My half arsed F400 nc30

[28hodge]

Thanks Gav, be good to see your vid of that race, did you get off early on the Sunday? Or was Andrews bike sick? He pulled out of race 3 in front of me on Sunday.

[gavins]

His bike was overheating and i think he was getting tired. He didn't think he/it would make it the full distance with the extra lap from sat as well. He was gutted he did though as i think he might have had a trophy after Keith Povah crashed last lap/corner as Andy said he was dicing with Dave Harviek, who took second, before he pulled off.

We ended up skipping the last race sun afternoon as it wasn't looking like running till nearly 6 again and we were both tired so we headed off early.

[28hodge]

I was kinda Ok with Race 1, it took me a little bit to get my act together, and I was still getting myself used to the quick action throttle. It is a lot better than a standard throttle and a definite improvement, The start was a mess because of it, I was used to getting rolling then just whacking the standard throttle open, whereas with the quick action this lead to the bike wheeling and due to the slope on brands start line this meant I veered off to the grass on the right each time. I was also just being a bit cautious with it in the opening laps as I didn’t want to get throttle happy mid corner and come a cropper with it.

Looking at the laptimes my race rustiness showed, the opening lap is pretty poor, a 1.59.200. I used to be really poor on the opening laps but seemed to have gotten that sorted a little, however having been off the bike for a bit I was unwilling to push too hard on the opening lap.

I managed to stick a pretty decent pass on Gav and then there was a bit of a gap to the next group, I stuck my head down but couldn’t really make any time on them and they just seemed to inch away from us.

I was riding ok but felt I was a bit inconsistent, again the laptimes kinda prove this as there is a decent spread between my fastest and slowest lap (ignoring the standing start lap). I also seem to be struggling with Stirlings and Clearways, the last two corners, Stirlings I was quitr good through last year but clearways has always been a bogey corner for me, both on the indy circuit and gp.

I manage a best lap of 1.47.647. which is better than my fastest lap from last year, which I am happy with as I didn’t feel especially quick and definitely felt there was more to come, but as I said the times where a bit all over the place and my next best lap is over 0.600th’s slower. Also the leading sub bikes are flying. The fastest sub64 lap is a 1.43.469, there is no way I can find 4secs! Also the lad I spent most of the brands gp weekend last year racing with is down in the 1.44.992. A little over 2,5secs quicker than my best. I think I can get down to near that time, but they are only going to get quicker all weekend as well, making my task even harder.

I finish 22nd overall out of 40 starters and 7th Sub64

[gavins]

I've updated the post on the previous page with the video, looks like my camera is on the way out so sorry for the poor quality in places.

[28hodge]

Gav, thats awesome, thanks for that.

Shame about Andrews Bike as he'd have had 3rd at least i'd of thought. Adam finished 3rd on track but got a 10sec penalty for jumping the start.

[28hodge]

We finished Race 1 at gone 3.30, there is 1 more race after ours and then that’s the completion of first block of racing. The circuit has to be finished with all racing by 6.30, no ifs no buts. So the club have 3 hours to get through an entire block of racing, that’s 10 6 lap races. So I was pretty doubtful we would be getting our second race of the day before they had to finish and expected it to be hung over and run as the first race of the day Sunday morning.

However the block of racing goes without a hitch, and there is a chance they may just squeeze our race in before the 6.30 curfew. The instruction comes through to get ready and the club will get us onto the grid and then make a decision when they know what remaining time they have to play with. They warn us we may get gridded up and then they may not run the race as they may not have enough time to get the full race in, but they will only know this when we are on the grid ready to go.

For the first time ever everyone is on time and in the collecting area ready to get onto the grid. Once the warm up is done they decide they have time and get us under way.

So here’s race 2

[28hodge]

I was a lot happier with Race 2 as I felt I was pushing my riding and braking markers more than in race one. I was also a lot more consistent, and a hell of a lot sharper on lap 1. My opening lap in race 1 was a high 1.59. Race 2 opening lap was a low 1.56. 3.5seconds faster and that makes a hell of a difference as. I was with the group in front now and they drag you round a bit quicker.

I even went on the offensive on the opening lap and dived down the inside heading into Surtees, I didn’t come down enough gears so gave up the spots heading down pilgrim’s drop as I lacked a little drive off the corner but I managed to carry more speed into hawthorn then drive round it really well and dive past Gary Jarman into Westfield. It got a little tight but was OK.

Missing a gear down pilgrims on the second lap wasn’t the smartest move, and looking at the video footage I was lucky that Gary didn’t come back past, he’s on a full power bike and a quick one at that so he would have had the run on me down here anyway, missing the gear was just helping his cause.

The group in front were mainly sub bikes but I just couldn’t quite get to them, I stick my head down on lap 3 and put in my best lap but I’m not really catching that quickly then on the start of lap 4 I seem to get done quite easily by two bikes. Luckily one is Scott Grant on the tzr, who is the only bike I seem to have the legs on down the straight, then try and keep in touch with the VFR that’s just come past. I’m not really sure why I got passed do easily at the start of the lap as its not a terrible lap time. I seem quick from Surtees to Stirling’s, I even get back to Andy Moxon on his repsol VFR heading into Stirling’s, but then I am shite from here to druids and lose loads of time, most of it through Stirling’s and clearways, I need to improve here.

We start lap 5 and I have a sniff of Andy and a couple more places as there are other sub64 bikes in front coming back to us.

I gain back on them from Surtees and have a good look at Andy Moxon heading into Stirling’s but think better of it, the pass was maybe there but we have another lap and all I would have managed was to pass Andy but separate us from the group in front we have caught so I back out of it. I concentrate on trying not to lose time and not getting gapped by the group round Clearways and down the pit straight.

Then suddenly the chequered flag is out and we are finished!!

I was a bit pissed off, basically its bang on 6.30, the club have got to get racing stopped so have thrown the flag early by a lap so as to stay in the constraints of the noise regs. I totally support that decision, what pissed me off was we didn’t get a last lap flag, if I had known it was the last lap I would have had a go at getting Andy Moxon into Stirling’s, I’m not 100% sure if I could have gotten him, he was good into there and I was weak, but at least I would have had a go at it, rather than sitting tight and waiting for another lap.

Still I’m only annoyed for a couple minutes, and it soon passes. I am happy with the ride I feel a lot more competitive and the lap times are pretty encouraging. Best lap of 1.46.865 that’s a second quicker than last year and the next 2 fastest laps are within 0.400ths so pretty decent consistency.

Still, even with a more competitive ride I get 7th again but at least I am a lot closer to 4th, the top 3 are flying though, all lapping in the 1.42’s

[28hodge]

Race 3

[28hodge]

Race 3 was a pest, we were late in the schedule, 2nd last race all weekend, so I knew I didn’t need to get up to early, as there was no rush, there was zero pojnt doing 3 warm up laps in practice as it would be hours till I was out for the race. All we had to do was change the tyres for a new set of scrubs, we had taken the wheels out last night so all we needed to do was lug them to the tyre dudes.

Basically I could have a lie in, which was pretty welcome as with a 4 week old daughter at home a lie in was a rare occurrence. So fantastically I wake up at 6.30!!

Anyway tyres changed I had a shower and then some breakfast and wait for our race, then get some lunch and keep waiting for a race to happen, finally at 2pm we get our race call!!

It’s a long day sitting around doing bugger all, it also doesn’t bode well for getting away anytime before 7pm to start the 5hr journey home!

Race 3 was a good race, I was busy all race in battles, and more importantly in sub 64 battles. Because we had our last race on Saturday trimmed by a lap due to the time, we were give an extra lap for the first race on Sunday so that we got the same amount of race laps as all the other grids. This made for an 8 lap race, which was mega, I would like a couple extra laps at most rounds but understand the club have to balance tracktime with race numbers to make the whole thing pay, otherwise you end up in a Hottrax type situation.

I got a better start as I started to adjust to the Q/A throttle, I wanted to try and stick with Adam, but he had a bit of a mare, first jumping the start just in front of me and then getting shoved onto the grass round druids on the outside.

I tried to work on Stirlings and Clearways, they were still poor but I think I got them better and inproved round them a little, I still get done by Gary Jarman in this section of track twice, Once into paddock thanks to my poor exit from clearways and then once into clearways, First time I managed to get him back braking really hard a nd late into druids, second time though he past me into clearways and then went wide but even so his full power F400 had plenty of power to mean I couldn’t cut back up the inside.

Again the group in front just had 0.5 per lap and dragged away from me. Slowly Adam and Doug Edmondson caught us back up they were helped a little by us scrapping away, but really they again just had that 0.5 a lap over me. I also had Darren Corkett showing me a wheel plenty.

Adam makes an easy move on me coming out of Stirlings, and then Doug Edmondson follows him through at paddock, both Sub64 bikes which I have given up places to way too easily. I try and stick with them but can’t really manage it.

I get two lappers as we start the last lap which don’t help and then I make an arse of graham hill bend missing the apex by a mile, I can see Darren in the corner of my eye so have to defend a little into Surtees. From there I concentrate on riding a safe clean lap to hold him off. I get a little luck as there are yellow flags out heading into clearways stopping Darren having any opportunity to pass. Looking at the video I don’t think he was close enough anyway. And with that we are done.

I got 4th in class, which sounds like a hell of an improvement but really it isn’t any at all. I was 5th sub64 bike over the line, but Adam got a 10sec penalty for jumping the start giving me a spot back.

Also the bike that was down at clearways was the leading sub64 bike of Keith Povah, so I was 6th until that point, and then Andrew Moxon had an overheating bike and pulled out just infront of me at the start of lap 5.

And finally, after the race Sam Holme who won the class after Keith came off at Clearways was dyno’d to check he was sub64 and found to be around 66Bhp and was DQ, which was a little odd as he was dyno’d at Pembrey, which is at sea level so normally gives the bikes a little extra power and was under!!

All the same add all them together and really I was 8th!!!.

But I’ll take my 4th

I was happy with the race though, firstly it was fun, as I felt I was in a battle all the way through. Also the laptimes were good a best of 1.46.395, so a little quicker again but more importantly every lap was within 0.700 of my fastest and 3 of them were under 0.100 away from my fastest. Only my last lap was poor thanks to the mistake at Graham Hill and the lappers.

Also the opening lap was really good I did a 1.55.707 against my first race laptime of 1.59.241, that’s a bit lump of time to be able to knock out of my overall race time.

But again the leading Sub64’s were flying, again in the mid 1.42’s, I cannot find 4seconds!!

[CMSMJ1]

Excellent write up as usual mate.