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RR: WCMCC - Perth Airport



 
 
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Old February 20th 05, 03:00 PM
Brett
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Default RR: WCMCC - Perth Airport

Due to a late change of venue the West Coast Vets racing this weekend
was held on Saturday at the AHG Driver Training Course located within
the Perth Airport boundary. (Probably due to the noisy V8's that
frequent the circuit...) The change of time and day upset at least one
of the older guys who usually has a nap in the afternoon...

As noone had ridden the course before and we had a strict 2-hour
booking, we were allowed 1 free lap behind the official van to get a
feel for the circuit before the racing started. Imagine if you will, a
dead flat 5 meter wide 1.5km circuit of pristine tarmac laid out in the
middle of a desert with a hot easterly blowing and you get the picture.
A nice long straight followed by lots of sweeping left and right
curves all the way back.

B grade kicked off 20 minutes late at 4.50pm. After about 5 minutes my
mate 'Breakaway' Bob rode off the front with another guy from Fleet
Cycles. The Fleet cycles dude had a friend behind him who soft pedalled
for a bit and let them get away. Sitting in fourth I was content to let
them go and together we held the pace up to see how they would go. A
lap later, someone got impatient and jumped across the gap while the
rest of up were happy to hide at the back.

About 15 minutes in I suddenly realised that I couldn't swallow and that
my mouth was so dry that I couldn't even close it! Time to drink!
According to the BoM, the temp was 34deg with 16% humidity... Maybe I
shouldn't ride around with my mouth open so much. (Less wind resistance?
;-) )

30 minutes in some guys behind me decided that the break had been gone
long enough and started to reel in the 30 second gap. I could do
nothing else but follow. Within 3 laps the break had been caught at and
for the next couple of laps, every man and his dog tried to get a break
without success. Everything almost came unstuck at the 40 minute mark
as the guy I was following (Ed) started sliding in the middle of one of
the sweeping left handers. Squeaking tyres on hot bitumen and a bike
drifting across in front of me did wonders for my heart rate, although
Ed's probably jumped as well. The slow leak from the front tyre was the
end of his race.

Last lap and the jockeying for positions began. The pace didn't really
pick up because the aforementioned easterly has turned into a brisk sea
breeze during the race and the last 1/2 of the lap was all into the
wind. 3 corners from the finish I'm trying my around the outside move
that worked wonders a fortnight ago. Unfortunately, two guys slipped
down the inside and got to the front as we apexed the corner and came
out with a 3 bikelength gap when the guy they passed freaked out a bit
and ran wide... (It was a verry nice move)

Last corner and it was obvious that two guys at the front had a winning
gap. I took off giving it everything I had and hit the front of the
chasing bunch doing about 50km/h (into the wind). Some bloke on my
right goes past me like I'm going uphill! Surprisingly, I wasn't
swamped at the finish and held on for fourth. Well it's in the money at
least. A quick look at my HRM after the finish showed 191. Time to
adjust my maximum heart rate setting!

Of course, based on Hippy's results, it might also be time to clean the
bike...

--
Brett "Hey Michael, say Hi to Trevor for me, I couldn't stay to watch
his race ;-)"
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