Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Actrix Winter Series Round 2
This would be the first outing on the R6 and indeed the qualifying session was my first ride on a modern 600. Fortunately I had come prepared with wet tyres as the meeting ended up being wet for the most part on the Manfeild long track (two day event). Having claimed the lap record on the SV a year earlier I was happy to make my 600 debut on the long track and I figured the wet conditions would actually help ease me into things at a slower pace.
F2 Qualifying
I was pleased to finally feel the power of a modern sports bike and set about figuring out how much gas I could give it out of the corners. The bikes suspension was completely stock for this round but even so, it felt well balanced and a joy to ride. The qualifying session was only 4 laps long and when I put my head down for a fast lap, the session was cut short with a red flag, leaving me down in 13th on the mixed F2 / BEARs grid.
F1 Qualifying
A combination of more confidence and clear track allowed me to qualify 2nd on the F1 grid.
F2 Race 1
Starting from 13th wasn’t easy but I got a good launch and the R6 powered through the field into turn one. My only real objective in this race was not to crash the new bike. As the race progressed I made my way forwards, getting more confident each lap. Eventually I got past Mark Bennett to take 3rd place in F2 over the line. I was pretty happy with the result but already I was starting to set myself higher expectations for the next race to close the gap to the leaders.
F1 Race 1
This race was similar to the last one in that I still rode fairly conservatively but learning all the time. Finished 3rd.
Happy that the first day was over without incident we headed home to get an early night and get ready for the next day.
The next day was wet again so at least we didn’t have to change over to the dry rims!
F2 Race 2
I was having a fair amount of clutch slippage the previous day so with the help of Glen Skatchill, we adjusted the clutch freeplay. It worked a treat but caught me out on the start line for this race and didn’t get a great run into turn one this time. This gave me a bit of work to do for the race but I managed to work my way into 3rd place before I noticed that my gear change knob was missing half way through the race. It would have been a bit dangerous to circulate around in 4th gear so I decided to pulled in.
F1 Race 2
I replaced the gear changer knob and got out for this race but it was starting to dry out so I almost pulled in after the sighting lap to conserve my wet tyres. I decided to give it a go anyway and got a great start to lead the first few turns until I had a huge rear slide coming out of the hairpin. I ended up going slightly off track but the mud was so slippery I decided to wait for the field to go past before re-joining. The tyres were full of mud so after sliding around the next corner I decided to save my tyres after all and pulled in.
F2 Race 3
By now the track was almost fully dry so it was time to see what the bike could do on dry tyres. I got an OK start but soon realised I didn't have much rear grip and didn't really get any confidence. I was trying to find the limit when I hit a false neutral (the replacement gear knob was a bit short) and ended up running into the gravel, losing a bunch of places. On the next lap, the heavens opened up with a huge downpour, so the race was red flagged. Finished 9th.
I examined my tyres after the race and the stock suspension wasn't working the rear tyre properly so I thought I would just call it a day and get the bike sorted before putting in a more serious effort at the next round.
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