After a 26 hour stint in airports on planes, we arrived yesterday afternoon in Phnom Penh and ate at the Foreign Correspondents Club then slept like babies.
Day's R&R at the Russian market and various sights, sorted out all the paperwork to do with the bikes and another decent meal this eve.
We're off at 7:30am tomorrow (trying to avoid the worst of the day's heat) and we're revved up for it. Small but select group of us. The city's changed quite a bit since I was last here in 2001, security doesn't lock everything down at 8pm, traffic's still mad but not quite as mad, roads have tarmac on them. Looking forward to it!
Tuesday 9 February 2010
Monday 21 September 2009
Cadwell Park, August, Round 6
A run of "premium" tracks was always going to make this a great couple of months riding if the weather and bike kept summery and ring-ding-dingy respectively. Oulton, Brands GP, a track day at Donington and now Cadwell was certainly giving me a good lot of tracktime at my personal favourite circuits.
The Donington trackday was a bit "iffy" weather wise but had a great couple of sessions out in the fast group on my 21 year old 250cc roadbike (still have to pinch myself about that bit!). I certainly wasn't particularly willing to push it too hard in the damp conditions as a load of hassle putting the thing back together for the Cadwell race wasn't really in the gameplan. A couple of warning slides at Schwantz and Coppice were enough to make me not go any faster in those sessions if not back off as such. What I've found with the racing is that learning circuits is coming a LOT easier than it ever used to in many years of trackdaying, but it is a slightly different experience in the "bubble" of being out there with bikes about the same as you're on or maybe a bit faster if you count the 400 experience at Oulton. I certainly went round Donny quick enough to harass slower ridden R1s and the like - somewhat akin to what I'm used to seeing my former racer friend Nick Bailey do on his SV650 at trackdays - outbrake, get wasted on the straight, rinse and repeat at the next corner. The less confident riders tend to give up after about half a lap to a lap of that kinda thing.
But in the couple of dry sessions I did get I couldn't get anywhere near the kind of times I know would have happened if there had been other YPMs around me. Shows how much I'm using my racing buddies as a gauge rather than off my own bat really! Still, my garage mates for the day and the marshals quite enjoyed watching the nostalgic stuff of 80s bike-mad teenagers' dreams hanging in there with much more modern kit - flat out in top down Craner Curves in the dry sessions still feels pretty quick on the old girl! Grin inducing moment of the day was a well ridden R1 that came past on the brakes into Melbourne when I was braking moderately late myself. "ooh, ambitious" thunk I - lots of squirming around and air under the rear tyre on his part and... he missed the turn-in point by yards! He took till Schwantz curve to get me back again but disappeared quite rapidly after that. Good fun - when we doing the SV vs TZR trackday Nick?
So onto Cadwell Park aka Wasp City by the end of the weekend - thousands of the feckin things!! The weather was looking fairly promising for most of the weekend so what really was I hoping to achieve this time out after some encouraging progress this year? A pep talk from Leggy (Mark Legg) who I'm firmly blaming for encouraging me into this YPM hooliganism convinced me I should be doing better still. At least this track I'd done once before even if the 'blade did expire in the first proper session leaving me with a rather more fun race prepped ZXR400 for the rest of the day's play. Videos a la Nick B exist of that day in 2006 and times were in the order of 1:55 in the dry sessions we had at the beginning of the day on both expiring 'blade and rudely healthy ZXR400. So trounce that time had to be aim 1. The other aim was my current rivals in "the train" in the shape of Ben Miles, Craig Jennings and Chris Wallace. I can stay with them but being quite similar in terms of laptimes seem to get taken by them and not be able to work out a way back past and it's part of a train that goes all the way from 9th to 16th in a lot of races.
Haven't done a great deal to the bike in the last couple of rounds - got the forks how I like them after having the dampers modded and playing with air gaps and the like and having the seals done. The new exhausts made in a shed on a farm near Plymouth were fitted at Oulton and work superbly though they have plenty of scrapes and dents now as they're not so hot on ground clearance. The brakes are now the limiting factor and Jerry Pell has some slightly modified Ducati pads as a solution for the stock caliper in conjunction with an EBC disc. Sadly he didn't have the pads with him at Cadders so I'll have that improvement to look forward to, and putting a linkage shift in to reverse the shift pattern is still to be done.
Practice was on Friday afternoon for me - first session out was dry then it teemed it down just as we went out for lap 1 of the second sesh. Soaked leathers, standing water, the works so abandoned that one. Sesh 3 was drying and sesh 4 mostly dry except Barn so got a few decent laps in. Really didn't get anyone to play with though as my normal rivals were taking things suspiciously steady so went straight past and didn't find anyone else about the same speed to have a hoon with. 42 rear gearing was leaving me at peak power before even seeing the 300m board so whacked a 41 in and some new tyres and good to go!
So, onto race 1 on Saturday and .... a flipping big wheelie off the line - bollox! Been suffering mild clutch slip all year and didn't know what the problem was. Changed the oil for some Halfords stuff and hey presto no clutch slip in practice so the Rock oil Taymar favours is evidently the issue. However, with the solution to that came a very different feeling clutch off the startline that was gonna take a little getting used to. Found myself among some rather unfamiliar folk and fought my way up to 15th quite quickly but the usual crew were edging out in front until lap 5 when we found Spencer Reeves and his yellow bike in the middle of the track at Hall Bends and all got split up, so ended up with no real battle - 10secs behind my usual rivals with Griggsy at the rear and the next person 10secs behind. Hot and knackered after about 5 laps fighting the bike too! Still, in the points and a 1:51.1 so smashed the best I'd managed on the 400 in 2006 so aim 1 out of the way.
Race 2 and still scorching sunshine, got a somewhat better start from a not particularly favourable grid position and got boxed in a bit into Coppice. This year they'd decided to make Cadwell a 3 bike row instead of 4 like most tracks which did make turn 1 somewhat less hectic than it apparently used to be. Stayed with the pack and found myself in no mans land again after a couple of laps, just keeping with people but not really closing up on them. After a bit of a horlicks at Park on the last lap thought I was gonna bag Craig Jennings but he managed to get back on the black stuff before I got him! 13th and a 1:50.07 so a few points and definite progress on the stopwatch.
The problems I found were I was tense and fighting the bike going into the Gooseneck and putting more effort and less speed into Hall Bends than I needed to, so tootled off for a watch of the fast 400s and the minitwins for inspiration, which proved useful on Sunday! Wunderkind Danny Buchan on the 400s was just so fast and smooth through Hall Bends it kind of clicked what I had to do. Watching the rookie open class with a beer and some fine YPM fellows - new buddy Tom Scheving, an American Air Force type riding a bog-stock SP1 I met at Snett no 2 earlier in the year was getting on reasonably well - there was an R1 going round at what looked a snails pace, nigh on upright on any bend we could see him on. Had a look at the timesheets after the race and he was doing 2:15. Gulp. On an R1 ferchrissakes! Given the front runners were doing 1:37s the differential was a tad dangerous!
And then another social gem courtesy of the friendly club members. Saturday evening is a big event at Cadwell dreamt up last year apparently. A couple of the YPM wives/girlfriends went round collecting curry orders during the day, everyone turned up in the evening with their tables, chairs and beer and the ladies returned at the allotted hour with a large car boot full of curry and hey presto a 90-head street party! Cracking evening, helped obviously by a welcome return to form by the British summer. Steve Higerty aka "Leslie Ash" had taken a swig from his Red Bull earlier in the day and found a wasp already having a go at it so it promptly stung him on the lip for his trouble - so plenty of sympathy on tap as you might expect from a bunch of bike racers and tales of wasp body counts through the day - pesky critters!
Sunday and another good sunny day to play on the tarmac. Race 1 started in a better grid slot and got away with the people I wanted to but spent a frustrating race behind Nick Griggs and Adrian Grove - Nick was clearly holding Adrian up but Ade couldn't work a way round him so I couldn't work out a way past the pair of them! Eventually Adrian pounced and I tried my damnedest to make my own move but Nick hurried up after that and the places I had been lining up weren't available any more! I got alongside coming out of Barn and nearly got a wheel in front but failed by a mere 0.055s! 14th and the last lap push got me a 1:48.9 so another good chunk off the time with a lot more comfortable feel on the bike.
And thence to the last race of the weekend. Went out in the right frame of mind i.e. quite fired up and determined not to fall in behind a Nick/Adrian roadblock whose times I could stay with quite easily. Got a great start and past a few round Charlies and slotted in behind Tony Hoare (brisk) and John Parbury (top 5 usually). Tagging onto that lot dragged the lap times down really quickly and past Ben Miles and Chris Wallace during lap 2 (my fastest of the weekend). I found Tony's pace was actually quite do-able this time round so prepared to tag on and see if I could line up a pass near the end of the race. No such luck - first Ben Miles and then Craig tried charging up the inside at a couple of corners and came out so slowly I could get them straight back. We lost Tony H and that was the way it went the whole rest of the race - it was scrappy and the lap times went completely to pot but it was straight duking it out all the way to the line. Craig missed a gear at the top of the mountain so he got dispatched going into Hall, then I made a right mess of the approach to the hairpin and ended up on the grass just where you need to brake. The hairpin was err interesting and slightly out of control but I made it through without getting passed back amazingly. Then a black bike with an orange bibbed rider came through at Park on the last lap and managed to get himself in a position I couldn't get him straight back in spite of the slow line through the corner. That's alright, he's a 17 year old who's never been this fast round here and enthusiasm will get the better of him by the end of the lap won't it? It didn't, he held me off to the line and beat me by 0.8secs in the end. Precocious little git! BUT I'd beaten the three main rivals and had a great battle doing it. So 9th - in the dry - fastest lap of 1:48.1.
The fastest TZR was down in the 1:45s and the fastest all weekend got a 1:44.9. So I'm getting there, 2.5-3secs off the pace of the fastest guys still leaves a bit of work to do but bearing in mind that was a 5-6sec gap at a roughly equivalent laptime to Brands GP it's definitely somewhat nearer the mark. Roll on Brands Indy no 2 at the end of September!
The Donington trackday was a bit "iffy" weather wise but had a great couple of sessions out in the fast group on my 21 year old 250cc roadbike (still have to pinch myself about that bit!). I certainly wasn't particularly willing to push it too hard in the damp conditions as a load of hassle putting the thing back together for the Cadwell race wasn't really in the gameplan. A couple of warning slides at Schwantz and Coppice were enough to make me not go any faster in those sessions if not back off as such. What I've found with the racing is that learning circuits is coming a LOT easier than it ever used to in many years of trackdaying, but it is a slightly different experience in the "bubble" of being out there with bikes about the same as you're on or maybe a bit faster if you count the 400 experience at Oulton. I certainly went round Donny quick enough to harass slower ridden R1s and the like - somewhat akin to what I'm used to seeing my former racer friend Nick Bailey do on his SV650 at trackdays - outbrake, get wasted on the straight, rinse and repeat at the next corner. The less confident riders tend to give up after about half a lap to a lap of that kinda thing.
But in the couple of dry sessions I did get I couldn't get anywhere near the kind of times I know would have happened if there had been other YPMs around me. Shows how much I'm using my racing buddies as a gauge rather than off my own bat really! Still, my garage mates for the day and the marshals quite enjoyed watching the nostalgic stuff of 80s bike-mad teenagers' dreams hanging in there with much more modern kit - flat out in top down Craner Curves in the dry sessions still feels pretty quick on the old girl! Grin inducing moment of the day was a well ridden R1 that came past on the brakes into Melbourne when I was braking moderately late myself. "ooh, ambitious" thunk I - lots of squirming around and air under the rear tyre on his part and... he missed the turn-in point by yards! He took till Schwantz curve to get me back again but disappeared quite rapidly after that. Good fun - when we doing the SV vs TZR trackday Nick?
So onto Cadwell Park aka Wasp City by the end of the weekend - thousands of the feckin things!! The weather was looking fairly promising for most of the weekend so what really was I hoping to achieve this time out after some encouraging progress this year? A pep talk from Leggy (Mark Legg) who I'm firmly blaming for encouraging me into this YPM hooliganism convinced me I should be doing better still. At least this track I'd done once before even if the 'blade did expire in the first proper session leaving me with a rather more fun race prepped ZXR400 for the rest of the day's play. Videos a la Nick B exist of that day in 2006 and times were in the order of 1:55 in the dry sessions we had at the beginning of the day on both expiring 'blade and rudely healthy ZXR400. So trounce that time had to be aim 1. The other aim was my current rivals in "the train" in the shape of Ben Miles, Craig Jennings and Chris Wallace. I can stay with them but being quite similar in terms of laptimes seem to get taken by them and not be able to work out a way back past and it's part of a train that goes all the way from 9th to 16th in a lot of races.
Haven't done a great deal to the bike in the last couple of rounds - got the forks how I like them after having the dampers modded and playing with air gaps and the like and having the seals done. The new exhausts made in a shed on a farm near Plymouth were fitted at Oulton and work superbly though they have plenty of scrapes and dents now as they're not so hot on ground clearance. The brakes are now the limiting factor and Jerry Pell has some slightly modified Ducati pads as a solution for the stock caliper in conjunction with an EBC disc. Sadly he didn't have the pads with him at Cadders so I'll have that improvement to look forward to, and putting a linkage shift in to reverse the shift pattern is still to be done.
Practice was on Friday afternoon for me - first session out was dry then it teemed it down just as we went out for lap 1 of the second sesh. Soaked leathers, standing water, the works so abandoned that one. Sesh 3 was drying and sesh 4 mostly dry except Barn so got a few decent laps in. Really didn't get anyone to play with though as my normal rivals were taking things suspiciously steady so went straight past and didn't find anyone else about the same speed to have a hoon with. 42 rear gearing was leaving me at peak power before even seeing the 300m board so whacked a 41 in and some new tyres and good to go!
So, onto race 1 on Saturday and .... a flipping big wheelie off the line - bollox! Been suffering mild clutch slip all year and didn't know what the problem was. Changed the oil for some Halfords stuff and hey presto no clutch slip in practice so the Rock oil Taymar favours is evidently the issue. However, with the solution to that came a very different feeling clutch off the startline that was gonna take a little getting used to. Found myself among some rather unfamiliar folk and fought my way up to 15th quite quickly but the usual crew were edging out in front until lap 5 when we found Spencer Reeves and his yellow bike in the middle of the track at Hall Bends and all got split up, so ended up with no real battle - 10secs behind my usual rivals with Griggsy at the rear and the next person 10secs behind. Hot and knackered after about 5 laps fighting the bike too! Still, in the points and a 1:51.1 so smashed the best I'd managed on the 400 in 2006 so aim 1 out of the way.
Race 2 and still scorching sunshine, got a somewhat better start from a not particularly favourable grid position and got boxed in a bit into Coppice. This year they'd decided to make Cadwell a 3 bike row instead of 4 like most tracks which did make turn 1 somewhat less hectic than it apparently used to be. Stayed with the pack and found myself in no mans land again after a couple of laps, just keeping with people but not really closing up on them. After a bit of a horlicks at Park on the last lap thought I was gonna bag Craig Jennings but he managed to get back on the black stuff before I got him! 13th and a 1:50.07 so a few points and definite progress on the stopwatch.
The problems I found were I was tense and fighting the bike going into the Gooseneck and putting more effort and less speed into Hall Bends than I needed to, so tootled off for a watch of the fast 400s and the minitwins for inspiration, which proved useful on Sunday! Wunderkind Danny Buchan on the 400s was just so fast and smooth through Hall Bends it kind of clicked what I had to do. Watching the rookie open class with a beer and some fine YPM fellows - new buddy Tom Scheving, an American Air Force type riding a bog-stock SP1 I met at Snett no 2 earlier in the year was getting on reasonably well - there was an R1 going round at what looked a snails pace, nigh on upright on any bend we could see him on. Had a look at the timesheets after the race and he was doing 2:15. Gulp. On an R1 ferchrissakes! Given the front runners were doing 1:37s the differential was a tad dangerous!
And then another social gem courtesy of the friendly club members. Saturday evening is a big event at Cadwell dreamt up last year apparently. A couple of the YPM wives/girlfriends went round collecting curry orders during the day, everyone turned up in the evening with their tables, chairs and beer and the ladies returned at the allotted hour with a large car boot full of curry and hey presto a 90-head street party! Cracking evening, helped obviously by a welcome return to form by the British summer. Steve Higerty aka "Leslie Ash" had taken a swig from his Red Bull earlier in the day and found a wasp already having a go at it so it promptly stung him on the lip for his trouble - so plenty of sympathy on tap as you might expect from a bunch of bike racers and tales of wasp body counts through the day - pesky critters!
Sunday and another good sunny day to play on the tarmac. Race 1 started in a better grid slot and got away with the people I wanted to but spent a frustrating race behind Nick Griggs and Adrian Grove - Nick was clearly holding Adrian up but Ade couldn't work a way round him so I couldn't work out a way past the pair of them! Eventually Adrian pounced and I tried my damnedest to make my own move but Nick hurried up after that and the places I had been lining up weren't available any more! I got alongside coming out of Barn and nearly got a wheel in front but failed by a mere 0.055s! 14th and the last lap push got me a 1:48.9 so another good chunk off the time with a lot more comfortable feel on the bike.
And thence to the last race of the weekend. Went out in the right frame of mind i.e. quite fired up and determined not to fall in behind a Nick/Adrian roadblock whose times I could stay with quite easily. Got a great start and past a few round Charlies and slotted in behind Tony Hoare (brisk) and John Parbury (top 5 usually). Tagging onto that lot dragged the lap times down really quickly and past Ben Miles and Chris Wallace during lap 2 (my fastest of the weekend). I found Tony's pace was actually quite do-able this time round so prepared to tag on and see if I could line up a pass near the end of the race. No such luck - first Ben Miles and then Craig tried charging up the inside at a couple of corners and came out so slowly I could get them straight back. We lost Tony H and that was the way it went the whole rest of the race - it was scrappy and the lap times went completely to pot but it was straight duking it out all the way to the line. Craig missed a gear at the top of the mountain so he got dispatched going into Hall, then I made a right mess of the approach to the hairpin and ended up on the grass just where you need to brake. The hairpin was err interesting and slightly out of control but I made it through without getting passed back amazingly. Then a black bike with an orange bibbed rider came through at Park on the last lap and managed to get himself in a position I couldn't get him straight back in spite of the slow line through the corner. That's alright, he's a 17 year old who's never been this fast round here and enthusiasm will get the better of him by the end of the lap won't it? It didn't, he held me off to the line and beat me by 0.8secs in the end. Precocious little git! BUT I'd beaten the three main rivals and had a great battle doing it. So 9th - in the dry - fastest lap of 1:48.1.
The fastest TZR was down in the 1:45s and the fastest all weekend got a 1:44.9. So I'm getting there, 2.5-3secs off the pace of the fastest guys still leaves a bit of work to do but bearing in mind that was a 5-6sec gap at a roughly equivalent laptime to Brands GP it's definitely somewhat nearer the mark. Roll on Brands Indy no 2 at the end of September!
Brands GP, July, Round 5
So, now a seasoned pro going into my 5th round...
After a corking weekend at Oulton I was looking forward to Brands a lot, but again had never ridden it before. The good thing about Oulton was that in entering 2 classes, 400s as well - we doubled the 400 grid, and the EDI Asia guy that sponsors 400s hates 2 strokes which is a bonus (nothing like doing someone a favour so they have to go mmmff and not say too much hehe). I had 6 practice sessions and a qualifying available to me on Friday, which made life hectic (full trackday done and dusted by 1pm anyone???). I made 4 sessions after a powervalve controller failure had to be diagnosed and fixed. Qualifying was in meltingly humid heat but at least I had powervalves again. And some new pipes went on after qualifying, which makes mine one of the fastest bikes out of bends in pretty much the whole field
Morning practice was allegedly 15 minutes - one out lap and 4 flying ones for me so don't reckon it could have been. Still - everything going ok, just taking things cautiously - particularly the monstrously fast Hawthorn bend, which laughed at being taken flat in 4th so went to 5th. Monster queue for noise testing after as they ran out of stickers, so wasn't around to take my friend's call for tickets. So it was superb to see Matt (Milne) and Mike (Cope) turn up and hear Mike talk for the first time since the coma-inducing incident at Paddock Hill bend in March and a grim few weeks recovery.
Wasn't happening in Race 1 on Saturday, as it's the first time I've ridden Brands GP, so ended up outside the points (16th) for the first time since the centenary meet! Never thought I'd be expecting to finish INSIDE the points in April - now it's pretty much every time, which is progress. The significant event was being passed by a new-to-me rider Pat Smock, who made a clean pass at the back of the circuit and then proceeded to spectacularly bin it into the gravel at the bottom of the dip - lots of tumbling both bike and rider. The gravel showered all over the track but didn't create any probs as I rode over it. I got warned about Mr Smock by some of the others as he's known for being a bit of a loon, takes inadvisable lines and is not averse to bouncing off people in lieu of braking hard enough. Apparently he was taking his hand off the bars going round Paddock every time to wave at his little fan club - wonder why he binned it? So that was a red flag after just 3 laps.
Race 2 got me away with the gaggle of riders I've joined from 10th to about 16th. They did get away slightly but I got my best lap time of the weekend, but faded off in the last two laps as concentration levels disappeared. I knew Barry (Negus was breathing down my neck so kept it pinned as best I could, but only got it by 0.3secs... 15th and a point so not too bad for the first 13 laps round this most excellent circuit.
We were clearly robbed in the evening sports day events though! Welly wanging, egg & spoon, sack race etc. all in the name of donations to the Ben Fund and the overall class winners getting an extra lap for both their races on Sunday. Pipped by a few points by the 400s. Oh, and got a spot prize of £30 from our Norfolkline sponsor
Thanks to Team Rioja for another good social and an introduction to homemade lemon sherbet vodka (literally those sweets, that drink, mix, leave) drink of champions! :D
First race on Sunday was another cracker, usual crew swapping places for the first couple of laps, then left me behind ever so slightly. Which left me open to an attack by Barry at the back of the circuit. So lined him up coming out of Clearways and outbraked him going into Paddock (1st time I've been brave enough to try that one!). It stuck so I went on the chase after "the gaggle" but at some point during that lap out came the red flag for the unfortunate Kev Higerty and game over. Countback meant I lost out on 13th place by a measly 17thousandths of a second!
Race 2 gave us a bit of rain in the air and an uncertainly damp track to contend with. Got me usual fairly swift start from the outside of row 4 and after about 3 corners realised "the gaggle" weren't going as fast as usual. So went for it and got through with my target Craig in sight for a couple of laps and caught him up, at which point showing him a wheel for a couple of corners put a fire under his arse and had us battling all the way to the finish. The attempt on the last lap to try and outdrag him out of Surtees ended up with my back wheel a foot sideways, so caught him up again by Clearways and got alongside at the line. Missed out on 8th by 0.09sec!!!! Still 9th is my best ever finish so I'm pretty happy with that. :D
Really looking forward to Cadwell now.
All the Racing Line piccies I could dig out. There’s quite a few on Sunday that show the raindrops on the screen.
To introduce the gaggle of current close rivals you will see in these pics #98 Barry Negus, #71 Nick Griggs, #44 TDR Paul Norris, #10 RD Adrian Grove, #94 Craig Jennings, #14 Chris Wallace. Another you’ll not see is #82 “Smiley” Ben Miles as he wasn’t racing this weekend and #54 Spencer Reeves who’re just that little bit ahead but will definitely be featuring in future pics.
Saturday
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Sunday:-
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After a corking weekend at Oulton I was looking forward to Brands a lot, but again had never ridden it before. The good thing about Oulton was that in entering 2 classes, 400s as well - we doubled the 400 grid, and the EDI Asia guy that sponsors 400s hates 2 strokes which is a bonus (nothing like doing someone a favour so they have to go mmmff and not say too much hehe). I had 6 practice sessions and a qualifying available to me on Friday, which made life hectic (full trackday done and dusted by 1pm anyone???). I made 4 sessions after a powervalve controller failure had to be diagnosed and fixed. Qualifying was in meltingly humid heat but at least I had powervalves again. And some new pipes went on after qualifying, which makes mine one of the fastest bikes out of bends in pretty much the whole field
Morning practice was allegedly 15 minutes - one out lap and 4 flying ones for me so don't reckon it could have been. Still - everything going ok, just taking things cautiously - particularly the monstrously fast Hawthorn bend, which laughed at being taken flat in 4th so went to 5th. Monster queue for noise testing after as they ran out of stickers, so wasn't around to take my friend's call for tickets. So it was superb to see Matt (Milne) and Mike (Cope) turn up and hear Mike talk for the first time since the coma-inducing incident at Paddock Hill bend in March and a grim few weeks recovery.
Wasn't happening in Race 1 on Saturday, as it's the first time I've ridden Brands GP, so ended up outside the points (16th) for the first time since the centenary meet! Never thought I'd be expecting to finish INSIDE the points in April - now it's pretty much every time, which is progress. The significant event was being passed by a new-to-me rider Pat Smock, who made a clean pass at the back of the circuit and then proceeded to spectacularly bin it into the gravel at the bottom of the dip - lots of tumbling both bike and rider. The gravel showered all over the track but didn't create any probs as I rode over it. I got warned about Mr Smock by some of the others as he's known for being a bit of a loon, takes inadvisable lines and is not averse to bouncing off people in lieu of braking hard enough. Apparently he was taking his hand off the bars going round Paddock every time to wave at his little fan club - wonder why he binned it? So that was a red flag after just 3 laps.
Race 2 got me away with the gaggle of riders I've joined from 10th to about 16th. They did get away slightly but I got my best lap time of the weekend, but faded off in the last two laps as concentration levels disappeared. I knew Barry (Negus was breathing down my neck so kept it pinned as best I could, but only got it by 0.3secs... 15th and a point so not too bad for the first 13 laps round this most excellent circuit.
We were clearly robbed in the evening sports day events though! Welly wanging, egg & spoon, sack race etc. all in the name of donations to the Ben Fund and the overall class winners getting an extra lap for both their races on Sunday. Pipped by a few points by the 400s. Oh, and got a spot prize of £30 from our Norfolkline sponsor
Thanks to Team Rioja for another good social and an introduction to homemade lemon sherbet vodka (literally those sweets, that drink, mix, leave) drink of champions! :D
First race on Sunday was another cracker, usual crew swapping places for the first couple of laps, then left me behind ever so slightly. Which left me open to an attack by Barry at the back of the circuit. So lined him up coming out of Clearways and outbraked him going into Paddock (1st time I've been brave enough to try that one!). It stuck so I went on the chase after "the gaggle" but at some point during that lap out came the red flag for the unfortunate Kev Higerty and game over. Countback meant I lost out on 13th place by a measly 17thousandths of a second!
Race 2 gave us a bit of rain in the air and an uncertainly damp track to contend with. Got me usual fairly swift start from the outside of row 4 and after about 3 corners realised "the gaggle" weren't going as fast as usual. So went for it and got through with my target Craig in sight for a couple of laps and caught him up, at which point showing him a wheel for a couple of corners put a fire under his arse and had us battling all the way to the finish. The attempt on the last lap to try and outdrag him out of Surtees ended up with my back wheel a foot sideways, so caught him up again by Clearways and got alongside at the line. Missed out on 8th by 0.09sec!!!! Still 9th is my best ever finish so I'm pretty happy with that. :D
Really looking forward to Cadwell now.
All the Racing Line piccies I could dig out. There’s quite a few on Sunday that show the raindrops on the screen.
To introduce the gaggle of current close rivals you will see in these pics #98 Barry Negus, #71 Nick Griggs, #44 TDR Paul Norris, #10 RD Adrian Grove, #94 Craig Jennings, #14 Chris Wallace. Another you’ll not see is #82 “Smiley” Ben Miles as he wasn’t racing this weekend and #54 Spencer Reeves who’re just that little bit ahead but will definitely be featuring in future pics.
Saturday
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Sunday:-
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Oulton Park, June 2009, Round 4
Unfortunately my will to write Oulton up was interrupted by the sad demise of my friend Shaun Brownsey in a bicycle accident out near his home in Thailand. RIP my old friend.
Was a great weekend and ended up losing a dice every bloody race with the pesky Jennings! It was scorchio the whole weekend, and the format was slightly different to other rounds being a one dayer. To get our usual 4 races a whole 18 of us entered the F400 class, swelling their grid to the point that THEY were able to dual class with the Thunderbikes. Something they were very appreciative of. Glad to help out there boys!
So Friday was much practice - a whole 6 sessions worth by 1pm. In that heat. On that very physical and fantastically grippy track. As my powervalve controller went tits up in session 2 (interesting powerband without one to say the least!) I ended up scrounging one off Ken and missing a couple of sessions. Then there was F400 qualifying in the afternoon. I had my new exhausts so with the loan of a set of tailpipes from Moose I was able to fit them and was rubbing my hands together to see what difference they'd make...
Morning scroot, and then two practices sessions let me know they worked fantastically well, massively torquey and made the bike VERY fast out of corners. Yeehar! Big grins all round. Still hot n humid though!
Race 1 400s came in 22nd, fastest lap of 2:06.4, with a 0.24s split between me and Craig - a big crash in the first lap left a whole heap of people trackside gaining us about 3 spots. Race 9 400s 23rd, fastest lap of 2:03.8; the pesky Jennings got me by 0.3s (with Tony Hoare between us!). Race 7 YPMs 13th and a best lap of 2:04.9; pesky Jennings 0.12s ahead this time. Race 15 15th and a 2:04 dead - pesky Jennings got me by a whole 0.9s (with Chris Wallace and Adrian Grove taking up the slack space between us that time)! That was a battle royal with 6 of us crossing the line within 1.5seconds. That's what I call racing.
Still, I'm now riding with people I didn't have a prayer of keeping up with in the first two rounds so things have come together in a big way and it was proper racing between us all in those groups. Ace and more Ace 8-)
Oulton Piccies:
400s
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YPMs
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Was a great weekend and ended up losing a dice every bloody race with the pesky Jennings! It was scorchio the whole weekend, and the format was slightly different to other rounds being a one dayer. To get our usual 4 races a whole 18 of us entered the F400 class, swelling their grid to the point that THEY were able to dual class with the Thunderbikes. Something they were very appreciative of. Glad to help out there boys!
So Friday was much practice - a whole 6 sessions worth by 1pm. In that heat. On that very physical and fantastically grippy track. As my powervalve controller went tits up in session 2 (interesting powerband without one to say the least!) I ended up scrounging one off Ken and missing a couple of sessions. Then there was F400 qualifying in the afternoon. I had my new exhausts so with the loan of a set of tailpipes from Moose I was able to fit them and was rubbing my hands together to see what difference they'd make...
Morning scroot, and then two practices sessions let me know they worked fantastically well, massively torquey and made the bike VERY fast out of corners. Yeehar! Big grins all round. Still hot n humid though!
Race 1 400s came in 22nd, fastest lap of 2:06.4, with a 0.24s split between me and Craig - a big crash in the first lap left a whole heap of people trackside gaining us about 3 spots. Race 9 400s 23rd, fastest lap of 2:03.8; the pesky Jennings got me by 0.3s (with Tony Hoare between us!). Race 7 YPMs 13th and a best lap of 2:04.9; pesky Jennings 0.12s ahead this time. Race 15 15th and a 2:04 dead - pesky Jennings got me by a whole 0.9s (with Chris Wallace and Adrian Grove taking up the slack space between us that time)! That was a battle royal with 6 of us crossing the line within 1.5seconds. That's what I call racing.
Still, I'm now riding with people I didn't have a prayer of keeping up with in the first two rounds so things have come together in a big way and it was proper racing between us all in those groups. Ace and more Ace 8-)
Oulton Piccies:
400s
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YPMs
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Snetterton, June 2009, Round 3
Well that was a weekend and a half!
Friday was mostly running the bike in carefully after new pistons and a rebore. For those of you not familiar with my tale of TZR woes, I was running Dexter's spare engine for the first two meets while mine was sorted out, so it was good to be out on my own motor at last. Missed a bit of tracktime not quite being ready in time after the usual A11 traffic jam near Snett, and ran low on fuel in one of the sessions so ran out of time to really spank it. That's what Saturday morning practice was for... and it held together :D
Saturday race 1 grabbed a decent enough start from row 7 and was with a lot of the familiar faces from the first two rounds - Tom Dyke alongside me bogged right down so was behind. Soon worked out a way past a couple of people then Tom, having recovered from the startline 'mare, got past and a race-long battle ensued, with Messrs Donkersley and Buchan in close attendance after doing the pair of them on the brakes going into the Esses. Shame old Headling wasn't there to join that party eh? ;) Was a little puzzled to see a chequered flag having not seen a last lap jobber I was sure I hadn’t seen the Smith and Herron duo blast by. Then the results sheet showed me and Tom as lapped, so we surmised the LCs must have been close behind so had to put the chequered one out. Very little in it between Tom and I come the finish line. In March's dry/cold but windy conditions I got a 1:32.9 in the morning and a 1:31.9 in the afternoon. This time by comparison a 1:28.3 which is one heck of a jump, and a personal best finish position of 19th.
So, a row 5 start for Saturday race 2 and got a stormer off the startline. I was soon re-passed by the harder chargers and then joined by Yats and Tom, who managed to edge past, and I subsequently made a few little errors while I watched them creep away little by little. Behind me were a couple of stalkers in the form of Craig Jennings and Higgsy, who managed to edge me out once again, but not get away, so there was plenty of wheel showing going on for the last few laps and great fun was had by all in our little trio. 20th in the end and a best of 1:27.5 which was pretty good progress.
Sunday after the Sqwelchies' party was not getting me out of my pit for a 3 lap Mickey-Mouse warmup so didn't bother even trying. It was only afterwards I found out the format had changed by combining classes and there were actually about 10mins on offer (which I would have got up for). The unfortunate Terry visited the grass in turn 1 on his brand new tyre and bashed himself about a bit though!
The MRO thou's were out at 12:45 and a few of us up on the grassy knoll were kind of poised thinking we'd never get a call before lunch cos they never call lunch late do they? They did, the buggers, and it was then a bit of a mad dash to get kitted up for the start. As it turned out they got us on the grid in the light rain then sent us away again for lunch while they cleared up an oil spill. Of course that gave it time to give us a proper wet race come 2pm. Warmup lap was foul, couldn’t see a darn thing down Revett straight and the rest wasn’t much better. Probably better off not seeing much as it was all standing or running water! Got another fairly decent start and followed the hard-charging Tom D once again round turn 1. Couldn’t do much with turn 2 and was worried by the temp gauge reading down the straight – 2 strips of gaffa on the rad still weren’t enough! 1st time into the Esses and came out without too much drama. 2nd time round the Esses and coming out of the right-hander had a MONSTER moment that had me out of the seat. Eye witnesses assure me it was just as spectacular from the ringside seat. That kind of threw me off kilter for a while as something didn’t feel quite right and then, coming round Corams towards Russels, shut the throttle a bit after a small slide and was a bit perturbed to find it still driving forward. A couple of blips with the clutch in got it idling again but I was kinda hoping it wouldn’t jam wide open into turn one… Adrian on the 350 got past and; the group Tom was battling with ended up in a bit of a tangle at turn 2 at some point - can’t really remember much for the next few laps other than relaxing my grip on the bars, riding a bit smoother/faster, trying not to tense up over the stream flowing across the Bombhole, and watching Higgsy reverse towards me slowly. As did Pat Herron I was somewhat amazed to find on the last lap. I’d followed Higgsy round Corams on the 2nd to last lap and knew I had a bit of a drop on him round there but tried it on at the end of Revetts. He was having none of it and got me back, so I lined him up round the outside at Corams, braked as late as I dared into Russels, made a complete horlicks of getting out of Russells with 6krpm on the tacho so clutched it and pinned it towards the line. Place X was mine, not a very good one so I thought. I was utterly amazed to find it was 10th! Of 22 finishers so would have been a national signature too! That long wait for points and then 6 of the 'em come along at once – WOOHOO!
So, race 2 after an eternal wait and I’m in the heady echelons of row 3 after the rain soaked race 1 turned the grid on its head. Gotta make the most of this one, so into turn one with another clean start and went for it as best I could. For the first 2 laps round Coram the bike was making ‘S’ shapes all the way round for some reason. Had a little surprise on about lap 2 I think when Sqwelchie tried a move into Russells, thought better of trying the left flick at that speed and was last seen making a beeline for the marshal post :-D. Had a race-long dice with Yats who had the entry into the Esses sussed right out after losing out every time down Revetts. Barry Negus joined the party for the last two laps, and him shutting the door on me at the fastest bit of Corams made for an interesting few seconds of “who’s gonna blink first” action. A 12th place finish wasn’t a bad result at all, so first dry points too! Oh and a 1:26.8, a whole 5 seconds faster than the first Snett.
No more novice jacket either. Had a great weekend socially and on the track, sliced aeons off my laptimes and finished well above expectations, 10 points in the bag, newly built engine was going well… I’m pretty happy with that for round 3
Friday was mostly running the bike in carefully after new pistons and a rebore. For those of you not familiar with my tale of TZR woes, I was running Dexter's spare engine for the first two meets while mine was sorted out, so it was good to be out on my own motor at last. Missed a bit of tracktime not quite being ready in time after the usual A11 traffic jam near Snett, and ran low on fuel in one of the sessions so ran out of time to really spank it. That's what Saturday morning practice was for... and it held together :D
Saturday race 1 grabbed a decent enough start from row 7 and was with a lot of the familiar faces from the first two rounds - Tom Dyke alongside me bogged right down so was behind. Soon worked out a way past a couple of people then Tom, having recovered from the startline 'mare, got past and a race-long battle ensued, with Messrs Donkersley and Buchan in close attendance after doing the pair of them on the brakes going into the Esses. Shame old Headling wasn't there to join that party eh? ;) Was a little puzzled to see a chequered flag having not seen a last lap jobber I was sure I hadn’t seen the Smith and Herron duo blast by. Then the results sheet showed me and Tom as lapped, so we surmised the LCs must have been close behind so had to put the chequered one out. Very little in it between Tom and I come the finish line. In March's dry/cold but windy conditions I got a 1:32.9 in the morning and a 1:31.9 in the afternoon. This time by comparison a 1:28.3 which is one heck of a jump, and a personal best finish position of 19th.
So, a row 5 start for Saturday race 2 and got a stormer off the startline. I was soon re-passed by the harder chargers and then joined by Yats and Tom, who managed to edge past, and I subsequently made a few little errors while I watched them creep away little by little. Behind me were a couple of stalkers in the form of Craig Jennings and Higgsy, who managed to edge me out once again, but not get away, so there was plenty of wheel showing going on for the last few laps and great fun was had by all in our little trio. 20th in the end and a best of 1:27.5 which was pretty good progress.
Sunday after the Sqwelchies' party was not getting me out of my pit for a 3 lap Mickey-Mouse warmup so didn't bother even trying. It was only afterwards I found out the format had changed by combining classes and there were actually about 10mins on offer (which I would have got up for). The unfortunate Terry visited the grass in turn 1 on his brand new tyre and bashed himself about a bit though!
The MRO thou's were out at 12:45 and a few of us up on the grassy knoll were kind of poised thinking we'd never get a call before lunch cos they never call lunch late do they? They did, the buggers, and it was then a bit of a mad dash to get kitted up for the start. As it turned out they got us on the grid in the light rain then sent us away again for lunch while they cleared up an oil spill. Of course that gave it time to give us a proper wet race come 2pm. Warmup lap was foul, couldn’t see a darn thing down Revett straight and the rest wasn’t much better. Probably better off not seeing much as it was all standing or running water! Got another fairly decent start and followed the hard-charging Tom D once again round turn 1. Couldn’t do much with turn 2 and was worried by the temp gauge reading down the straight – 2 strips of gaffa on the rad still weren’t enough! 1st time into the Esses and came out without too much drama. 2nd time round the Esses and coming out of the right-hander had a MONSTER moment that had me out of the seat. Eye witnesses assure me it was just as spectacular from the ringside seat. That kind of threw me off kilter for a while as something didn’t feel quite right and then, coming round Corams towards Russels, shut the throttle a bit after a small slide and was a bit perturbed to find it still driving forward. A couple of blips with the clutch in got it idling again but I was kinda hoping it wouldn’t jam wide open into turn one… Adrian on the 350 got past and; the group Tom was battling with ended up in a bit of a tangle at turn 2 at some point - can’t really remember much for the next few laps other than relaxing my grip on the bars, riding a bit smoother/faster, trying not to tense up over the stream flowing across the Bombhole, and watching Higgsy reverse towards me slowly. As did Pat Herron I was somewhat amazed to find on the last lap. I’d followed Higgsy round Corams on the 2nd to last lap and knew I had a bit of a drop on him round there but tried it on at the end of Revetts. He was having none of it and got me back, so I lined him up round the outside at Corams, braked as late as I dared into Russels, made a complete horlicks of getting out of Russells with 6krpm on the tacho so clutched it and pinned it towards the line. Place X was mine, not a very good one so I thought. I was utterly amazed to find it was 10th! Of 22 finishers so would have been a national signature too! That long wait for points and then 6 of the 'em come along at once – WOOHOO!
So, race 2 after an eternal wait and I’m in the heady echelons of row 3 after the rain soaked race 1 turned the grid on its head. Gotta make the most of this one, so into turn one with another clean start and went for it as best I could. For the first 2 laps round Coram the bike was making ‘S’ shapes all the way round for some reason. Had a little surprise on about lap 2 I think when Sqwelchie tried a move into Russells, thought better of trying the left flick at that speed and was last seen making a beeline for the marshal post :-D. Had a race-long dice with Yats who had the entry into the Esses sussed right out after losing out every time down Revetts. Barry Negus joined the party for the last two laps, and him shutting the door on me at the fastest bit of Corams made for an interesting few seconds of “who’s gonna blink first” action. A 12th place finish wasn’t a bad result at all, so first dry points too! Oh and a 1:26.8, a whole 5 seconds faster than the first Snett.
No more novice jacket either. Had a great weekend socially and on the track, sliced aeons off my laptimes and finished well above expectations, 10 points in the bag, newly built engine was going well… I’m pretty happy with that for round 3
Brands Indy April Round 2
Didn't actually get a report together, but have a look at some on board footage. Cheapo Aldi £60 camera, sponge and cable ties but gives you a seat of the pants feel for what I was seeing!
Sun Race 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFw9E6V_hRw&fmt=18
Sun Race 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCq8Ulsv5Io&fmt=18
For what it is I'm well impressed with the results of the videoing, and it really does bring it home to both seasoned observers and the uninitiated that even us minute or so lappers are all trying pretty hard against ourselves and each other.
Also, it's been a great way of reliving the weekend's action - that 2nd race there were 7 of us within 2 seconds over the line on lap 6 when they called the result and no-one was about to give up for what would have been another 4 laps. That's why I came racing and that's what made it all so much fun.
My current target Ken loves all the elbows out, fairing bashing, blocking and baulking moves (when the people behind keep coming through and diving in where a gap's left). It's teaching me a lot I need to know about how to race rather than just ride, which is what I've been doing on track for the past few years. The vid's also a useful analytical tool for working out what I should have been trying! The 10 people in "my group" are all doing more or less the same times so with a few bits of working out how to make overtakes work cleanly and some later braking getting to a points scoring position'll come relatively easily. The people in front of that lot won't be so easy...
Race 1 Saturday , Race 2 Saturday , Race 1 Sunday , Race 2 Sunday
Pics I've had to hyperlink as I've had probs with image display links unfortunately; you might see a pic too:-
#38 wearing a bike
Close dice in my group
Sun Race 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFw9E6V_hRw&fmt=18
Sun Race 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCq8Ulsv5Io&fmt=18
For what it is I'm well impressed with the results of the videoing, and it really does bring it home to both seasoned observers and the uninitiated that even us minute or so lappers are all trying pretty hard against ourselves and each other.
Also, it's been a great way of reliving the weekend's action - that 2nd race there were 7 of us within 2 seconds over the line on lap 6 when they called the result and no-one was about to give up for what would have been another 4 laps. That's why I came racing and that's what made it all so much fun.
My current target Ken loves all the elbows out, fairing bashing, blocking and baulking moves (when the people behind keep coming through and diving in where a gap's left). It's teaching me a lot I need to know about how to race rather than just ride, which is what I've been doing on track for the past few years. The vid's also a useful analytical tool for working out what I should have been trying! The 10 people in "my group" are all doing more or less the same times so with a few bits of working out how to make overtakes work cleanly and some later braking getting to a points scoring position'll come relatively easily. The people in front of that lot won't be so easy...
Race 1 Saturday , Race 2 Saturday , Race 1 Sunday , Race 2 Sunday
Pics I've had to hyperlink as I've had probs with image display links unfortunately; you might see a pic too:-
#38 wearing a bike
Close dice in my group
Wednesday 1 April 2009
Snett 03 2009
Well, the challenge was to get out there at all after the fateful Brands trackday brought me an engine failure. It was pulled apart and a few not so pleasant things were found inside – I’ve posted the full story here http://www.ypmrc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34&start=20 if you’re interested in the inner workings of a 20 year old engine!
Just being there at all involved a bit of pulling together, so thanks to Dex for the hire of a fast motor and Martin Taylor (Taymar Racing) for getting it together in time.
Had to go from
My bike and fairing finally got to match up to one another on Friday morning so missed a couple of sessions fettling that little lot and making sure the bike was fit, between running around the awning re-siting and bashing in pegs where the wind was grabbing them. By which time the rain had started! And the wind round the circuit was really going some now... So it was a few sessions of dawdling round to get used to the circuit and spinning it up what felt like nearly upright in 6 deg C and wet conditions. New GPR70 was fitted (control tyre for TZRs this season, and at £23.50 a pop we’re not complaining). A good night out in the steakhouse just outside the circuit after the day was done made for a good evening’s bullshit and bar talk, but come 9pm we were all knackered so another pint in Snett bar and we were done! Rock and roll…
Saturday morning and all I had to do was fit the rear wheel, check pressures and off we go. At that point I discover that the battery pixies had visited my brand new transponder and flattened the bloody thing overnight (four flashes equals four days, three 3 days and so on). On Friday it all looked fine for the weekend – four green flashes - and on Saturday morning nothing!!! Grrr, get the bugger on charge and find out the bike battery’s flat too. Quick schoolboy error question to the other YPMers revealed I was running a total loss ignition with the borrowed engine, hence no charging while in motion. Oops! Out comes the Optimate too.
I can't say I was particularly up for it on Saturday warmup or first race (brand new GPR70 in those conditions didn't feel ever so clever). It was cold, wet and windy with some hail at times, so the general mood was one of enduring the conditions. 29th and a 1:52 gives a picture of how dismal things were. Come the second race when we had a dry session it was ok but the wind felt like it was taking the front wheel away round Corams and Sears. MUCH better confidence with some dry conditions and had a great bit of argy bargy off the startline with Ken Lawrence, the fastest posty in
Sunday dawned with an hour less kip from the time change to BST. After a cold wet Saturday it had cleared up while we slept and a heavy frost had left things wet and freezing in parts. So another dawdle round for morning warmup just to get the leathers and the engine warm really. Pat had borrowed a BRAND NEW RD350 off another YPMer and bolted various of his own bits on so it looked like his bike. It came back with a nice 6” round hole in the generator cover where the rotor had come off the spline and punched its way free… So Pat had another drama to get ready for first race!
An earlier race start caused some further drama as we were expecting another 11:00 am kickoff, so a couple were tanks-off mid-fettle when the first call went out at 10:00. Sunday’s new improved weather made things a lot nicerer really. I can get these things off the line – it’s great! The RD350 I hired back along was a pig to get moving from 0mph so this is a pleasant surprise. Three of the front runners who started from the pitlane came storming up through the pack, but couldn’t really grab any ideas off ‘em as they bogged off into the distance. Had a good diceup in both races with a couple of the other rookies - and an outbraking-himself Ken so I thoroughly enjoyed myself! In the second race I hadn’t made a decent connection pushing the bullet connector back in to connect up the powervalves, so it kept opening and closing them and losing my fast bike its advantage down the straights – somewhat frustrating!!
27th and a 1:32.9 in the first race (more finishers pushed me back a couple of places in the order) and the same finish place but a 1:31.9 in the second. No fork brace certainly makes things interesting round Corams – it’s all wriggling around and took a little while to get the measure of what was meant to be moving around and what was “about to snap out” difference in feeling.
So, not gonna set the world on fire, but made progress, got faster and really enjoyed the Sunday races - the times are only a second off the points pace, so a bit more elbows out stuff and taking advantage of the relatively decent starts I can make compared to those immediately around me and things should improve pretty rapidly. Roll on Brands!!!
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