Well if you thought it was cold in Ireland for Easter, Hockenheim beats
Bishopscourt hands down.
Peugoet 205. There's some grip in them there autobahns! Especially
on the off-ramps..
Then thanks to Manfred's bullshitting he learned in Ireland, we got in
the gate with no pass. No easy task in Germany! The paddock was
huge (for F1 motorhomes), it was raining bordering on snowing, it was
bloody cold and my German isnt what I thoght it was. Anyway, there it
was, the zx6 that I was booked to ride for saturday, looking all clean
and shiny. Then I was told. That one is for Manfred and Achim Scholtz
(he owns the bikes). The one behind it was mine.. The older model but
it looked ok anyway. I was introduced to my teammate for the
weekend, Dieter. A nice fella, spoke some English, and was roughly
the same size as me so I thought the bike should work ok for both of
us. And I discovered I had a mechanic! Deadly.
The weather got worse and the forecast was not good so we went to
get tyres that we thought would work in the cold and wet. No need for
Pirelli's so. Wets were not allowed so we went for a brigdestone that
was inbetween a road and race tyre. Manfred and Achim went for a
Michelin road tyre.
The riders briefing and scrutiny were on Friday evening. Not much
point in me going to the briefing for obvious reasons. We had the bike
ready for scrutiny when we realised the front brake had siezed. Not
good.. After a lot of cursing and stripping of brakes, the bike was
ready...at 12 midnight.. Good job we asked for to do scrutiny or
saturday morning then.
We stayed in a B&B in the town and were up at 6am to get to the track
for the 8am start. That was 5am in Ireland, so I thought it was still
night. When we got to the track they had delayed the start until 9
because the track temp was too cold.
So, on with the leathers that didnt see the light of day since last
september, with no practice since last year... on a bike I never rode
before on a cold wet track I had never been on before.... to do a
1000km endurance race with a race partner I met the day before...
Thats a lot of ifs!
Anyway, the weather turned a little and the track started to dry, so
Dieter went first. I thought it would never be my turn! Then he
appeared, the bike was refuelled and away I went. The first few laps
were scary. 150 bikes on the track together. So I just followed
everyone else and assumed they knew where they were going. Some
of them obviously preferred the grass as I copped on after a while. It
really is a big track, all sorts of corners like a bigger faster version of
Debtors at Kirkistown (about 140mph I'd say) to the Sachs curve (a
banked version of the first corner in Mondello) and all in between. It is
fairly flat and wide, so for me the big problem was that you see the
corners from so far away so I kept braking to early. I was making time
on the fast corners and loosing it on the slow ones.
So there I was going round and round. Either I was fitter than I thought
I was or the adrenalin was keeping me going. Then the brakes started
to fade, and I got some front end chatter (something I dont know a lot
about) so I came in to check things. It turned out the left fork was
leaking, but not at the seal. It appeared to have moved out of the
fitting at the bottom where the parts are machine-pressed together.
Our race was run..
Then a ray of light. Manfred and Achim said we could have their bike
to finiosh the event as we had both travelled far and had paid for the
use of the bike. Away he went to the control tower and explained
things. They allowed us to continue but said we would be excluded
from the results. Fair enough. Its supposed to be a test of man and
machine. So off I went on another new bike. It handled better but the
engine wasnt as sharp as the first one because the engine was
standard (really!). I didnt care as I was getting more familiar with the
track and having more fun. In fact the more I went on the better it got
even though I was getting more tired.
Then it was on to the last part of the day, the sprint race. The start
was brilliant, the same as le Mans. About 40 riders running across the
track and jumping on the bikes and away. Dieter went first and I waited
in the pit lane. About half way, the leader came in to change rider. The
number 2 rider had to jump out of the way as his team mate went
skidding past. Then he had to run down the pit lane after him and
swap over. Quite funny to watch. Dieter came in and we did a perfect
changeover. Away I went out of the pits and nearly crashed! There is
a corner at the end of pitlane but how often do you exit an empty pit
lane on hot tyres at full speed?? Never I'd say. The rest of the race
was over in a flash and I wished it was another 20 laps.
So that was it. The rain held off long enough until we were finished so
it was a good day in the end.
Just the last part then, where we go and have lots of lovely cheap
German beer, and more after that. A bit too much I'd say...
A tough weekend with a lot of learning involved, but great fun and all
home safe. Home on the Ryanair Bingo Bus on Sunday afternoon.
Thanks to Manfred Vogl for organising the event. Thanks to Dieter for
riding a good race and not crashing. Also thanks to Achim Scholtz of
BikeCorner.de for the use of the Kwackers.
Roll on the rest of the season..
Alan.
Bishopscourt hands down.
Peugoet 205. There's some grip in them there autobahns! Especially
on the off-ramps..
Then thanks to Manfred's bullshitting he learned in Ireland, we got in
the gate with no pass. No easy task in Germany! The paddock was
huge (for F1 motorhomes), it was raining bordering on snowing, it was
bloody cold and my German isnt what I thoght it was. Anyway, there it
was, the zx6 that I was booked to ride for saturday, looking all clean
and shiny. Then I was told. That one is for Manfred and Achim Scholtz
(he owns the bikes). The one behind it was mine.. The older model but
it looked ok anyway. I was introduced to my teammate for the
weekend, Dieter. A nice fella, spoke some English, and was roughly
the same size as me so I thought the bike should work ok for both of
us. And I discovered I had a mechanic! Deadly.
The weather got worse and the forecast was not good so we went to
get tyres that we thought would work in the cold and wet. No need for
Pirelli's so. Wets were not allowed so we went for a brigdestone that
was inbetween a road and race tyre. Manfred and Achim went for a
Michelin road tyre.
The riders briefing and scrutiny were on Friday evening. Not much
point in me going to the briefing for obvious reasons. We had the bike
ready for scrutiny when we realised the front brake had siezed. Not
good.. After a lot of cursing and stripping of brakes, the bike was
ready...at 12 midnight.. Good job we asked for to do scrutiny or
saturday morning then.
We stayed in a B&B in the town and were up at 6am to get to the track
for the 8am start. That was 5am in Ireland, so I thought it was still
night. When we got to the track they had delayed the start until 9
because the track temp was too cold.
So, on with the leathers that didnt see the light of day since last
september, with no practice since last year... on a bike I never rode
before on a cold wet track I had never been on before.... to do a
1000km endurance race with a race partner I met the day before...
Thats a lot of ifs!
Anyway, the weather turned a little and the track started to dry, so
Dieter went first. I thought it would never be my turn! Then he
appeared, the bike was refuelled and away I went. The first few laps
were scary. 150 bikes on the track together. So I just followed
everyone else and assumed they knew where they were going. Some
of them obviously preferred the grass as I copped on after a while. It
really is a big track, all sorts of corners like a bigger faster version of
Debtors at Kirkistown (about 140mph I'd say) to the Sachs curve (a
banked version of the first corner in Mondello) and all in between. It is
fairly flat and wide, so for me the big problem was that you see the
corners from so far away so I kept braking to early. I was making time
on the fast corners and loosing it on the slow ones.
So there I was going round and round. Either I was fitter than I thought
I was or the adrenalin was keeping me going. Then the brakes started
to fade, and I got some front end chatter (something I dont know a lot
about) so I came in to check things. It turned out the left fork was
leaking, but not at the seal. It appeared to have moved out of the
fitting at the bottom where the parts are machine-pressed together.
Our race was run..
Then a ray of light. Manfred and Achim said we could have their bike
to finiosh the event as we had both travelled far and had paid for the
use of the bike. Away he went to the control tower and explained
things. They allowed us to continue but said we would be excluded
from the results. Fair enough. Its supposed to be a test of man and
machine. So off I went on another new bike. It handled better but the
engine wasnt as sharp as the first one because the engine was
standard (really!). I didnt care as I was getting more familiar with the
track and having more fun. In fact the more I went on the better it got
even though I was getting more tired.
Then it was on to the last part of the day, the sprint race. The start
was brilliant, the same as le Mans. About 40 riders running across the
track and jumping on the bikes and away. Dieter went first and I waited
in the pit lane. About half way, the leader came in to change rider. The
number 2 rider had to jump out of the way as his team mate went
skidding past. Then he had to run down the pit lane after him and
swap over. Quite funny to watch. Dieter came in and we did a perfect
changeover. Away I went out of the pits and nearly crashed! There is
a corner at the end of pitlane but how often do you exit an empty pit
lane on hot tyres at full speed?? Never I'd say. The rest of the race
was over in a flash and I wished it was another 20 laps.
So that was it. The rain held off long enough until we were finished so
it was a good day in the end.
Just the last part then, where we go and have lots of lovely cheap
German beer, and more after that. A bit too much I'd say...
A tough weekend with a lot of learning involved, but great fun and all
home safe. Home on the Ryanair Bingo Bus on Sunday afternoon.
Thanks to Manfred Vogl for organising the event. Thanks to Dieter for
riding a good race and not crashing. Also thanks to Achim Scholtz of
BikeCorner.de for the use of the Kwackers.
Roll on the rest of the season..
Alan.