NG Road Racing Club Oulton Park RD8
ACU Test Day Friday 29 June
It’s that time of month again for a racing report from round 8 with NGRRC.
A one-day meeting this time so only a practice session and two races for me. I knew that I wasn’t going to enter any of the other races so I decided to spend the money on a test day the Friday before race day on Saturday.
A full test day prior to race day was very useful. I had not ridden there for two years so I needed to find my way around again. I also had the oil and seals replaced on my forks so I needed to set up my suspension again.
A good mixed day for testing meant I managed to get out on all different types of tyres so that I was as prepared as I could be for race day. Initially out on wets the 8 was shaking it’s head a lot even with the damper cranked right up so I needed to tweak the forks to stop it. I had set the forks to the sports setting from the KTM manual but the preload was not quite enough for my weight so I wound that on a couple of turns to what I had it set on before the seals were changed. All good.
I put a set of slicks on for the afternoon sessions. The first time I had used them. People were warning me that I would need to change the set up drastically to use them but I found them no different to my treaded racetecs. My theory is that black and round should work so slicks from now on it is.
The only issue I had all day on Friday was when a guy on a BMW hit me going up Clay Hill in 4th gear flat out. I had been riding the same line lap after lap and I wasn’t hanging around but this guy decided to try and squeeze through the ever-closing gap on my right. He hit me that hard that it took both my feet off the pegs and moved my clip-on about an inch forward around the fork. How I stayed on I will never know. Now maybe my race craft is not quite up to the standard yet but I’m sure it’s down to the faster rider to pass cleanly. I appreciate mistakes are made and had it actually been a race I wouldn’t have minded but that sort of stuff on a test day is a bit much. Every day is a school day though and at least I learned I could take a fair wallop and still stay on. Thanks Mr BMW man…………..
