Featured Drag Racing A 765rs

Another Triumph racer here - but this time in a staright line. For the last 3 years I have raced my Exploder in the ACU ET Bike championship (although I did the last 2 rounds on my Daytona 955i).
This year though, I have a new toy to play with. A Street Triple 765RS and this weekend sees the first round of the 2019 Championship - 6 rounds, all at Santa Pod this year as Shakespeare and York are no more.
I have managed to get a couple of practice days and I'm now getting some consistency on it, so I'm looking forward to the new season and finishing higher than 4th overall (again!) this year.

 

First qualifier completed and despite wheelies in first and second gear, I was close enough to my dial in to qualify at P4.
Still 0.21 off my dial in, which I'll have to improve upon to stop being pushed down the order.
One more qualifying session today and two tomorrow.

Happy enough with the first run of the season though - and I was quicker than Jake on his Speed Triple R, who had even more fun trying to keep his front wheel on terra firma!!!

Next scheduled run is around 5:15 and if you like, you can catch all the action live here...
https://www.youtube.com/user/SantaPodTV

 

Yes. TC is too intrusive and inconsistent - even in the track setting.

 

Just home from a hot and sunny weekend of great racing and company.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to improve my qualifying position as I broke out, setting a PB in the process, but unhelpful as I ended up as number 8 qualifier. Not the best place to be as it put me against Paul Adams the number 1 qualifier in the first round.

Paul's Gixxer thou drag bike runs consistent 8.8 second quarters, so my 10.8 meant I got a 2 second head start and at the 1000ft mark a glance back showed I had enough lead to shut off before the stripe to prevent breaking out. Except I did break out - I had run another PB of 10.72 - and so handed the win to Paul.

Bugger!

Still, it meant I could chill and watch the racing for the rest of the day, and my 2 friends I race with di much better - Holly got to semi finals (losing by 0.04) and Jon won in VW Sportsman. So all in all, a great weekend.

Next round is in 2 weeks.

 

Exactly that Billy.

Basically, there are three different race systems in drag racing.

1. Heads Up - what is says on the tin. 2 bikes (or cars) line up together, lights go green, first to the end wins.
This would include Top Fuel bike - the pinnacle, nitro burning monsters which will run uner 6 seconds at well over 200mph - Competition bike, now in the six second bracket and Super Street - no wheelie bars, street legal tyres and 'loosely' based on a production motorcycle, now running as quick as 6.8seconds at over 200 mph.

2. Bracket Racing. Mainly 8.50 and 9.50 bike (several car classes run this style too). For bikes that run no faster than 8.50 or 9.50. Which essentially means to win you need to run almost exactly those times and no quicker or the win goes to your opponent. In the final yesterday the losing bike ran 9.561 seconds to a winning 9,508.

3. ET (Elapsed or estimated Time) Racing.
This is the class I run and is open to all bikes wich run no quicker than 8.70 seconds for the quarter where you estimate what byour elaapsed time for the run will be. Qualifying is based on the riders nearest to their predicted time.
In competition, the handicap on the tree is set at the difference between the times, so a bike predicting 10.78 will get a 2 second start over a bike predicting 8 78 seconds. Which was my first round yesterday - except I ran 10.72 and so handed the win to my opponent.
The breakout rule stops people from sandbagging and posting a time much slower than they are capable of.
It also makes for some really close racing - Jake on his Speed Triple lost out to a turbo gixxer thou by 0.009 of a second.
The class allows road legal bikes with MOT to run without the need for lockwiring and lanyards within the rules, which makes for a really diverse assortment of entries - this weekend had full competition bikes with wheelie bars and slicks running high 8 second times to a 175cc Italjet scooter running 14 seconds.

 

The bike is totally sock at present. All that I have done to it is remove the pillion pegs, fit a tail tidy and add race numbers.
I even have the stock exhaust and as I have no grip issues, I'm currently running standard tyre pressures!

 

The basics are really simple - set your time, go on the green and if you get to the other end first you are the winner as long as you didn't run too quick. - just like enduro, but instead of a time penalty, the other bike takes the win. Unless, of course, he ran even quicker, then you have a double break out and the one who breaks out by the least is the winner!
Of course, if you red light, you also lose. Unless your oponent crosses the centreline, in which case he loses under the first or worst rule!!!!!

You can also lose even if you run exactly to your time if you snooze on the line as you time starts when you move and not with the green light. That's a 'holeshot' win.

And...... etc...


Simples!!!!!!

 

Liming up ready for round 1, the pic gives some idea of the diversity of bikes in the class - in the foregroud is Joe's 172cc Italjet scooter (his other bike is a BMW 1000RR), behind him is Jake's Speer Triple R, my 765RS, Dutch rider's S1000RR, Gary's Old Skool Suzuki 1200 hiding Pete's Ducati ST2. Other bikes out of shot include a couple of Gixxer 1000 drag bikes, a ZX9 and a RD250 engined sprint bike.

 

I was out again last weekend for the Summer Nationals, again at Santa Pod, for round 3 of 6.

Summer Nationals.
What an event. Superb weather, splendid company and great racing.
It's no secret that I have been struggling to get some consistency this season. Over the last couple of seasons, the Exploder and the Daytona were both (relatively) easy bikes to run consistent times on. With 2 gearbox rebuilds on the Exploder and the Daytona neeeding a gearbox rebuild at the end of last season, the decision was made to change bikes, so a switch to the new 765RS Street Triple was made.
It's a great bike, but a right fiesty little bugger to accelerate hard on and keep the front wheel down on terra firma.
With two first round defeats in the first two rounds of the season, I was languishing down in 11th place in the championship.
My first qualifying run on Saturday morning didn't go well, with the front wheel steadily rising, short shift to second, front still in the air, but controlable and still accelerating hard. As the front dropped back to tarmac it switched to an almighty tank slapper. I tried to ride through it, but had to shut off momentarily to get some stability back. I've never had a tank slapper before. And I don't want one again. And far enough off my dial-in to put me down in 10th place.
Gentle launches in Q2 and Q3 saw me putting in runs within 0.17 of my dial-in, but in this class with the top 8 riders within 0.0x of their dial-ins, this is only good enough for 11th place - and the chance to run against Gary Hester in the first round. Bugger. I decided to drop my dial-in to 11.02 and stick with the gentle launch and replicate my last 2 qualifiers. Gary dialled his usual mid 10 and I was expecting a close race, but as I approached the 1000' mark, Gary was still some way behind allowing me to shut off and cross the line in 11.11 seconds.
I was through the first round.
Round 2 saw me against old hand Robbie Dobbie who dialled 10.25. I stuck with 11.02 and the same gentle launch. He came past me just before the line. Picking up my timing ticket cheered me up no end. 11.03 on my 11.02 - and Robbie broke out, giving the win to me.
On to the Semi-finals and Phil Pratt. ET Bike champion since forever and ultra consistent - except for today, he was doing OK, but down on his usual unbeatable form. Now was my chance, until I redlit. Bollocks.
Bright
Red
Cherry.
OK. Pin it! He's won, let's see if I can breakout too. 10.90, my best worst run of the weekend. Phil went on to win the event.
A semi-final appearance has upped my points tally and pushed my up to 7th from 11th and only 100 points (one round of racing) away from 5th.
Our next outing is at the Green Light Nationals in August, which is a double header - 2 rounds in the same weekend. Bring it on - I'm back!

A massive thank you to all the marshalls, stewards and security for putting on a great weekend and an extra special thanks to all the track crew for the hard slog you put in to keep us racing. Cheers!

 

My stupidity has no bounds.... Bravery implies I know what I'm doing!

 

I guess so. Never had one before - the occasional wobble when pushing hard on bumpy back roads, but this was something else - a fiend who was watching from the spectator banking said there was an audible gasp from the crowd.

Ever the showman!!