Third raceweekend :
Murphy's lawThis weekend we had a race on a road track.
Saterday - Warmup training , only one full lap and then in the second lap a crash caused by the clutchcable which came partly out of clutchlifter and therefore the clutch didn't work, so that at a speed of 100 miles in a fast corner , by changing from fifth to fourth gear the rearwheel blocked for a split second.
The bike came upright and Yrjo mist the corner complete and came with highspeed in a farmland, first without falling over a quarter of a mile.
But then a shallow ditch made an end on his farmland excursion and at a low speed then he was thrown off the bike.
He was lucky , he was not hurt only some pain in his left hand.
The bike had very little damage because the grass was high and wet, I could only find a bend footrest on the right side and the right clipon was pushed back and a lot off long grass and dirt all over the bike , even no scratches on the fairing.
After cleaning and putting back the clutchcable and adjusted it and repairing the footrest and push back the clipon the bike was ready for the first qualifying session.
Qualifying one.
Starting the bike I saw a oildrip came out from an oilhose at the oilfilteradaptor, I screwed on the nipple a little and the dripping stopped.
Yrjo had finished the first lap when I saw him in the distance and suddenly I saw a thick oil smoke coming from the bike.
He didn't notice that untill his foot rightfoot slided from the footrest and also the marshalls showed the oilflag to late.
I thought the engine was blown up , the qualifying was stopped , because there was a lot of oil now on the track.
The cleaning of the track took 30 minutes.
When Yrjo and the bike were brought back to the pits , I saw that the oilhose was get off the nipple and that the oil was sprayed all over Yrjo and the bike.
He hadn't noticed it because the bike was still running good when it happened.
So no qualification time.
Now the hose had to be refitted and Yrjo and the bike had to be cleaned.
The cleaning was a hell of a job, everything was oiled up even the tyres.
We used a lot of degreaser and soapy water to clean the oilmess.
We were just ready before the second qualifying.
But we didn't reinstall the oilhose and removed the hoses , the filteradaptor and the oilcooler , this on advice from our tuner who was with us.
He adviced to install the stock oilfilter and oilfiltercase , but we had no stock filter and case with us.
The tuner lives nearby the track and went home to get it.
Qualifying two.
Also this time just one lap finished.
Hard braking on a very short hairpin the right clipon pushed forward against the fairing.
Yrjo pulled it back while riding , but to much so that the clipon came nearly to the tank and he couldn't make the next narrow corner to the pits and made a stop at the other side of the pitlane.
The marshalls stopped him to go to the pits , so qualifying two was over and out without a qualification time.
It was a disappointing day.
I think now that the crash was the cause that the oilhose came already partly off and that the oil was the cause that the clipon moved from its place because I saw afterwards there was some oil between the fork and the clamps.
Now the question was , do we have permission to start in the race.
Yrjo went to the race control , and it was no problem, but at the last position.
Sunday , raceday.
Yrjo's left hand was a little thicker then normal.
At 08:30 warmup training for five laps.
Everything went okay , no problems.
But this practice was to short to get the right feeling with the track.
The race:
Starting from the last position he passed before the first corner already five riders and I saw in the distance that Yrjo was quickly coming closer to the riders before him.
The bike is at topspeed very fast , so after the first lap he was on the fifteenth place , next round he was fourteenth fighting with a Ducati rider.
But he couldn't pass him , next round I saw that he shaked his head to me that there was a problem.
The rest of the race he was fihgting with the Ducati and he finished on thirteenth place behind the Ducati.
He had a problem shifting to fifth gear , he couldnt get the bike in fifth , so he rode half of the race with four gears.
The cause was that the left footrest hang loose and blocked the gearlever partly.
I think this was also the result of the crash.
This is a lesson for us , next time after ac rash we must control the bike very precisely.
The crash had more impact on the bike as we first thought.
Our friend with the nr.5 finished fourth.
I end this story with a fotoimpression and now up for the next race at 30 may in Assen :
