My Home of Speed!

  

For this round we weren't quite sure which bike to choose, the Yamaha R15 had just been homologated for racing and i had my R15 ready to race. We brought down both the Apache and the R15 and decided to take a call on which to race after practice. The R15 was doing good and i was managing mid 1:16's in thursday practice, but we found that on the short loop the factory RTR's had an advantage. Basically if the R15 rider was running away at the front, it would be ok, the bikes overall handling would allow him to carry greater corner speeds in and out of the corner and maintain a good laptime. If on the other hand the rider got into a dog fight and had to slow down, the factory race RTR's with their stonking low to midrange power could pull away faster. From watching the Yamaha team over the course of practice, we also realized we hadn't quite dropped enough weight off my R15. The Yamaha team saw a significant improvement in laptimes after they dropped most of the fairing (except for the front portion) along with some excess weight. Eventually there wasnt enough time to take a gamble and when our RTR returned good results in practice we decided to go with it for the race.

The races were a little tricky this time because unlike last time where we had the expert riders in front of the intermediate riders on the grid, this time all grid positions were according to qualifying time. I had qualifed 2nd overall and 1st in my class with a 1:16.706 behind T.K.Vishwanath who qualified on pole in the expert category with a 1:16.025. In race 1 with memories of the previous round at Coimbatore fresh in my mind, i carefully let the 4 expert riders through (Vishwa, Rajini, Harry and Jeba) and decided to follow them along without interfering in their race. All i needed to do was keep my closest intermediate competitor at bay and if i could do that without having to get in between the experts and spoil their race, that would be the right approach. Mid way through the race though the riders had spread out and i was able to go past expert riders Harry and Jeba cleanly. I went on and won the race 6 seconds clear of my competitor, Sudhakar of TVS racing and 3rd overall. Emmanuel Clarke who rode my R15 as a support rider did well to finish 2nd in the intermediate class.
In race 2 however things didnt go quite according to plan, I had a fall on the last lap while leading and though i got up and finished 4th, apparently a small movement i had made on the start grid before the start of the race had registered as a jump start so I was penalized 15 secs and moved down to 6th place.

During the race I tagged along with Harry, Rajini and Vishwa who were leading the expert race, they were fighting hard and again I didn’t want to get in between them and potentially spoil their race. So even though i had more pace and a couple of opportunities to pass, i kept backing off and just followed them hoping their pace would be good enough to keep me clear of my next competitor. That turned out to be bad judgement on my part, towards the end of the race the, expert riders who were fighting fiercly with each other were loosing pace and the 2nd place intermediate rider, Shankar from TVS racing, caught up to me and passed me on the penultimate lap. I fought back and passed him back on the last lap but then towards the end of the lap, I once again got caught behind the experts who were slowing me down. Into the tight left hander before the bridge, Harry who was in front of me braked more than I was expecting and I had to take evasive action and run off line. While coming back on the gas I made a silly mistake, i was carrying too much lean and got on the gas too hot, causing me to loose the rear and fall. I immediately picked up the bike and completed the race in 4th position. Only then did i realize i had been penalized for a jumpstart and that put me in 6th. It was quite a dissapointing 2nd race and i sat in the pits afterwards running the events through my head wishing i had done something differently. I realized i would have to change strategy and fight amongst the experts if need be in the remaining rounds. I had encouragement from some of the experienced guys though and felt better afterwards, I remember Rajini telling me, to be a good winner you have to loose some races.

In the end for me it was some solice that while i was fighting to regain postion in race 2, I was able to set a new track record in the Group D 4 stroke 165 cc class, with a time of 1:15.756, the previous best time of 1:15.8 set by Rajini.

Still 11 points behind in the championship because of the mishap in the 2nd race, I was hopeful of fighting back in the remaining 2 rounds. The scores were very tight now though and i knew i had a tough fight on my hands.

Friends Easha and Anil took part as well and full marks to them for the effort. They both enjoyed themselves thoroughly and were able to cut down their times as well. Easha however has a nasty fall during race 1 and broke his elbow. The tough little bugger is doing ok though and recuperating. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Race 2 Results - Unfortuantely I had a crash on the last lap plus got a 15 sec penalty due to a jump start. I fought back hard though and in the process I set a new track record for the Group D class of 1:15.756