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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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