Last weekend we had a race on a road track in Hengelo.
QP 1 - Hot and sunny conditions , 9th , this could be faster because at this track you have long straights and then some narrow corners and hairpins where you have
to brake very hard.
Yrjo had problems by hard braking, the frontwheel was bouncing then and therefore he lost some time .
We thought we had to low fronttyrepressure for this kind of track , for the next QP we put some more pressure in the fronttyre.
QP 2 - 10th , Yrjo made only one lap because in the second lap the chain came off and hit him on his back without causing injuries.
This time we were lucky , Yrjo found the chain lie next to the rearsprocket at the end of the swingarm.
The chain was not broken but lost the complete connecting link .
The pink link plate we found in the oil catch tray, the springclip and connecting plate were gone.
We mounted a new connecting link and sealed the springclip with a strong sealant.
With the higher tyre pressure the frontwheel bouncing was gone.
But doing only one lap in this QP the laptime was slower.
Race on sunday:
We woke up with heavy rain, a storm wind and lightning , the warm up training was cancelled and also the race was delayed .
After some time the bad weather was over and the sun was shining again and the track became dry.
Waiting in the pitlane with running engine , before starting the warm up lap before the race, we couldn't get it in the neutral gear.
So we turned of the engine.
Race- Again I saw Yrjo made a very bad start , but after some laps he was in a group of four riders , battling for 7th place.
I saw on the laptime monitor that he was the fastest of them , after another two laps he was on 8th place and during the next lap he was on 7th place.
In the penultimate lap he was again 8th with some distance between him and the rider now on 7th place.
He finished also on 8th place , the distance was to large to close the gap , a backmarker slowed him down in a narrow chicane he told later.
Yrjo's laptimes were very much faster then in the QP's , he was faster then the man on 6th place , so a top five finish was possible if he had made a good
start.
Making the bad start was caused by the clutch which was slipping and that during the complete race , probably also the cause of getting it not in it's neutral
gear .
Today I found the cause of the slipping clutch , a bend clutch lifter rod.
Trying to straighten it ,the rod broke, I saw that it had already an old rupture.
I replaced it by a homemade steel one.
But despite this trouble , we had both a good feeling about this race.
Up to the following two races during next whitsun weekend.
Our friend with the no.4 Honda finished again on 3th place with his Honda.
