#TT Circuit Assen
And here we are in The Cathedral of Speed (TT Circuit of Assen) 🤗
We went the day before because Assen is a long drive. But we met with some new friends which we had a nice evening.
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.
Rain rain rain, the day was not a day to remember. Due to not having rain tires I didn’t ride.
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.
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!
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.
Arrived at @TT-Circuit_Assen we all very nervous and we all found a sleeping place Zzzz… In the morning we woke up with a blue sky and the sun shining. We could not which for better weather. From the first session the feeling was good, the last time I was here I did a 2:05 and my goal was to improve that time. I certainly did that with a 1:57.610! The 3rd session seemed to be the best session, @Dennis and @Peter could not get below this time but they were very competitive. The 4th and 5th sessions we had some really nice fights because the speeds where very equal. For my feeling it went very good. The confidence grew by the lap and it took a little time to get used to the fasted group. Sometimes they pass me like I was standing still. But in the “less” fast group this did not happen for a long time :P Had a super day with all my friends @Nicole, @Jelle, @Geert, @Dennis and @Peter. See you next time at @Circuit_Park_Zandvoort Een super dag gehad allen en zeer tevreden naar huis. Op naar Zandvoort!
With the whole team back at @TT-Circuit_Assen for the second time for me. The MotoGP can be jealous at the weather we had. Lots of sun and a perfect track surface. Make big improvements and very happy with my new quick shifter. It is really easy now to shift up gears and you notice directly a big improvement in your riding style. Especially in some fast corners you can shift up where normally you couldn’t. Did had some trouble in the slow corners that my front weel lifted very fast when I opened the throttle. Is it just the power or suspension?
First time back on the track after my crash at @Circuit_Zolder and 2 months of recovery. The cast just gone off for one week and my hand was still not at full strength. Did 2 sessions to gain confidence again. But the pain was getting bigger and did not want to interfear the healing proces and had to stop the day.