High guys, well I'm back in one peace but only just...
I couldn't log on up there as the wifi signal was really bad but heres a quick report....
I arrived Thursday evening about 7-15pm after a trouble free drive up around the M25-M11-A11 route and met up with some old friends Greg & Duncan Gibson who own a local Furniture restoration shop near where I live and where there to race in another class the sound of thunder on their trick Ducatis..have attached a couple of pics for you bellow Kev...( please have a tissue handy before you look )
Had a nice evening eating there barbie for them as Dennis & Toby were not arriving till the morning as Toby had got back from work late......
They all arrived in the morning at about 6.30am and we set about setting up the garage with the two workbenches and tools compressor and fridge full of drinks etc. we took the bikes up to get them noise tested which to me is a bit of a waste of time as they check them at 7000-RPM when the bikes make peak power and hit there max at 13.500-RPM...
We then set about changing the settings for the suspension on my bike as Toby is about 2 stone lighter than me and we needed to change the rear spring on the Ohlins shock to a 7.5KG in stead of the 7KG that Toby rides with then on to carb settings for mixture of fuel and air which is adjusted by a series of jets. pilot, main, air, and needle, and power jet ( a form of fuel injection....
once this had all been done we had missed the first session of practice which for me was good news as I feel everyone always try's to hard and ends up with the session getting red flagged......however every session that I done on the Friday did get stopped for one reason or another
It took me 3 sessions to get up to speed as the TZ was totally different in feel to my old RS250 Honda race bike and steered much quicker, but considering all the factors ie old fat used tires etc I was very happy and was enjoying myself no end I done one more session after lunch when again I was making improvements but felt perhaps I had hit a brick wall as such on adjustments when it was suggested that I put some sponge padding on the back of the petrol tank to stop myself sliding forwards as it was causing considerable problems under braking and the back wheel kept coming up in the air as the weight transfer of my not to inconsiderable mass was mucking up the weight distribution.....
We done this and it transformed the feel of the bike and I lapped 3 seconds a lap faster.............However in the last few laps I over cooked it and lost the rear wheel of the bike while I was trying to get good drive onto the back straight and the bike low sided me at about 90mph in 3rd gear ( whoops scottys or should that be band aid..)
O well of to the med centre I was taken and given the rubber gloves treatment.....and was found to have a broken shoulder bone or to be precise a chip out of it and a big lump out of my knee and wrist
So the bottom line is I might be 44 and think I am still able to keep up with the kids of today but cant......incidently Toby went onto to set Pole time of 1-10.6 2 seconds quicker than anyone else and won both races by a good margin and by the way with the times I had been doing friday I would have finished in about 8-10 place......theoretically
