Due to vacation, I only entered 3 races this roiund (and missed the second heat of SUperstreet). Saw a 3s+ / lap improvement from the last race day, but placed worse in all races! Got to speed up MORE than everyone else, not just as much.
Amateur Thuinderbike was particularly frustrating; got a bad start and 434 was underneath me into one, leading to me standing up and losing another place. To comound thisI shifted the wrong way into 2 and into 3 on two laps, leaving me trying to get out of a 1st gear hairpin in 5th gear and being swallowed up whole. The frustration led to me stiffening up, riding worse, and blowing turn one on the succeeding laps, giving me a 5th place.
Superstreet was the exact contrast; I got an excellent start, and ran my fastest ever lap times in clear track (unusuallly — I’m generally faster following someone who is a bit qucker than me). Another of our riders (Jamie Smith, of Hot Flash Racing *grin*) was on my tail the whole time, and after 6 laps she gotr past me, followed by two other racers as I tired. Not enough training definitely took it’s toll, and while I was 4th I was super happy with the result. Top 4 bikes were all 675s of all 3 generations!
Finally managed to run Novice Middleweight superbike and got another atrocious start. I was on the 4th row of the grid anyway, and the fight into turn 1 led to be being overly polite. The rest of the race was a struggle to make up ground; passing is not my forte and I had a couple of near incidents as I didn’t quite have the line (in my head). Advice was to hold it a little longer and I’d have gained a few places. Nonetheless, I did manage to make up some of the ground, and eventually finished 10tt. Certainly not the result I wanted, but even here my laptimes were MUCH faster than before (my best lap being in the high 1:02s, while last month I was running in the high 1:05s)
All in all — a good weekend. The bike was strong, though the rider less so, though some of the ergonomic changes I have made in lowering the footpegs are definitely good. I have lowered my lean angle and am carrying more speed now that I can get better body position, which is a great step to take! (and now my knee is finally hitting the ground on a regular basis)