Wow! That was the most fun I have ever had!!!! Racing is the SHIT!
Short story:
I Qualified 12th out of 14 starters (nice small field for my first meeting
), finshed 9th in the first race, 6th in the second race (which started totally wet, lotsa sliding on the second hand slicks etc., but started drying up as the race progressed), and 8th in the last race. Knocked over a second off my PB, but still way slow at 1:24 for QR. Fun!
Now for the longer version.
Me and my pit helper and brother Windom got to Bretts late on Friday night after 3 days solid of fixing the 7 up after my crash and getting the thing fully race legal. Stayed up chatting to Brett for a while but still managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour, something new for me
Brett gave me the keys to his house to use for the weekend as he was going away, and even changed the lock late Friday night so all would be good. You are an absolute legend mate, that made the whole thing just that much easier. I will endeavour to refrain from Short/Old/Blind etc. jokes for a week or so as repayment for your services. 
No promises though...
GGot out to the track Saturday morning and still had to do some more work to do to get the 7 sorted, me and Windom had the bikes (he brought his GS500 out for a bash as between race practice sessions they were running rideday - type sessions for road riders) next to the scrutineering bay getting sorted as the line grew. Anyway got it done and grabbed a pit bay just before the rider's breifing. I went out for the first practice session, and nearly went straight off the track as they were running the 'B' track, which takes out the whole back straight. For the whole day I could just not get the changes. I seemed to be slow no matter what line I took through turn 3 into 4, and could not get comfortable with it. I finished up wondering just how slow I would be for racing the next day.
My brother took the 7 out for the last two sessions, and absolutely loved it. He had not ridden anything faster than my GPX before this, so it blew him away. Needless to say, I have gone a long way into converting him to proper sportsbikes, Kawasakis in particular. After the last session I managed to find someone who had hired a garage for the weekend at QR and threw my bike in with his bikes, saving me much drama.
At the end of the day's proceedings we went next door to Willowbank Raceway to watch the Drags. We met up with a Sydney guy from OSB racing a Busa who gave us free tickets in (Thanks Dave, you saved us nearly $90!). I saw Fuel Funny cars for the first time, and Windom got his first taste of Top Fuel drag racing. I had almost forgotten how full on those things are. Great stuff.
We left at a reasonable hour and got back to Bretts for the party we had organised. So many people turned up, and a lot of them were really drunk, so all sorts of things happened.
Only joking Brett!!!!
No we just got a bit of sleep and then woke up an hour later than planned. Threw stuff in the car and left straight away, brushing my hair as I drove the car and trailer at warp speed to get to the riders briefing on time. (Not a normal occurrence, most people who do that sort of thing like to crash into bikes
). As it was I need not have hurried, as it was raining when we got there which delayed proceedings considerably.
At the briefing it was decided to run the full track because of standing water in the crossover chicane. Yay! Now at least I had a chance. I went out for qualifying with major nerves but a lot of anticipation as well. There was a bit of a river coming out of turn one, but most of the rest of the track was fairly dry. I qualified 12th out of 14 bikes, 3rd last in other words.
The nerves got worse as race one approached, but as I jumped on the bike to head out for the warmup lap I just started grinning. I did not stop all day, and in fact I am still smiling like an idiot waiting for the men in white coats as I type this. I started on the inside of the 3rd row, and got a pretty slow start. All the other bikes just shot off, and I found myself 10 bike lengths behind the field going into the first corner. I had to work up to speed, a few little slides told me that my theory of rotating the rear tyre in the sunlight is no substitute for tyre warmers. After the first lap or so I started pushing, and passed one guy under brakes into turn 3, and another into 4. The rest of the field seemed pretty distant, so I settled in to try and pull away from the last guy I had passed, who had tried to get back past me a couple of times. About halfway though the 12 lap race, a guy on a 636 went off the track, and rejoined about 100 metres in front of me, after splashing water and mud onto the track at the exit of turn 5. It was all I needed to push a little more, and I caught him not long after. He passed me back going into 3, and I thought he would just pull away. But I got really good drive coming out of the corner and thought if I could get back in front of him I might be able to keep him behind me. So I did the latest braking move I have attempted yet, and just squirmed in under him into 4. I then just pushed as hard as possible as hoped for the finish flag. When I saw it being waved a few laps later, the winner crossed the line pretty much with me (on the back wheel mind you). I buttoned off, and coasted round with him, went back to the pits only to discover I had DNF'd because I did not complete the last lap! I thought he might have crossed in front of me but it was not the case. At least I did not get lapped I guess. Anyway my position apart from this was 9th as one guy crashed at 3 and another had some unknown issue of some sort.
For race 2 the rain came out and saturated the track, and as I only had second hand slicks I just went out in those. I got major wheelspin off the start, it kicked sideways and I nearly dropped it. I was shoving my foot into the ground trying to keep it upright, clicked second and got a second serve of wheelspin, so the pack left me early on. I was getting heaps of wheelspin throughout the race, and some really cool slides. A dry line started to appear in some parts of the track by the second lap, but I was having trouble overtaking, because those in front of me stuck to it. Anyway I managed to slip and slide past a few riders, and just kept going harder as the race wore on. It was kinda hard to keep a good pace up once I had cleared the back pack, as I had no chance of catching the front guys so there was no one to judge my pace from. On about lap 11 of 15, I got lapped by the leader who was on wets. He started pulling away from me pretty quickly, but his tyres started going off on the drying track so I set about trying to catch him. I was really starting to reel him in when we got the last lap board, and almost hit the back of him braking into turn 4. I set him up for a pass into the last corner, but he took the line I was taking into there so I tried to go over a wetter part of the track. The puddles made it really slippery and I ran way wide, so did not even get close to him. All good though, I finshed 6th as again a couple of people DNF'd. I really loved that race.
In race 3 the track was mainly dry, just some puddles around in corners two and 6, with a few wet spots elsewhere. The field were back to slicks for this one, and I really wanted to push hard. I got a much better start (from 6th place on the grid, which put me on a dryier part of the track), and only lost 2 places going into turn one. I was in front of the guys I had passed in the previous races, so set about trying to catch on to the back of the main pack. I was catching the guy in 7th, but clipped one of the bigger puddles in turn 2 and went really sideways whilst on the gas in 4th gear, this put me really wide so I had to get out of it and got a really slow exit onto the back straight. I saw the guy I wanted to catch just make like 150 metres on me, it sucked because he had been faster than me all day and I was finally able to beat his pace. I started catching him again and this time got a big nuetral going into turn 4, which again put me wide, and lost me heaps of time. I am really starting to see how consistent you must be to compete well. Anyway he was now to far ahead to catch in the remaining laps, but I pulled about half a second a lap off him and made up around half the distance by the time the finish flag came out. I finished on the lead lap again too, which really helped my confidence.
At the end of that last race, I was rolling around the track on the warm down lap laughing inside my helmet. It was just so much fun. I was waving to all the marshalls who were giving me the thumbs up and clapping etc, it just felt so real it is amazing. Anyone thinking of racing should really give it a go, apart from the entry fees it is no more expensive than a trackday, and way more fun. I am doing it on a ridiculously low budget, so no excuses!!!
When we got back to Bretts I quickly wrote up a race report for the Sportsmen, which will hopefully make it to the Courier Mail. I will post it up in the Racing section.
Anyway there is no way I could have done it without a lot of help, so I have to thank everyone. Brett for the Place and the advice, Glenn (Greenmeanie) for the parts, My brother Windom for all the help, My family for putting up with this ludicrous pastime of mine, Steve for the trailer, Bob for the race stand, Phil at Highside for the rushed leather repairs, The Motorcycle Sportsmen for all the help and putting it on, all the other racers for their advice, Dave for the drag tickets, and Chris Finch for the second hand slicks and advice.
I have got the number of one of the guys I was racing with, I beat him yesterday but he has run faster times than me in the past so will organise to go testing with him. Hopefully we both end up faster as a result.
Racing is the most fun you will ever have. This is living......
Sorry about the lengthy post!
-J.
I think the testing crash actually helped, as I now have less fear of coming off. Still it did not teach me anything as it happened to quick to learn much from, and I sure did not learn anything about not riding on a wet track on slicks! 
