Carole Results

The weekend started Friday morning early, traveling up from Grenoble to Paris (6 hours), this time with Chris (visiting), Carly and Libby in the car - loads of support! We arrived at Carole arount 12:45 after an easy trip, and then we spent 15 minutes looking for a place to park, as the Promosport crews had all been there since Wednesday, and all car parks were full! We ended up parking next to the model car track, with no loos, water or electricity nearby - the girls were pissed off!

Chris and I rigged up a plastic sheet over the trailer and car to give us some shade as the weather forecast was good for the Saturday.

The GOOD news, I managed the 2 open training sessions with ZERO break downs, Chris helped me do a plug chop after a couple of laps, and although the plugs were certainly not a uniform colour, they were not showing any signs of over heating, so I continued to complete the two sessions. I was running my race stator, plus new ignition boxes from Zeeltronic - everything OK.

The bike was using surprisingly little fuel - we calculated around 3.75 litres for 20 minutes, so we filled her up ready for the early 9:00 qualifying practise on Saturday morning. Again qulifying went without a hitch, the bike is not pulling as strongly as previously, however this could be because I am running richer, or because of low compression due to my "rapid" fix after last times seize. (I put in an old piston with old rings!).

I managed a respectable time of 1 minute 17, which put me at 18th on the grid of 32, and second RD 350. Christian Degardin, my strongest rival had got down to 1 minute 15 seconds! Some work for me to do!

Race 1.
The first race was Sunday morning at 9:00, and I got a reasonable start, and followed a TZ350 through a wide first bend scrabble which allowed me to get a few places forward. After a couple of laps I got into a battle with Philippe Freon (Proclassic president), with his Kawasaki 1000, I was quicker through the twisties especially at the parabolic, I even managed a couple of outside overtakes (not to be advised for the feint hearted), and I also got him on the brakes at the end of the back straight, but the speed and torque of his 1000cc's was making things difficult for me. A couple of laps from the end, the bike started to miss a beat..... another bend... oh dear it's not running.... hand up... stop... shit....

Back in the pits, the bike starts again, and then no more sparks!!!!! again.....

To cut a long story short, Chris and I manage to get it going again around 15:00 in the PM, a couple of hours before race 2.

Race 2
I am thinking to myself that the bike will only last a couple of laps, as we have not really found any specific problem, I am running a different stator, new plugs and plug caps now, and my slight flat spot is back (linked with the stator). I am on the back row of the grid because I didn't finish race 1, but in the company of some strong contenders, Ramyond Faboulet and Dominique Denis-Lutard (normally at the front) are next to me! The green light comes on and I get an OK start - Raymond stutters and doesn't get away clean as does Pierre Eline, some lines ahead - well that's 2 of my category behind!

I make good progress, moving past the Arnold brothers (Hugues and Franck), and then getting past Philippe Freon and the last Arnold (Pierre). I ended up having a small scrap with a Ducati 906 (Daniel Duhamel), which I enventually won! I finished in 15th position scratch and 3rd position in my category.

I had brought my lap time down to 1 minutes 16 secs a personal best and on lap 13!

The next race is on October 4th & 5th once again at Carole (yawn...). I will try and post some photos or video clips!

Ignition Tests

After Carole last time my ignition was deemed faulty, and although the manufacturer (Borut - zeeltonic) could not find any fault with it, he very kindly replaced both the boxes. As he couldn't find a problem he sent me back both sets, and I need to try them both out and give him a set back - great service!!

My bike has been running on the standard Yam ignition so I know it works. I replaced the yam ignition and powervalve controller with the zeeltronic ignition and power valve controller. I had to charge the battery as it had gone flat during my vacation, but the bike started second kick, and I ran the bike up and down the road for 10 minutes. It went to the red line OK, and seemed to produce reasonable power.

Second test, was to replace the standard Yam stator with the race stator (less windings, less electrical friction). This went on fine, and although it is wired up wrongly (the red and green wires are inverted and so are the pickup wires red/white, and green/white), it worked fine, and I think I even perceived a difference in the bike's ability to pickup revs. quickly. I have been noticing that the bike is difficult to start off the line, a slight hole in carburation at low revs, however with this setup, this certainly seemed diminished. I ran the bike up the road a few times and it worked well. This is the configuration I will start with for the race this coming weekend.

I will need to test my "old" zeeltronic ignition, as I promised Borut that I would send back one of the sets.

I have ordered some XR77 Castrol 2 stroke racing oil from a web site, however - typical France - they accepted the order but are on holiday until September 1st - so I now have the urgent problem of finding some decnt oil. I have found a supplier in Lyon, which I will check out tomorrow (Tuesday). The XR77 is supposed to be 2 stroke oil specifically suited to unleaded fuel, so I am hoping it will be OK, if I can't get Castrol, I will use Ipone Samourai, as it has a good reputation on the forums. I just can't find a good supplier of Motul 800 (roadrace) or I would probably stay with that!

More news after the weekend.

Update

Well I haven't been that busy on the bike with holidays etc.. however I have now received a new rear shock, and my race gearbox for the Suzuki, plus Borut (zeeltronic) has sent me a replacement ignition, which I need to test this weekend. Chris will be coming over next week, and we should be travelling to Paris for the next weekends racing on the 30/31st August. This will be a promosport weekend, so lots of bikes/people at Carole. If you want to come and see us, we will be hidden away a long way from the main pits (in my opinion)!

Weekend de merde.....

Travelled to Carole this last weekend on my own as Libby was otherwise indisposed... Arrived on Friday afternoon, and setup up in the pits. There were two planned free practices. The weather was unsure and there were some big black clouds coming from the North, so I just bought the first session. The bike started well, and as we waited on the pregrid for the off, the skies opened up. My first track experience in the pissing rain! It really chucked it down, but after a few laps you get more and more confidence, and the bike only slipped ever so slightly a couple of times so I had a good run for 20 minutes... I overtook most people on the track, and I was quite glad when the chequered flag came down as I am sure another few laps could have lead to disaster.

I missed the second practice as it was full, which was a shame as the sun had come out and dried the track.

The official timed practice was on the Saturday morning with the first race Saturday afternoon. After the wet practice the plugs seemed to be running a little hot, so I decided on going up another 10 points on the jets, also I had run a 15 gearbox sprocket which was OK going down the straight, but was awful in most of the bends, so I also decided to go up to a 16 tooth sprocket.

Saturday morning I took the bike out for a warmup lap on the exterior of the circuit, and although it seemed to be accepting the bigger jets it didn't seem to run smoothly. This worsened as I took it out onto the track - halve a lap and it conked out! This was slightly serious as this was qualifiying and we are supposed to do a minimum of three laps to qualify. Anyway I got back to the pits and started troubleshooting. Jerome Lefevre helped as his TZ always runs perfectly, and soon we had identified an ignition problem, preventing the bike from starting, plus an airbox problem (in fact I discovered that my airbox contained a couple of K&N filters that I didn't even know were there!). I swapped in the original Yam CDI box, and cleaned out the airbox, and the bike started fine. The dilema now was should I up the jets or not!!

For the first race I left as was, i.e. with 290 mains (this was already 10 points higher that Le Vigeant). After a few laps the temperature was going up alarmingly fast, and so I was obliged to pull off. For me this was an indication that I hadn't jetted up enough.

For the second race I went up to mains of 300 - the biggest I had! THe bike was running well, and no signs of overheating, so I started to really open her up - on the third lap I had overtaken a few guys and was finally getting into it, when at the end of the (quite short) back straight I seized! F*%K!

After having stripped the top end down, the right hand piston had siezed, and starting to disintegrate, although the cylinder itself is relatively undamaged. I have already put in an old replacement piston (I have quite a collection of sizes now). It seems to giive quite good compression, and I hope it will last the next 2 weekends racing.

The only 2 things I am looking at that could have caused the seize are :-
Still too weak - I have ordered bigger jets, and will try an extreme (like 340s and work backwards)
The ignition (remember I seized with this ignition at Nogaro!).

I need to retest the zeeltronic again to make sure it doesn't work..... Borut (the friendly manufacturer will not be pleased) I have received a replacement for the powervalve controller which will also go back on.

Voila un weekend de merde!

The only saving grace was I picked up a winter project on the way back from Paris - I am now a proud owner of an Suzuki RG500, possibly the most powerful, fastest road going two stroke ever......photos coming soon.

Saturday

Photos from Le Vigeant

Le Vigeant

My weekend started on Wednesday evening when I took the bike out to do some run-in miles. I got 2 miles up the road, and it stopped! I pushed it back to race HQ, and started troubleshooting a spark problem.... After 30 minutes or so, the Power valve started acting up - it didn't initialise on startup... hmmm. Thursday evening should have been spent packing the car and trailer, although I still have to find the problem, which turned out to be the Zeeltronic Power valve controller, it seemed that the controller was pulling the ignition to ground and preventing the spark getting to the ignition coil. So racing this weekend would be without the power valve! Fortunately the ignition system works without. Finished the evening packing up, and watched Germany/Portugal on the TV!

We drove to the Vigeant and arrived around 15:00 at the circuit, the circuit was shared with the Endurance, Protwin and VMA series, so not that packed in the paddock.

Timed practice was on Saturday morning with the first race in the afternoon and then the second race on Sunday morning. I ran the bike in the paddock for sometime just to help run in a little more, and then went out on the timed practice. The circuit is quite complicated, but having been here last year really helped - it came back fairly quickly, they had changed the surface apparently although I didn't notice any difference, and the last bend was changed to avoid running out into a wall! The bike was going really well, although my practice came to an end when a loud bang going up the back straight brought me to a stop! I had lost a spark plug! Dummy - I must have left the right hand plug lose! A trip back to the pits in the track lorry.

The plug went back in and the bike started OK, so no damage!

The first race - I started off from the sixth line, and got a crap start, the bike without power valves is not that torquey, and so difficult to get off the line. I was last going into the first bend although I soon got past the slower part of the pack, and started making progress on the middle group. The bike was working really well, pulling past the red line, and very powerful above 8K rpm. I pulled in all the other RD's after getting past some of the big 4 strokes, a couple of slower GSXR's and Daniel on his 1000 Martin Kawasaki (he was having problems!). Towards the end I was making great headway on Raymond on his TZ350 and we were having a 3 way fight with a Ducati TT. Unfortunately my race ended 3 bends from the chequered flag! When the bike conked out - shit! This turned out to be a fuel problem (not enough of it!).

The temperature around the circuit was about 35 degrees centigrade, and it was a really hot Saturday afternoon, so I suppose we should have expected the storms during the night, unfortunately we didn't! At 3:45 in the morning we woke up with the marquee tent flying over our heads, taking a nice chunk of paintwork out of the car on the way past! Everyone was up running around in pants and pyjamas, trying to pickup things before they got blown away! Our marquee, and the Proclassic tent were completely wrecked (another few hundred Euros in the bin!)

Race 2 - again I got a crap start - I will post it on Youtube just for fun! The bike was running less well but still great, I should maybe have jetted up as the temperature was a lot cooler on Sunday morning, and the ground was wet. The racing line was dry as we started racing around 10:00 am and 2 other races had gone through.

Again I had all the hard work getting past the slower guys, and on the way had some good fights with David Boisnard (750 Honda), and Christian on the RD350 YPVS, and then I was back fighting for the 3rd place in my category with Raymond Faboulet on the TZ350. My strategy was going to be to get him on the last bend as I was quicker than him through there and the start/finish line was only 50 yards up the straight - too little time for him to get me back, unhappily for me, I was too far behind him to overtake on the last bend, and therefore I finished behind Raymond!

The lap time for the weekend came down from 2:16 in practise to 2:11 in the first race to 2:10:558 in the second race which was quicker than last year, so I am happy with my progression. For comparison the first GSXR did 1:54:562 best lap time!!

Overall a mixed bag of a weekend!
I will post some photos later and a couple of video clips.

Next race at Carole on July 12th.

Nogaro

Nogaro is a small village in the South west of France, and for those of you that know Circuit Paul Ricard - well this one is Circuit Paul Armagnac another famous spirit - those guys obviously wanted to market their alcoholic beverage with the circuit scene in the sixties & seventies. Well the Circuit of Nogaro was once used for the French Grand Prix, and they have recently completed a renovation, increasing the pit area and renewing the pit boxes. So although not quite as pro. as Le Mans, it is a circuit that is well organised (good loos and showers), and with plenty of space. We were sharing the weekend with the Promosport boys, so there were stacks of people, and a good number of spectators over the weekend, which was free (for the spectators at least!).

It's about 8 hours drive for us from Grenoble, so we left Thursday evening, stayed overnight in Nimes and then arrived at the circuit at around 13:00. If you remember I had squashed my left hand expansion chamber, and one of the guys (Raymond Fabulet) was going to get it repaired, and luckily he turned up just after we had installed out stuff, so before lunch, on went the expansion chambers, this would give the gasket paste enough time to dry before practice at 17:45.

Practice came and the bike wouldn't start, we eventually got it going with a rolling road, and then it seemed to be running OK, however after the second or third lap, I seized at the end of the long straight (over a kilometer), unfortunately I didn't stop immediately as the bike restarted after I let the clutch out. I went around another 2 laps with the bike slowly getting worse, and finally I pulled into the pits after 4 laps.

The result was a slight seize on the left cylinder (again!!!!) and the piston was vaporizing as a large chunk was missing all the way down to the rings (exhaust side).

I spent the rest of the evening stripping it down, and then got really pissed off with a screw that was not loosening so we went to eat with the Arnold group, who were staying at a local gite - Cassoulet is the typical fare of the region, and we had a great meal with them, along with a proposition to use their spare bike - also a Yam.

Saturday, I finished stripping the barrels of my bike, and gave them to our only professional mechanic who prepares a GSXR for one of the guys. Laurent Badie, persuaded me that he could have my barrels ready and post them back to me in the wink of an eye so that I can be ready for Le Vigeant in 2 weeks! Lots of advice on why the bike seized, however another RD350 had exactly the same problem so we consoled each other. His machine had seized on the right side.

The "mulet" or spare bike, is a recent RD350 YPVS, however it really needs some tender loving care, however it starts first kick, and runs and doesn't seize! I used it for the timed practise and the 2 races, and although there was a horrible vibration coming from the forks, it worked fine.

I even tried putting my front wheel on it to help the vibration but it didn't really help, dropping my tyre pressure down to 1.7 bar in the second race did help slightly.

My lap times improved all weekend ending up with a 2:04.8 fastest lap, whilst the GSXR's were going round in 1:44.1 - fastest time. The first timed practise (where I seized) I managed a 2:09! I could have gone much quicker with my bike, but I was really happy to have learnt the circuit (a very fast circuit with a super fast straight), and also to have participated.

The cherry on the cake was an unexpected 4th place in my category only bettered by the 3 TZ 350's - EXCELLENT points. The other RD 350's were pissed off, as they were so clearly faster than me when running but hardly anyone was capable of finishing the 2 races - hence the 4th place! Excellent! One of my direct competitors seized twice after having found some spare barrels and pistons (300 Euros) in a local breakers yard! He was extremely unhappy to say the least!

My cylinders should be ready in 5 days with 2 days for the post, so I should be ready next week.... Some 8 days to find the reason for the seize. Speak to you soon!