SOAR 2024 Round 3

Stu

Friday Practice

It’s reverse Modified layout this round so short sub minute laps again. I scraped the belly pan a fair bit last round and was going to lift the bike a bit using the preload settings but the rear was close to topping out so I’m going to try hanging off a lot more to lift the bike up a bit. I’m running the same Pirelli SC1 front and Bridgestone medium rear as last round for the practice – with it being reverse we’re using the other side of the tire.
I’m not keen on this layout, there are some nasty bumps in the first 45 and second 90 and it’s tough to find where you can start getting on the gas coming out of the carousel. I feel pretty good going into the corner at the end of the straight though, I found some good braking markers. I did 6 sessions today and got some pretty quick laps in, front tire is tearing up a bit but I think it will be ok for the short qualifying races, rear is fine – I adjusted the compression and rebound damping on the forks a little to see if that soaks up the bumps better.

Saturday Qualifying

The bike felt a bit better in practice, I think I’ll try going a bit further but that will have to wait until tomorrow’s practice now, I don’t want to make changes before the race.
Lost Era Lightweight was a great qualifying race! I got complacent with my starts and only held my position behind Simon Blue and Jim Freitas into the carousel, then I was all over the shop for the rest of the first lap, running wide and missing gears, etc. I managed to settle down and work my way back up to Simon and once I got close enough to try a pass, I found out that John Watson was right there with me! It was a blast battling with those guys and I was super happy to finish in 3rd giving me a front row start tomorrow. For some reason I had put the GoPro Session I was using on the rear in photo mode, but at least the Hero 3+ on the front worked fine – a big thanks to Angelika for sorting all the GoPros for me, it really is a huge help!

Not the best start in Amateur Legends either. Doug Brown got the holeshot and then he gets great drive out of the carousel but the braking markers I found yesterday helped me put a pass on him at the end of the straight. Then I got my head down and did my thing and was able to keep it together to bring home the win.

Sunday Races

I installed new scrubs last night, another Pirelli SC1 front and a Bridgestone soft rear and with the final fork adjustments, it was felt good in morning practice – after the first lap where the rear felt a touch loose.
Sadly I forgot to delete the round 2 videos from the memory card in my front camera and it filled up while I was on the start line so I only got the footage from the rear camera. Found my start mojo again, that was good, then the bike felt solid, the tires were working well, Zoe’s pit board signs were super helpful and I was able to get into a groove and lead to the finish!

The Lost Era Lightweight race was awesome, I deleted some videos from the front camera so we got front and rear footage! I got a great launch and came out of the carousel in the lead but Jim caught me down the straight and then out-braked me into the left hander at the end – a nice clean pass. I was happy that I stayed with him for the rest of the lap and right the way up until he rocketed down the back straight, I won’t say anymore here, watch the video first.

I had lost a tow from Jim but the pit board was in the someone close behind mode so all I could do was keep pushing and see how long I could hold out before the fast guys came past. Jim was flying and did a 53s lap before he fell, I saw the yellow flags when someone went down in the second 45 but couldn’t see who it was. I saw the guy stand up, thankfully and I could just see a bike further up the track – I figured that was probably Jim – pit board still on someone close behind mode! John was right there until Simon put a bold move on him going in to the first 90, then a couple of laps later he puts an awesome pass on me in the same place to take the lead! Then I was super happy that I was able to run with him but he was doing a great job of blocking any of my out-braking maneuvers at the end of the back straight until he ran wide – now the pit board was in full on shaking, someone’s right on your ass mode! Well done to the back marker who let Simon and I by. When I came up on Andy and James I realized that James had been showing Andy some lines or something but he didn’t want to be lapped so he turned it up and did his fastest lap to finish ahead of me hehe. I didn’t know it was Jim that had fallen and because I was so close to James at the finish line, I didn’t see the chequered flag so I did an extra lap at full race speed! I wasn’t sure what was going on but thought that was better than celebrating a lap early! LOL

I still find it a incredible that I got two wins in one day! And Josh finally started getting back up to speed putting in a 55s lap and finishing 6th in Lost Era Lightweight – nice.

Next Post

SOAR 2024 Round 4

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