike and my teammates away to do his stint. And breathe. I'd managed to get us back up to 14th overall after my run on, which was 3rd in class at that point.
That was as high as we ever where. A combination of too many pitstops and slower paced teammates meant the rest of the race followed a pattern of us losing some places and me trying hard to gain them all back. I saw Graeme a couple of times in my third and fourth stints. I was pushing hard to make up please and he was pacing himself for the extra 15 minutes but he was going really well. I also saw Gavia, Hebegebe and Fleegle at various points in the race but as they were In a 3 man team and I was in a 4some, it was kind of sporadic. The only other excitement was having 3 huge slides on my first rear tyre. In its defence it had already done a trackday at Spa plus qualifying here, but it had really had it. The second tyre did 3 stints and was still great. If I'd started with a new set, I'd have easily done it on 1 set of tyres.
We finally finished 8th in class and 24th overall. It was an absolute blast although I was physically gubbed. I was surprised that I was incredibly consistent despite the tiredness. I lapped constantly in the 39's and 40's, only getting 3 high 38's, and dropping slower into the 41's if there was traffic. My pace stayed the same over the whole 30 minute stint, but I'm not sure if I could have gone that speed for another 15 mins. Fitness definitely needs to improve before I do another endurance race, but it's something to work on for next year when I hope to do few more of these. We need to get a team PHBB together for a round.
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