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MRRDA Oran Park 2007 Ian Wiltshire race report
It's Wednesday. Two days before we are due to leave for Oran Park and the bike is no-where near ready.
I've been over with Dave at Cousins Engineering helping him machine up some rear sprockets (by helping, I mean watching Dave and Tom do all the work). We should get them finished by tomorrow morning so it now looks possible that the bike may run.
Since the first shakedown test at Mac Park. Work on the bike has been fast and furious. Shockteks' Glen Holland had the bike at his workshop and worked long hours into the night trying to straighten the thing. Most people would have given up and continued the next day but they knew how tight the time scale was so they pressed on and finally finished at 1.30am. Now that’s 'Good Service'.
Trevor Manley has revalved the rear shock for me and added a compression adjuster (remote reservoir) to the ageing design.
So with the chassis set up under control, focus turned to the engine and yesterday I spent the morning abusing Kens hospitality in the Megacycle Dyno.
Chris Burke had decided to lend me the Tyga Exhaust for the first round so with that attached, and a few other mods (inc new fairing) we set to work.
With the jetting fairly close to perfect, we picked up a few more ponies. It wasn't enough but it was better than last time.
Thursday arrives and I'm up early. Straight round to Dave’s to collect the sprockets. They're all ready when I get there and they've done a fantastic job.
Next job on the list is to collect the Valtermoto clippons.
Times getting tight so I've decided to spilt the long list into 'nice to have' and 'track ready necessity'
The Ram Air system was already shelved and joining that was the datalogger. There was just no time to fit it with all the other jobs still to do. I'm still cutting the number backings when Duane arrived with his bike.
We are traveling up together in my van which will help with the cost and make driving that great distance easier.
Duane left around 11pm. We decided to fit the 520 chain and sprockets before loading the van. It’ll save time on race day.
I get to bed at 12.30am after finishing cutting the sponsors stickers and double checking we have packed everything. I decided to leave the spare engine behind, it doesn’t run yet.
Duane has his.
5am we set off for NSW and arrive at the motel 9 hours later. It was a good journey, with the new GPS making navigation much easier.
Scruteneering was the first hurdle and after queuing for 10 minutes, when I reached the front of the queue I was met with the stern voice of the scruteneer. “I can’t do your bike”.
“Why not?” I asked. “No Numbers” was the gruff reply.
With a million things to get finished before the first practice (we were first out) I’d forgotten to pickup my numbers. So I lent the bike against a wall, walked back up to the pits, collected the numbers and joined the back of the queue again.
I had wanted to get the new Dunlop tyres fitted before the first session. They are a different size and would alter the geometry so I knew I would need some setup time. But there wasn’t enough time to get them swapped and up to temperature so I’d have to make do with what I had and sort out the new tyres in P2.
The new tyre was fitted in time for P2 and it transformed the bike. No more running wide, but it introduced instability into the front end.
The geometry needed a lot of work but qualifying was up next so I had to make the best of what I had.
It would have been nice to have done a test day at Broadford to iron out all the problems but we ran out of time so here we are. Qualifying in 22nd in Q1 wasn’t what I wanted but Q2 was again faster. 4 seconds faster but only 2 places higher. Still, we are moving in the right direction with times and places.
The morning was cool. Track temperature was down and with it, was the grip level. I used the warmup session to check the bike over and try some more suspension settings to try and cure the tank slapping. Strangely the bike wouldn’t start. I put it down to the cold weather and a set of jump leads fired it in to life. 18th Fastest.
20th on the grid, quite a way back, but ready for racing. The bikes not perfect but lets see what it can do.
The first lap is awesome, it’s fighting me everywhere but I’m in control and I fight my way up to 13th. Then the bike starts popping and banging, loosing power. I try to maintain position but it’s impossible. I end up finishing in 19th. The bike barley makes the in lap. It actually dies exiting the last corner. I fear the worst (no spare engine).
The funny thing was the tacho. It was only reading 7K when the engine was on the limiter.
Chris Burke is there asking how things are going. I explain what happened and flick the on button to show him the high temperature we are getting and the whole bike is dead.
Chris diagnoses a dead battery. Glenn Kettle (Team Captain) tells me to also check the regulator (common fault) and sure enough, the regulator has let go and over charged the battery. It’s so hot; you could fry an egg on it.
I borrow a battery from Trevor’s Spare bike but it’s too big to fit in. Duane has a another I can use but we are running out of time to get it fitted.
I get my leathers on while the guys fit the battery in. Sparks are flying everywhere. The rest of the field are on the grid and I’m still in the pit box. Duct tape and cable ties are used to secure everything but the seat won’t fit on. The lights go green so I grab the bike and head out into pit lane. We need the points for the Tristate. I’ve no seat and by the time I get on the track, the rest of the field are at turn 3.
I manage to pass about 8 people but finish down in 22nd
Despite my poor finish positions I’d gone fast enough to get selected for the final. But only just. 30th on the grid.
Once again, the first few laps were good, and I made it to top 15 off the start but as the heat built in the motor, power started to drop off and I ended up going backwards again.
Finishing 29th.
So although the results were not what I’d hoped for, the bike took some major steps forward in it’s development plan. We now have more problems to solve but it’s all moving in the right direction.
The next round is at Winton. One of my local circuits and somewhere I will have an idea of what to expect from the bike. There should be a chance to test before the race so I will be up to speed as soon as the first session gets underway.
Our next major job is to build the spare motor into something usable, get that set up and in the bike. We hope to get it on the dyno by the end of the month so watch this space for the results.
Thanks to:
WIZ Racing, Dexam, Performance Friction, Megacycle, TM Performance, Oleon Oils, Tiger Angel, Tyga (BComponents), Shocktec, Valtermoto.
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