Event Reports » 2010 » Actrix Victoria Motorcycle Club Round 6
The final round of the 2010 Actrix VMCC championship came to an exciting and fitting conclusion on Saturday 9 October. After battling throughout the season with the lead changing back and forth a few times. The weather on Friday for the testday played ball and was fine and sunny albeit a bit windy. Glen, James and Kyle all had a good day of testing, concentrating on putting lessons learned from the California Superbike School for James, and suspension changes for Glen and Kyle.
The day was not without its trials as the crankshaft main bearings on Kyles bike decided to give up the ghost, so a rapid engine swap ensued. This was completed during the lunch break and Kyle was out ripping it up again having missed only one session.
At the end of the day Glen was given the opportunity to test-ride the Ozzy Suzuki GSX-R450. He really enjoyed this and looked very comfortable on the bike with good style. A pathway to the future perhaps?
On Friday we had Sam Croft 16, Paraparaumu, test riding one of our bikes in possible preparation for joining us in the future. Sam showed that he clearly knows how to ride a bike and was immediately putting in good laps, while showing that he has plenty to learn. Unfortunately the engine played up in the afternoon (due to an air leak into the crankcases it turns out, causing a lean mixture and some detonation on the piston). So we had to leave it until the evening when we repaired the bike ready for the next day. On the Saturday Sam went on to wrap up the VMCC Streetstock 150 championship. A result to be really proud of and we wish him all the best in his sporting future.
Sam Croft at Manfeild testing the RS125 for the first time.
Saturday race day
Saturday morning held plenty of promise as it was not raining!! But that was not to last long. All the riders, including Sam, got out on a dry track for the Qualifying Practice. Kyle was on the pace as we expected, commenting that the spare engine was really good, and qualified first ahead of Dan Mettam, Ben, Avalon Biddle, Glen and James.
James Jarman on front straight at Manfeild showing the racing tuck!
In between the QP and first race the rain came down quite heavily, making for a wet race track and a wet Race One. All the boys got good starts and all the 125 riders were in a small bunch at turn one. Kyle then however, streaked out to an early lead and would not be headed for the remainder of the race and took victory ahead of Dan, Avalon, Ben, Glen and James. Glen was clearly riding with the championship in mind and was not wanting or needing to push hard in the wet conditions.
During the break between races the track dried out very quickly, but the weather threatened to come in again and again. Fortunately it never did. So we changed back to dry tyres and had a dry race for the final race of the day and of the championship. The boys all headed out for the final race line-astern completing the warmup lap as a group, which looked fantastic. Unfortunately Kyle had an issue with his helmet on the start-line and was a bit delayed on the start grid. He got away a bit slowly and was a little way back from Avalon after the first lap. While he was putting in the same laptimes and showed the same bike speed, he was unable to bridge the gap to her, and indeed later complained that he had lost some mid-range power (which we later tracked down to chipped inlet reeds!!). Ben, Glen and James had a good battle for a few laps until Glen pulled ahead leaving Ben and James to battle out for the final places. So Av came home in first place followed by Kyle, Dan, Glen, Ben and James.
So once again Kyle showed that he has the raw pace to run with one of the best 125GP riders in New Zealand even on a bike that was down on power. Glen rode a very conservative meeting due to needing to accumulate points to take out the championship. Ben again showed that he has the raw ability to ride and race, but has really been behind the 8-ball in not being able to make the testdays so has had a lot less riding than the other boys. James has been putting in place the lessons he has been learning during the year and has wanted to take a conservative and step-wise approach to lay the platform for the summer racing series.
So, points for the day were:
Kyle 47
Avalon 45
Daniel 42
Glen 34
Ben 34
James 30
And the final points for the championship were:
Glen Orwin 208 points
Kyle Hammond 197
James Jarman 194
Ben Taylor 156
Daniel Mettam 148
Avalon Biddle 45
Moto Academy NZ would like to thank all of the people and organisations that have made it possible for us to run this season and past seasons. At the top of the list in this particular case is the Victoria Motorcycle Club of Wellington (VMCC). Without the assitance of the club we would have found it almost impossible to make it this season. Again, our equipment suppliers have been marvellous: Alpinestars, Shoei, Fuchs Silkolene Oils, RK Chains, Bridgestone Tyres, SBS brakes, NGK Sparkplugs and Forcefeild Protection. Our riders wear both back and chest protectors from Forcefeild. We have not had a single oil related failure in the whole three years of running Fuchs Silkolene oils so I am sold on their quality and availability.
Our technical supporters have also helped immensely by providing support for repairs and tuning and also for our tutorials. This means thanking our unrepentant Tory, Robert Taylor of Crown Kiwi Technical, our resident Manxman Sam Fitzgerald of Celtic Leathers, Mike Reps our mentor and mate in waiting who has unfortunately had other issues to deal with this year but has trouble seeing the point of winter racing (that's Californians for you!) and also John and Dave for coming up each month to help out just 'cos they wanted to! We also offer our great thanks to The Interislander who make it possible for Moto Academy NZ to travel to the South Island to give the riders a chance to compete at Ruapuna circuit and to run the NZSBK.
Finally, while the season has not yet been completed, I would like to thank the four riders this year, Glen Orwin, James Jarman, Kyle Hammond and Ben Taylor. They are a great group of guys each of whom displays talent for motorcycle racing and each of whom has taken their own approach to this years racing and learning. There have been ups and downs as there always are in motorcycle racing and motorsport in general, but they have all taken it in their strides and come out the other side better off for it I trust. We have four more meetings to run and I hope that they have enjoyed themselves so far and will be able to take the next steps in their racing careers.
Cheers!
Steve Bagshaw
Moto Academy NZ
Glen Orwin Race Report VMCC final round
Test Day
The weather turned out great for the Friday test day. We managed to get in a good solid day of testing and riding. I changed the rear ride height on the bike a bit to give me more confidence on the brakes and turn in, which seemed to help out a lot. I then just worked away at different corners and riding drills. At the end of the day Chris Osborne was very kind in letting me have a session on his GSX-R 450 Formula 3 bike which was a huge blast. I couldn’t believe how fast and easy it was to ride.
Race day
I really don’t have much to say about the racing as nothing exciting really happened because I was pretty keen to stay on the bike. All I needed to do was stay on the bike and I would win the 2010 Actrix VMCC championship! So I rode very conservatively all day. The one thing I was really happy about was my starts. In one of the races I managed to pass all the 125s from the second row.
It was a pretty good wrap up to the winter series and a good way to say thanks to Steve, to Moto Academy and to all of its supporters.
Glen Orwin #7