Exit stage right

The 2009 Easter Thunderball was definitely better than last years (no snow) but still had too many similarities for it's own good! Just like last year we only had 2 runs all weekend, and the event was badly affected by the weather.

The first 2 days were all but completely lost to rain. Not a great deal of it but enough to stop play.
So after 2 whole days of languishing in the comforts and dryness of the new spacious and luxurious team bopchop HQ we were relieved when racing got underway on Sunday afternoon. However, being the last class out we only managed one run before the 9pm curfew!
The original plan was to do a no nitrous run just to check the gearbox was working ok and that there were no other problems, but because i thought we would only get one chance at qualifying i decided to use the nitrous but on a slow build time.
As it happened it didn't really matter as the bike headed straight for the centre line and i had to back the throttle off gently to make it come back. Once it was straight it went ok with no problem gear changes at all. The run was only a 9.6 @150mph but overall i was relived the gearbox worked ok even if nothing else did, and the time was good enough to qualify 6th at that point.
One problem surfaced after that run when i noticed back in the pits that 2 of the exhaust headers had been blown completely out of the collector and one had started to come away from the spigot on the engine. This would have been caused by the backfires that occur during 4th and 5th gear changes. I lockwired them on and added an extra spring to each after that!

It was announced that we would get another chance at qualifying on Monday morning so i softened the clutch a little further and stuck the nitrous on a 40% instant start and 1 second build time. Unfortunately and still mysteriously the bike went hard to the right as soon as it launched and with it pulling madder than ever before and with the front wheel well off the ground i struggled to pull it away and very nearly crossed the centre line. Backing off a little was enough to straighten it up and i spent the whole of the run just inches off the line. The bike pulled much harder than the previous run and Phil Leamon who was in the opposite lane wasn't getting any further away from me like he normally would. The time was a 9.0 @ 152mph, but from the incremental times it would point towards an 8.5 second run if it had gone straight.

The extra qualifying round didn't work in my favour, leaving me qualified 9th and out of the running. The rest of the day was spent spectating and getting pictures of all the comp bike rounds. I'll post them when i have time.

The one equipment failure we had was the Innovate LM-1, it's just dead and displaying errors on screen. I'll post on the innovate forum to see if anyone has any ideas. I took it off the bike completely, so no data was ever gathered.

Thanks go to the bopchop crew for a top job once again. Stand in starter and master brew maker - Bracer got his moment of glory too, so thanks Brace. Here's the man himself in action:

Sam has also updated her photobucket site with a whole load of shots from Sunday evenings night racing plus Mondays eliminations.
It can be seen HERE