Kells Road Race report
Next meeting on the calender was Kells. This is probably the most popular road race in the south so we were all hoping for a dry safe weekend. The main thing that I was looking forward to was the jumps, I didnt know what the 400 would do over them but I was really looking forward to finding out!
The weather was bad on the run to the race and the forecast wasnt good for the weekend. The club had the run way in the paddock covered with wood chippings which was a great help to keep the tires clean of mud when going to grid.
I went out for newcomers practice on Saturday and it was still dry at this time. I got a decent few laps, building speed over the jump and the sweep lap by lap, not going into anything too fast. But I was having terrible trouble with 6th gear again, a problem that had first appeared at Skerries. The problem was very bad now and the bike would never hold 6th gear, it was starting to jump out of 2nd gear too. This was a real disaster beginning to happen.
I went back out for qualifying and we started in the dry but it began to rain on our 3rd lap, in fairness none of us really eased up much but they got the red flags out before it got too bad. We restarted the session later in the day and the track was almost dry again, I tipped away and got some nice wheelies over hanlans leap, but the gearbox problem was after getting worse again, I lost 6th gear completly, couldnt get it into gear at all.
So I came in from practice and was going to just put the bike in the van and forget about the meeting. I only had 5 gears and 2nd gear was also on the way out too. But after a bit of thinking about it I decided to put the smallest back sprocket we could find onto the bike to improve top speed in 5th, and I was just going to use the 5 gears. I knew this would be a disaster and figured I would come last but I am very stubborn at the best of times and was going to get out if it was in any way possible! I decided to learn the track for next year, no point in wasting valuable track time at a road race!
Race day came and it was wet, the rain would only let up for short periods but before the track could dry it would rain again. We went to the starting grid with wets on.
The first lap was a total disaster, I got confused with the gears and lost a lot of time on the back section and ended up last by a long way. I was about to pull in at the end of the lap but decided to keep it going and plugged away. I caught Brendan Merrigan with 2 laps to go and passed him at the end of the 2nd last lap. I finished the race in 17th, very poor result but I got the finish and that was the main thing considering the problems.
Now my next step is to try get new gearbox in time for Athea, Armoy and Dundrod in the coming weeks!
Thanks to everyone who wished me luck for the weekend and gave us a good reception on the cooling down lap, much appreciated!
Despite recking the gearbox I did enjoy riding the Kells track and well done to the club on a great meeting. Will look forward to coming back next season on a 650 with a bit of luck!
Thanks to the lads who helped me get the bike sorted Saturday evening for the race, Flynn, Jason and Paul!
Mega thanks to all my sponsors, without them I would not be racing, Austin in Specials for a great 400, Eamonn at www.Ipass.ie, Willie Wilson and Gas Safety Systems, M & M Skip Hire, Eoin at Gorman Crash Repair, Biker.ie, MorrisonBHP.net, Jen, Mattie, Dogsbox Motorcycles, Bikeit.co.uk, Paul Phipps.
Thanks for reading!
Scoops #40
The weather was bad on the run to the race and the forecast wasnt good for the weekend. The club had the run way in the paddock covered with wood chippings which was a great help to keep the tires clean of mud when going to grid.
I went out for newcomers practice on Saturday and it was still dry at this time. I got a decent few laps, building speed over the jump and the sweep lap by lap, not going into anything too fast. But I was having terrible trouble with 6th gear again, a problem that had first appeared at Skerries. The problem was very bad now and the bike would never hold 6th gear, it was starting to jump out of 2nd gear too. This was a real disaster beginning to happen.
I went back out for qualifying and we started in the dry but it began to rain on our 3rd lap, in fairness none of us really eased up much but they got the red flags out before it got too bad. We restarted the session later in the day and the track was almost dry again, I tipped away and got some nice wheelies over hanlans leap, but the gearbox problem was after getting worse again, I lost 6th gear completly, couldnt get it into gear at all.
So I came in from practice and was going to just put the bike in the van and forget about the meeting. I only had 5 gears and 2nd gear was also on the way out too. But after a bit of thinking about it I decided to put the smallest back sprocket we could find onto the bike to improve top speed in 5th, and I was just going to use the 5 gears. I knew this would be a disaster and figured I would come last but I am very stubborn at the best of times and was going to get out if it was in any way possible! I decided to learn the track for next year, no point in wasting valuable track time at a road race!
Race day came and it was wet, the rain would only let up for short periods but before the track could dry it would rain again. We went to the starting grid with wets on.
The first lap was a total disaster, I got confused with the gears and lost a lot of time on the back section and ended up last by a long way. I was about to pull in at the end of the lap but decided to keep it going and plugged away. I caught Brendan Merrigan with 2 laps to go and passed him at the end of the 2nd last lap. I finished the race in 17th, very poor result but I got the finish and that was the main thing considering the problems.
Now my next step is to try get new gearbox in time for Athea, Armoy and Dundrod in the coming weeks!
Thanks to everyone who wished me luck for the weekend and gave us a good reception on the cooling down lap, much appreciated!
Despite recking the gearbox I did enjoy riding the Kells track and well done to the club on a great meeting. Will look forward to coming back next season on a 650 with a bit of luck!
Thanks to the lads who helped me get the bike sorted Saturday evening for the race, Flynn, Jason and Paul!
Mega thanks to all my sponsors, without them I would not be racing, Austin in Specials for a great 400, Eamonn at www.Ipass.ie, Willie Wilson and Gas Safety Systems, M & M Skip Hire, Eoin at Gorman Crash Repair, Biker.ie, MorrisonBHP.net, Jen, Mattie, Dogsbox Motorcycles, Bikeit.co.uk, Paul Phipps.
Thanks for reading!
Scoops #40
Hanlans Leap - pic by Derek Clegg
Pic by Ryan Fegan
Pic by Ryan Fegan
