Vinces 2005 Season. The story so far has been a nightmare, it goes something like this:
Decided to go racing a Kawasaki ZX10R in the MRO National Championship after having competed in the British Endurance Championship for a number of years with other teams, so with the help of Nick Morgan of MSS who supplied the bike I was finally at the beginning of the "Mistral Race Adventure".
After basic preparation , i.e. race bodywork and enough petrol in the tank, the bike got its 10 minute obligatory running in session on our dyno followed by its first track outing at a cold ( -2 air temp / -8 track temp ) Brands Hatch track day organised by the country's number 1 track day company "Focused Events". It all went like a dream and the bike proved to be an absolute rocket with a measured 164 horsepower at the rear wheel. The following week the bike was booked to race at Snetterton for the first round of the "Bemsee Forza Extreme Championship" however due to work commitments we missed Friday practice and due to the bike failing scruteneering on the Saturday due to it still running standard brake lines instead of braided lines we also missed all day Saturday. By Sunday morning we were finally ready and once through scruteneering it was straight out into 3 laps of practice before the first race which was the "Champion of Snetterton" race. The 3 laps of practice proved to be just enough to remind me how badly I remembered the track and also how a standard ZX10R is not a bike you just jump on and race against some of the best riders in the country without some proper practice and major set-up. Finally on the start line thinking this was not the most intelligent thing I'd ever done and the race got under way, everybody got away well and all I seemed to do was point at the sky repeatedly, another thing I learned, you don't give a 164 hp bike 10.000rpm and dump the clutch. Eventually I got under way too and started clawing my way through the pack, the bike spent most of the straight sections on its back wheel which was very entertaining and it did feel great being back in the thick of it. I eventually came through from around 30th to finish 6th with a lap time of only half a second of fastest lap so the team were elated and we were sure we would be winning by the end of the day. In the second race I had a much better start and was flying through the pack when I become entangled with another rider entering the esses after the 180mph back straight, needles to say both bikes looked completely destroyed and that was the end of the week end for us. Upon inspection we found the bike had suffered a bent frame , swingarm , axles , wheels , forks , fork clamps etc etc, so in true racer style we put a new set of bodywork on and went racing at Brands the following week for the first round of the "MRO Championship". Qualifying was a nightmare, all the bike wanted to do was shake and turn right ( the headstock was out by 9mm and the swingarm was out by 16mm, we later discovered)our fastest qualifying time of 52.002 was embarrassing and also bloody dangerous so we decided to throw everything back in the truck and go find some fun instead. While we got the chassis sorted we missed out on another couple of rounds and we have now found that the bike has also lost some power so the engine is out on our bench being investigated. Its fair to say that the season is totally ruined however we are hopeful to use the rest of the year to really get the bike sorted and there's always next year to do some damage. Hopefully the other kind this time.