 |
| | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | Display Modes |
| #1  11-May-2006, 14:48 | ||||
| ||||
| TP\'s Assen Report Well … it was an eventful weekend. I have a lot of people to thank for getting me there. Grahame Butcher for the bike and a lift in the van, also a lift in another van from Mike and Lizzie. Bruce and Paul for their support over the weekend and countless others who I could never list everyone but I’ll just say everyone in the DD paddock which is awesome. Off the bike I had a great weekend – great people and a great event and I was really happy to be a part of it. There were all sorts of special’s out there and interesting bikes. And the NCR Millona!!!! Grrrrr! Also, I got talking to this Dutch engineer bloke who had a 750 F1 (a bike I’ve always liked) but had basically re-engineered pretty much everything on it! It originally had an 18 inch rear and a 16 inch front so he had customised everything himself, including disc carriers etc so he could run 17 inch wheels front and rear. It was good enough for a 2:03 around Assen which is fairly nippy for mid-80’s bike I would have thought. As for on the bike … well it didn’t quite pan out how I’d like. We had a number of issues which unfortunately meant I didn’t finish any session on track, including the race. Friday: Track Day – I completed one lap before getting caught by the infamous decreasing radius left hand hairpin and ran it onto the gravel. It was a low speed as I’d scrubbed it all off on the brakes so just rolled through the gravel and was driving it back out to the track when the chain came off and punched a hole in the crank case on front of the gearbox sprocket. Doh! A trip back to the pits in the back of the recovery truck. Dr AK helped Grahame and a bunch of us fix the hole with some liquid metal after removing the engine casing. It seemed alright and was running ok so I went up to the holding area for the second track day session. They held us in there for a while where it was pointed out to me that the oil cooler was leaking and there was small pool of oil on the ground and over the front tyre. So I rode it back and parked it then went and watched the session. So, I got one lap in – the best 70 euro I’ve ever spent. What a track! I was a tad annoyed at making such a rookie mistake but we’re all human I suppose so I just tried to forget about it and move on. It was the first time the bike had been ridden as Grahame has been working himself into the ground at work and trying to build the bike as well. The poor bastid has had bugger all time. So we had a few other adjustments to make so the bike fit me. We got all that done and we were looking forward to seeing how she went on Sat. Later that night we took a walk around the track and had a good look around. Saturday: Free Practice – With the leaking oil cooler fixed I went out for free practice and got my head down. Found a line that worked through the left hand hairpin and started to work on a few other corners. It was starting to come together when I was exiting one of the right hand corners leading into the fastest part of the track and things went a bit pear shaped. I was picking the bike on the exit of a 4th gear corner when my left foot slipped straight off the footpeg. I put it back on only for it to slip straight off again so I looked down and there was oil ****ing everywhere! The ride got a bit more entertaining from there as there was now oil all over the rear tyre and I was trying to pull the bike up quickly so as not to put too much oil on the track. There was a marshall running towards me waving his slippery surface flag and I honestly thought I was going to hit him because I couldn’t pull the bike up quick enough. I managed to keep it all upright whilst sliding around and stopping it and as I was getting off it another marshall came running out from behind the first one and he was babbling something at me in Dutch whilst pointing his extinguisher on my left leg and letting rip! I was on fire!! The oil on my leg had caught fire without me noticing – I couldn’t feel the heat or anything. Fortunately there was no damage; my leg must have just caught fire so I wasn’t burning long. I put the wind up poor old Eric as he could see smoke coming off the bike for a few corners prior to all this happening, I didn’t know, and was trying to catch me up and yelling through his helmet for me to pull over – I had no idea. Another trip back to the pits in the recovery truck. They now knew where to drop me off, the guy looks at me and smiles and says “Near the Australian Flag?” “Yes mate, lets go …” … Grahame got the leak fixed and we cleaned everything up and were ready to roll for qualifying. I was 8th in free practice – I have no idea how as I only completed 5 laps so a total of 6 laps around the track now. I’m still in awe of this track, how fast is it! Woohoo!! Saturday: Qualifying – Out for qualifying and I needed to improve my times, I was a long way off the boys up front and I needed to make amends for my position. So, straight and head down and into it. Same deal, working on some more corners and I’ve managed to get a good line that works through the fast section and was starting to really enjoy that bit! Unfortunately on the 7th lap I was entering the braking zone at the end of the back straight and as soon as I pulled the clutch in the bike died. I tried to thumb it back into life but no joy. I even tried a 3rd gear bump start on the straight! There’s a runoff area at the end of that straight so I took to that and got the bike stopped so I could try and figure out what was happening. I managed to get the bike started and was looking around to get back onto the track when a marshall ran over making the universal ‘shut it off’ hand signal (waving his hand across his throat) so I look behind me to see the bike had started smoking quite a bit again. Oil cooler again, bastid. So back onto the recovery truck … “Aussie flag mate?” “Yeah yeah …” Thanks for putting that flag up Chris!  It turns out that we had a small electrical problem which caused the bike to die. Also, the clutch was slipping badly down the straights and I couldn’t get the bike to go down from 6th to 3rd for the chicane leading onto the start finish straight so I was losing all the time I was making up in the fast section and then some. Going down the box was proving difficult. So Grahame did a stirling job getting the electrics sorted and also removed the oil cooler completely. Lets hope it doesn’t get too hot! Another plate went into the clutch and I took for a test ride. Still having problems getting it into gear but it wasn’t slipping and it had improved. I completed another 6 laps in that session bringing the grand total to 12 laps of Assen! I improved in my laptime but the game moved on, I had qualified 13th we thought. Lucky huh! Then the sheets came out and they combined the times from both sessions for qualifying which bumped me to 14th. That’s ok, I’ll take that! After qualifying on the front row of both rounds so far I was a little disappointed with where I was but I knew I would be quicker again in the race. The bike was starting make sense and the gorgeous seat pad that Grahame had grafted onto the bike with the blue foam was a treat – just where I wanted to be and the bike was starting to feel good. Sat afternoon/evening – beer and curry Sunday: Race – I line up in my grid spot after a nice frantic warm up lap! The lights go out and the journo Dale is on the multipasta in front of me entertaining the large crowd in the grandstand (it was awesome having so many people spectating) with his comic start and wheelie antics. Fortunately for me he put enough people off that I managed to slot through that row. A few people got blinding starts including Mike Winter who was well up there into turn 1. I didn’t push too hard in the first lap because we hadn’t really had a test of the bike since the oil cooler had been removed and the new clutch plate was in. It all seemed good so lap 2 the head goes down and I started pushing. It’s going well and I’ve made quite a few places up – including that pesky upstart Mike Winter who was getting idea’s above his station  and coming around to start lap 3 I had just gotten in front of the journo on the magimixer and up into 9th when the race was red flagged. Poor old Cleggy decided to inspect the scenery up close (glad you’re ok mate). So I stick my hand in the air and slow down. I went to change gears and there was nothing there! I looked down and the gear shift was dangling. Great. We get into the pitlane and I’ve had a minor hissy fit punching the tank but I get off the bike and the linkage between the gearbox spline and the shift lever has come loose so it’s at the end of its adjustment range. I did it up as tight as I could by hand and got it back to where I needed it.Ok, calm down tiger – you’re back in the race. I was a little over-excited at this point. They let us back out for a tearing warm up lap – I pushed fairly hard actually because I wanted that heat back into the tyres so I could just go for it off the start. Unfortunately as we were coming around the back fast section the gear linkage disappeared again and I couldn’t change gear and was now stuck in 4th. You complete (*&£%(*£^%(£*%^)£(%&£)%£&% Race over, I pulled into the pits and parked the bike, grabbed a beer and went to watch the rest of the race. At least I managed to get it back slipping the clutch in 4th so I didn’t have to get on the back of that goddamn truck again! I’d added another 3 laps to the total so in all I completed 15 laps of Assen. And I’m in love, it’s simply the best circuit I’ve ever ridden. So, as I said at the top it wasn’t really my weekend on the bike but there were a lot of positives to take away. I’d gone quicker in the race on that second lap than all weekend so I was improving every session. The bike is getting there and although I wasn’t up where I feel I should have been in the order (I’m sure there’ll be some debate on that) I wasn’t far off and would have salvaged some decent points. It’s all coming together though and at Castle Doom I’ll be on the same bike for two rounds in a row for the first time this year. Look out! Thanks again to Grahame for all of your hard work – I sincerely appreciate it.  |
| #3 11-May-2006, 16:01 | ||||
| ||||
| |
| #4 11-May-2006, 16:01 | ||||
| ||||
| |
| #7 11-May-2006, 16:27 | ||||
| ||||
 Was it faster than my pirouette over the handle bars at Brands last year exiting Clearways? Bloody young upstarts, gets a scratch and thinks he's hard all of a sudden! I've got two words for you Mr Clegg - Daytona Boots. |
| #8 11-May-2006, 16:31 | ||||
| ||||
| tp. was a bit of a 'mare for you but im sure your luck will change. just not this season hopefully |
| #9 11-May-2006, 16:55 | ||||
| ||||
| Mate you came back in the paddock so many times onboard of that godamn recovery truck, now I'm laughing when I think about it but during the weekend I was really really really gutted for you  You desserve better my friend... at least a red truck [Edité le 11-5-2006 par Tonio600] |
| #10 11-May-2006, 17:43 | ||||
| ||||
| Quote:
Feel the love.... TP....STREWTH mate! Give em hell at CC. It has you made you stronger... Still flew the flag for us though! |
domski
Linear Mode
