littleblue
08-10-2007, 15:31
Grab a cup of tea coffee, sorry its long, probably the longest report ever…… but I’m still buzzing :mmm:
Myself and my mate (nicknamed yoda) decided earlier in the year to dip our toe into the world of endurance racing as i fancied giving racing a go, but dodnt fancy the idea of a 5 lap, fairing bashing race. i've been doing trackdays for a number of years, but never taken the plunge to go racing. i've been a member of the throttlemonkey forum for a couple of years, which is mainly for people who enjoy trackdays and racing, and there was a number of them also entered in various teams, many of whom it was also their first time racing. Yoda had previously done a single race as part of a team in the 8hr endurance in 2007 at snetterton, so in reality we were both very much novices.... spent the last few months getting stuff sorted, like an ACU licence, dog tags, novice bibs, bikes prepped etc plus some decent tractime on trackdays. we had decided to enter the HMRC junior 2 hr tag race, where you ride your own bike and swap the transponders over at the end of the sessions, so you dont need any quickfill systems or large capacity fuel tanks, or big teams of helpers as after your stint on track, you pit, and your team mate goes out to ride on their bike, with a maximum time of 30 minutes on track, so 4 sessions of 30 minutes in total, 2 each. very simple format and it works very well.....
I arrived at my mate Yoda’s house late Thursday night, ready for the trackday/practice day Friday. Decided to go down the night before to avoid the early start as he doesnt live far from Silverstone. Up at 6.30 am and we’re at the track for 7.30 setting up in our garage for the 2 days. I’ve never done the National circuit, so first session was about learning the track.
There were 4 groups, 15 min sessions, and I was out in the ACU/fast group rather than the ACU group that had most of the national endurance teams in. Started out just making sure the gearing was right for the club straight and bedding in some new brake pads. Got down to 1.11’s and 1.12’s but kept turning in too early for Brooklands and also for copse, and maggots was just all over the place. Sat down with the circuit guide book after the session to work on my lines, and also chatted to Yoda about Brooklands, who suggested braking a lot later after the bridge than I was doing.
Next session I was out to work on Brooklands and copse only and got them fairly well sorted by the end of the session. Times were down to 1.10’s but there was a lot of traffic, and it was still a trackday, so gentle overtakes, even though a number of people I was overtaking had red number boards and numbers, but I thought they were just getting to know the track. Still hadn’t got maggots right, but I worked on that for the next session, when I started to get some sub 1.10’s.
the session before lunch was my last on the shagged tyres left over from a recent trackday at Anglesey. I went out purposely with a low amount of fuel to see how far I could go with the fuel light on, and after 1 lap the light started flashing, but I kept on the gas for the rest of the session. 3 laps before the end, and the fuel light changed from flashing to on permanently but the bike was still fine to the end of the session. That gave me confidence for the race, knowing that if the light came on, I could do at least another 12 minutes at full race pace before worrying about the fuel.
Plenty of banter with everyone over lunchtime, then it was out for the first session after lunch on brand new tyres, as I wanted to try for some fast times on new rubber. I could do steady 1.09’s but couldn’t go any faster due to the traffic. Everytime that I felt I was on a fast lap, I’d catch someone at the wrong point which would slow me down. I knew there was a 1.08 to be done, maybe a bit more, but just couldn’t get a clear lap. After the session, we headed out to the rear car park to practice our speed test, as we didn’t want to get a penalty for speeding in pitlane, but at the same time, we didn’t want to be going too slowly in pitlane as that would be lost time, so out we went to work out what 30 mph was on our rev counters, whilst following Steve (Yoda’s mate) our team manager in his car.
The second session after lunch was to be my last for the day, as I was happy with the track and my riding. Talked with Yoda and the plan was to go out and do 2 laps behind each other and then swap over to see where each was faster than the other. This worked ok, but there was still plenty of traffic. We swapped over a couple of times, but there was still too much traffic to work on fast laps, so came in, parked the bike and started prepping for the race.
Yoda and myself had a talk about the preparation for the races, and as I had just pipped him for the fastest lap during the day, he asked me if I could do the qualifying the following day…. I was pleased, but at the same time nervous as I had never raced before, let alone done qualifying. I decided to fit some new tyres for the Saturday, a new front to scrub in during the 20 min practice session, and to use that in qualifying and the race. I had planned on using a new rear for practice and qualifying and then another new rear for the race. (I’ll take the scrubbed part worn tyres out to Spain when I go out for 3 days at Cartegena in November :dance2: )
The bike got a good clean, as well as new brake fluid and the new tyres fitted, chain adjusted, pads checked etc, then it was off to scruteneering and race sign on, then back to Yoda’s house for some food and to try to sleep.
go to part 2....
Myself and my mate (nicknamed yoda) decided earlier in the year to dip our toe into the world of endurance racing as i fancied giving racing a go, but dodnt fancy the idea of a 5 lap, fairing bashing race. i've been doing trackdays for a number of years, but never taken the plunge to go racing. i've been a member of the throttlemonkey forum for a couple of years, which is mainly for people who enjoy trackdays and racing, and there was a number of them also entered in various teams, many of whom it was also their first time racing. Yoda had previously done a single race as part of a team in the 8hr endurance in 2007 at snetterton, so in reality we were both very much novices.... spent the last few months getting stuff sorted, like an ACU licence, dog tags, novice bibs, bikes prepped etc plus some decent tractime on trackdays. we had decided to enter the HMRC junior 2 hr tag race, where you ride your own bike and swap the transponders over at the end of the sessions, so you dont need any quickfill systems or large capacity fuel tanks, or big teams of helpers as after your stint on track, you pit, and your team mate goes out to ride on their bike, with a maximum time of 30 minutes on track, so 4 sessions of 30 minutes in total, 2 each. very simple format and it works very well.....
I arrived at my mate Yoda’s house late Thursday night, ready for the trackday/practice day Friday. Decided to go down the night before to avoid the early start as he doesnt live far from Silverstone. Up at 6.30 am and we’re at the track for 7.30 setting up in our garage for the 2 days. I’ve never done the National circuit, so first session was about learning the track.
There were 4 groups, 15 min sessions, and I was out in the ACU/fast group rather than the ACU group that had most of the national endurance teams in. Started out just making sure the gearing was right for the club straight and bedding in some new brake pads. Got down to 1.11’s and 1.12’s but kept turning in too early for Brooklands and also for copse, and maggots was just all over the place. Sat down with the circuit guide book after the session to work on my lines, and also chatted to Yoda about Brooklands, who suggested braking a lot later after the bridge than I was doing.
Next session I was out to work on Brooklands and copse only and got them fairly well sorted by the end of the session. Times were down to 1.10’s but there was a lot of traffic, and it was still a trackday, so gentle overtakes, even though a number of people I was overtaking had red number boards and numbers, but I thought they were just getting to know the track. Still hadn’t got maggots right, but I worked on that for the next session, when I started to get some sub 1.10’s.
the session before lunch was my last on the shagged tyres left over from a recent trackday at Anglesey. I went out purposely with a low amount of fuel to see how far I could go with the fuel light on, and after 1 lap the light started flashing, but I kept on the gas for the rest of the session. 3 laps before the end, and the fuel light changed from flashing to on permanently but the bike was still fine to the end of the session. That gave me confidence for the race, knowing that if the light came on, I could do at least another 12 minutes at full race pace before worrying about the fuel.
Plenty of banter with everyone over lunchtime, then it was out for the first session after lunch on brand new tyres, as I wanted to try for some fast times on new rubber. I could do steady 1.09’s but couldn’t go any faster due to the traffic. Everytime that I felt I was on a fast lap, I’d catch someone at the wrong point which would slow me down. I knew there was a 1.08 to be done, maybe a bit more, but just couldn’t get a clear lap. After the session, we headed out to the rear car park to practice our speed test, as we didn’t want to get a penalty for speeding in pitlane, but at the same time, we didn’t want to be going too slowly in pitlane as that would be lost time, so out we went to work out what 30 mph was on our rev counters, whilst following Steve (Yoda’s mate) our team manager in his car.
The second session after lunch was to be my last for the day, as I was happy with the track and my riding. Talked with Yoda and the plan was to go out and do 2 laps behind each other and then swap over to see where each was faster than the other. This worked ok, but there was still plenty of traffic. We swapped over a couple of times, but there was still too much traffic to work on fast laps, so came in, parked the bike and started prepping for the race.
Yoda and myself had a talk about the preparation for the races, and as I had just pipped him for the fastest lap during the day, he asked me if I could do the qualifying the following day…. I was pleased, but at the same time nervous as I had never raced before, let alone done qualifying. I decided to fit some new tyres for the Saturday, a new front to scrub in during the 20 min practice session, and to use that in qualifying and the race. I had planned on using a new rear for practice and qualifying and then another new rear for the race. (I’ll take the scrubbed part worn tyres out to Spain when I go out for 3 days at Cartegena in November :dance2: )
The bike got a good clean, as well as new brake fluid and the new tyres fitted, chain adjusted, pads checked etc, then it was off to scruteneering and race sign on, then back to Yoda’s house for some food and to try to sleep.
go to part 2....