Suzuki Tri Series - Round 1 Hampton Downs
2010-12-20

Sketchy Racers Suzuki Tri Series round One

It was an early start on Friday morning for me and my two helpers, Andrew and Celeste, for the weekend, with us getting up at 2:30am on Friday to head up to Hampton Downs Raceway. It's about a 7.5 hour drive from Wellington but the test day didn't start until 1pm Friday so that did give us a bit of extra time to get sorted and get the bike prepared for the day.

We made it to the track just before 11am and we got to work getting the pits set up. It was a tad windy but most of all the sun was out and shining away which suited me just great. I was really looking forward to this meeting, I have put a lot of effort into my fitness over the last couple of months and I was curious to see how this would effect my performance on the bike.

1pm came around super fast and we were out onto the track. I took the first session very steady as this is the first time the bike has been run since the motor has been rebuilt by Chris as Ozzy Performance and it's been a while since I have ridden so there was no need to rush in and make a mistake so early.

One very important detail that I learnt from last season is that it is very hard to get a good result in a championship if you are sitting in the kitty litter after trying a bit to hard. Even if I can't win the race the points for finishing are far more important than no points at all from trying to hard, so if there was one main goal apart from winning, is that I want to finish every race I enter this season.

As the day went on I started getting into the groove of it and getting the bike set up. I was chasing a bit of a setup issue in the front end of the bike which we never did quite nail but made big improvements on, I really want to thank Robert Taylor from CKT for his time and effort with the suspension over the weekend.

By the end of the Friday testing we were running close to the pace of the others I would be racing and I was feeling comfortable on the bike without having to take unnecessary risk so I was happy and looking forward to the racing the following day.

Saturday

I awoke to a slightly overcast and breezy day but as long as it didn't rain I would be happy. I set about getting the pits tidied up and the bike fueled and tyres pressured before heading over to sign in.

Qualifying

I went into qualifying still running the same set of Continental Race Attack slicks that I had run all Friday. The tyres were working great and wearing great so no need to replace them, and I was confident there would be no reason I couldn't run them for both the races as well if everything continued working as well as they were on Friday.
I didn't have a particularly great qualifying with a lot of trouble getting caught with lap traffic. My best lap was my last lap of the session which I got held up 3 times with traffic in the lap. Even so I was still able to qualify 2nd on the grid which I was happy about as this was a good position for turn one off the start.

Race One

I was very calm and relaxed which is very unusual for me just before a race, usually my heart rate is through the roof and even at times can feel very nauseous. We were starting from a flag drop instead of lights which I haven't ever done on the 600, but years of flag start practice on my little 100cc 'bucket racer' payed off as I got the best start of my racing career and took the holeshot and was on my way. I kept my riding clean and consistent and kept an eye on who was behind me and how close they were. I had a couple of checks behind and could see a good gap so settled into a comfortable pace. The race went perfectly to plan and I crossed the finish line in first place with a 3 second gap to Dennis Charlett in second place.
Again I notice the difference in my fitness as I was still not even close to becoming fatigued which is a really good sign and I look forward to continuing to improve myself in that aspect too.

Race Two

Pole setter John Ross was unfortunate not to make the start grid in the second race, as far as I know he had a machine fault in the warmup lap, so I was the first in the line on the start grid. Again I got a good start, not quite as good as the first race but still enough to get me into turn 1 in first position. It was obvious that Dennis was much keener for the number one spot in this race and I could hear him right on my tail all race long. I worked hard on keeping a clean race and maintaining my position. Dennis did make it past me once but I regained the position into the next corner. Again I crossed the finish line in 1st place by mere tenths of a second but enough to give me the race win so I was very happy with that. I did get my Continental Race Attacks to last for the two races as well, completing both the test day and the race day and lap record pace on one set of tyres. This is nothing but a credit to both the tyres and also the suspension.
Overall it has been a fantastic start to the Suzuki Tri Series and I can't wait for round two at Manfeild on the 18th December.

I really want to thank all my loyal sponsors and supporters as always for their amazing support!

Catch you all at the next round!

-Glen “Sketchy” Skachill