Saturday / Sunday, 19th/20th September 2009
Round 7 &ndash National SS600s, Anglesey International
Best results so far
Firstly, a huge thank you to Iain, Jackson, Andy, Dave and Myles for everything over the weekend. Without them all, It wouldn't have been as good as it was. They helped to take pressure off me, working on the bike, cooking food and generally prepping the 675's in time for each outing.
It was a very early start on Friday morning, up at 6am to leave Summerhill at 6.30am and get to Dublin port in good time for the 8.20 sailing. We made it to the track just before lunch began at the No Limits trackday and I went in to sign on for the afternoon session. The one and only time I've been at this track before, was last March for a No Limits trackday with Absol Racing on the National track. Struggling with set up back then, I had no idea what to expect of myself from this weekend on the International circuit.
The first two sessions on track, I used my 675 which felt good. The front end was a bit too soft, which led to the rear moving around a lot in most corners under heavy braking, but I was very happy with how the rear shock was set up for the weekend (have Steve Harnett to thank for that). Unofficial times from Iain and dad got me at consistent low 1 minute 34's.
For the 3rd and final session of the trackday, I took the '09 675 out for comparison to see if I could go any faster. The front end was stiffer than mine and felt great on the brakes and mid corner, but the rear didn't inspire a lot of confidence getting on the power. A combination of being able to brake later and getting more familiar with the track, my times dropped into the low 1 minute 33's. When I got back in, the condition of the rear tire was showing how badly the shock was set up for me, so we decided to put my Ohlins shock into the '09 bike for practice on Saturday morning. We also raised the foot peg to give me more clearance through corners.
Practice was very short but it was nice to get a few extra laps in before we had to go out and qualify. Qualifying was also very short with everyone only getting 4 or 5 laps out on track , disappointing to say the least as we were only getting into our stride. When I came in at the end of the session, I felt I could go quicker than I had, as I messed up a few of my apexes, which lost me time. Dave came back with the time sheet and to the teams delight, I was sitting in 5th position with a time of 1 minute 31.8 seconds. That's my highest qualifying position EVER since turning National.
A fresh set of Dunlops were put on the rims and I was all set for our first race of the weekend. I didn't get the best of starts as I found the '09 675 to have a clutch that felt like it was on or off, no in between. Later in the first lap, Cody Nally fell right in front of me and shortly after that, another rider went down bringing out the red flags. Back to the Grid for a little wait and we got another warm up lap with a reduced race distance of 4 or 5 laps. On the restart, and again on the first lap, Alan Hill went down, then was clipped by another rider which brought out the red flags again. Running out of time for the rest of the program, it was decided to scrap the race and re-run it in the morning after free practice. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt and I wish all the guys that went down a speedy recovery.
After a very short free practice on Sunday morning, it was time to run our race which was canceled the day before. The race was back up to full distance (only 6 laps!). Again, I found it difficult to get the '09 675 off the line with it's clutch but the race was short lived for me, as when I was going down the back straight in the opening lap, just as I got to the bottom of the hill, my engine lost all drive and I had to retire. The race was again red flagged after a few more laps and declared a result. Congrats to Ali Kirk as he stormed away to victory.
Not letting it get me down, I returned to the paddock and the lads put my shock and wheels back onto my 675 getting it ready for race 2 after lunch. Found it a lot easier to get my 675 away from the line, which was good but I was soon struggling with my set up. We couldn't match the settings on my forks as there are different springs in the '09 bike. The front chattered a lot mid corner and I could only do my best to keep circulating at a pace I knew I could better. 6 laps went by fairly fast and I finished 7th overall. Iain and I think it was a 2nd or 3rd in the SS600 Cup! My fastest lap of the race was a 1 minute 31.1 seconds which surprised me because of the handling problems I had and my quickshifter also started acting up on me cutting the throttle intermittently on the back straights, but I was delighted with the finish as it's my best finish of the year so far. I knew I could get that personal best time down and also be consistent with a few changes to the front end and quickshifter.
Iain slightly reduced the sensitivity of the quickshifter as we thought it may be the wind at speeds causing the quickshifter to cut the throttle on me. Race 3 came and I got a great start away from the line and found myself right behind the leaders going into turn 2. But, on the way out of turn 2 and into turn 3, the throttle started cutting off again. Except this time it continued to do it on nearly all the straights and every left hand corner. I was heartbroken as I felt I had it in me to get a top 5 result in this race if the bike wasn't acting up on me. I did the best I could under the circumstances, being over taken a couple of times during the race, and I crossed the finish line in 7th position overall again.
I'm looking forward to the next National meeting in Mondello in two weeks as I've finally found some good form and by that stage, my 675 will be fixed and raring to go. Last time out in Mondello, I destroyed my personal best lap time getting into the low 57 seconds. I would like to beat that again at the Masters weekend.
Thanks for reading,
Cheers,
AJ