Nogaro Video

The first weekend was a somewhat mixed weekend. Arrived Friday, after not much sleep Thursday night in a Premier classe hotel, the weather was fine. The only practise session Friday was at 17:40 so setup camp, and had a ride aournd the paddock to see who was around.

I had decided to do a plug chop on the RG, as last year (and the year before) I had nipped her up at the end of the back straight, so I took the Yamaha down to the end of the straight in the hope off getting my money's worth out of the session, and going straight back out on the Yamaha to complete the session.

This would have worked well, except the marshalls decided they didn't like my bike leaning up against the wall down there and decided to get it removed - lucky Libby was still in the paddock to receive the bike, and take it right back down there! Anyway, I did one warm up lap on the RG, and then opened her up on the second lap, and pulled the clutch and flipped the run swithc to off, and left Libby with the RG, whilst I jumped on the Yam, and drove back up through the pits to rejoin the circuit - and they actually let me on! I completed another 5 or so laps on the Yam just to get my hand in again - the Yam worked fine (even with the new battery!).

Back at the pits, I removed the fairing, and removed all the plugs, but honestly there was nothing much to see, the plugs were not coloured one bit. So I am now assuming my carburation is nearly right.

Saturday morning, and the weather is lovely, really quite warm, we don't have qualification until 14:00, so I spend the morning checking things on the Suzuki. I am running 1.5 bar tyres pressures at the front and back with the Michelin Power Ones, which don't seem to slip...

I had the front changed on the Yamaha, as I had lost the front on the Yam at Croix last year, as the front tyre was well used. Tyre pressures on the Yam are 1.7 front and 1.8 rear.

Qualification 
Went really well, I did about 10 laps, and did a personal best of 1:50.979. The track was very fast, and I quite like the faster bends on the circuit, you can seem to go faster and faster each lap - just depending on how far your balls let you go. However the long straight is always an anxious moment, I used the choke each time decelerating and the bike was going really well, except for a bug hole around 6-7K, still keeping it over 7K was fine, and she was reving through to 12K when I let it. The temperature was creeping up, and did get to 90 degrees C - I will really have to investigate this further - I am losing so much power to heat!

I did nmy best time at the end of the session, after a couple of guys appeared in front of me, giving me something to go for - had a great time!

Race 1
I ended up on the 5th row, in 20th position on the grid. For me my start was a lot better - the clutch is a lot better with the Kevlar plates - it really has improved things ten fold. However I still let about 10 bikes past me - I've gotta work on my starts. Got through some of the slower traffic in the first bends but by the time I got back to my "grid" position the faster guys had all gone, although I had a good fight with Eric Perrono on his VFR, and another guy on a GSXR - nothing got past me, until I got lapped by the first 2 riders, one of which I got past on the straight (he ran out of fuel on the last lap!). Overall I finished 20th and I had taken 0.5 seconds of my PB, so I was well happy. My personal best now sits at 1:50:426.

Race2
The temperature for the Sunday had dropped significantly, and I maybe I should have taken that into account. The morning race had gone well, the bike had performed great, so when I lined up for the start I was really happy to get a reasonable start and be up with "my" group in the first bends. I did the first lap OK, slowly catching Eric again. Then second lap coming out onto the straight, I had my head in the fairing and can honestly say I wasn't looking at the track, when I suddenly looked up, and there was the VFR of Philippe Laleve just in front, and he just put up his right arm!!! Panic - I don't know how I missed him, I did however hit his arm with my left shoulder, which did destabalise me somewhat, but neither of us fell off! Phew...
Anyway, at the end of the straight despite my choking the bike siezed leaving a 20 metre darky - F*&K -
I have yet to investigate, so I don't know whether this is a case of jetting or just the fact that the throttle was shut - I don't know, I will update you soon! You can see me on the video of the second race going straight on at the end of the back straight!

For info. the bike temp was at 80 degrees and the air temperature was probably nearer 12-15 degrees.



Thanks to my pit crew (Libby) for putting up with me, at least I seized at the end of the weekend!