Bikes ok mechanically I think but I need to have a proper look over it including a wash as its collected a bit of mud. Quick over view was a bent clip on and another ground down foot peg. Bodyworks a bit c*nted but probably repairable. Just whether I can be bothered or not.
Leathers held up really really well. Lost some color. Small hole where the leather meets the stretch fabric on the forearm and on of racing stripes became unstitched but otherwise good. Nothing Irena can't fix. Need to have another look at the gloves as they are a bit meh. Helmet some how didn't hit the ground with all my tumbling so stoked about that.
Forgot to mention a big thanks to Dan, Rob, Marty & Andrea for being so helpful at my first race meet. Made the whole event a lot less daunting then it otherwise would have been. Especially with the wheel change before R2 (even if I did make the wrong call lol).
Sooo first race event was interesting. Rain the night before saturday and fog all saturday morning meant we went out on a damp track for practice. No standing water but not a dry spot on the track either. I went out and came back in through pitlane straight away. To give you an idea of how damp it was I think Dan recorded an epic 2:35 lap time lol
After practice I had the bike straight back on the warmers. Sometime before qualifying I checked my pressure on the front and I was down by almost 3 psi. Grabbed Dans pump and added a bit back in to bring it up to 33. A bit later on I realised that my front tyre warmer was cool, laser temp reader was showing it at only 50 degrees. Unfortunately I forgot I added the extra air in previously because of the lower PSI which I attribute to the warmer not getting to full temp.
Qualifying started and the track had dried considerably. Still damp patches everywhere. There was heaaaappppsssss of traffic which I was working my way through. Came in to old 9 and I dunno. The front just washed. I wasn't trailing the front cause of the damp conditions. Maybe the front tyre was to high in PSI due to my early mistake with the warmers. Alternatively maybe my front hadn't actually got up to temp as well what with the wamers and with the super cold day and just didn't grip. Might have been off line and hit a slippery patch. Might have been come in a bit hot, but I don't think so. I just don't know. As far as I can remember I didn't do anything different to normal riding input wise. Footage off it is in the crash reel clip.
Jamie was nice enough to hang around for a bit and lend me his front warmer before race one after his run in with Morris in qualifying. I qualified 22nd. Luckily Marty sent me a grid map earlier in the week which made finding my spot a lot easier once I established where I was. Before I went out I was terrified of the idea of starting. Was no where near anything I was anticipating. I was expecting to be completely over whelmed but yeah it was fine. Managed to make 8 places and come in at P14 and 2nd D grader. Was absolutely awesome.
Sunday kicked off and we had rain again overnight. Because race 2 started at the same time as practice the day before I made a gamble and elected to put wets on. What I didn't take in to account was that the wind had picked up a lot. Went out on the out lap surrounded by people who gambled with slicks realising I was on an almost dry track. Man was it embarrassing lol, got over taken all race only to end up back in P22 for the next race.
Race 3 I got a decent run managing to run around the outside of a lot of people through T1 and T2. By the exit of T3 I had moved from 22nd to 16th. Something weird happened though and my engine died mid T2 on the third lap. The revs just dropped off and the throttle stopped responding. Raised my hand straight away and nursed the bike off track. I restarted the bike, throttle responded. Entered back on track in 24th and managed to get my self back to 20th. No idea what caused it. Maybe I hit the kill switch by accident but I really doubt it. Maybe the tip over sensor malfunctioned, I dunno. More unknowns, I'm going to have to look in to.
Race 4 comes by and I'm starting for the first time from and 'isle' on the inside. Wasn't to bad, definitely get caught up behind people compared to the outside aisles but wasn't crazy intense like I imagined it could be.
Came up to T3, tipped in and a second ot two later the front just folded. Again no idea why. I've watched the footage over and over and can't figure it out. Conditions were freezing cold which is what I suspect is the main culprit. Everyone has since told me how slippery T3 is, I've never had an issue with it in the past so wasn't aware of that. Watching the footage back my bike seems to land exactly on someone elses crash marks. IIRC 3 others in 600s crashed out on T3.
Must be a lot of stuff littered out there. Recovery team threw on a random foot peg, random brake reservoir and the remains of Wettys visor from his crash there the race before. My bike came back with more parts then it went out with lol. This crash is also in the crash reel.
Despite everything that happened (As the Dan said, thats #tracklife) I had a great time, fucking loved it. Most fun I've had since my first ever track day. I'll definitely be back again
... jesus sorry for the mega post lol May have been thinking about this a lot the last few days.
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