Confident that (at last) we had our engine running correctly, we booked in for a half day of testing on Friday, as always with a with a running plan…and for once we did exactly as planned (with our awesome sounding R1 not missing a beat)!
Still wanting to look after the engine we ran on restricted revs, obviously still paranoid about checking engine temps and pressures etc. Despite the high air and track temps everything was as expected.
Getting more confident in our engine we set about making a few set-up changes… we tried new higher spring rates and made camber changes and brake balance etc.
Nothing is perfect…still one annoying issue… No matter what we tried James could not get multiple down changes done fast enough which was compromising corner entry and exit speeds especially on the infield section.
Race day(s). Our weekend was all about “going round in circles gathering data” there was no way around the downshift problem without the risk of creating potential issues during the three races we had over the weekend so James just had to try and drive around the issue.
Standing starts The R1 is notorious for be awkward to get moving even in a bike, so a standing start with one in a car proved even more of a problem. Once again this weekend was all about ‘going around in circles’ so no point in snapping a chain or destroying the clutch so James was instructed just to do ‘granny starts’ – not ideal but something that we will be trying to resolve over winter.
Summing up the weekend…Relief, three second places and only a little frustrating. Relief that we at last have the R1 running properly and now are we more confident we can look at unleashing more revs etc. The downshift issue meant James was often being caught in a gear higher than was ideal the R1 showed the ‘low down’ power we hoped for was there. We think the downshift issue is a combination of the rev limit restricting when the driver can downshift combined with the Airshift system not returning to neutral fast enough to allow the next down change. We came away lying 2nd in the championship because we finished all the races, admittedly not through outright speed but non the less a little unexpected given our season so far!
Only a little frustrating…. for once just a few small issues.Not being able to get a decent start is something that will have to wait until we can get a day to experiment, not something we can do before Donington. The downshift issue is going to need some simple maths, possible stronger return springs and maybe a few click of the mouse.
Looking forward to Donington.
Still wanting to look after the engine we ran on restricted revs, obviously still paranoid about checking engine temps and pressures etc. Despite the high air and track temps everything was as expected.
Getting more confident in our engine we set about making a few set-up changes… we tried new higher spring rates and made camber changes and brake balance etc.
Nothing is perfect…still one annoying issue… No matter what we tried James could not get multiple down changes done fast enough which was compromising corner entry and exit speeds especially on the infield section.
Race day(s). Our weekend was all about “going round in circles gathering data” there was no way around the downshift problem without the risk of creating potential issues during the three races we had over the weekend so James just had to try and drive around the issue.
Standing starts The R1 is notorious for be awkward to get moving even in a bike, so a standing start with one in a car proved even more of a problem. Once again this weekend was all about ‘going around in circles’ so no point in snapping a chain or destroying the clutch so James was instructed just to do ‘granny starts’ – not ideal but something that we will be trying to resolve over winter.
Summing up the weekend…Relief, three second places and only a little frustrating. Relief that we at last have the R1 running properly and now are we more confident we can look at unleashing more revs etc. The downshift issue meant James was often being caught in a gear higher than was ideal the R1 showed the ‘low down’ power we hoped for was there. We think the downshift issue is a combination of the rev limit restricting when the driver can downshift combined with the Airshift system not returning to neutral fast enough to allow the next down change. We came away lying 2nd in the championship because we finished all the races, admittedly not through outright speed but non the less a little unexpected given our season so far!
Only a little frustrating…. for once just a few small issues.Not being able to get a decent start is something that will have to wait until we can get a day to experiment, not something we can do before Donington. The downshift issue is going to need some simple maths, possible stronger return springs and maybe a few click of the mouse.
Looking forward to Donington.