Friday – Sunday, 11th – 13th April 2008
Round 3 &ndash Irish Superbikes, Mondello Park
AJ's first Superbike Race
Due to the meeting being a 2 day event, there was a practice day held on Friday, 11th April.
Got my wheels on Thursday evening from Ian (radcovers.ie) after he collected them from Tallaght Powder Coating. Must say thanks to Jeff for them as the job he did is top notch! Wheels look brand new again. And also wanna thank Ian for dropping them in & collecting them as he had to take time off work to do so.
We set up in Garage 19 (one of the last ones) so we were miles away from everyone else, but the garage was class. Had heaters and floor maps throughout.
Was damp for the first couple of sessions on Friday morning so took it pretty easy as it's been over a year since my last time on the International track excluding when I was instructing at Mondello Trackdays. I knew the GSX-R was going to be a handful around the back of the track as Parabolica is really fast.
It soon dried out and I swapped to my dry tyres. Got a good few laps in and played around with my brakes markers as well as lines through the corner. I'm finding I don't have the confidence I did with the Triumph to lean right over in corners. Hopefully it'll come to me when I get more track time on the Beast.
Friday ended without any real problems and the bike passed through Scrutiny without any problems.
Unlike previous years, we went straight into Qualifying on Saturday morning instead of a un-timed practice. This was due to the Mondello Masters being run and the jam packed entry for nearly every class. The Irish Superbikes were broken up into two groups with me being placed in the 2nd group due to my high number (169). Both sessions were wet and both sessions had fairly heavy showers but the Clerk of the Course believed each group had different track conditions so staggered the times instead of taking the fastest 36. When counted, I was 16th on time but started from 19th on the Grid. I don't know if Alistar Seeley had problems during qualifying, but I was delighted to have put in a faster qualifying time as he is one of the fastest guys around Mondello in every class he enters.
It was a stressful time before our race on Saturday afternoon as the weather couldn't make its mind up on what it was going to do. We had sunshine, then rain, then sunshine again and then it'd hail. I had decided to go with my slicks for race 1, but was convinced to leave my wets on by others in the garage. It proved to be the wrong decision as the track was bone dry. I was raging with myself for not following my own instinct. As expected, race 1 was a complete disaster with me putting my fastest time in on the third lap before completely cooking my wets in the dry conditions. Then spent the rest of the race fighting to keep control of the rear and not let it spit me off. I was very tempted to just pull in and write off the race, but stayed out till the end finishing 24th place overall. It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that I found out I was 4th place in the ISB Cup, so that cheered me up a bit as those points could come in handy at the end of the season.
I didn't make the cut for the Mondello Masters by half a second due to me going into race 1 on wets. Hopefully next time will see a different outcome as the extra track time would of stood to me.
We had a 3 lap warm up on Sunday morning, which was damp again so I just wore in a new set of wets, and pulled a few wheelies for Aidan at the exit of Tarzan 2.
The weather wasn't as bad as Saturday, but it was still very changeable and the forecast wasn't the best for the afternoon either. In the end, we decided to go with slicks. I had a new Bridgestone on the front, so I was one of the first out for the warm up lap so I could go bed that in before the race start.
Got a decent start away from the line, but got swamped in turn 1 & 2 and lost a few positions. Tried holding onto the group in front for as long as I could but they slowly pulled away lap by lap. By the end of the race, I was in 18th position overall, 2nd in the ISB Cup with a fastest lap of 1.50.319, which is a new personal best for me. Absolutely delighted with the 2nd place, but know I can go a lot faster with more time and confidence on the Beast.
By the time Race 3 came around, the skies were very dark, but we all still had our slicks on. We did our warm up lap, and as we took up our starting grid positions, the heavens opened and we were given 15 minutes to go change onto our wets.
Another warm up lap, and away we went. The track was VERY slippy, esp exiting Dunlop and Honda, but I was pleased it rained as it evened everything out with the top lads. I had to dodge a couple of fallen bikes, but by the time the chequered flag came out, I was in 12th place overall, and again 2nd in the ISB Cup.
At the end of it all, I'm very pleased to come away from my first Irish Superbike round with the positions/points I did and I will strive to improve on these at the next round in 4 weeks time.
Huge thanks to Zane for the spannering on Sunday. I would of been lost without you, so great job.
Thanks to Paddy and the lads in the garage. Great laugh like last time.
Thank goes to Aidan, Dad and everyone else that dropped in to wish me well over the weekend. I'm really looking forward to the next meeting.
Until then,
Cheers
AJ