Got back from an eventful weekend at C-en-T yesterday.
To start off the weekend the Yamaha was still leaking gearbox oil, and this turned out to be the neutral plate which had come slightly loose, whilst I was looking, the power valve pulley cover also needed tightening - this may have been a reason for the flat running at Ledenon...Anyway I was feeling very unprepared as we arrived at the circuit, I hadn't even looked at the plugs on the RG, and I was supposed to be racing in both, the classic and Superbike series, along with the 3 hour endurance on a mates VFR, so not much time could be spent on mechanics!
I managed to test both the 350 and the RG500 on Friday afternoon, and Francois turned up late with the VFR, but we still managed to get a 20 minute session with it, which went OK. My lap times were pretty slow, but he was running some road tyres, so it would be better in the race.
At Friday evening scrutineering, one of the marshalls commented on oil covering the RG500 engine, and he wanted me to take a closer look - I did try and tell him, that I was waiting for the Gammna listers to come up with some ideas, but he wouldn't take that as an excuse.
So Friday evening, I removed the carbs and replaced all the dodgy looking O'rings, then liberally applied gasket silicon around the rubbers to ensure no leaks from the carbs. I checked the plug colour while I had the fairing off, and everything looked good!
The Saturday morning started with running in some pads and tyres for the endurance, and then qualifying for the superbike and classics. The organisation were planning on running the slower qualified Superbikes with the classics, so I needed to get a reasonable time with the RG, in order to be able to qualify in the A final, and then run the 350 in the classics.
Well I managed to get under a 1:03 with the RG running really well, the official time was a 1:03.013, but my Alfano had me at 1:02.88, so I was pretty pleased, although still only good enough for the second to last line on the grid! It just keeps getting quicker!
The 350 I managed to put in a respectable 1:06 which wasn't near my fastest time on the 350, but good enough to qualify on the 3rd row.
The first Superbike race was Saturday afternoon, I managed an OK start and got in front of a few bikes on the first lap, and managed to stay there until being lapped near the end of the race. I didn't manage to improve my time, so I was a little disappointed, I had made a rear sprocket change just before the race which obviously did not have the desired effect!
Before the first classic race Francois put our race tyres on the VFR, and I had a session on them which felt pretty good, much more confidence inspiring than the road tyres.
The last race of the day was the first Classic final, running with the "final B" superbikes. My start was good, not losing out to anybody. On the 3rd bend I managed the inside line past a 1200 Moto Guzzi, and then under the bridge, and then .....nothing.... I woke up in the ambulance stark naked with a pain in my shoulder.
2 versions of my accident, the first was the guzzi and me came into contact and both bikes went down, the second version was that I was too wide and turned into the bend with to much brake. Anyway I can not (still) remember a thing. I spent 5 minutes layed out on the track whilst they cut off my leathers to put back my shoulder which was dislocated, I came round but Libby said I was speaking rubbish for a further 10 minutes.. Where am I? What bike was I on? What happened?... looping around and around...The records broke!!
I spent the Saturday night in the hospital just to make sure I was all there, and they let me go Sunday morning. Francois managed to find a replacement for the endurance and they finished 12th, a respectable end to the weekend.
Thanks to Libby for driving the van all the way home and Hughes, and Francois for helping us load up, and Laure Arnold for driving Libby to the hospital.
I now have to wait for 45 days before I can get the Yamaha back to showroom condition! Still I have plenty of time to do email, and edit the video.
My helmet did it's job and is now dead, and my leathers have also seen better days, good job Xmas is coming!!
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