Event Reports » 2009 » Event 3 - Actrix VMCC Rd 1
Moto Academy NZ set up in the garage at Taupo on Friday afternoon in the rain so that we would be all ready to go in the morning. We all then congregated at a lovely rented house in Taupo for our first tutorial. The VMCC Streetstock riders were also invited to attend and it was great to see them there. I certainly hope that they got something out of it and will continue to attend our tutorials.
Saturday dawned damp but looking hopeful for a fine day. We all arrived at the circuit and set about signing on and getting geared up. Our mechanics set the tyrewarmers on the bikes and set all the tyre pressures and fuel and checked over all the bikes.Wills bike failed to run properly, with the same symptoms it had shown at Manfield. After checking over everything I finally tracked down a broken coil lead. With this repaired the bike fired up straight away, only to show a leaking water pump seal. At least this will be a straightforward repair. So we switched Will to the spare bike.
Come qualifying time however, the clouds opened up and it started to rain. So we were forced to change to rain tyres, but the short notice allowed us only to get fronts on three bikes, but Gareth was a bit quicker and got both wheels on Glens bike. The riders all went out with instructions to ride to the conditions. Kyle did just this and put on two laps and then came in rather than risk crashing with a slippery rear. He qualified well in 2nd place. Glen also went well and qualified in 5th place. Walter and Will however lost control of the slippery rear tyres and crashed softly at the far end of the track.
When the bikes got back we set about fitting up the rear rain tyres and fixing up Will and Walters bikes which needed new clutch levers, a couple of bits straightening and a bit of a clean.
The first race was held in drying conditions which caused some consternation, but there were plenty of damp spots on the track, so we left the rain tyres on. 5 laps would not be enough to ruin them even if it was drying. Kyle had a great race, but was of course hampered by the drying track and wisely chose not to push too hard and came in second. He is really finding his feet now and we are hopeful that the lessons from Moto Academy NZ last year will be built upon for this year. Glen on the other hand got a bit over enthusiastic and lost control and crashed heavily causing significant damage to the fairings of the bike. Walter also had an eventful race with good progress until near the end of the race a mechanical issue caused him to need to pull off the track. Will had a great race and had a really good finish and learned plenty. His style looked good and now needs to learn to ride a 125GP bike, which can take some time!
After repairing bikes and now fitting the dry tyres back on the riders all set out for race two. Kyle got a good start and set about hunting down the leader. Jaden Hassan is a very quick young rider with National championship podiums to his credit, on a very good bike, so for Kyle to close him down, pass him and hold him out until the finish was a fantastic achievement. Kyles first victory comes very early in the championship, so maybe the work we are doing at Moto Academy NZ is paying off and he will go on with it for the rest of the season. Walter had a really good race and after switching from race to road gear shift pattern found riding the small RS125 a bit easier. Will was going well until an engine failure bought him to a halt. It seems the piston ring broke which is a pity, but unfortunately this happens from time to time. Unfortunately for Glen he managed to stall the bike on the start line, could not get the bike running again and was asked to park it. So he had to fume inside his helmet and watch the proceedings. At least he got to watch Kyle take the race win in fine style.
So overall we had a very eventful and ultimately successful weekend. The riders all learned plenty about riding, crashing, repairing and racing. Our new mechanics all got plenty to do with changing wheels, sorting out damage and switching bikes around.
I would like to thank the riders, the new mechanics and John O'Leary and Mike Reps for all the help. I would also like to thank the families and friends of the riders for coming and supporting us all. Please also visit our supporters page to see the brands and organisations that are behind Moto Academy NZ.
We are all looking forward to the next race meeting which will be a two day event at Manfield on June 20/21. See you all there.
Walters Report Actrix VMCC SBK Rnd 1.
We arrived at the track shortly after 8 am on Saturday morning after having spent the night at a rented house in Taupo. We didn’t have much to do in terms of setting up the garages as it had all been done the night before.
The track was fairly damp, but the sky looked promising, so we decided to leave the slicks on our bikes, since we figured it would be dry by the time we went out.
Image courtesy of Dallas Alexander Photography
Qualifying:
We went out on the dummy grid, only to have it start drizzling and have the session declared wet. We scrambled back to our garage to stick on the wets, but we didn’t have enough time and were forced to leave the rear slick on. I headed out, but had some troubles upshifting, and kept hitting neutral. I brought the bike back into the pit, but was told to be more positive and go out again to get a few more laps in. I headed out again and latched myself on the rear of Keith Biddle (I think) I lost a bit of ground on him entering the corners, but gained it back coming out. Exiting Turn 11 I was a bit over-ambitious on the throttle, and lost the rear and dropped the bike in the dirt. As I was waiting for the session to finish, my teammate Will made the exact same mistake and was able to keep me company.
Race 1:
Steve and Shannon managed to fix my bike back up again nicely after the little accident in Qualifying, and we had time to put wets on both the front and rear. Finally I’d be able to have a proper run (except for my gear-changing issues). I had a really good start from 7th, and headed into Turn 1 in 5th, ahead of my teammates Glen and Will, and Keith. But I was still a bit twitchy and nervous on the bike and lost all the ground I had gained on Keith and Glen, only to have Glen crash out spectacularly a couple of laps later, which put me back into 6th. Coming out of Turn 14 into the front-straight on Lap 4, I heard a huge clattering noise coming from the rear, lost all drive and was forced to park the bike against the pit-wall until the race was over. The boys managed to repair what had gone wrong, no big problem.
Race 2:
We sorted out the bike issues, put our slicks back on and changed from race-shift to road-shift so that I might be able to gear shift more easily. I had a terrible start in Race 2 and didn’t manage to gain any ground, but I instantly found that road-shift made shifting for me much easier, and as such I had one less thing to worry about. Around lap 3 I was overtaken by Will. We had a fun little battle, and I managed to overtake him again coming out of Turn 14 (although I later found out that he ran into engine problems). The rest of the race was pretty uneventful, but at least I finished, which was a massive relief for me (my first points). Coming into the pits everyone was smiling (they probably didn’t expect me to finish).
Overall, despite the troubles I encountered, I had a great weekend, and learned heaps from Steve and the rest of the guys. Its going to take me a bit to get used to the bike, but hopefully by the end of Round 2 I’ll start getting better results, as I know I’m capable of being much quicker than I was.
Thanks heaps Steve, Mike, Gareth, Shannon, Robbie, my teammates, all our sponsors and Vic Club for an awesome weekend. I look forward to the next one!
Walter #12
Kyles Report Actrix VMCC SBK Rnd 1. Sweet, I won!
Coming into this round, I was quite determined to start the session off with some solid points and wins. Knowing from recent test days that my times were fairly up there, I was quietly confident I could achieve this.
We got to the track super early, and to my surprise a lot of the other riders were already there. I signed in and walked my brother Ryan through the process of what to do on a race day, as it was his first time racing.
Steve and Mike had already done a fantastic job of organising the garage the day before, so not too much was needed to be done, except fit my transponder.
Taupo had, again, put on for us an interesting day as qualifying rolled around the rain had started, of course, just as we went out. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to change both ends so we had to run a wet on the front and a slick on the back. This gave our fresh mechanics a good practice, who managed to change 4 bike rims within a couple minutes. (The meeting had not yet been called wet).
As I rode out the gate for qualifying, I could feel the rear tyre instantly start to slide as
I rode around at a very very grandma pace, just being smooth and avoiding hands full of throttle until up-right. I chucked in one semi-okay lap for the conditions and called it quits, as I was asking for a crash if I stayed out there any longer. Nevertheless, Jayden and I were still miles ahead of everyone else and I qualified in 2nd place. There were a couple of people crashing who had the same tyre configuration as I did, so I was happy with my maturity in the conditions.
Image courtesy of Dallas Alexander photography
As the session finished, the meeting was declared wet, so we changed to wets. Unfortunately the skies played silly buggers with us and it stopped raining so a dry line formed just after lunch. Without time to change tyres again and the track still damp in places I proceeded to the dummy grid, to find my main competitor had quickly switched to slicks again.
Race One
I lined up on to the grid and for once I had managed to put my bike in neutral on the way up! I managed a decent start, which was a welcome change as this has been a weak point in previous meetings. I exited turn one in fourth, but quickly dived up the inside of No.74 William Juggins who had got the holeshot. But he ran on to the grass as we went over top of Turn 4. I closely followed Jayden for a wee bit having a look up the inside a couple times. But he eventually pulled a small gap. As my bike was sliding around a fair amount I decided not to take the risk of crashing and just take an easy 2nd, as I knew he had a set of slicks on. Best time for this race was a rather safe 1:51.
Race Two
In between races the track became pretty dry so we switched back to slicks and chucked them on the warmers. I exited the gate with a bit of a practice start to get the ball rolling and as I was still in rain mode. I decided to give the warm up lap a bit of a thrashing to get in the mood. Who was it that said your warm up lap should be your fastest? Feeling the tons of extra grip I had I felt like I had a chance now. I managed a decent start again, this time exiting turn one in 3rd. Yet again I got rid of the 2nd place rider around the outside of turn three and inside of turn four. Quickly jumping on to the backend of Jayden's bike, I felt very strong. I chose the outside line to avoid the massive patch around the long left (Turn 6). This proved to be the better line as Jayden bogged his bike down, and I buggered off around the outside on the exit, almost rubbing fairings.
It was quite interesting leading the race, my experience from bucket racing helped a lot here. I held a decent pace, without cocking up too much, and managed to gap Jayden a fair amount. As the laps went on I managed to hold a distance on Jayden, but noticed I was getting a little bit rough everywhere,notably through the A1 Corner and the back sweeper, struggling a lot with drive out on the back straight. I quickly but safely lapped the Streetstock/"Mini-Lite's", learning from my experiences from last year's two dayer, where I lost 3rd position due to taking a calm approach to lapping riders. I kept it all together at a decent pace and crossed the line in first!! First real win for me, which was fantastic! Best time of a 1:45:4
Summary/Things to improve on
-My starts still need some improving, but are a much welcome improvement to last year’s starts where I would be some 5 seconds behind the leaders by the end of the first lap. No reason I shouldn't be able to holeshot every race.
-Smoother/more precise/consistent riding. I need to be precise with my riding as I notice that I was riding smooth but not particularly accurately, missing apex's and average lines were some of the downfalls. (A1 Corner and sweeper were not good at all!) This will be something I will be especially focusing on at the next round. However it could be put down to the fact that I have not ridden the full Taupo track since this time last year, and I only had 5 dry laps. Nevertheless, I will be working on this area a lot.
Fantastic start to the session but its going to be a tough session ahead! Tied for first with 47 Points and 1st overall for round 1 as I won the last race.
Thanks a lot to:
Steve Bagshaw/Moto Academy NZ for doing what he's doing, wouldn't be here without him! Cheers!
Mike Reps for helpful mentoring and looking after us!
Gareth, Shannon and Robbie for doing a awesome job! Cheers!!!
Mum and Dad and MJH Engineering
Cheers
Kyle #13.
Wills Report Actrix VMCC SBK Rnd 1.
Arrived at the team house in Taupo late Friday night. Filled up on Mike’s “gourmet” spaghetti. Then Glen and Walter arrived with our shiny new Shoei’s and then we all gathered around the table with the boys and the street stock riders for our first tutorial. I was nervous thinking of the day ahead and wondering how well I could ride with a stitched index finger but I listened to Steve and tried to take it all in.
After a rough sleep (thinking about the race day to come) and a very early breakfast at 6am we made it to the track which had been set up the day before. I attempted to relax and get into race mode. I managed to squeeze my bandaged finger into my race glove where It remained for the whole day. With the weather looking threatening I focused on how I would ride gently in qualifying to get to know the bike. We fired up the bikes to get them warm and ready but mine failed to start due to a broken coil lead and a leaking water pump seal so I was switched to the spare and out we went.
My visor fogged up almost immediately so I proceeded around lap 1 at a slow pace, wary of the slippery track and the slick on the rear. By the second lap I’d cracked open my visor a little and could see, and opened up the throttle a bit more. Coming onto the back straight I got on the gas a little early and the slick rear came around to meet the front, I came off and slid a little and ended up in the dirt with Walter to keep me company, with only minor damage to the bike.
Race 1
Got a good start off the grid having successfully used the rev, rev, rev and go technique learnt the night before, the bike felt good running on wets even on the drying track, kept nice and tucked in coming in hot into the first and last corners sliding the rear a bit, need to remember to stay clear of the white lines, very unnerving. Managed to get the power on early on the back straight having learnt something from qualifying and found the esses before the home straight challenging.
Got the bike back to the pits undamaged this time with a quickest lap time of 2.08.119
Race 2
Had a really bad start but quickly caught up in the first few corners getting up behind Walter and chasing him for the first and second lap watching his lines and braking points we were having a great dice and I managed to overtake him coming into the first corner only to suffer engine problems mid corner and lost all the drive and bogged and the engine died shortly after. (Turns out to have been a broken piston ring! Steve)
All in All a great first day, learnt a lot for my first race and second time on a track.
Lots of things to improve on for round 2, where we will all be a lot faster and smoother and having some more fun!
Thanks to
Steve and Mike
Robbie, Shannon and Gareth
Dad
Cheers
Will #14
Glens Report Actrix VMCC SBK Rnd 1.
This was my first race on a motorbike, and second time riding the 125. I was really excited about it; even the bad weather forecast didn’t change that. On Friday I finished work and went straight up to collect Walter, and then we were off for Taupo. Friday evening we had our Moto Academy NZ tutorial with Steve, where we went over what would be happening the next day and what we would need to do, which was all very helpful.
We got up nice and early on Saturday so we could have breakfast and get out to the track. Steve and Mike had already set the garage up the day before, so all we had to do was get ourselves ready and then relax, I wasn’t very good at this, I kept pacing and sitting on the bike to try to prepare myself.
Image courtesy of Dallas Alexander photography.
Just as we were heading out for our practice/qualifying it started to rain, so we were sent back to the garage to get wets on, all we had time for was to put a front wet on and still had the rear slick. I went out and pretty much just rolled round for the first lap just to get a feel for the track and find out how much grip there actually was, turned out there was a lot at the front with heaps of feel, but the back was sliding all over the place. My visibility was also very poor, because my visor kept fogging up, but I made it through and managed to get a time. I qualified 5th on the grid which I thought wasn’t too bad.
Once we were lined up on the grid it all happened very quickly, I thought there would be more time. I had a terrible start; I let the clutch out too quickly and bogged down. By the first corner I was hanging way off the back of everybody, but quickly caught up and started passing people and got back to 5th place again. Second lap I almost had a high side on the first turn, I was thrown up onto the tank and thought it was all over, so I tried to chill out and slow down. But I felt as though I could catch 4th place so picked up the pace again, only to low side on turn four on the third lap, sending me for a slide. I picked the bike up and pushed it over to a wall to rest it on and watched the rest of the race while telling myself off inside my helmet. I got back to the pits still pissed off and thinking my day was over, but Gareth and the boys quickly got to work putting the fairings off the spare bike onto mine and putting slicks on so I could ride in the next race (Cheers guys).
Second race I wanted to make up for my stupid mistake in the first only to match it by stalling on the starting grid while trying to find neutral, and then being unable to start the bike (too bad I couldn’t have big Gareth there pushing me, huh). I thought never mind, you will be able to go once they are all gone, but I was told to jump over the barrier and wait till the race was over to move. It was a very good view point from there and I think I managed to learn a bit from watching Kyle win the race (Congrats again!).
Things I learnt from my first race:
Thanks to Steve and Mike for running the academy and sharing all your info (and sorry again Steve about the bike, hopefully that’s the last one). And cheers to Gareth and the other mechanics for helping out.
Glen #15.