Event 5

Actrix VMCC Superbike Championships 26-28 September 2008

The Highs and Lows of motorcycle road racing

Round 5 of the Actrix VMCC Superbike champs proved to be a long three day event with some good highs with some lows thrown in. Friday 26 Sept was a fine and warm day for testing and so put everyone into a good frame of mind. We all bowled out to the track early on Friday morning and set up the garage space with three RS125s and one RS250. With Sam having left Moto Academy NZ to pursue new pastures we had invited Nick Cain from Christchurch to come and ride a Moto Academy NZ bike. He would arrive on Friday evening. Moto Academy NZ had set out a programme of suspension testing for Luke and Kyle. Glen would pursue a dry weather setting after having really sorted the wet weather settings on the 250.Now that the riders have some experience on the bikes they are more able to feel and understand changes and interpret what those changes were doing to the bikes. After an initial warm up session we set the suspension to fast setting (i.e. no damping), and the riders did a session understanding what was happening, and then we reset the suspension very slow (i.e. lots of damping) and the riders did a session like that. After a debrief the riders then set out with the suspension set halfway. We then progressively refined the settings to find what the riders preferred. It seemed that Kyle preferred slightly faster suspension and Luke seemed to prefer slightly slower settings. This could well be due to the time Kyle spends on dirtbikes and Luke on roadbikes. Glen was getting into his work refining the 250 suspension after two meetings with the faster, more compliant rain settings. He ran a few laps in the low 1:13s - high 1:12s and declared that he was satsified. No need to wear out the bike and tyres anymore. That freed him up to have a run on the LG GSXR1000 Superbike. He thorougly enjoyed this and came away with a fresh insight into the big bikes.

Friday was also eventful in that we played host to a cameraman/reporter from TV3 who was there to put together a story on Luke and Moto Academy NZ about the Red Bull Rookies Cup trip. The same would be happening with TVNZ on Saturday.

You can view the TV One interview here

The last Friday session was one too many for Kyles bike and it sprang a leak. So we took it home and replaced the cylinder which looked a bit dodgy. As it turned out, it was the VHM cylinder head insert which had crack, but not large enough to see. So on Saturday morning qualifying the insert cracked some more and we replaced the whole head and she ran like a train thereafter. 

So we headed into Saturday with good hopes which were dashed when the weather dawned wet and cool. So we were in a dilema about whether to fit up the rain wheels. Luckily the weather was just dry and warm enough to allow the track to remain dryish. So the boys all were geared up for QP1 and headed out, Nick for his first ride on the Moto Academy NZ bike. All went well for two laps until Kyle came in as above, but he had done enough to qualify in 3rd place. Nick got 4 laps until the rear wheel bearing collapsed. It was great that he kept it upright. So we replaced all that and the broken chain ready for the races. He and Luke had qualified near the rear of the feild. With all the goings on and the dampish track Luke was having a bit of trouble getting into his work.So with Luke being the star of the show in the past rounds in the wet, it was now Kyles turn to shine.  Glen qualified the 250 in 8th place out of 35 bikes in both SBK and SS. This is such a good performance that people really need to take some notice not only of his riding and determination, but also of the ability of 250's to mix it with the big bikes.

MotoGP125 race 1 was straight forward and you can read about it in Kyles report. The first SBK race was not, with a start line incident leaving one of our sports nice guy riders with serious leg injuries. Our thoughts are with him in the hope that his injuries heal properly. The injuries unfortunately did not end there. After the restart Glen setout to hunt down the big bikes. But about halfway through the race the old tyres, cool track and Glens determination and hard charging were finally too much and the rear tyre let go and he was highsided off the bike. Unfortunately he broke his arm and foot. Not too badly but it will slow him down for a few weeks.  New tyres next time ay?  The day was over early for the 125 riders so we set about cleaning and setting the bikes ready for the next days racing.

We all headed home a bit worse for wear and tired that evening.That evening was a fund raising auction for Lukes trip which was well attended and provided for with kind donations from several suppliers. Over $1000 was raised, an awesome effort.

Sunday dawned lovely and fine and we looked forward to a sunny and warm day. The first race was 20 laps but in the end was cut to 10 after three red flags due to crashes and dropped oil from the class sharing the track with the 125 bikes. So while the boys got plenty of starting practice with three starts, Nick wasn't so lucky when his bike refused to fire up the third time!  It seemed that the idle airscrew was set too lean. She fired straight up after that was fixed. A shame. 

Again Kyle was on fire and Luke was struggling a bit.  Glen spent the day hobbling around and watching the racing.

Overall Moto Academy NZ had a very successful weekend. Any mechanical issues were speedily dealt with and recitified. Kyle found some welcome form and learned alot about racing and planning manoeuvres and Luke learned about focus, attention and spending of concentration on peripheral activities.

We would like to thank all the people who help make Moto Academy NZ a success and look forward to the final round of the Actrix VMCC Superbike champs. We will decide if Luke will ride or not as they leave for Portugal very soon afterwards so there is a decision to be made. Big thanks also to the Cains for coming up from Chch, all the South Island riders for coming up and the Mums and Dads of Luke and Kyle.

Steve Bagshaw

Managing Director, Moto Academy NZ

Kyle Hammond #13, Luke Jameson #14 and Nick Cain #12, Manfeild Autocourse

Photo: WF Photography

Kyles VMCC Round 5 - Found some speed!

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Criused on up with Glen, aka Sketchy (Chur) on the Thursday night. Talked some shit in the garage and had a early one.

Woke up to some sweet weather for the test day. Got to the track unloaded with everyone, and went out for the first session. Had a nice clear head.
Criused around playing with different things and generally building my confidence, as I had still barely ridden it since I highsided it.
Steve set up a good little training exercise with Luke and I. Setting up the bikes for 3 laps of fully hard damping and then fully soft and a de-brief afterwards. It was really interesting to feel the differences with the two. Soft, trying to chuck me wide everywhere but good rear grip and hard? Well it just felt like a brick.
Was interesting to see afterwards that Luke prefered it harder and I prefered it a bit soft.
Steve suggested that this was possibly due to the fact that Luke rides mainly tarmac based bikes and I do a lot of dirt bike riding.
Steve then set up us up for another 3 laps with Luke's bike being a bit harder and mine softer.
I found my comfort zone with a softer setting and started building confidence. Noticed it was lifting the front out of a couple turns (shouldn't be happening its a 125 man!) so came in and set it slightly harder at the back (to reduce the squatting a little) and also changed the gearing one tooth up (to get higher RPM). This ended up being pretty much perfect as Ii was hitting near the top rev range just before coming into the sweeper (therefore holding the fastest gear for longer periods).
Had a session or two more, going around at a moderate speed somewhere around the 1:20's. Had heaps of confidence!

However unfortunately the bike's overflow bottle filled up quite quickly in the last session.
Came in the ASAP. Looked to be a cracked cylinder head but it seemed ok by inspection. The cylinder was inspected and Steve found that it was suspect, so the cylinder was replaced with one with new det-ring fitted.

Overall it was an awesome day and I built heaps of confidence.

Saturday Qualifing:
Went out there happy about things and with a clear head and some new found knowledge and understanding about the bike. And a good right hand as it was fairly damp. Criused around a couple laps and on the thrid the overflow can once again burst, bubbled and spewed coolant onto my visor.
Wasn't at all happy and thought I wouldn't have qualified any good.
Steve inspected the (VHM) cylinder head once again and this time discovered a rather large crack that had opened up which was undetectable yesterday due to the funky angle you had to look at it. He replaced it with a stock head. Tested it, Fixed!  Phew!!!!!
Even so, I managed to qualify 3rd on the grid with a 1:26s.
That was good because I knew I wasn't too flash at starts, so at least they had to move 10m before overtaking me. Therefore putting me not so far behind.

Race One:
Got a shocker off a start. Really gotta work on these, I think I'm possibly over revving it. Hold it at 10K next time and full throttle it when I begin to slip the clutch is my plan!

Dived down the inside off a couple bikes ending up somewhere behind Luke (who is the best starter there is). Chucked it down the inside coming into the hairpin, got the drive out and pissed off after Kirk. Got Kirk around the outside of the sweeper. Outbraked myself into turn one and went wide. Kirk went on the inside. Made it up coming into the hairpin. Slipped streamed him to Higgins, but he outbraked me. Got the drive out of there though and was right on his rear end coming into the sweeper. Went around the outside off him again. Went wide again at Turn 1. Followed him again, chucked it down the inside into Higgins (Kyle the demon late-braker). Held it, realised my mistake's coming into Turn 1, braked earlier for Turn one the following lap (so as to be better balanced for the turn) and never saw him again.
Catching Alistair near the end, less than a corner ahead of me by the final lap, but couldn't get there.
Stoked that I got under 20's with a best of 1:19.5XXs and the awesome battle right from the start of the race. New PB.

Race 2:

Had a shocking start but chucked it down the inside off a lot of people into to Turn one. Picked Alistair off quickly this time and was sitting in fourth, looking at a possible 3rd, as I was much quicker than Jayden in some place's. Red flag. Bugger, Avalon went down, Heal up girl!. Petrol was hitting my face as the overflow hose had popped off the fuel cap. Got Steve to clean my visor in between the restart.

Restart Race 2.
Cocked up the start again (notice something?). Got held up by Luke for a lap, but was happy to see him doing a bit better. Got passed by Alistair and Kirk around the outside and inside at the same time when following Luke through Turn one.
Past Luke going into Splash and went hunting.
Got rid of Alistair rather quickly and had a awesome battle with Kirk, that man is seriously crazy on the brakes. Got him around the outside of the sweeper on the 2nd to last lap. Block them both off by lapping Jono around the outside of Splash, touching him in the process (oops). But well worth it as I managed to gain a good lead between Alistair and Kirk. Last lap, just tried to make it stick. Sitting in 3rd postion. Coming up to the sweeper, saw two motards and decided that I would go around the outside, bit, bugger, got held up a bit and Kirk chucked it down the inside of me beating me to the line by 0.075s.
Hit the high 1:18's twice that race. Awesome!

Final Race
Being only 6 laps, i needed to get a good start to have a chance at a podium and to beat Kirk for the weekend. 1-1 at the time.
Got a shocking start, Kirk buggered off. I managed to catch up to Alistair, followed him around for two laps. Almost bugggered my chance's in Turn one on the last lap.
Looked up the inside of him into Higgins. Backed off as I knew he was definetely slower through the Sweeper. Got an ok drive out of Higgins right on his arse down the back straight, chucked it around the outside of him going through the sweeper. Beat him by 0.073. Best time 1:18:700 and more importantly two 18's in the race.

Awesome racing all weekend, thanks to Kirk for the good couple of battles we had. Bloody crazy on the brakes that man, yet still get's good drive.

Things too Improve on.
Turn 3; Braking and entry.
Turn 1; All off it.
Sweeper; Tighten up on the apex and miss the rough stuff.
Braking into all the corners, without losing the mid corner speed and drive.

Huge thanks to
Moto Academy - Steve Bagshaw and Mike Reps for all their help and mentoring. I'll get my starts right soon enough. (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 Boys, Glen, Paddy and Luke

Kyle Hammond
#13 Moto Academy

 

 

Kyle Hammond #13 Manfeild Autocourse
 
Photo: WF Photography

 

Event Reports

• 2008
  • • Event 1
    • Event 2
    • Event 3
    • Event 4
    • Event 5
    • Event 6
    • Event 7 Pro-Moto Tri-S...
    • Event 8 Pro-Moto Tri S...
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