I had always wanted someone else to ride my 750 to get another view point and a a bit of a gauge so I convinced one of the superbike (R1) guys to enter new era (pre modern) on the YZF750. I also recruited a mate of mine who I work with to enter the P Plater class on the PJ FZR1000.
FZR1000
My mate, Al, is an experienced road rider but had done no racing and only a few track days so he was understandably a bit nervous about the whole thing. I ignored his hands shaking as he was doing up his leathers to go out for the first time, patted him on the back, and said "she'll be right" as any good team manager would. Al survived his first outing and made steady progress through the Friday track day. Saturday came and he qualified second row which was OK. P Plater class is for new racers or those who hadn't raced in more than 5 years. There were no ex racers in the field but there were a few track day junkies that I knew and considering the machines he was up against, mainly modern 600s, he did well with qualifying.
Al had 4 races over two days and did pretty well with a 3rd, 2 x 4ths and a 5th. The 5th was the last race and he was tiring so he backed off. This and his controlled agression in early races left his team manager fairly happy. He showed good control, looked after the tyres and on the whole I would say he did better than me at my first race meeting. He is now hooked and looks like he will join me next year in a Yamaha assault in pre modern
I am waiting for more photos but the one following comes with this tip from the team manager "Al, dude, the track is a bit to your left"
YZF750
Well, as team manager, I have the right to change things around
Another mate Graeme who was in a battle for 2nd/3rd in the series had his Ducati lunch it's engine on Friday. I sacked the superbike rider and gave Graeme the 750 for the weekend so he could get out and score some points and hopefully hang on to 3rd in the championship. He went out on Friday for a few sesions and complained about no drive out of corners...coming off a 955 twin this was not a great suprise. The team manger's advice was "ride faster tomorrow".
We had cross entered in the Superbike class as well so this gave him the opportunity to do 4 qualifying sessions and to get practice race starts in the superbike races (do a few laps and pull in).
Through the course of the day we discussed gearing and brakes and I scrounged a front sprocket from an R6 team and chucked a new set of front pads in. Sunday morning he went out in a Superbike race for a few laps to see how the gearing and brakes were and when he didn't come back until the end of the 10 lap race I figured he must have thought they were OK. The times he set were the third fastest for a pre modern rider on the new extended track! (For aussie locals, the fastest is Murray Clark who we know is an alien and shouldn't be counted
)The guy he was battling with had an off and went to his B bike but was beaten and sore. Graeme finished the weekend with enough points to give him 2nd in the championship and the team manager endless opportinities to remind him that a Yamaha got him over the line. The photo is Graeme(#77) stalking a 150+ HP fireblade which he did get past but got outdragged to the flag on the last lap and pipped at the line.
It was great to get back to the track and to see the fun "my riders" had but I found the team management duties harder than riding.
Bring on next year!!