2016 Tsukuba ST600 Race 2 Report

Race result

Qualifiers 

19th
1:03.2
(all time best lap time)

Race 

16th

1:03.3

Sponsors/support:

AFG Motosports (Icon Motosports)

Chara-Rimpa 
Rapidbike Japan (JAM)
Panolin-Japan

Also check out my helmet review:
Airframe Pro has been official approve by MFJ for race use!

Practice

During the Friday practice I came to realise that I've reached a pace where I can only use my tires for around 2.5 hours.  I started the day off with a set of tires that had seen 2h of usage, and as the day progressed the performance greatly deteriorated.

The bike was sliding and bucking around almost uncontrollably and by the end of the day I couldn't keep my times in the 1:03 range.  Good to know for future reference.

Qualifer

After waking up early to get the bike setup for inspection, I had them put on the official race tires.  Practice was so hectic yesterday that I missed the time slot to change tires, so it was added to the list of things to do at 6am.

However! When we went to put the rotors back on three bolts snapped!  

It seems that the previous owner was not using Honda parts and I didn't really think about it until now.  So I need to order some genuine parts for the sake of...... safety.  For the time being I grabbed some old iron bolts I had lying around and put the rotor back on.

Every time Key-san starts the engine or pushes the bike around I can swear he wants to start racing again.  He's only ever raced 2 stroke machines, but rode on GP250 bikes, so more or less the same lap times as a 600cc.  It's been 10 years since he raced, but you can see a little sparkle in his eye the moment he starts the engine.

Race

While waiting for the race to start we decided to test out BONX which is a product my friend created, coming to Kickstarter soon it seems.  It's a bluetooth/app based walkie-talkie, that can be used as a normal earpiece as well. The Android app had a few hiccups, but I know they're working hard to get things sorted out before the kickstarter.

In the past year I have missed two race briefings for different reasons, so this time around Key-san got us all Pebble watches and ran a script on his server to remind us when it was time to get ready for inspection, qualifiers, briefing, and the race.  Today was a day to test lots of new technology.... sometimes we get carried away, but as long as it doesn't interfere with my lap times it's all good!

On the grid in 19th position, qualifying 200 milliseconds shy of the 1:02 mark, which would've allowed me to practice in the special R sessions on normal track days.  I felt I could get a good start and follow a faster guy to help me push.

 I had an awesome start!

Gaining 3 positions from the get go.

After the first lap the head pack was already getting away.  The top 2 guys are running at a pace of national racers, 4 seconds faster than my fastest time.  

I was able to hold these three guys off for half of the race, but two of the guys behind me were about 0.5 seconds faster than me on average so it was only a matter of time before they got past me.

I was able to hold this one ZX6R for most of the race, but unfortunately lost the position on the last lap.  I had misunderstood my pit board, since it said 2 laps left.  During the last few laps the two top riders lapped the last 4 people in the race, and I didn't realise my pit board was showing remaining laps+1 T_T

This was my third race on the 600, and every bit as exciting as the last two.  Its a bit sad to come in last place, not including those who crashed out, but I can only move up from here!

2015 Tsukuba CBR Dream Cup Race 3 Report

Race result

Qualifiers 

33rd
1:12.891

Race 

28th

1:12.305

Practice

Practice on Friday was a bit hectic.  5 minutes before my first session it started raining, but I still had my dry tires on.  So I tried a couple laps and gave up after my front started slipping.

Then the second session was only partially wet so I went out on dry tires again and just as it started to seem dry and I was picking up the pace a MASSIVE downpour came for about 5 minutes.  They restarted the session but I didn't have enough energy or time to put on my rain tires.  

All in all a bad day.

Qualifer

I've been going over some of my issues with Iobe-san from i-factory and he has been recommending a tank pad to help me use my lower body better.  I gave it a try during the qualifiers but the new position it put me in made it harder to ride forward on the bike, so I decided to take it off for the race.  I'll give it a try during practice some other time.

Was 33rd in qualifiers and was worried for a second that I might not pass qualifiers.  I knew my time wasn't good and I had a bad feeling on the bike.  The last time I seriously rode was the TT race 3 weeks ago and I couldn't get back into the grove well.

Race

 I was able to get a good start!

Starting from last position I gained a couple spots right off the bat and was able to hold most of them off for the rest of the race!

It was a great battle experience and I constantly put out low 1:12s so I'm happy with the race overall.

During the race I kept understeering in the first hairpin and I think I might be riding too far back on the bike.  I'm going to try a new spring setting later, but I have another track day event tomorrow.  So for now I'll just try riding more forward

Thank you to Mako and Key for always being there for me!

2015 Tsukuba Dream Cup Race 2 Report

Race result

Qualifiers 

34th 

1:12.311

Race 

31st 

1:12.656

Practice

I've been pretty nervous about this race since a couple weeks ago I did not qualify for race 1 and had to watch the whole race from the stands.  That shock gave me the motivation to push harder and try new things to get my time up.

It was pretty difficult to get to this point but on Friday I had a breakthrough!  I fixed my body positioning and my riding line and jumped into 1:12 zone!  Only going up from here.

Race day: Qualifers

A little nervous but excited for qualifiers.  Just yesterday I put out my best time of 12.76 and was able to consistently get under 13 seconds, so I felt confident that everything would be alright.

I pushed and pushed slowly working my way up in time until I got a 12.3! Looked down at my lap timer and thought, now I can get a 11 second lap time "let's do this!". 

Approached the first hairpin with more confidence, let go of the brake early and..... lowside!

I have a feeling my suspension bottomed out and I carried too much speed at the apex.  Need to work on my suspension settings now that I can ride at this new pace.

So I had to replace some parts and build a new windscreen. 

Mako and Key -> お疲れさまです Thank you for your hard work.

Key hard at work to fix things.  We concentrating too much on fixing the bike that I forgot about the race briefing...... which came with a $50/¥5000 fine.  Need to be careful next time because it is a pretty serious offence to miss the race briefing.  In some cases they can disqualify you from the race....

Race day: Race

The race went well in my mind.  I was able to maintain a good pace, have a close battle with another rider, and I finished safely.  I know that my racing career is only moving up from here, and I learned a lot this weekend.

Thank you to my sponsors and to everyone who encouraged me and helped me get through this!

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!