Happiness and tears at the same time. I sold the old 2008 FireBlade 😥 and bought a newer 2019 SP model 😍. First track day at Zolder with the new bike and not all went well. The day was cold and the temperature only got up to 11℃ which for the time of the year is pretty cold. During every session there was without any exception a red flag 🚩 that caused the session to stop because of a accident.
Last time around I already broke my personal record and this time I did it again 🤗
Race day! It has been quite some time since I raced and that was the 4 hours of Assen and when the e-mail of this ZAC race came available I jumped at it!
First time this year at the TT Circuit Assen race track. I was looking forward riding here again. They also renewed the asphalt and I was curious how the track was.
It has only been 1 week since we where at Zolder but I thought, why not go again it’s been so long since I went 🤫.
After the Corona dificulties were back at the track! The weahter forecast was not so greath, the morning sunny but the afternoon perhaps rain. Well it rained A LOT!
December 2019 new e-mails arrive with Trackdays in my inbox and the need to book something fast is high! Alcarràs here we COME 😎
The last time I was at Spa was already 2 years ago. With 26 degrees and sunshine @Dennis and I where looking forward to the day. We arrived at the smaller paddock and it was FULL. They should not stay at that side of the track because is it simply to small. Luckily we found a small spot and from that point on all went ok. When I was mounting the camera I saw that my side mount was getting loose and had to the the mount on the fuel tank. When I went out on the first session the long straights prevented me to dive behind the screen and the camera was in the way. So no more video’s on the track :( The second the third session @Dennis and I where very competitive and had some nice overtakes. He has a Suzuki 750 and me a CBR1000RR so there are some differences in rinding styles, the straights are in my benefit but he was faster in certain corners so plenty of moments he could pass me and I could overtake him to. Those 2 sessions where asome! The 4th session was a disaster, on the second lap my body overheated and I lost all my physical power and had the end the session. The 5th and last session was good again by not as fast as the first 3 sessions of the day. My body was getting tired and the 2:51.827 was out of reach. But had some good fights with a other CBR1000RR but @Dennis was gone and I was not able to keep up with him. Spa is a special track and I love to ride there. No other circuit I can drive my Honda in the 6th gear flat out and the combination of elevation, fast corners, double corners are amazing! If you ever the the possibility GO!
And we are back again! The sun was 30 degrees and strong! Temperature was very good and the day started excellent. Together with @Peter we had 5 sessions of fun on the track. Started off with a 1:53 and ended with a 1:51.00. My physical condition is still not that good and I noticed this when moving my body on the corners. Leaning of and keeping in position was so tough… We rode in the fastest group and of 70 riders I made it to the 37th time. Not bad if I say so myself. Leaving the track with a big smile and lots of run and FAST laps.
First time back on the track at Circuit Zolder! The weather forecast was 10 degrees and cloudy, not ideal but doable for the time of the year. But after the first session the sun appeared and it became a very nice day. It was very good to be back on the bike again and started immediately with confidence and putting down 1:56 lap times. Not the fastest ones but it was still cold (track) and it felt like a good rhythm. @Peter was not that confident yet with his bike but we had some fun playing and making good video footage. Check our the videos in this post to. I did no workout during the winter time and my muscles started to struggle a lot in the 3rd session. During the rest of the day I could not go to the max due to not beeing fully fit. Have to go back to the gym!!! But rode all 6 sessions of 20 minutes and the fastest laptime I did was a 1:54 and felt comfortable with this start. The bike worked perfectly and was pretty fast, notices with other younger 1000cc bikes that it still has the drive. The sprocket changes helped of course to get the power down to the tarmac :P Now up to plan our new track day and go to the gym to put down some better times and compete with the field.
The last time on the TT Circuit of Assen this year. This year we had a lot of rain and mixed conditions. This day we are blessed with a temperature of 30 degrees and a lot of sun! First time out on the track felt really good. Did decent laptimes from the first until the last minute of the session. The last time I struggled a lot but not today. Had a lot of fun on every session and also had a good fight with @Dennis on the track. We where pretty close and he was faster on some parts and on other I was. Very difficult to pass because of the differences of the bikes. Me on a 1000cc could power off on the straights and keep the speed in it, but was slower in the long right corners (lefts are my favourite). Had a lot of fun riding and session 5 was a little to much. After 10 minutes I was exhausted due to the temperature and had to quit a little more earlier. Lets see when the next time we encounter each other on the track!
3rd time at Assen after our 4 hour race. I didn’t wanted to go on this track day very much because it was very short after our 4 hour race. This season I’m not as fast as the year before. The times I put down on the track are way off what I wanted of expected to be. The day started with a lot of rain. Due to not feeling completely fit I skipped the rain part. I went out on the 5th session and mounted the rain tires but it was not raining anymore. @Peter crashed in front of me (unknown reason) I went back in the pits to inform the other riders that it was a minor crash and he is ok. When I came back out he was already riding again. The 6th and last session was in the dry on slicks but did not have the feeling that I had. My body was hurting a little bit and not feeling fit reflected in the lap times. Ended at a 2:03. Did some good laps and had fun taking over some other riders during the session. Now holidays!
Our first endurance :O After we got our license @Peter and I thought lets do a endurance race! Made some phone calls and we got a team. Later @Dennis joined us to and we got 3 riders and a pit crew. It started with a meeting with all the team members to discuss what we need how it will go etc… Ended up in talking a lot and when we left there was a lot unclear. But it was fun. Normally we ride just for fun and our bikes do not meet the race standards, now they needed and we needed to make some adjustments. When doing maintenance on my bike we saw that the throttle body was nog mounted correctly and the spark plugs needed to be replaced. A full maintenance was applied to make sure we are race ready. My wife and parents also came to the day to experience how everything goes. So a little more exciting for me to hope everything goes well. We had first 4 training sessions that where very difficult, rain, dry, rain, dry etc… This made it hard to predict what tyres we needed and the crew changes them on and off. I did about 3 laps in the training sessions and we went straight into the qualifications. I was in the rain and after one lap my bike started to shut down every corner. Completely without any power. Because of this I decided to stop at the track because I didn’t want to stall at a fast part and other bikes hit me. Back in the pit they saw that the electronics where completely wet and the water pored out. They started to fix this immediately and the bike was quickly ready. Also Peter crashed but his bike was repaired very quickly by the team and only Dennis got a good qualification time. We started at 8th place! Due to Dennis not having a starter engine Peter was set to start on rain tires. But the start was delayed due to oil on the track. This delayed the start 30 minutes and in this time the track dried up. We waited to see which tyres the other rider went out and it was mixed, dry and rain tyres went out. Later the correct choice would be slicks. Jelle helped positioning the bike and Peter started. The idea was to set the bike in first gear with the ignition on. So just jump on and press the start button and release the clutch. Due to the excitement Peter thought the bike was not in ignition and turned the bike off and then on and put it in second gear. In other words a disaster! But he is good in taking over and late breaking so when he came in we where 6th!! Dennis went out on slicks and started a very good run, every lap he came through we saw him passing riders and after 30 minutes we where in 3rd place. My time to go out. Due to the very limited training and qualification time I struggled getting a good pace but I was making faster times every lap but lost 3 positions and came in after 30 minutes in 6th place. Peter went out and gained some positions again and then Dennis and we where back in 3rd. We had a good pace, the pit stops went good and my last run was up and it went better then the first run. Dropped from 3rd to 4th but took it back and at the end was still in 3rd. But then the a official came to inform us we had a penalty and the next rider needs to “pay” it. I went to the start of the pit lane and we had 3 penalties: 2 for speeding in the pit lane and a rider was to long on the track.This cost us 3x 180 seconds which we lost our position and fell back to a 9th place. Dennis went out for the last time and the competition was simply to far ahead to make up for some places. We ended up in 9th in our class of the 14 starters (in our class) and it was a very very nice experience! The whole team worked hard and it was a unique day. It certainly was fun and thats why we went to this event.A very high probability that next year we will be present again and this time we know where to pay attention on and might be on a podium place. Want to thank the whole team: Ben, Geert ,Harley ,Jelle, Peter and the fellow riders!
When we booked this day we did not that on the 6th of June 2017 we are going to ride the 4 hours of Assen. Therefore we took the opportunity to check out our pitbord, train the crew and do full sessions to see our physical endurance. The morning started out with rain, rain and rain. Because I totally destroyed my rain tyres last time and did not bought new ones I had to pass on the 2 morning sessions. The other crew was riding ok and @Peter had his motorcycle in the shop and drove a BMW K1200RS (not a race bike :P ) but left @Dennis and me for some good training. My first session was a good one, the track was dry and the sun appeared so we could but down a nice pace. Started with a 2:01, and ended with a 1:52. Every lap I did I was faster and feeling better on the bike. Tried to get comfortable with a riding style that I could keep up for 30 minutes and that 3 times for the endurance. Made progress and could keep the times consistent. The second and third sessions went better and better. Did many 1:50’s and @Dennis also dropped to the 1:50 and did even a 1:49 (a PR for him).The last session was 25 minutes and could do it ease but made some breaking errors so the times where not so consistent but my goal was to do the full 25 minutes. Had a good day even missing out on the 2 sessions and made some good improvement. Next time will be a race on Assen!
Zolder again, lets see what it will bring this time. And it did bring something… The day before we looked at the weather and no rain was predicted. So my bike was still on rain tires from Assen so I switched them to Slick. Of course when we got there RAIN… Switched back to rain and went out again. Very soon I noticed that the tires where not in a good condition anymore (used them to much on the dry) and the right corners the bike was dancing. So I kept the speed below the critical point and did some good laps. @Peter was much much much faster (7 seconds per lap) and no change to keep up with him. The second session was more like the same but @Peter decided to make huge highsider and crashend good. The bike was beyond repair for today (see photos). But despite the rain tires the track dried up and I could mount the slicks. Straight from the tire warmers on the track and I noticed that after +/- 10 minutes the tires where lossing grip and I knew that point I could not keep the heat in the tire during the session. The track and outside temperature was low but kept out for the full session. We had 7 sessions that day and the last 2 where the best. Track warmed up a little sometimes the sun appeared and the 7th session was the one I put down the fastest time 1:54. Definitely not the fastest I did but the pass was around 1:56 ~ 1:58 during the sessions. Not bad considered the conditions. In 3 weeks we ride again on Zolder, lets hope the weather will be better and everybody stays on their bikes ( @Peter )