Modified layout – it’s short but I quite like the longer turn 1 on this layout.
The KSR practice day was on Monday this time so Josh and I did the SOAR Friday practice instead – it’s better value for money now that it’s a full day since they cancelled the endurance race in the afternoon, sad that they cancelled the endurance though. On Friday I was testing the blue bike since it had been running hot and losing coolant, sadly it was still the same! Ran through about 5 x 15 minute sessions with the temp steadily climbing into the high 90Cs and then the coolant level in the overflow tank depleting so in the evening I swapped the rearsets, steering damper and rims over to the red bike, ugh.
Saturday was supposed to be qualifying, however, in the typical style of Grand Bend weather, it hammered down with rain through Friday night causing a bit of mayhem …
By Sunday enough water had been cleared that we could get out and ride. After second morning practice, I noticed that the R clip style master link on the chain was dislodged slightly so I pushed it back into place. I had looked before when Steve was telling me this link was going to fail but the backplate was a racetrack design that made lock-wiring pointless so I put some silicone sealant on it. With no qualifying races, we started in our championship positions and as usual I got a decent start but I was surprised at how fast the other guys in front were going and how hard it was to keep up. I suspected that Doug Brown was right behind me, he fast on that Ducati and it has a distinctive sound and I wanted to stay ahead of him but no, Steve would be proven right – darn it!!
After that there was some frantic activity in the pits where Steve Bailey really saved the day by going above and beyond to get me a DID 520 master link from Keith Nickerson (thanks as well to Keith!), install the 520 front and rear sprockets from the hot blue bike and bring it all together in time for me to get out in Lost Era! Thanks also to Renee who’s impact wrench came in very handy.
Fortunately I managed to finish the Lost Era Lightweight race and even though I was a fair way off the leaders and was passed by several Pro riders, i still finished ahead of quite a few championship rivals.
