4 Wins and busted front wheel...
Friday 18 March
Session 1: 2 laps, best 1:08.405
The bike handled pretty good out of the crate. It felt a little nose heavy, and tail happy off some of the off camber corners. The misfire was there, but did not seem as bad as on the dyno. With only two laps in I feel my right foot slipping on the peg, looking down I see oil on my boot. Shit! I come in.
The clutch seems to be leaking oil still, and I returned to the pits with oil on my right and left foot pegs. I was not overly surprised by this given that we did not quite know if the welding on the left side was perfect nor if the big clutch seal was okay. I pulled the clutch cover and outer off, the small seal in the driven shaft looked okay to me. I put this right hand side down to oil still on the clutch plates. On the left side it appeared that the clutch slave was leaking. I pulled if off and found a lot of oil on the shaft. Suspecting that was from the welding I cleaned this up and put it back together.
Session 2: 2 laps, best 1:05.484
The bike still feels tail happy, but the lap times do not lie and I certainly could go faster but will have to do some changes with ride height to get more rear bias. Again two laps in I smell oil and come in with a bike dripping from both sides of the motor! This time there is oil on the rear tyre, and I have to wonder how much of the movement I am getting is from here rather than stance of bike.
The oil is pouring out of the clutch side. I pull the cover and outer again. The inner seal is in place. So I pull the whole clutch basket to check the outer (big) seal. I run the bike up and there is no issue I can see from this seal. I put it all back together cleaning everything as I go. On the left side of the bike I clean up the oil and am stunned to see the counter shaft seal coming out of the cases! I pull the sprocket and tap this back into place. Mike had warned me that this might happen after the welding with the seal perishing from the heat.
Session 3: 1 lap, best 1:05.003
Faster again, but only one flying lap before I smell oil and feel my right foot sliding, then my left foot! What the hell is going on!
Back in the pits there is oil everywhere. The counter shaft seal has completely popped out. The clutch is pouring oil again. Its as though we are facing some massive crank case pressurization issues, as such I pull the breather completely out to check it. No dramas there. Removing the sprocket again I pull and clean the counter shaft seal and groove, then glue it back in with some threebond! Stay put you little shit.
Clutch side, I pull the cover and outer again. This time I find another amazing sight with the small inner seal having popped out of its location, oil is pouring out of the shaft. I clean this all up and put the seal back in place. Starting the bike I watch the seal slowly migrate out of the shaft.... What the? Cleaning the seal and shaft up I superglue the seal back in place. Take that! John Price comes by and we check the clutch pushrod. As far as I can see the only way the seal is getting moved is a bent pushrod. We know we bent it with the chain broke, but it looks pretty good to us. Post gluing, the rod and seal stays in place pretty good.
I check the breather, and then go mental and drill a massive hole through the middle of it! That will learn it to pressurize my cases!
Session 4: 2 laps, best 1:04.540
My out lap is cautious, I look down checking my footpegs for oil, sniff and see if I can smell any. Not sensing any drama I up the pace. On my second lap I flash over the line to see a 1:04.540, cool! As I hit the brakes into turn one I feel my right foot slide a fraction on the peg, I have just enough time to think "I wonder if its a lot", as I tip in. It is! The bike slides in a huge way trying to throw me out of the saddle. Pulling the brakes on as hard as I can scrubs some pace off, but leaves me at I guess a hundred kilometers an hour as I hit the dirt. Looking up the hill I plot a course up to the fence, easy. In the foreground I see a slight problem, an erosion ditch roughly a foot deep and wide. I loose my grip on the bars and wait for the impact. Bang! The bike starts to slew the front down hill. Bang! Okay the rear tyre is thought it. Applying the most minute steering input to dodge the trees ahead I feel the front loose grip and tuck downhill. I am outa here, pulling my hands up and pushing down on the footpegs to jump clear. Ugly yes, effective you bet! Until I land leading with my right shoulder and head. Ouch! I leap to my feet and turn to find the bike only two meters away, engine still running. I push the kill switch and look at the bike to see oil everywhere! Picking the bike up it will not move and I look down to see the carbon front wheel has collapsed. SHIT! $1800 down the drain.
Back in the pits I find my helmet is damaged to. Quickly I call Craig White to see if he has any spares, no he did not bring any. Craig calls Rick Heffernan from Albury. Rick is believe it or not in a bike shop! Rick agrees to bring me a new helmet on the morrow, life saver Rick. The replacement front wheel is not an issue I have a spare for the wet. The oil leak though is massive, and I remove the clutch over and outer again to find the small inner seal completely pushed out. Placing my finger over the end of the shaft I can feel the a massive amount of pressure pushing air out quickly followed by volumes of oil! Something very odd is going on. I call Mike and give him the good news, I am alive and about ready to burn the bike to the ground. I give him a full briefing and tells me to go and have a beer while he thinks about it. Nursing a very sore shoulder I follow his instructions all the while thinking about why this bike refuses to work for us.
 |
| The mystery bolt! |
By 9pm I am back at the track. I pull the clutch push rod and start the motor, volumes of oil pour from the clutch pushrod hole on both sides. With the mystery bolt undone and extra hands from Scotty Brown to start the bike we quickly find this indeed an oil feed to the clutch pushrod. Oil comes gushing out of the bolt hole along with a spring and ball bearing! I call Mike and we confer, if the ball bearing is held down no oil will be feed to the clutch pushrod. I make a spacer to replace the spring from a steel drill bit, while Scotty helps change disks on wheels etc. Measuring three times the depth from back of ball bearing to top of the bolt hole, I average them for the spacer length. At about 1030pm with the spacer in place we start the bike. No oil geysers! I call a tired sounding Mike to give him the good news. Scotty heads off to bed. I drink some more gator aid, make a cup of tea and reassemble the bike. Sometime around 1130pm I get the fibre glass box out and set to repairing the destroyed front guard. It has been demolished by the collapsing front wheel. With 2:30am on the dial I fall into bed in the back of the van. All I have to do is bolt the front guard on and I am ready to ride.
Saturday 19 March
Qualifying: 8 laps best of 1:05.443 10th place start.
In a single session I get as many laps in as the last two full days of track time. I pull in after two laps to the pit lane and have good look around the bike. I see small residual amounts of oil but nothing new. From there I push on for another 8 laps. My initial impression of the bike being a bit nose heavy are confirmed by some wild moments off the hump on the back straight, I have the damper on hard by the third quick lap. It's going hard, but I am really lacking confidence in my turn one tip in, and also onto the front straight.
Changes: I pull the back down by 7mm and push the front up by 5mm. Its a bit of a gamble but the bike feels very nosy and the bike is spinning and drifting everywhere. I have never felt a bike less stable down the back straight here. Thankfully the db1 Beta EVO is so small that I am sure it will survive without loosing its flickablity.
Race 1: Fastest lap: 1:04.961, ultimate lap 1:04.932 on lap 5/6
I get a good start with the bike proving easy to launch. I get caught up with Bill Shannahan and a couple of the slower 4 valve Ducati's. Bill is riding well and follow him to the line in 9th place. I am struggling to get the power down onto the front straight. After all the drama's I've had I am very nervous of another mechanical issue. Having said that the bike was flawless in this race.
Race 2: Fastest lap: 1:05.016, ultimate lap 1:04.995 on lap 5/6
A good race. I managed to get ahead of some of the big bikes on the run down into the pit entry corner on lap one. This allowed me to take the fight to them a bit easier, messing up there lines in the tight stuff. It worked pretty good with me being able to take 6th place outright! Nice.
Sunday 20 March
Race 3: Fastest lap: 1:04.012, Best rolling lap: 1.03.838, ultimate lap 1:03.773 on lap 5/6
A good race, I wish these big bikes were out of my way in the tight stuff. Here is the video.
Race 4: Fastest lap: 1:04.087, Best rolling lap: 1.03.544, ultimate lap 1:03.399 on lap 4/6
This was a strange race, with one of the front running bikes exploding! This made Mark Belestro shut off big time, hence me and Bill Shannahan caught him with a lap to go. Enjoy.
Racing Wrap: First in F3 with four wins. Four tenths of a second off the lap record, I know I can beat it. I wanna come back when the bike is finished!
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