PMCC Summer Series Final Round

We had fantastic weather for the weekend at Manfeild park in Feilding. Feilding is definitely “Friendly Feilding” everyone we met were so pleasant. We set off on Friday for the six and a half hour drive with my self and Blayes sharing the driving in two hour stints.

No dramas on the way down. We stayed at a little bed and breakfast run by Kathie and Vernon at Oak Tree Bungalow Bed & breakfast, which is a short walk from the track. Convenient, comfortable and very amiable hosts. It made a plesant change from sleeping in the van, and we get a hot shower and a cooked breakfast as well.

Saturday we were testing and Blayes was getting to know the track. For some unexplained reason the bike decided it did not want to live up to its previous horsepower performance as recorded on the dyno and was so down on power that even SV 650’s were able to pass it on the straights. Although Blayes was somewhat frustrated we decided to concentrate on race craft especially in the area of entry and exit points to bends. On the forth session selecting a false neutral mid corner resulted in an off and a punctured raidiator. We performed a temporary fix on the radiator and added a detent wheel kit to our shopping list which will stop this from happening in the future.

Saturday evening we headed off into feilding in search of a decent resturant and quickly realised that this was not a priority in this part of the country, we ended up at Murray’s Irish bar and enjoyed an excellent burger in a pleasant and freindly atmosphere.

Sunday we were at the track early and met up with a number of fellow racers and met some new faces, the atmmosphere was relaxed, friendly with an underlying good willed competitiveness. Blayes qualified with adiquate times of 1.21 which he was not too pleased with. After some suspension tweeks and invaluable advice from Simon Banks and Daniel Kempthorn, Blayes was able to bring his lap times down by four seconds which was amazing considering the bike was running like crap. Well done Blayes and thanks a million to Simon and Daniel. We also ran with a Metzler K1 tyre instead of the K2 on the rear which gave a lot more grip in the prevailing conditions, thanks once again to Daniel who supplied it and to Scotty for tyre changing facilities and much appreciated help..

Thanks to all the people who helped out. The wonderful thing about this sport is the camaraderie amongst rivals, great friends off track and adversaries on. Of course there is the inevitable miss information spread about but this is all part of the fun, however when anyone is in need of genuine help, it is never too far away even for newbies like us.

Blayes finally achieved a 10th place in F2 and a 9th place in BEARS partaking in only three rounds.

Now we have the off season for winter testing, bike set up and the job of raising sponsorship and putting a team together for the next seasons campaign.

Bring it on.

Some Photographs from Taupo

The Best Sport In The World

The 2012 Motorcycling New Zealand Superbike Road Race Championship . Round 5 Taupo Raceway Taupo March 24-25.

At 5am we were heading off to Taupo in the dark avoiding hedgehogs along the windy lanes full of excitement with the prospect of three full days of messing around on motorcycles ahead of us. We were prepared for the prospect of a wet weekend, as we approached Taupo the verges and fields were strewn with the debris of fallen trees, obviously there had been a significant storm in the week. We arrived at the track in the rain, conditions were cold and a little windy, but there were signs it would clear up later. Terry and Jamie Gallway were already set up in the pit garage and helped us unload and set up in somewhat of a relaxed manner. There was a friendly buzz in the air and the excited anticipation of the arriving teams, as they stepped from their vehicles, was palpable.

A quick brew and then down to business, trye decisions, warmers on, fuel up and then team talk. See “Heat Exchanger Update”

The weather dried up and Blayes was out on track, the bike was running well after a week of fettling. Blayes was running lap times in the 1:45 bracket on 15/48 gearing racetech tyres at F27, R29 with the stock pipe, Mobil Racing 4T 10W40.

Saturday AM, dive into the shower, great to have hot clean showers on site, thanks to Taupo Motorsport Park. Breakfast cooked on the side of Terry’s trailer, bacon butties with HP sauce and hot tea, wicked. Blayes went out for first practice with a grin on his face and was quickly back scowling.For some unknown reason the bike had decided to go into Limp mode and would not rev over 12000 so we swapped to the Gallway’s  2007 bike. Blayes Qualified with a 1:41.416 It was a successful day and Blayes was happy to be constantly improving his performance.

After diving into Taupo for a takeout we returned to the pit garage to spend a wonderful evening with friends chewing the fat, listening to an array of amusing race stories from the people who drifted in and out of the garage during the evening and finished off seated around the laptop watching the 2011 Ulster Grand Pre with all of us exclaiming at the antics of Guy Martin and the Dunlop brothers. Then unable to stay awake any longer we bedded down in the back of the van, listening to the hypnotic drumming of the rain on the roof We finally surrendered to erehwon .

Sunday Am, awoke to abysmal weather, we were definitely looking at a wet race. On with the wets and a 2 lap scrub in which Blayes enjoyed. The rain poured down for the first races and by the time we were out on track it had subsided and there was blue sky on the horizon. The boys went out on a wet track. Jamie was doing fantastic moving up to 5^th place ahead of Jaden Hassan and then the track quickly started to dry out which took it’s toll on his tyres and he slipped to eighth. Blayes was running really well and thoroughly enjoyed being out in the wet on the Dunlop wets which gave amazing grip. Race 2 was dry Blayes had a good race and finished happy a little less tired this time bringing the bike home with no incidents yet again. Unfortunately our team mate Jamie had the unfortunate and very frustrating experience of his heat exchanger blowing on the first lap. Fortunately due to the fact that the boys re-sited his catch bottle on Saturday evening he was able to see the problem occurring and managed to pull off track avoiding a crash and spilling an oil hazard all over the track, well done Jamie.

All in all a most enjoyable way to spend a weekend, we made some good friends and are looking forwards to next season with our bikes sorted.

The official points showing Blayes’s placing after competing in two rounds only.

Superstock
Jake Lewis	217
Johnny Small	179
Dan Ornsby	166
Mike Lee	107
Dan Kempthorne	58
Blayes Heaven	30
Cameron Jones	29
Stewart Smart	26
Paul Koot	22
Andy Stewart	13

Heat Exchanger Failure

We were racing at the Nationals here in New Zealand this weekend and one of fellow riders, Jamie Gallway had a heat exchanger blow, in the second race, the same thing happened last weekend at Hampton Downs, he was riding a 2011 bike which is supposed to have been modified to prevent the problem.  This was very frustrating and disappointing as Jamie was doing well in the first Supersport race.

“Last year Triumph said they had a kit to fix the heat exchanger problem, they also modified all the 2011 onward bikes. The kit never came out as it was deemed to expensive!” ” (Si Westwood, Triumph Race Support”)

Terry Gallway  decided to test the oil pressure after the oil pump and found it to be well over 100psi, at 8000 rpm. These tests were on two, 2011 bikes and one 07 bike which is running the engine from Paul Dobbs bike ( engine No: 6278677). The recommended pressure is 75-80psi which is what the Japanese bikes are running. Subsequently the oil temp on our bikes was ranging from 112 to 200 celsius after a 15 lap race. After a lot of discussion with some vert technically savvy people we concluded that the problem is oil pressure not the heat exchangers themselves. It appears that the Factory knows these bikes are making too much pressure because the oil pump outputs oil too fast, and I am told that the Factory solution is to offer a replacement gear and chain to slow the pump and reduce the volume and pressure output. It is rumored that sometime in 2010 the Factory was close to recalling all the 675 bikes.
In our opinion it is a design fault recognized by the factory and therefore should be their responsibility to rectify the problem before someone is killed.

It would be sensible for all the owners who are experiencing this problem to group together and make a presentation to the Factory.

There is a lot of talk on the forums about this problem:

http://www.triumph675.net/forum/showthread.php?p=804747#post804747

http://www.675r.com/675/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5698&start=0

Dyno Testing

The Triumph has been running drasticaly down on power since we purchased it. After fitting the Yosh slip on and dumping the cat: see the chart.

This week we took the bike back to Holeshot and asked them to help improve the performance. Winston the mechanic replaced the stock muffler and dumped the butterfly valve, the results are much better:

We are looking forward to testing on Friday at Taupo Motorsport Park. A 16.7 increase in hp and 5.01 increase in torque.

2012 Castrol Power One New Zealand Superbike Championship Incorporating the 76th New Zealand Tourist Trophy Titles at Hampton Downs MotorSport Park on 16-17-18 March 2012

A great weekend of racing was had. Blayes put in an outstanding performance considering he was working with a bike down on power by 15horses and low torque figures.

We had a huge amount of help and encouragement freely given, from the people around us, especially Terry and Jamie Gallway and Robert Taylor from Kiwi Suspension Solutions, without whom we would have been in a hole. Thanks guys you taught us heaps.

Testing on Friday and Saturday. Blayes was experiencing sliding from the rear tyre and a vague response from the front. It was observed that his rear wheel was skipping in the turns. The culprit was the suspension which we have been running so far on factory supplied settings was far too firm, especially for Blayes’s weight. The rear shock was revalved over Saturday night and the spring swapped with an 8.5 and the same with the front forks replacing the springs with 8.5’s and reducing the oil, the valves need replacing to finish the job. This resulted in quicker turns, holding the line better and less wear on the rear tyre.

Blayes qualified with a 1:15;7 On race day we ran a 15/48 set up on ‘Metzler Racetechs’. Blayes achieved a time of 1:13 in race 1.

We are at Taupo next weekend for the final round of the championships.

AMCC Round 4 and 5 March 2012

We arrived at the track at 6.20am rain was intermittent, with signs of blue sky.

At scrutinising we were told to lock wire the dip stick, all else was ok.

A very interesting weekend of racing was had. The weather on Saturday was atrocious, the wind was blowing a gale and it the heavy rain was intermittent, the guys who pitted next to us changed their tyres four times. Unfortunately for Blayes we did not have our spare set of wheels and wets, this made being out on track on race techs rather hazardous. However the situation gave Blayes a time to soak up the experience of what the bike felt like in this situation. He attempted to race but was black flagged for being to slow on incorrect tyres.

Sunday. We awoke to a clear blue sky and no wind, perfect conditions for a days racing. Blayes set a practice lap of 1.11. By race 4 he reduced his lap times to 1.08 which we were very pleased with. He is carrying fantastic corner speed and passing a fair few bikes in the turns and out braking them only to loose them on the straights. After much analysis and talking to other riders we conclude that the bike is seriously down on power, Blayes was only able to reach 230KPH on the back straight before hitting the limiter. This calls for some serious investigation this week. We are booking the bike for a Dyno to establish some base settings and will go from there.

Blayes entered the Clubman’s class to get some more track time and in the final race placed 3^rd, however this position was appealed against by some sorry sole who believed he had been robbed of his place because on the entry into the finish straight a rider fell off in front of him, he braked hard and Blayes who was behind him took avoiding action and rode past him to take the third place. Unfortunately there was an inquiry where this sad individual said Blayes had passed him under a yellow flag, there was definitely no flag. The steward then bagged all the Clubman’s racers as idiots who do not know how to race anyway and said that Blayes should not have passed him. Blayes was bumped down to 4^th.

I have to say that the officials preceding at this point need to examine their position carefully, this kind of behaviour, of verbally disrespecting the club participants and making glaringly obviously incorrect calls should not be tolerated. Shame on the Auckland Motor Cycle Club.

All in all it was a very successful weekend with Blayes driving his lap times down from 1.29 first time out on the track and on his third visit 1.08 an 11 second improvement. His aim is to reduce this time further to 1.01.

Pacific Motorcycle Club Summer Series Round Three

Seeing my young son go out on track in his first ever race aboard a very fast bike for a 16 year old rookie was stressful to say the least, however he gave a very good account of him self. After open practice on Saturday which started off with Blayes running off track at turn 1 he adjusted his mental approach and by Sunday road with consideration and intelligence. His starts were terrific, from the back of the grid to making up six places by turn 1. He brought the bike home in all of the six races and by the end of the day cut eight seconds off his lap time.

We met some fantastic people all willing to help especially Sloan Frost, who took time out to show Blayes the best lines to take and what gear he should be in, also some points on the bike set up, his advice was invaluable and certainly had a huge positive effect on Blayes’s ride. Many thanks Sloan. We also met a guy called Scotty who was very helpful with our bike set up and has even lent us a race shift for evaluation, thanks Scotty.

All in all a great first meet.

Musings From The Sump

Hello from my self and my son Blayes who are the sole members of Team Amadora Racing. We are but mere fledglings in the sport of Motorcycle racing and have a great deal to learn. This is what this blog is all about, and is aimed at answering our own question: how the hell do we start racing motorbikes?

We have been fans of racing for ever and I have been riding bikes since I was seventeen and my son since he was six. Having spent many happy hours at race events from club level to Moto GP we have been seriously considering racing for quite a few years and 2012 is to be our inaugural year.

Step one of “going racing” proved to be a process of talking to as many people involved in the sport racers and organisers alike. Walking the pit lanes and reading magazines dedicated to the sport. The research stage, which concluded with; yes I want to do it, I can’t stop thinking of anything else and driving my wife mad “Just get on with it then”. We both decided to get involved with the Classic racing scene, having been a supporter of the NZCMRR events since 1998 and great lovers of motorbikes of all ages. Become members, http://www.amcc.co.nz/home-contact

identify the class to compete in, acquire a ride. In my case this meant purchasing a 1961 Norton Domie Racer and for Blayes he has managed to secure a seat on a bike owned by another enthusiast. So that’s it, we are up and running, not quite, there is much involved in going racing:

Bike transport, we eventually opted for a van. Tools, mobile pit canopy, fuel, tyres, rules and regulation, entry fees, clothing and most importantly acquiring specific riding knowledge which differs from riding on the road. We chose to plumb for the California Superbike School http://www.californiasuperbikeschool.co.nz/ at Hampton Downs race track. Both my self and Blayes found stage one and two invaluable, the whole package was presented with a high degree of professionalism, excellent clear instructions and quantifiable results. We are returning for stages three an four.

After joining in with some bucket racing held at Mount wellington Go Cart track and organised through the Auckland Motorcycle Club http://www.amcc.co.nz/home-contact which is heaps of fun and a cheap way to blat around a track fighting it out for position with a bunch of very competitive nutters of all ages. No matter what the weather, I could not stop grinning from ear to ear, what a blast.

Very quickly though Blayes had found his confidence and decided after his first Superbike School that he wanted to join a national racing series and hence our jumping into the deep end of Superstock racing. As the whole project comes together we will be updating with words and images in an attempt to help anyone interested in getting a start in racing.