Wednesday 20 June 2007
ZAC race number 3 of 2007, on the Belgian circuit of Zolder. I've never been there before, always exciting to ride on a 'new' circuit. Zolder is known for it's strictness regarding noise pollution and I would be one of the victims...
Free practice
The track was still a little wet because of the rain at night, S0 was the 4th group to practice so at least some kind of dry line was forming. I didn't really like the tight chicanes and "hospital corner" and I didn't open the throttle all the way near the noise meters. With a time of 2:11,858 I was 27th. After the practice my mates found it strange that I didn't get black flagged because they could hear the MuZ from far and accelerating up the hill the noise was quite loud.
Qualifying practice
I had just ridden a couple of laps when I saw the sign with number 660 on it and the man waving a black flag. I had to come in and sign a statement that I made 97,8 db while max 95 is allowed. Almost 3 db too much which is twice as loud as allowd. I didn't have a solution for that :-( Back in the paddock Marcel saw me returning early and knew immediately what happened and offered me his spare SV (650). The offer didn't really appeal to me, riding a race on a bike without any practice didn't seem wise. Eventually I decided to do it because it's better than not riding at all. So I put number 660 on the SV and waited for the race to start. In the short practice I managed a 2:11,435 which was good for position 36 on the grid (total of 38).
Race 1
Marcel said to me that I should just treat the SV as if it were my own bike. Yeah right, I'll just keep things staedy, thank you. I only had the warming up lap to get used to the Suzuki. It felt really good, different of course and all you can think of is not to crash the bike. The start went reasonably well but I still was last in turn 1. I managed to overtake a bike at the end of the race and because some people ended in the gravel I finished 34th. I did my fastest lap of the race in lap 3, so any form of progression was completely absent...
Race 2
The start went much better, I managed to keep some people behind me. And I had a good feeling about the SV and things went much better. Best lap time of 2:04,763 wasn't too bad either although I just got lapped again (first guys did 1:50 laps). Finished 22th, not bad at all for a first outing on an SV!
Thank you MARCEL!!!
Results and laptimes et al (I ride in S0)
(c) MR Racing - software version 2.14 - 05 January 2019.