Event Reports » 2009 » Event 4 - Actrix VMCC Rd 2
Moto Academy NZ again set up in the garage early on Friday afternoon so that we would be all ready to go in the morning. The weekend two-day meeting promised to be held in fine but cold conditions which proved to be the case.
Avalon Biddle has been chosen as the Moto Academy NZ Red Bull Rookies Cup rider this year, so she has joined the ranks of Moto Academy NZ as an adjunct rider. Racing under our colours, but not otherwise an official member of Moto Academy NZ. She and her Mum and Dad will, however, join us in the VMCC garage at the Manfield rounds, and I think that the Moto Academy NZ riders will benefit immensely from that interaction.
Moto Academy NZ, Manfeild 20 June 2009. Honda RS125s of Avalon, Walter, Kyle, Will, Glen.
Overall the weekend went well, with again some crashes and mechanical issues. The mechanicals were a mixture of unforseeable issues (broken spark plug) and management issues (loose chain). But we are all learning how to run this thing, so we will continue to work through the good and the not so good times.
Once again Kyle was on the pace, qalifying less than a second behind Jaden and ahead of Avalon. We will continue to work hard to provide him with the machinery he needs to maintain his excellent progress and performances.
Glen is continuing to put together his learning and gain experience. He had three strong performances this weekend. Starting off steadily with damaged confidence after his errors at Taupo, he quickly overcame that and put in three good rides.
Walter and Will put in supurb qualifying sessions and Will especially showed good style and speed. Walter continued his adaptation to the small RS125GP bike.
Our merry band of mechanics again put in sterling efforts getting bikes ready and repaired and continued their development of paddock and racebike skills.
Please read the riders experiences of the weekend.
Hi guys,
Well I had my first race back on the weekend at round two of the Victoria Motorcycle Club Winter Series at Manfield Raceway, and boy was I mega excited! Although a bit chilly, the weather was fantastic and I was able to put in a solid days riding on Friday before the weekends racing started. My new blue and white fairings of Moto Academy NZ looked great on track and it was fun being pitted with the academy crew.
Saturday afternoon hosted race 1 and from the final space on the front row I managed to holeshot the first race before finishing third. The second race on Sunday was a bit warmer and I finished second with the fastest lap of the race.
My leg is feeling great; just a little stiff but it was definitely worth it to be back on the bike! I would like to thank Sam from Celtic leathers for putting my leathers back together and Mum and Dad for organising everything for the weekend.
I’ll keep you updated with more news and hopefully some pics,
Av.
Saturday
We arrived at Manfield at around 08:00 am on Saturday morning, everything was set up for us already by Steve and the boys – thanks guys. It was bloody cold but we were all keen to get out on the bikes after our tutorial focusing on “spending of concentration” , racing lines, reference points and braking zones
Qualifying
Had a really crap start having let the clutch out far too early, feathering it is definitely the way to go. Other than that all went well came in 13th with a best time of 2.29.810. By the time I’d finished my 6th lap my left leg was dead from all the up shifting, so decided to change to road shift for race 1.
Race 1:
Managed a few laps before the bike would not allow me to rev above 10,000rpm due to the spark plug having it’s electrode missing. Luckily no damage to the engine as I retired from the race as soon as I could with the hope I would have a bike to use on Sunday.
Sunday
Morning Warm-up:
Woke up to a beautiful sunny day, but very cold. Felt very confident in the warm-up, much quicker than the day before. The front forks started to bottom out coming into corners as I was braking later, and not being as progressive on the brakes, but it was a bit of fun to be out and up there with some of the bigger bikes.
Race 2:
Great start off the line, passing Walter on Turn 1 and Adrian. Had a great first lap with a time of 2.24.471 only to lose the front mid corner on Coca Cola (Turn 1) at the start of the 2nd lap. No injuries from the off, just a hole in the elbow of my leathers. Lost a bit of paint off the right side, and bent the rear brake lever. There’s some great photos of my “off” on the official photographers web site too! I was very disappointed having to watch the next 8 laps trackside, but it was good to see the others and their riding technique.
Race 3:
Sat around watching the racing all afternoon waiting to get back out, only for the final races to be cancelled due to lack of time and due to a succession of crashes in the previous races
Learnt a ton this weekend even with the hiccups. Must work on being smoother and progressively braking and keeping up that corner speed and staying on the bike.
Big thanks to Robbie, Gareth, Shannon, Steve, Dad and Vic Club
Cheers Will #14
Saturday
I arrived at Manfield at around 08:00 am on Saturday morning after having spent the Friday night at Will’s house, and driving up to Feilding that morning with Patrick (Will’s dad). By the time we got there, everything was pretty much set up for us already as Steve and the Mechanics all got there earlier.
Qualifying :
Our qualifying session was the last one on the roster, just before the lunch break, so we spent most of the morning just sitting around the garage and getting prepared. By the time we went out it was slightly warmer than it had been earlier that morning, but still freezing in anyone’s books. It was my first time on the Long Circuit, but at least it wasn’t all foreign to me, as I had ridden on the Short Circuit before at a track day, but even so I was a little bit nervous about riding, so I took the first few laps out fairly slow, and worked my way up from there. It was a fairly uneventful qualifying session, and improve my lap times every lap, getting down to 2:23.092. When the session was over, I was happily sitting in 6th place, in front of (much to my delight) Glen, Callum and Will.
Race 1:
By the time we went out for our first race, it was late afternoon, and it had already started to cool down (not that it was warm to begin with). I had a pretty average start (it wasn’t bad, but it could be better) and despite dropping from 6th to 7th after getting overtaken by Callum, I managed to maintain a similar pace to qualifying (Best lap time of 2:22.978). Throughout the race I managed to maintain a constant gap with Callum right until he dropped out (due to mechanical issues?) allowing me to regain 6th. Soon afterwards Kyle, unfortunately, dropped his chain, which moved me up to 5th, only to get passed in the last lap by Glen, although I was having trouble shifting gear (later found out to be the result of a loose gear lever), and managed to finish the race in 6th place, which I was pretty happy about.
That was it for the day, and it was time for us to retire to the Raceway Court Motel, and spend the rest of the night watching Rugby, eating Pizza and drinking Double Browns. I went to bed a little after 10:00 pm, so I could be up on the bright for the next morning.
Sunday
Morning Warm-up:
After the rider’s briefing, the track got opened up for a morning warm-up. I decided to take it easy this time around, after all, this was just a warm-up. I focused on my foot positions on the pegs, as my toes were scraping the ground before (wearing through the uppers of my boots) and managed to keep my toes off the ground for most of the session. As with the day before, I was still having trouble shifting gears, which we fixed by changing gear levers. At the conclusion of the session I returned to our garage, satisfied with the outcome, and spent the rest of the morning getting prepared for the next race.
Race 2:
Happy with my new gear lever, we went out again for the longer race of the 3 (10 laps compared to 6 laps). I had a pretty bad start, as I full let go of the clutch as the bike got up to a reasonable speed, only to find out that it was still a bit early, causing the bike to bog down a little bit, but I still managed to keep 6th place going into turn 1. Exiting turn 1, I got passed by Will and Adrian Billington (on the CBR250) but I held onto both of them, and on exiting turn 6, I managed to re-pass Adrian, after which I held onto Will. I ran it a little bit wider than I would have liked in turn 9, which lost me some ground to Will, but I managed to make up for this little mistake by taking a clean line through turn 10, which moved me right up to the back of Will again. Entering turn 11, I was intent on overtaking Will, but I simply went too fast through it, and misjudged my apex somewhat. As I was drifting towards the outside of the track, I realised that with my limited ability and experience, there was no way I’d be able to keep the bike on the track, and attempted to make a controlled excursion of the track, with hopes that I’d be able to rejoin again, but due to the condition of the ground next to the track, the bike slipped out from underneath me, which caused me to landed badly on my hand and some damage to the left side fairing of the bike. I was extremely frustrated at the fact that I couldn’t even complete a single lap that race, but also because this was my 2nd crash in as many race meetings. Hopefully this won’t be the norm.
I spent the rest of the afternoon angry at myself for crashing, and trying to nurse my hand with ice and painkillers so that I’d be able to compete in Race 3, but this was not to be, a series of fairly serious on-track incidents in the two races prior to ours caused too much delay, and we ran short on time, which resulted in the Supersport, 125GP and Formula LG races being cancelled. (Get well soon to all the crashers out there, a few of them looked pretty nasty from the side).
Although this race meeting has left much to be desired in terms of actual results, I did learn a lot from it. Due to the additional time gained on the bike, I’ve gotten quite a bit more comfortable on the little Honda, as we’ve adjusted my gear lever position some more, as well as the position of my handlebars (which allowed me to get a bit more tucked in behind the fairing). I’ve improved my footwork quite a bit, and I have also learned that I should rely more on technique than pure speed (work on getting the brake points correctly, going through the apexes properly, and being smooth on the throttle, nice and early). So despite my crash, I feel that this weekend was quite productive as far as learning to race goes.
Cheers Steve, Shannon, Robbie, Gareth, Mike and Vic Club for another awesome weekend of racing
-Walter, #12 Moto Academy
I was once again very excited about getting out on the bike, if a little apprehensive due to the last time I was on it I had a biggish crash. During practice/qualifying I felt really uncomfortable on the bike and just couldn’t get my act together for the whole 20min. I came in at the end wondering what was going on and why I didn’t feel right on the bike, and my right hand kept on cramping up. I ended up with a time of 2:23.606, which put me 7th on the grid. I even missed the second half of our tutorial (sorry Steve) because I was off in la-la land trying to get my head right.
Race 1
Our race was the last of the day, so we had a bit of time to relax and watch some racing, this gave me the chance to ask more questions of the quicker people and how to get the damn thing off the line, which is still where I’m having a lot of trouble. Then before I knew it we were being called up and it was time to head out. My plan for the race was to just get out there and finish. This time I managed to get into neutral rolling up to the starting line which gave me one less thing to worry about. During the start I tried to use all the tips I’d got about starting from Alistair at the Auckland motorcycle club, and Avalon also gave me some very good tips. But I was still slow to get the bike moving, I even got passed by some of the Streetstock riders! But I think it was a small improvement on the last time. The first half of the race was spent passing Streetstock riders and still trying to find a bit of form. Eventually I got a bit of pace and finished in 5th with a time of 2:17.838, so almost a 6 second improvement! I still didn’t feel right but was improving.
Race 2
The next day we got to go out in the morning warm-up to get into the groove of things. Once again our race was last, so we got to sit around watching bikes go in circles. The first race of the day was a 10 lapper, so I had heaps to eat and drink. For the warm-up lap I got out pretty early, so there was clear track in front of me, which gave the opportunity to give the bike some stick and get into the swing of things. Rolling up to the start I got neutral again! Wasn’t going to stall it! Getting off the line I felt like I did a much better job, even though I still got passed by the 250 four strokes. I ended up behind Will and Walter for the first lap. But then Will crashed on turn one on the second lap and Walter ran wide and fell on the grass (mud!) on the long left coming back onto the old track. For the rest of the race I just rode at a reasonably comfortable pace and tried to work on my riding technique and learn the track seeing how this was the first time we had ridden the long track and there was no placing to fight for. I finished in 5th again and got a time of 2:14.009, so close to a 10second improvement overall! Still a long way to go to catch the front runners, but I was pleased with having the maturity to chill out slow down a bit and just learn for now.
Improvements from last time;
· Starts (marginal)
· Chilling out to learn the bike
· Keeping tucked in as much as I can
Things I learnt;
· Still need to improve starts!!!
· When you don’t feel right, just take it easy
· Give more time to learn the bike
Glen Orwin #15