Back after the weekend in the South of France at the Nogaro circuit, which was one of the most famous courses in France some years ago, but recently it has seen less of the limelight.
We arrived after a night of deluge near Montpellier, which had apparently been the same at the circuit. We setup the gear in the huge Nogaro pit car park, in a zone specifically for the classic machines which is great as we are all together, and the atmosphere is better.
I hadn't touched the bike since the last race, as I had been on a business trip for 10 days, so I took out the plugs just to see what they ended up looking like after the last race. The rear plugs were slightly lighter than the fronts, but still fairly dark, so along with the consensus in the pits (hmmmm....) I decided to drop another size on my main jets - back down to 190's. The first practise was Friday evening at 17:00 - the bike ran great, I pumped the choke at the end of the long straight just to ensure the pistons were getting some cooling fuel, when the throttle is completely closed (heavy on the brakes).
The track was drying during the practise, but lap times were slow, due to relearning the circuit plus the various damp patches. I was fairly impressed with the Power One's no slipping at all.
I checked the plugs, and they were OK after the practise, however I am not sure how much this can be trusted as the track exit is about 500 metres of low idle speeds to get back to my trailer, anyway certainly no signs of detonation, and the bike was running well.
Saturday morning timed practise, was damp for the first couple of laps and then downpour for the rest. I stayed until the end, as I have little experience in the wet, and I really needed the track time. This was good because I slowly improved my lap times, which enabled me to get a 4th row start position for the race. My qualification time was 2:14, which is pretty slow, but as most had only done a couple of laps it was good enough!
Race 1, I was a bit stressed because I had some really torquey four strokes behind me, and the last thing I wanted was to have some big 4 strokes up my chuff, as my starts are crap, half due to me, and half I am sure, due to the binding clutch on the Suzuki. Anyway, I got a reasonable start for once, and with the bike running well, I was in a good position mid field. I overtook a couple of bikes, and I was catching a normally faster group, which I managed to attach myself to. I got past a Kawa ZXR750, and then was third in the group. On the last lap the guy in second, go past to go to the front (of the group), and then he really braked for a bend which brought us all close togther for the last bend of the circuit. I made a last second dive to overtake a VFR750, which suceeded but unfortunately didn't have the power to keep in front down towards the chequered flag! I finished around 11th in my category, well happy with my best time of 1:51:735.
Race 2, again from the 4th row, and a worse start this time around, but I managed to fend of the guys int eh first bend and maintained pretty much my position. A pretty lonely race this one, I was on my own from start to finish unable to better my position, although I did manage to improve (just) my lap times, and I am sure I was more consistently quick throughout the race. I managed a 1:51:691, which again I was happy with.
Still more effort required to get up with the front runners, but hey, everything takes time....
No comments:
Post a Comment