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New Zealand National Superbike Championship 2006/2007
I have yet to go to Teretonga and have a full weekend of racing and not have it rain....!!!! With this track at the bottom of New Zealand, and nothing really between it and the Antarctica, the weather here can be challenging.
Well, with Ray braking his arm in Australia, while he was racing in the Aussie Superbike Championship, this put us back months, as Ray is the engine builder and suspension builder.
So, I had been flying up to Auckland, to build the engines for the 600 and 1000, with Ray keeping an eye on me. I managed to have James out on the 600 before the season kicked off, but not with the WP front suspension installed, as we were still waiting for it to arrive from Holland. Plus, since Dave Stanton had pulled out and with Ray having a broken arm, there was no real rush to get the 1000 ready.
So the first time James rode the bike with the WP front suspension, was at the 1st round of the Championship. With the weather at the track been completely unreliable, having 3 sets of wheels was useful, a set with wets, a set with intermediates and a set with Prodie Tyres (Dunlop's).
James had a few problems with getting the Suzuki GSXR 600 K6 stable on the Dunlop's, but we had it sorted for Qualifying, but the next problem he was suffering was turning the bike in, we did pull the forks through on the clamps a bit more, which helped, but we didn't want to lose to much trail.
James qualified 8th, but knew he could go faster, so, after talking to Ray that evening, I adjusted the rear, mainly with ride height and position of the wheel in the swingarm, James found this alot better during the morning warm up.
Race 1 was dry, in fact both races on the Sunday were dry................surprisingly. James ran with the Dunlop 950 compound fronts and 3166 rears. Starting from 8th made it hard for James to keep contact with the front, but he managed to get a great start and after a good battle, came home 4th, which was fantastic.
Race 2, again his start was good and he managed to have a great battle again with Derek McAdam, James managed a 5th.
So, overall, a very pleasing weekend with the 4th and 5th.
New Zealand National Superbike Championship 2006/2007
This round was held at Levels Race way, which generally puts on great weather, but with New Zealand not really having a summer yet, we were not holding out breaths.
At this round I had Brendon Marshall back on the 1000, since Brendon is off to America to race in the States next month, I gave the bike to him to ride, both this round and the next at Ruapauna.
Brendon took it pretty easy during the Friday and Saturday, getting himself comfortable on the bike again. We knew the bike was quick enough, if not the most powerful bike in the field..........(I have dyno'd Stroudies and Robert Bugden's GSXR's and my bike is a number of HP above there bikes). Brendan qualified 7th, so was on the 2nd row. He got a great start and was soon up to 3rd place, but, he noticed that the bike gave a small hiccup every so often. As the laps progressed, this hiccup became worse and worse and soon, Brendon had to pull off, with 2 laps to go. Gutted. This was the best I have seen Brendon ride, and he was all over the back of Andrew and Robert............
Anyway, we had thought we had found the problem..........the battery was dropping voltage way to quickly (we run total loss), so we put a new battery in, thinking we had fixed the problem. But no............For the 2nd race of the Superbikes, Brendon went back out and on the warm up lap, as it was been completed, the hiccup started again. Then, the bike died on the start line.......................!!!!!! Sadly that was our weekend with the 1000...............a weekend of possibilities. (I then spent Monday on the dyno with the bike and found that the Cam Position Sensor was playing up..........I changed it and the bike ran perfectly).
James on the 600 Qualified 8th, which was done in the wet..............with out me changing the suspension settings from the dry settings, to the wet settings...........!!!!
That won't happen again..........
James's start this time was not the best, but he managed to get himself back to 8th, then up to 6th, where he stayed. James came back to the pits after the race, saying that the bike would not turn. I checked the tyre pressures and the front was down to 17psi. He went out with 32.5 psi................We pumped the tyre back up and checked it with soapy water and then waited it to see if it would go back down, it now seemed fine................I should have replaced the wheel and possibly the tyre, even though in the 600 class, the same front tyre has to be run in both races..............but I did not change it and the pressure was 33 psi when James went out for the 2nd race.............but the same problem accrued again, which was a real shame, as James rode fantastically and was up to 5th place, closing in on 4th, when the same problem started happening again. James managed to bring the bike home in 7th, which was a credit to him.
So, this 2nd round was a weekend of possibilities, which didn't quite go our way. We did feel confident for the 3rd round the following weekend at Ruapauna in Christchurch.
New Zealand National Superbike Championship 2006/2007
Ruapauna Raceway, here in Christchurch, is our home track, so were feeling confident for the weekend.
Brendon qualified 4th on Saturday, which was great, the front row of the grid was all Suzuki GSXR 1000's. His start for race 1 was not the greatest and the 2 Yamaha's of Charlton and Seaton made their way past him. Brendon put his head down and with the race been a long 15 laps, (a lap here is 3.4kms), he worked his way back past the 2 Aussies and came home a creditable 4th place.
In race 2, Brendon again did not get the best start and also, Brendon's lack of fitness started showing, with himself putting the Suzuki into neutral between gear changes, over on the back part of the track, there by letting 3 bikes get past him. He then had to work hard, because the race had been shorten to 10 laps. Brendon then did a lap, which was a 1:32.608.........with the track record been a 1:32.05 and there has been only a handful of people to ever get into the 32's around Ruapauna (bikes use the longer track than cars, bikes use what is called "The Dipper", which adds about 7-10 seconds to a lap time). Brendon bought the Suzuki home in 5th place, which put him 5th over the weekend.
Brendon now heads to America and if he races like he did for me over the past 2 weekends, I feel he will do very well in the WERA and AMA Championship.
James on the Suzuki K6 600 weekend started great, with James been 3rd quickest. But come qualifying, he could not repeat that, saying he was again having trouble turning the bike. I checked the tyre pressures................they were fine. So, we were still struggling to find the perfect set up for him. James qualified 6th, with a 1:35.866..........he was a bit disappointed, as he knew he could do a 34, which would have put him top 3.
Come race day on Sunday we thought we had a better setting now for James, but he was still finding the bike to hard to turn. James came home 6th in the 1st race.
We tried a couple more things for race 2 and James got a great start and was 5th, right with the front group, which is what he needed. Sadly, this race was red flagged and restarted. But, James was now doing the 34's we had been chasing all weekend.
Sadly, not long after the restart, our 600 started making noises, so James pulled off the track.............a DNF for James, which was a real shame and has cost us in the overall points, knocking James back to 7th, where before he was fighting for 5th. The final 2 rounds are going to be a real push, to get James back into it, as we are aiming for a top 5 overall for the season.
I dropped the engine out on Monday and freighted it up to Ray, I could see that it looked a though an exhaust valve had dropped it's head on number 1. Ray rang today and said that it looks as though the exhaust cam shaft has moved on the Yoshi Sprockets, causing the exhaust cam timing to alter, allowing the vales to kiss the pistons, leading one of the exhaust valves to break. Looks as though I may have to get a new head and exhaust valves, so that I can at least get the bike ready for the 4th round in 3 weeks. Looks as though I will use this damaged head after it is fixed, to run the bike over in Aussie, where you can shave the heads in the 600 Production class.
Next Update after Round 4
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