Auckland Motorcycle Club 2010 Rd 1 Hampton Downs

Glen, James and Steve rolled up to Hampton Downs for the first round of the 2010 Auckland Motorcycle Club championships. For this meeting there would be a race for the new burgeoning 2-Stroke GP class, so I decided to take along the RS250 for a bit of a shakedown test and for a go on the new circuit.

Well, what a day it turned out to be. One of those days that make you wish you had stayed in bed!! After a lovely evening at chez Percival out the back of Te Kauwhata we all cruised into Hampton Downs under grey and threatening skies. We set up our pit on the pitlane and set about signing on and bike scruitineering. What a lot of bother! Now I remember why I "retired" from racing!!

All that organised we got ready for our first sessions in Formula 3, Post-Classic Junior and 2-Stroke GP classes.

Steve Bagshaw on the 1989 Honda RS250.

We all got one dry session in which all went well enough. The gear shift lever on the 250 needed to be replaced as it was the wrong shape for me and I was finding too many false neutrals. The rear spring in the 250 is also far too light and I was using up all of the rear end travel without even trying, so that will need to be changed.

During the second practice session the rain started to come in the track got slick quickly and with the rear spring causing the front end to get light on accelleration I lost control of the front end in the last turn and the bike tucked under and tipped over. No real damage was done, so I got the bike back and set about fitting the rain tyres. Unfortuntely the front brake discs on the spare wheels are a bit buggered so the first wet session was a bit of a write-off too. Such is our lot during a shakedown!

By the time the next races came around the sun had come out and the track was drying rapidly, so I decided to not wear out my rain tyres and pulled out after a lap or two.

One or two issues to fix on the 250, but they will be rectified in readiness for the next outing, probably at Taupo RoadRace Spectacular in December.

 

Glen Orwin Race Report, AMCC Round 1 at Hampton Downs

 

This was my first meeting where I was slightly more official as I was not only there as a competitor, but also as a committee member and teh AMCC Club Captain. This gave me a few more things to do for the day, but I still had a blast in the first Moto Academy NZ outing at an Auckland club event.

 

We were entered in two classes for the day, 125GP and a class just for 2-stoke GP bikes.

 

Qualifying

We went out on a mostly dry track with a few spits of rain. It was the first time I had been to Hampton Downs since March, so I spent the first few laps just familiarising myself with the track, then the clutch decided to give up coming out of the hair-pin. I pulled in and we quickly got to work putting in a new set of clutch plates and fibres to try get out for the next qualifying session.

 

We got it back together and I rode out about half way through the session just as the rain was starting. The track got pretty slippery on the dry tires and then the session ended. Which was just as well, because I had managed to nip the O-ring that seals the clutch cover and oil had started to leak out. We put in a new O ring and set about changing the wheels over, because the rain had set in.

 

Race, Round One

I was a bit worried about the start being on a brand new clutch, but that was the least of my worries. None of the Formula 3 grid with whom we were racing seemed to know where they had qualified and they were all over the place! I was still watching people re-position themselves and then next thing they all took off, I had missed the start completely! I took off and tried to catch up, but a few laps into the race I couldn’t turn round the left hand hair pin! I though I was under steering and had tucked the front. Turned out the lap timer had worked its way around and was stopping me from turning the bars. Every time I thought I had it sorted it wiggled back around and I had to try sort it on the move. I was pretty happy when the race was over, so I could sort out the bike.

 

In the next class I managed to catch the lights, but the clutch was very different to what I was used to and I just bogged off the line. Everyone shot off away from me. At least this time I had a chance of catching people. I worked my way through the slower F3 bikes and managed to catch James near the end of the race.

Round Two

Once again I bogged badly off the line and lost a lot of time on the other 125s. Racing with the F3 bikes makes it hard to keep up with other 125s if they manage to get through the gaps quicker than you. I spent most of the race trying to get past the bigger bikes. As I got faster I was running out of revs down the straight, which meant I had to roll off pretty early.

 

In the last race of the day I got a cracker of a start! I got all the way up to the Pro-Twin bikes and even managed to go around some of them in Turn one. But the track was drying quickly and the rain tyres we had on were getting hotter and hotter. After a couple of laps I was sliding all over the place which although it was heaps of fun, it wasn’t producing very good times. With the extra pace I was also running out of revs really early. I was rolling off the gas not far past the kink to stop the bike from over-revving. After two or three laps Dan and Ken caught and passed me. I was pretty pleased to hold them off for that long with all the issues I had. It was the most fun I had all day though, I couldn’t believe the drifts I was pulling off without crashing!

Glen #7