phillip island - day 2

after the track yesterday, we went and had a bit of a bonding session at a pizza joint in Cowes. Adrian was in fine form. he should write a book. he's got a funny story for every occasion. admittedly every occasion would have to be an extremely drunken occasion with lots of women, but we were roaring with laughter. the poor girl serving us at the pizza shop didn't know what to make of us.

After a few drinks at the bar, i was stuffed. Hamish, Adrian and Ozzie went out for more drinks, but i gave up. and early night i though. only to find my stupid watch had stopped again. not as early as i'd have liked...

i hadn't pre-booked my second day at the island. i thought there was too much chance of either shit weather, or us binning the bike on the first day. it was a lot windier, but Scott came in from his session and told me where it was windy, so i rocked up to the organisers area to find out if any free spots had become available, as it had previously been booked out.

whaddya know, a few free spots. woohoo! so i book in again. while i'm waiting Marty Craggill is checking in as well. i didn't see him on the track though, so maybe he was training some people.

so i head out for my first session, i'm taking it easy, give it a lap to warm up the slicks, then try to speed up. and i feel even more wonkier and unco than the previous morning! damn! but it turns out i'm going a little quicker, 2:15's i think.

Scott has another go, and then Greg, and they've finished wearing out our set of slicks from yesterday, so it's time to switch to the other set of rims, a new rear, and near new front. tyre warmers on to get them warmed up. it's been awhile in between wheel changes for me, my most unco wheel change ever, then it's time for me to go out.

as i've said previously, we were divided up into 4 groups. slow, medium slow, medium and fast. i'm in the medium slow group, Scotty is in the medium group, and Greg is in the fast group, and the sessions run the same way too. after Greg gets in, we fill up, check chain, chain oil, and whatever we've been fiddling with, before sending me out again. so i'm the first out on the new slick.

and i totally forgot about pumping up the brakes and nearly ran into the bike in front of me as we lined up to go out on the circuit. the front brakes had a poofteenth of brake, and the rear had none, so i held what front i had and madly pumped the rear, narrowly missing the bike in front and the armco to one side. breathe in, breathe out. pump pump pump.

a minute later they're waving us out and it's all history. it's like surfing, you are only thinking of the moment, your future is the next corner, and the one after that. especially as i start to relax and stop doing kooky mid corner screwups. smoother and faster.

on the telly, as they blast down the straight, you see them dip down towards the sea. i thought that must be magic seeing that in real life. it looked good from the pits, as the bikes dipped out of sight and you could just see bass straight, but on the bike, i didn't see the sea until the second day, and that was on a slow bit looking right. when i was going down the straight i saw nothing but track, wall, bikes, the tacho (occasionally) and braking markers.

so i go out a little slower, to scrub them in, and get my confidence scrubbed in as well, it turned out i was going quicker than the previous session. after my warm up lap i did a 2:11. and then a few quicker and slower and got traffic, overtaken etc...

i'd catch up to someone going slower, but often someone quicker would catch up, i'd let them through or they'd overtake, and next thing you know i'd have to catch up again.

in between each session we'd have a yarn about what we were each doing, and i told them about getting the death wobbles down the straight. then they learned that i'd been snapping the throttle open in 4th, 5th and 6th. so they told me to get my bum further back, weight on the pegs, and open the throttle a little more gently. i tried to get onto the straight quicker, and open the throttle smoother, and by the end of the day it was working a dream, and a lot more comfortable. i was going heaps faster, and was tucked down behind the fairing where i wanted to be, screaming down to the 200m braking marker (everyone else was braking at the 100m marker) and having a great time.

by the last session i'd worked out a few new places to overtake, and managed a couple of 2:01 lap times in the last session. fun fun fun. and slick tyres are awesome. but i'm still not the quickest in my group. Greg is the quickest in the fast group, and Scotty is probably the quickest in his, i'm near the top, but not there yet.
i know what i have to do to go faster. brake later, especially turn one, go faster through the turns, especially siberia through to lukey heights, i just like doing what i'm doing. i'm not particularly fast, but i'm loving it

phillip island, what a magic place

pics:
going through siberia