NESR racing report 6/7 July 2002

NESR racing had it's first weekend as a two-man team last weekend and everything went very well indeed.

The weekend started for us on friday morning when Gerard and I were met at the track by Jay and his daughter Kelsey. Gerard, Jay and I put up the tent with kelsey supervising. We got the thing up and ready in double quick time and had the bikes under it and ready by early afternoon. We spent the rest of that day setting up tools, working on the bikes doing last minute changes and checking out the jetting on Gerards bike with help from Mark.

Saturday arrived and Gerard went out for early practice, having gotten his bike tech'ed early. He was very pleased with his first time out as he pulled in a couple of 1:32 lap times. This was pretty impressive as the powers that be had added a new chicane at turn 12 which I think was slowing people down by 1-2 seconds.

We had entered the following races for the weekend.

Gerard :
Rookie race
HW supersport
MW supersport
MW superbike
GTU
HW superbike


Derek:
HW supersport
MW supersport
MW superbike
GTU
HW superbike
MW Grand Prix

Saturday at 12:00 was the roockie race time. Gerard gridded in the third wave as there were so many entries. He did his job and finished without crashing to gain his race licence. He actually won his wave, so he was all pumped up for his first real race.

Sat, race 2 Heavyweight Supersport.

There were 43 entries for this race and I was gridded around 25th, with Gerard gridded around 30th or so.
The race went very well for me with a 6th place finish and a best lap time of 1:23.628 picking up 13 championship points, but 1 place off a trophy. Gerard did no fare so well, he crashed out in turn 6 (the bowl) fairly near the beginning of the race. He finished the race with a broken footpeg, shifter and bent clutch lever. He finished the race 1 lap down but with a very encouraging 1:26.863 best lap which would have given him about 12th place if he had not crashed.

Sat, race 5, Middleweight supersport

There were 50 entries in this very hot class. Again, I was gridded about 25th and Gerard was back about 30th. After a bad start for me and some major crashes, we re-gridded after a red flag to re-start the race. I got another bad start (caged in with some slower riders), but after a very tough race i finished 13th for 3 more championship points and Gerard did very well finishing 18th with a 1:27 best lap time.

Sat, race 11, Middleweight superbike

39 entries in this race, with Gerard and I gridded next to each other on pit row, in 25th and 26th place. bThis was a fairly uneventful race, with gerard and I both making up places on the start and not getting passed throughout the race. I finished 14th with Gerard 18th again. 2 more championship points for me with a 1:25 best lap time. gerard was in the 1:27's again. Very consistent stuff from gerard. The problem we are finding now is that if you are back in 10th or so on the first lap, the leaders will get away from you because there was no passing allowed in the new section of chicane, so backmarkers would hold you up for 3-4 seconds through that section with nothing you could do about it until the start/finish staright when you could power past tham, but by that time the guy in front of you was long gone.

I will post an update with Sunday's results in a while.

Degsy

OK, on to Sunday's racing.

1st race GTU, the biggie.

This is a 30 minute endurance race, and believe me, it is a test of endurance. It was about 85 degrees and 30 minutes is plenty time to get exhausted in full leathers.

Gerard and I were gridded next to each other in the 6th row. The race started without the carnage of the saturday races and we soon settled into lap times that were the best of the weekend so far. I was averaging 1:24 and Gerard was averaging 1:27 with a best for me of 1:23 and 1:26 for Gerard. I was fortunate enough to get plenty of space in front of me so I wasn't held up in the double chicane "no passing" area by backmarkers. Gerard was not so lucky and I think he was significantly held up by the backmarkers. I spend the whole race dicing with a guy on a GSXR600. We swapped places about 5 times during the race, but in the end he beat me to the line by 7 seconds to bring me home in 6th place, STILL NO TROPHY! but 7 championship points. For some reason (probably a transponder glitch) Gerard was logged as a DNF for that race, but he was actually no worse than 10th because he did 21 laps and was about 1.3 laps behind me. I passed him on lap 19 of 22 and took the opportunity to give him the "Rossi finger" coming out of turn 2. All in good fun (sorry dude, I couldn't resist it). I am sure I am setting myself up to be on the receiving end of that later this season, as Gerard's times are fast approaching mine I am sure we will see plenty of :vader: on the track before the season is out.

Unfortunately, Gerard had to leave at this point leaving me the only team representative for the HW superbike and MW grand prix races.

HW superbike.

Gridded in 6th row for this race and after a pretty good atart spent the whole race battling with another CBR600F4 for 6th place (again!!) I was beaten into 6th by 2/10ths of a second and if I could get just one more lap I would have had 4th as I was gaining on the next two guys with each lap. I was very very happy with this race as I beat many GSXR750's GSXR600's and 1 Aprilia Mille and had a best lap time of 1:22.5 (my best official time yet) and 13 more championship points.

Last race of the weekend was MW Grand Prix. I have never entered this race before but I thought I would give it a try as it usually has a fairly small field and I could possible get a good grid position. There were 19 entries and I got a primo grid position of 4A. I got a flying start and got myself into 7th place by turn 3. Each lap I seemed to get past someone into turn 3 and move up another place. I knew I was in the top 4 by the 6th lap when a yellowDucati came past me like a bolt of lightening. I thought it was a 748 which would push me back a place on the finish, but it turned out to be a 996 which was competing in the supertwins class in the same race. I could see two bikes ahead of me every time I hit the start/finish straight, and it turned out that they but gotsome bad luck in the chicanes again when I started to catch up with the sv650s which were backmarking. I thought I had got a 4th or 5th at the end of the race but as I approached the NESR tent people were jumping up and down and putting up 3 fingers. They had heard on the PA system that I got third which was way cool. I picked up 11 points and a shiny trophy. The thing that capped the weekend was the fact that I recorded a 1:21.019 in that race, which was the fastest lap of the race. This time would have put me middle of the board in Junior/Expert so that is also encouraging. It may be time to move up in a couple of race weekend's time.

I want to say thanks from Gerard and I to everyone who came up and cheered us on and helped out. You guys ROCK!! We couldn't do it without you, and I really mean that.

Degsy

Awesome job guys, you make all of us at NESR proud!!!

Congrats on the new Brst time Degs.

Great first weekend too Gerard!!