#RSZ Motorsport
The waiting was over, we needed to skip a year due to illness of the other rider last year but now we are BACK!
We say to each other this is a training session for the 5 hours to get into the rhythm of Assen. But due to being a race we love to put all our effort in it. RSZ changed the classes based on the times and with my pr being a 1:56 (never did that recently) and last time out I could not get below the 2:00 I was in the light class.
You might be thinking, hey is this the 5 hours of TT Circuit Assen? And yes it is. But why don’t I see pictures of them? Well, that is because Peter the other rider was ill and not able to race.
And here we are in The Cathedral of Speed (TT Circuit of Assen) 🤗
WE ARE BACK! The 4 hours of Assen got upgraded to 5 hours 😯 but we where up for the task.
It’s a sunny day 😎💖. Today the weather is very good. It is my first time back at TT Circuit Assen with this new bike. First session was not good, had some issues with the brake leaver being to fast and I had no feeling when I needed to brake. Second session I had made some adjustments to the brakes and it felt good right away.
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!
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!
It is time to step up and get our race license. When we arrived the weather was as always mixed. Due to the delay in the briefing we got late at the first session and did 1,5 lap. The second briefing was also delayed and it started to rain and we needed to switch to our rain tires which took to time. Getting there late again… The organisation kept telling us to prepare and take your time but the schedule and their delays prevented us from getting ready properly. Then one of the riders spilled oil on the track and we had to do a shorter version of the track and due to the number of riders we where limited to 60km/h. Can you imagine doing 60km/h on a race track doing training your breaking?? When we even thought of breaking you where at a still long before the corner. Not ideal. The 4th session seemed to be a dry one but some heavy clouds warned for new rain. @Dennis and I stayed on the rain tires (wrong choice) and @Peter switched to slicks (right choice). But even we where on the rain tires on a fully dry track we did some good laps. Got a 10th time of 49 racers and @Peter was in the first spot (i’m jealous). The 5th session was about starting and especially getting of the starting line. I tried some methods to which one matched my feelings and getting of the line good. After7 launches I knew which one was good for me and I could get a good drive. The 6th was one of my favourites, small sprints with pairs of 3 riders. They launched riders every 20 seconds and the goal was to get away fast and cross the imaginary finish line first. Every sprint I did I ended in the first place. Started 2 times on P1 and 3 times on P3 but I ways always the first one to enter the corner (Haarspedlbocht) and maintaining the position.I always had a very good feeling for getting away from the line, the front weel hoovering the tarmac quick shifting to 4th gear and then break hard for the corner. Loved the feeling! At the end we got our certificate and now we can (if we want) compete in the races ☺ No camera’s where allowed so no video footage this time.