A 'Personal Best' Weekend

**mad48** · 08 Jul 08, 08:15 PM

#36

Just an amazing weekend and one that will stay with me for a very long time

I had so many personal achievements out there and loved every single minute.

My best qualifying on both days, 20th and 16th overall

Sunday
My first top 10 finish, 7th in class, in a very wet race 1

Just outside the top 10, coming in 11th in class race 2, after a superb one on one tussle to the finish.

Points of note:
Hesitating to take or failing to take passing opportunities, which is very frustrating and something which I'm praying comes with time and experience

Does it?

Very poor starts, which I seriously need to get to grips with, as having qualied well I was simply mugged and lost so many places from the off, any tips peeps on how I can go about dealing with this issue?

Thanks to everyone who made my weekend such a good experience. Bigup to all the other racers. Thanks to David #32 for giving me a home again for the weekend. Big thanks to Sarah for being her usual brilliant self and in particular for looking after my Ma for me

To the usual crew, you know who are, tar vwery much.

**Ghost** · 08 Jul 08, 08:22 PM

I must say James you were on it well, I was hoping for a tussle but you had the legs on me.

**Rattler** · 08 Jul 08, 08:28 PM

Nice one. As for the passing moves and starts, its all about practice and making the most of the opportunities, 'cause they only come once.

With experience, you'll make a judgement call on each overtaking opp, and the more you make, the better your judgement of whether you can make them or not.

As for starts, I spent a lot of time trying to get really, really fast starts and soon realised that although i did manage to get the very occasional quick one, the odds were against me, and most of the time I just lost revs and the bike dumped down.

I now just look to pull away steadily, as if I'm pulling away quickly from a set of traffic lights. I don't rev the bike hard, just to about 4K and let the clutch out to the "pulling" point and hold it gently with the front brake. Then release the clutch when the lights go out and quickly (but not too sharply) wind the throttle on. It was good enough for me to lead the race into turn one this weekend (albeit from 2nd on the grid), but it works well.

Give yourself the time to learn to race, start and overtake. its never easy, but experience makes all this a lot easier. Practice and patience.

HTH
Tim

**Ollie** · 08 Jul 08, 08:39 PM

Nice one dude, i can try show you some pulling techniques, but dont think my woman would be all that happy with me even trying them...

...oops just read your post wrong,

it will come, just keep it as 5k and dump the clutch easy really!

and overtaking, just be brave, it will pay off trust me, i am getting braver doing that!

**mad48** · 08 Jul 08, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rattler

Nice one. As for the passing moves and starts, its all about practice and making the most of the opportunities, 'cause they only come once.

With experience, you'll make a judgement call on each overtaking opp, and the more you make, the better your judgement of whether you can make them or not.

As for starts, I spent a lot of time trying to get really, really fast starts and soon realised that although i did manage to get the very occasional quick one, the odds were against me, and most of the time I just lost revs and the bike dumped down.

I now just look to pull away steadily, as if I'm pulling away quickly from a set of traffic lights. I don't rev the bike hard, just to about 4K and let the clutch out to the "pulling" point and hold it gently with the front brake. Then release the clutch when the lights go out and quickly (but not too sharply) wind the throttle on. It was good enough for me to lead the race into turn one this weekend (albeit from 2nd on the grid), but it works well.

Give yourself the time to learn to race, start and overtake. its never easy, but experience makes all this a lot easier. Practice and patience.

HTH
Tim

Cheerz Ratters for the sound advice and well done for a good weekends racin on your part!

**jasonboswell** · 08 Jul 08, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mad48

#36

Just an amazing weekend and one that will stay with me for a very long time

I had so many personal achievements out there and loved every single minute.

My best qualifying on both days, 20th and 16th overall

Sunday
My first top 10 finish, 7th in class, in a very wet race 1

Just outside the top 10, coming in 11th in class race 2, after a superb one on one tussle to the finish.

Points of note:
Hesitating to take or failing to take passing opportunities, which is very frustrating and something which I'm praying comes with time and experience

Does it?

Very poor starts, which I seriously need to get to grips with, as having qualied well I was simply mugged and lost so many places from the off, any tips peeps on how I can go about dealing with this issue?

Thanks to everyone who made my weekend such a good experience. Bigup to all the other racers. Thanks to David #32 for giving me a home again for the weekend. Big thanks to Sarah for being her usual brilliant self and in particular for looking after my Ma for me

To the usual crew, you know who are, tar vwery much.

Nice one, James. I had fun racing with you in the second race - was just the buzz that makes it all worthwhile, regardless of where in the field one is.

As for starts, I'm with Rattler. I actually had a "boggy" start in the second race as I held it 1k revs above what I normally do and let the clutch out a tad quicker than normal. I usually hold about 4.5k revs on the line with the clutch just biting. Then wind on gradually... normal service to be resumed at Dony!

As for passing - well, I do think that comes with experience. You gotta take the chances when they come, and be supremely confident that you can make it, for both riders sake, or at least think that you can!!!

See you in a few weeks time.

J--

**harriebird** · 08 Jul 08, 10:00 PM

and my start technique is different again! i have got it working quite well now as well!

there are as many different ways as there are differnt folks, so you gotta try lots and see what works for you.

overtaking in a race is hard, especially if you ride on the road a lot, you are constantly thinking about being safe etc, and i have foudn it very difficult to get my head around working out how the hell to pass. i risked it at cadwell and was lucky not to injure anyone other than myself!!!

**Steve GD** · 09 Jul 08, 07:37 AM

James, for those who were not there I feel a little disclosure is in order to allow them to get the flavour of the event....The PVC bustier you wore in the wet race was just a little too tight to be cool.

Despite that, the high which you were clearly on when you finished the race was enough to light up the whole soggy paddock. Nice one mate!

**mad48** · 09 Jul 08, 09:12 AM

Yo Jason, I had such a blast out there with you mukka and it really gave me just what I've needed, some close racing, ye baby! It was great to have a mutual 'big respect' handshake when back into the pits, thats wot am tawkin abat!
If I had had more conviction in my own ability it would have been even more fun out there, as had my opportunities to pass but just wouldn't/couldn't take em'. I was so wrapped up in what we were doing that I thought we were a lot higher up the order than we actually were, so defo goes to show that you just get in the Zone and forget everything else.
Really lookin forward to Donny, see you there bud

**mad48** · 09 Jul 08, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harriebird

and my start technique is different again! i have got it working quite well now as well!

there are as many different ways as there are differnt folks, so you gotta try lots and see what works for you.

overtaking in a race is hard, especially if you ride on the road a lot, you are constantly thinking about being safe etc, and i have foudn it very difficult to get my head around working out how the hell to pass. i risked it at cadwell and was lucky not to injure anyone other than myself!!!

Cheerz Harrie, where you at Brands? Sorry I didn't get to see ya if you were there, I'm sure I saw you right at the very end at the back of pits, might not have been you tho.
I'll defo keep trying something different as you say and hopefully something will click, law of averages and all that. I was just thinking about how much influence recent events may have had on my fear of attempting to pass in case I got it wrong!

Take it eezeh

**mad48** · 09 Jul 08, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve GD

James, for those who were not there I feel a little disclosure is in order to allow them to get the flavour of the event....The PVC bustier you wore in the wet race was just a little too tight to be cool.

Despite that, the high which you were clearly on when you finished the race was enough to light up the whole soggy paddock. Nice one mate!

Are you trying to say you were not in the slightest bit sexually aroused

Still it kept me dry

Your not wrong about my high as I was well pumped up at the end of race 2 and felt like I had just had a freekin win.
Big thanks to you for being a constant sourse of encouragement

**mad48** · 09 Jul 08, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ollie

Nice one dude, i can try show you some pulling techniques, but dont think my woman would be all that happy with me even trying them...

...oops just read your post wrong,

it will come, just keep it as 5k and dump the clutch easy really!

and overtaking, just be brave, it will pay off trust me, i am getting braver doing that!

BigUp 2009

**mad48** · 09 Jul 08, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghost

I must say James you were on it well, I was hoping for a tussle but you had the legs on me.

Charz me ald mukka, sorry I couldn't oblige but if Oulton (much longer circuit) is anything to go by then you'll have a much better chance of a tussle! Now stop fekkin about trying to turn that bike of yours into a time machine and get it back to standard

See ya at Donny