Armoy Report
Hi all
Well
with just over a week to wait it didn’t take long until I was heading
back to Northern Ireland to race at Armoy, a race I’ve only done once
before, back in 2013. I watched
a few on board videos beforehand just to refresh my memory as to where
the circuit went.
Luckily we had a day to finish getting the bikes ready before we set off on Friday morning.
So
on Thursday I finally got to fit some GSXR callipers to my 400. I’d
been told on ZXR World Forum that these were an easy fit and gave loads
more stopping power, so I bought
a set, way back in 2013. For long term readers you may recall my first
attempt to fit these failed as they felt spongy, no matter how much we
bled them.
Over
last Winter I tried again with another master cylinder, but with no
success. My one last hope was a Brembo master cylinder, however when I
went to fit it at Southern 100
I found I had the wrong banjo bolt to connect the brake lines to it.
Luckily on the Thursday at the Southern I bought one off the spares guys
in the paddock.
So
with all the correct bits we set about assembling and bleeding them,
which we did in no time at all. Now the biggest problem was not
forgetting I had different brakes when
I went out to practice.
We were told that Fridays weather wasn’t going to be great, but woke to glorious weather, which luckily didn’t alter all day.
With
signing on etc done I went out to practice on the Supertwin first. This
I took really easily as was just getting back into where the circuit
went. It was also the first
chance I had to try the new throttle bodies I had fitted before the
very wet Southern 100. They felt a whole lot better and the bike was
running beautifully.
Next was the turn of the 400, which again went without drama, and was feeling more confident as the laps ticked down.
One more session on the 650 and it was time to pack up and head home for the evening.
Saturday dawned and was once again a beautiful day.
We set up and I went to the riders briefing and signing on, whilst Steve and Josh got the bikes checked.
It
turns out that once again I hadn’t managed to qualify on the 650. The
simple reason being that for a 27 grid field, the organising club
accepted 45 entries, so there were
a lot of very disappointed riders.
I
know that road racing is enjoying huge popularity at the moment, but I
for one am getting sick of clubs claiming the meeting is so heavily over
subscribed. Especially as
it is down to them to limit the number of entries accepted.
Still onwards and upwards, and it was off to race the 400, albeit in race 9 so a fair amount of sitting around not doing much.
I’d qualified 23rd out of 27 which was ok, but even as soon as the lights went out I started to move up the field.
I
caught number 42 and was pleased that I passed him with ease,
especially as last year he seemed to be streets ahead of me, so makes me
feel I’m moving in the right direction
and the racer in me is still going strong.
My
lead was short lived after I put the brakes on for the last corner, way
too early, causing me to release the brakes and ride up to the corner,
at which point Brian, number
42, nipped passed me.
The
new brakes were something else, I’d taken it easy to bed them in during
practice but was now using them in anger during the race. On every lap,
as I came into Armoy village
I could hear the back end skipping under heavy braking, the back had
gone that light. I was making up loads of space on people that were in
front and used them to great advantage as I got up the inside of Davy
Black again into Armoy village. I was just driving
out of the corner when the red flags, indicating the race had been
stopped, came out.
A
rider had come off at the very dangerous Church Bends and was airlifted
to hospital. Thankfully he is reported as being on the mend now.
Whilst
we were waiting to be let back round to the pits, a guy noticed that
the bracket holding my exhaust on had snapped. Not sure what exhausts
have against me at the moment,
having fixed the supertwins, its’ the turn of the 400 to break.
The result was called at the end of the 4 laps and I finished 14th
which I was very happy with, especially as I had posted a fastest time 8
seconds faster than my
previous best two years ago. Better still I was back racing with guys
who I hadn’t raced with for a while. Wish I’d done the brakes earlier.
So with Armoy done I now have to wait until Killalane 5th September, and it can’t come soon enough, why didn’t I enter The Ulster GP?.
One last bit of news, Armoy is due to be shown on Channel 4 Sunday 9th August at 0730, so keep your eyes open for that one.
So until next time.
Cheers
Stuart
