2015年4月5日日曜日

2015 Tsukuba Championship Race 1



Day before the race:


During practice on the day before the race I was able to get two consistent laps of my new best time.  I tested A LOT of new suspension settings and collected data on what feels right for me and what helps me put out a good time. I rode 5 sessions so by the end of the day was pretty beat and couldn't get consitent laps in the last session.


              

Then just before my last session I realise my brake line has air in it and attempt to bleed the line.  When putting back on the reservoir cap it seems like there has been a gap letting air in and fluid out! So at the end of the day I try changing my master cylinder and hose to a new one.


....and  I end up braking both the old brake hose and new the one, when trying to tighten the hose to the banjo.... T_T

I talked to Iobe-san from I-factory and he told me that the aluminum banjo I was using are weak and can easily break when you try to torque them... 

Luckily for me Iobe-san was generous enough to let me work on my bike at the I-factory shop, and went out of his way to bring me a stainless steel hose/banjo from his garage.

Thank you for always looking out for me Iobe-san! いつもお世話になります。本当に助かりました。 m( _ _)m












Race day:


It looks like qualifiers are going to be in the wet so we put rain tires on my spare wheels, and prepped the bike for wet conditions.




Checking out the session before mine, and see that the ground is almost dry.... what should we do!


By the time qualifiers came up, the ground was about 98% dry, but everyone was already on their rain tires, except one guy.  So... at least the playing field was level to some extent.  By the end of qualifiers almost everyone burned through the right side of their rear tire, including myself... there goes 2万円 ($200).... (泣







Sadly, I dropped out in qualifiers by about 0.8 seconds.  The qualifiers were split into two groups and since the first group had different conditions than us, the grid was chosen in an alternating pattern (group 2 then group 1) rather than absolute time. 

It was my first time using rain tires in a dry condition like that, so I feel it was a good experience.  You cannot have success without failure and this experience will help give me more motivation to move forward!  Can't wait until next race!