Event Reports » 2008 » Event 2
After a dream start to the life of Moto Academy NZ it was time to front up with the next step, the second event. All of the boys along with Jeff the VMCC Streetstock scholarship rider, met on Friday evening at my house for the pre-event tutorial. In this tutorial we discussed points of rider safety such as rules and flags, track etiquette, overtaking, holding racing lines and such things. We also discussed various aspects of the performance side of racing such as training, visualisation and maintaining performance. To wind up the tutorial we made brief critiques of last months performances and decided what aspects each rider would work on on Saturday.
Sam and I had taken a lot of the gear out to the circuit on the Friday afternoon, so Saturday just required setting up a couple of things and getting the bikes ready. I had unfortunately been much busier the previous week than I had hoped and so did not have the bikes as prepared as I should have and one or two small issues arose which we dealt with smoothly.
But one thing we were able to do was to get group photos of Moto Academy NZ bikes and riders out on the start finish line. This was really great and I hope the pics turn out well.
The Moto Academy NZ bikes at Manfield
Photo: Steve Bagshaw
So, come time for qualifying with the SS/MotoGP125 class being moved to the opposite end of the programme from where we were at Taupo. This threw out our timing a bit. I would prefer that the programme was established at Rd 1 and remained that way right through the series thereby allowing people to plan the finer details of their time. But anyway we managed. The bikes all fired up readily and the boys went out for the session with what aspects they would be working on fresh in their minds. Of course they are all working on many different things, being new to it and all, but we had worked out from Rd 1 that some aspects were at the top of the list. The qualy session passed without incident and while the field for MotoGP 125 was small, the Moto Academy NZ boys had all acquitted themselves well.
The same could not be said for the Moto Academy NZ RS250. While checking the engine after Rd 1 I determined that a new cylinder was required and duly fitted it. Unfortunately I did not find the time to correctly bed in the new cylinder and also had left the jetting way too lean, so two laps into the session the engine seized and locked up and Glen was forced to take to the grass. Luckily his skill allowed him to remain upright. Inspection of the engine showed that the new cylinder had suffered catastrophic failure due to a combination of lean running and non-conditioning of the cylinder plating. I must put my hand up for this and will be ensuring that a repeat is not suffered. So, this put paid to Glens day and he handled this like a true professional, took it in his stride and proceeded to help out with the remaining Moto Academy NZ riders.
Time for MotoGP 125 race one. After a bit of pushing (the engines get cold quickly and chokes, and kill switches!! are needed) the bikes all fired up and the boys took their places on the grid. Except for Sam. Unfortunately an eye-bolt on his gear shifter had decided that now was the time to break and he could not change gear. This meant the end of race 1, not a flash start to the day. Still, we replaced that and reset the gear shifter and it was as good as new. The other two boys had a great race and I was pleased to see them working on the skills we had wanted them to work on. Near the end of this race Kyle upped his pace to catch Luke and was doing so very well, until he lost control of the rear exiting turn 1 and low sided off the bike. Luckily my time in the workshop making slidy knobs worked a treat and the only damage was a small scrape on the fairing.
The remaining two races were then combined into one 10 lap race. So the boys again lined up all geared up to really have a go. Jayden Hassan was a bit of a click above the Moto Academy NZ riders on this day so he took off on his new Yamaha. The three Moto Academy boys then set about racing each other and William Juggins. They looked fantastic in formation on the circuit and Sam was giving Luke a real lesson in how to go fast. Luke obviously learned well as he crept up to Sams rear wheel and then took his opportunity to overtake and pull away. It was gratifying to see Luke quickly changing his style from rough Bucket riding to much smoother 125 riding. While it slipped from time to time there is only one way to go now, and we will be honing those skills ever finer.
Kyle was doing much the same but was concentrating more on finding his feet that he caught and passed William but was unable to match Sam and Luke. Kyles bike started to get a bit hot so he pitted to have radiator tape removed and rejoined to finish the race. Sam unfortunately developed an engine problem on the last lap and pitted so did not finish the race. Inspection will be required to determine the fault. As Sam says, Expect the Uninspected!! Classic.
So overall I would class the day as not a total success, but with two out of four riders improving their times and really working on their racing, it was not a total loss either.
I must therefore apologise to Glen and acknowledge his maturity in helping out with the remainder of the day and to thank Mike and John for their assistance during the day and for helping to cart all the stuff home again.
I thank all our suppliers and supporters and look forward to Actrix VMCC SBK Rd 3, 19 July 2008 at Manfield.
Dr Steve Bagshaw
Director
Moto Academy NZ
Please visit our website to learn more about Moto Academy NZ (www.motoacademy.co.nz)
Kyle Hammond VMCC Round two
The day dawned fine and started off quickly, with just 10 or so minutes after rider's briefing until Street stock/125GP qualifying started. As per usual the starting rituals of the 125's began as soon as possible to try get some heat into their small engines so warming up doesn't take as long before the important stuff like qualifying and the races. However unfortunately for me, the battery on my bike was not fully charged (I had forgotten to charge it, but luckily it had some power from the last recharge - Steve. ) The 125 I ride doesn't have a flywheel or stator instead it runs a total loss ignition system. Not to worry, Steve setup the battery charger to get some power into her, the past owner of the bike (Glen) mentioned that it should run just fine in the current state it is, even if the battery hasn't been charged in a month. However taking no precautions Steve set it up anyway. This meant that when qualifying came around I had to warm up the bike from scratch, no worries.
Qualifying came around extremely quickly, straight after the scrub in session finished the first call came around. We fired her up as people we just leaving and unfortunately it took forever to warm up to a sensible level, to start putting load on it. Once it finally reached 40 oC I took off down the pit lane to try get in as many laps as possible before the session was over. As I went out there I felt uncomfortable because the tyres had not been on the warmers for long enough, so not keen to
push it too hard I cruised around, getting a feel of the bike again. I qualified in 4th place with a time of 1:26.551, I was quite happy with this because I was just half a second off my team mates who had being riding around with confidence.
During the time between qualifying and the first race, I relaxed because I could see my tyres happily
getting some heat in them and the battery charging nicely, no worries for the first race I thought. Huge thanks to Steve for making sure everything was setup and ready, compared to before when he had only just 10 minutes to get 3 bike's running and with warm tire's, seriously awesome work for what he managed in those precious 10 minutes. (due to the club shifting 125’s from last class as at Taupo, to first with no prior warning – Steve)
The first race came around quickly once again but this time the bike started easily after I realised that the kill switch was turned off, My bad! I warmed the bike up on the dummy grid comfortably and rode around on the warm up lap. For some reason I felt really in tune and confident with the bike and actually said to my-self, "Here we go!" If only I was that confident about my starts. Well anyhow I lined up for the start and the lights went off, got an extremely crap start as per usual, one of many thing's to work on I say!
The other guys ahead of me were braking for turn one by the time I had got off the line (well it feels like that anyway), I was expecting to be eaten by Streetstock bikes but luckily the spilt starts had been organised properly (Thanks AJ), as this could have caused an extremely dangerous situation. Any who, time to play the good old catch up game. I was amazed to find that by the time I got around to Splash (turn 3) I was already on the back of William Juggins, who had raced here many time's on 125's before. I passed him coming into the hairpin and started pushing a wee bit further than I had before on this bike and felt extremely comfortable. Working my way up slowly to Luke on the other Moto Academy NZ 125, 4 laps in and I was right behind him coming in to turn one, with the first Streetstock bike in our way. I saw Luke go around the outside of him through
turn one, I dived up the inside quickly seeing this as a possible chance to get past Luke and
possibly gain a small lead due to him being held up by the Streetstock bike. However I was a little bit
trigger happy with the throttle and what occurred was the back end stepped out. I kept it pinned
and ended up with a nice little low-side. Lluckily it didn't flick me off, as these bikes do so if you get them out of line lots! P retty much no damage (except a small scratch) done to anything including the leathers. In fact there was more damage done to Sams bike at the last round when it fell off the stand, randomly (Randomly Kyle ???? - Steve ;-) ). I was even happier to see that in the last lap I managed a 1:20.658. I learned a lot about the handling of the 125's from this and the Moto-Academy mentors informed me about the mechanics of why I crashed. Excellent!
I heard over the loud speaker that the second race would be 10 lap's long. Having mixed thoughts about this I thought that I would just take it easy, and aim to be smooth. As usual I had a very crap start. I think I would have been better off walking to the first corner! I caught up to William Juggins and followed him around for a couple of laps, then thought to myself “I could go way faster than this”. Then buggered off from him gaining a massive lead and hoping to catch up to Sam and Luke, however between lap 5 and after the temp gauge was moving noticeably up and down between 65-75 (Possibly a bung temp gauge?) and I finally called it a day by coming in on the 8th lap, got Steve to remove the tape on my radiator but by the time I went to go out again it was too late. I was happy to still be somewhat quickish, and wrapt in a time of 1:22.760.
Two non-finishes, and missed out on possibly two 2nd places . Oh well that's racing sometimes isn't
it?
Kyle Hammond #13
Photo: WF Photography
Huge thanks to
Moto Academy - Steve Bagshaw and Mike for all their help and mentoring the night before and on the day (awesome work!)
Alpinestars
Arai
Fuchs Silkolene Lubricants (Check out the stand in the Moto Academy pits next round. There are some really cool products not just oil too!)
SBS Brake pads (They stop good!)
RK Racing Chains
NGK Spark Plugs
Tyrewarmers.co.nz
AFAM Sprockets
GJH Fibreglass
Evolution Panel and Paint
The Marshalls for all their awesome work out there!
and of course!
The Victoria Motorcycle Club of Wellington!, An extremely well run meeting
Kyle Hammond #13
Sam's R2 Moto Academy
Well, Round 2 came along with the best weather for a Winter series.
Qualifying:
Qualifying was OK, slow lap times but the track was cold, got 3rd so had a good start position.
R1:
Well cant tell you much part from my gear lever rod snapped on the warm up lap, bugger!! Not to worry we fixed it for R2 and I was back on my way.
R2:
Well R2 was the best race I’ve had in a while. Me and Luke battled it out to the bitter death. For me the bitter death was my bike playing up and I had to end...
But anyway, I got an average start with Luke smoking up the middle. Turn one not many bikes so didn’t have to defend my line. Luke and Jayden got a way 20 bike lengths, so I had to do work to pull in at least one of them. I did and it was me and Luke biting at each other the whole way.
Luke drafted me down the front straight and passed me, but I wasn’t letting him go that easily, so I out braked him going into Coke (T1). I had much more speed then him going round the Esses. I heard him roll the throttle off, but I kept mine pinned open. We were swapping positions quickly but I was taking them back quicker. Ccoming out of Higgins on the second to last lap my bike stared dying. “not the engine!!!!” (well I don’t know what it is yet but I hope not). So I had to no other option but to pull in. I was gutted, but that’s racing, EXPECT THE UNINSPECTED!
Overall the day was great and I couldnt have done it without:
Steve Bagshaw
Mike Reps
Along with the suppliers that have made it all possible:
Alpinestars
Arai Helmet
SBS Braking systems
Fuchs Silkolene Lubricants
NGK Spark Plugs
RK Chain
AFAM Sprockets
GJH Fibreglass
Evolution Panel and Paint
Thanks for listening, Moto Academy rider Sam Flynn #12
Luke chasing Sam hard through turn 7 (Dunlop bend)
Round 2, The battle, Luke Jameson (Derek Hill Memorial Scholarship student)
Woke up on Saturday morning about 6am hoping it wasn’t going to be too cold this morning. Iit took a bit for the other boys to wake up so I helped by throwing a pillow at Glen. Not too long after we all got out of bed and got some food in to us then we where off to the track. I jumped in Glens car with him, the others went with AJ (my dad). The ice was pretty bad in the morning and it took a bit for us to see out the window. When we could see we where off to the track. We got to the track about 7:30am. Sam and Steve had set up most of the pit garage on the afternoon before, so not much to unpack. We got our gear on so that we could get some photos of the bikes and the academy riders.
Later on we had riders brief and warmed up the bikes all the bikes warmed up nicely except for Kyle’s bike which was on the charger. Soon we where called up and everyone went up to the dumpy grid and out on the track I remember what Steve told me to do and get in behind the fairings, let the bike lean and do the work and don’t get your body off the bike as much as I was the first time out.
It was like I was on a different bike! It went faster and better through corners! It was awesome and from that I qualified 2nd!!! I was blown away. I did a 1:26 which in the cold conditions and so early in the day was not so bad and from that my goal was to do a 1:20 by the end of the day. I was so happy with qualifying I told just about everyone.
1st race
We went up to the dummy grid and had to wait about 10min for something, but we were soon off. We came around to the start line and I stalled the bike! “Oh shit” I said, and had to push start the bike. Took a bit too, so I was tired after pushing the bike. I got back to my 2nd spot on the grid just in time for the lights to go up. I revved the bike, the lights went out and we where off. I got a good start and stayed with 1st (Jayden H) until the hairpin (T5) where he took off and I never saw him again. So I just kept racing and went hard. I looked backed about 4 laps into the race at the hairpin and no one was behind me. I thought I must have being going fast? I finished 2nd it was great! Second time on the bike and it just keeps getting better!!!
2nd race
This race I wanted to get a 1:20. We lined up at the start line the first light came up and I looked over at Jayden and he was looking behind himself. I don’t know why but it was funny, the last light came up and they all when out and I got a really good start this time better than my last start, but I keep letting the clutch out a little too fast and the engine bogs. So I could hear another bike just behind me but I got the hole shot and I was in the front until the hairpin again where Jaden again overtook me and once again I never saw him until I came back in at the end.My 6th lap was fun because Sam had caught up to me by then and passed me but I didn’t let him get away this time. I stay with him and passed him where I was stronger on the corner, or faster on the straight, but he kept getting me on the infield S-bends where there is a bump and I slow down just a bit, so he can get past me again. So I just stayed with him and breaked later than he did and got on the gas harder it was great racing. We both came in hard to the first corner Sam had the outside line and I had the inside line I braked so hard I saw the shadow of the bikes back wheel lifting off the ground. I thought “shit” so I let go of the brakes and let Sam past me again. We got to Higgins and Sams bike died. It really sucked because I was having a great battle with him. But in the end I finished with a 2nd place again.
I can’t wait until the next round. It’s going to be better and I’m looking to do 1:18 this time. I achieved my goal of getting a 1:20 lap time, I did a 1:20.779, I was happy. I also have 70 points, so so far I’m 3rd in points, William is 2nd with 71 points and Jaden is 1st with 94 points. Four rounds to go, anything can happen.
Big Thanks to
Moto Academy NZ - Steve Bagshaw and Mike for all their help (great work!!)
Alpinestars
Arai
Fuchs Silkolene Lubricants (There are some really cool products not just oil too!)
SBS Brake pads (They stopped me!!!)
RK Racing Chains
NGK Spark Plugs
Tyrewarmers.co.nz
AFAM Sprockets
GJH Fibreglass
Evolution Panel and Paint
The Marshalls
The Victoria Motorcycle Club of Wellington. Another extremely well run meeting,
Thanks guys!!!
Luke Jameson #14
The boys preparing to 'do battle'.
Photo: AJ Jameson