Event Reports » 2010 » Actrix Victoria Motorcycle Club Round 3
Round 3 of the Actrix Victoria Motorcycle Club championships was a weekend full of promise that turned into a weekend sent to try us all. Kyle, Glen and James (again, Ben was unable to get away from the farm) all arrived at Manfeild on Friday 16 July for the testday prior to racing. We set to running through the same suspension drills, in order to reinforce the drill and also looked at different gearing on Kyles bike.
The day went really well with the weather playing its part with reasonable conditions for the whole day and the riders all putting in some good laps and working on their different items of focus. This all went well right up until the last session, when it was starting to cool down, and Jame's bike started to make an odd noise. So, I swapped out the engine for the spare engine and in about 40 minutes the bike was running again. It seemed to run well enough in the pit-garage, so we put everything into the main garage for the next day anticipating a great days racing.
That evening we had our tutorial, this time with Robert Taylor of Crown Kiwi Technical. Robert gave the boys, along with James Blackman one of the Vic Club scholarship riders, an in depth discussion and demonstration using his great mock-up of motorcycle suspension; What it is, how it works and what making changes should do to the bike. We all went to bed with plenty of food for thought.
The morning dawned wet and cold, again! Luckily however, the rain stayed away and the track began to dry reasonably quickly. So, while for our qualifying session the track was still damp, it was not very wet and the riders were all sent out on slick tyres.
For this meeting and for the remaining rounds of the season the 125GP class will be running with the Superlite F3 class, but off the back of the grid.
Qualifying Practice
In the qualifying session all seemed to be going well, until the first break-down of the day, when Jame's bike ground to a halt, with a broken piston ring. Kyle qualified in first place, Daniel Mettam on his new bike in 2nd, Ben in 3rd, Glen in 4th and James in 5th. Had we been running with the Superlite class Kyle would have been 8th, Daniel 14th, Ben 18th, Glen 22nd and James 34th.
Ben Taylor and James Jarman during QP 1.
Race 1
So in between QP and Race 1 we swapped James over to the spare bike, expecting him to be able to go on and put in a good effort. The riders all lined up at the rear of the Superlite grid. Ben got an awesome start along with Kyle and Glen. James was a little slow away, but that is to be expected on a different bike. However, break-down two was just around the corner when James' bike again ground to a halt on the middle straight. This time it turned out to be a burned out piston. Kyle put his head down and set off to chase down Superlite bikes and eventually came home in 1st 125GP and 10th Superlite. Not too shabby for starting well off the back of the grid. Daniel came home in 2nd/17th, Ben in 3rd/22nd and Glen in 4th/24th.
Race 2
Prior to the next race we swapped James back to his original bike but with a new cylinder and piston. Unfortunately I made a small error during reassembly and the engine needed to be redone. This meant that he missed out on the second race. So with 4 bikes on the grid Kyle and Ben got off to good starts, followed by Daniel and Glen. The race was not too eventful until later in the race when Glen decided that his bike had also sprung an odd noise and pulled into the pits. It turned out that the primary drive bolt had stripped its threads and unscrewed causing some damage to the cases and the crankshaft. This unfortunately put Glen out for the last race. But again, Kyle came home in 1st/10th, Daniel in 2nd/17th and Ben who had gotten caught up with traffic in 3rd/25th.
Kyle Hammond in action complete with new helmet and bike cam.
Race 3
By the time race 3 had come around I was very frustrated and fatigued having done alot of firefighting and bike repairing. But we got James back out on track, but unfortunately he was a little gun-shy at this time and did not feel that he could push on. Nevertheless he came home in 4th place and salvaged some points from the weekend. Again Kyle came home in 1st/11th, but Daniel and Ben were racing together this time with Daniel just getting in front of Ben in 2nd/19th with Ben in 3rd/20th.
So overall this was a very trying weekend for me, James and Glen. Thankfully Kyle and Ben had good race weekends and came away with good points hauls. My thanks to John and Dave for all their help, my thanks to James and Glen for being philisophical about the bike failures, my thanks again to Robert Taylor for his professional instruction and also my thanks to all of our supporters and suppliers for their on-going support.
Ben Taylor in action complete with new helmet.
Standings after Round 3:
James Jarman 130 points
Glen Orwin 127
Kyle Hammond 125
Ben Taylor 82
Daniel Mettam 66
Test day
We had great weather for the test day and managed to get some good practice in. I spent most of the day working on some riding drills and trying to get my head space back. I’m still having trouble making myself push on the bike. That night we had a tutorial from Robert Taylor from Crown Kiwi Technical on suspension tuning. This was very informative and I learnt a lot about setup and various ways of overcoming issues.
Race Day
It had rained over night and the track was still very wet in the morning. There was also lime on most of the track to try cover up some mystery liquid. We are now running off the back of F3, so we went out for qualifying with them to slide around on the greasy track.
Race 1
I qualified in 4th, which was actually a really good spot to be behind the F3 grid as I was able to shoot straight up the side and go around the outside of a lot of bikes in the first corner. From there on I just worked through the bikes until the end of the race.
Race 2
My start was not quite so good for this race, but I still managed to get past a few bikes. I was working my way through the field again and getting a bit more speed up, when the bike felt a bit funny coming out of Dunlop and then again going into turn one, so I pulled off the track on the exit of turn one to be safe. Turned out it was an issue that could not be fixed at the track, so that was the end of my weekend.
It was another race meet where I feel that I didn’t learn much, and I’m still going a lot slower than I am capable. I need to work out what is causing this slump in performance so I can begin moving forward again.
Glen. #7
FRIDAY PRACTICE:
I was excited to get out and try some suspension drills since I did not ride at the last test day, and to work on the entry and mid corner speed of Dunlop. The first session was used to get back into the swing of things and get myself warmed up. Steve mentioned about how in the last two rounds I have been riding in my comfort zone and not pushing myself that little bit. He suggested that I should attack each corner to get improvements in my riding and overall a better lap time. The way to tell if you are doing this right is that you will come in sweating and feel tired from the session been, rather than coming in feeling fine like you could ride for another 20 minutes, which is how I usually come in. So the next two sessions out there was focused on pushing myself everywhere on the track which also helped me in Dunlop my trouble corner. The last two sessions were to ride with the suspension at different settings to feel how the bike reacts to each change.
Robert Taylor’s lesson about suspension setup and how it works was very interesting and useful. I grasped the basics and feel that when I get to understand the bike more and understand what it needs that this knowledge will help me out heaps.
SATURDAY RACING:
QUALIFYING
The track was a little wet but we still chose to go out on slicks as our wets would probably have been wrecked by the time we had done 10 minutes. I went out and completed one lap but this was not timed as we come out from pit lane, meaning we do not cross the start/finish line. During this lap the bike did a few strange things and on the next it started to slow only to stop out of the hairpin. This left me with no qualifying time and little track time.
RACE 1:
I would use the spare bike as my one would not be fixed by the time race one came around as it had damaged the piston and cylinder. We put all the fairings onto the spare bike and changed all the suspension to my settings and positioned the levers to suit me. I went out on this bike in a relatively good mindset and wanted a good race since I missed qualifying meaning I was in grid 41 which was the very last place. My start was ok but almost jumped the start as I was still finding the clutch position on this bike. Once I was away it was not too bad and I followed Kyle into turn one. All the F3 bikes seemed to slow heaps which made it hard to get good drive out of this corner. After a few laps battling with an F3 bike I was in 4th place in front of Glen and was trying to push to catch Ben when once again the bike had a few problems. The bike stopped/found neutral around Dunlop and then lost power again at the hairpin. Very disappointing and I pulled off the track to wait to get picked up. A positive was I did get to watch the F1 race from a good viewing point.
RACE 3:
I did not make it to race two as Steve had no more bikes that he could give me to use. Glen’s bike had a problem that stopped him in race two and meant he would not be out for race three. This meant that I needed to finish this race to keep my lead in the championship. I did not feel confident in the bike as I had problems throughout the day so just went out there and circulated. I finished the race in this position to get 18 valuable points and maintain my lead in the championship.
Thanks Steve, Ben and Glen for the help putting the bike back together for racing and to Mum and Dad for their help and support.
James #14