6-7 Sept 2003 中國珠海摩托車賽第4場 趣味花邊

 


Nick Winthrope Racer's report

I pitched up on Thursday morning, there were a few issues with my GSXR1000 that needed careful attention and I wanted to be well ready for Friday practice. On Friday morning I did a couple of practice sessions. The bike felt good with the set up I had but it has started to jump out of 5th gear, not so unusual for a 3 year old race bike, anyway I was feeling good and confident that I was going to Kick Jimbo's arse in the race on Sunday. 
 
   
In the second session, however, disaster struck! Jimbo was buried in the tyre wall at turn one! (Click here to see Jimbo racer's report)

I stopped in the pit lane and then made my way over to the crash site. What a mess, Jimbo looked like a mud wrestler the marshals and Steven Tsui were digging him out. The bike was outside of the circuit but Jimbo seemed relatively OK, still talking and moving, thank God.

Saturday

Qualifying went well; it was raining so I used the time to practice my wet riding skills. I have only raced once before in the wet and that was in 2001 but I found it quite easy really, just needed to concentrate harder on what I'm doing.

Results from qualifying; Pole for the open class, 5th for 600SS class, times were 1:54 and 1:56

Sunday
I didn't bother with warm-up as I felt ready to race and I wanted to relax a bit, stay cool.

Race 1, Open Class. Paul why got a good start and went into the lead at turn 1, I think I was about 4th overall the. My main objective was to stay on the bike so I didn't try to keep up with the leaders. Half way through the race a couple of 600's came past but my confidence was growing so I pushed to get back past them. I came second behind Paul why and third overall, I later learned that I had put up the fastest lap of the race, I'm really happy about that.
Race 1 600SS class; I came in 6th after a good battle with Jimbo, we were really having fun which was good considering he'd had such a big crash on Friday. Actually Jimbo would have beaten me if he was fully fit, still, we both enjoyed it a lot.
Race 2, Open Class; I was looking forward to this one, the track condition was dry except for a small river running across the track at turn 7. I got a good start and led for the first lap. Huang Shi Zhao got past on lap 2 so I decided to follow him for a few laps to see where he was faster than me. On lap 5 I pushed harder and took the lead back, by lap 9 I had a 4 second lead which was cool so I slowed down at turn 14 and pulled a wheelie across the line, just like Rossi ha ha ha. Very Happy.
Race 2 600 SS class; A bit boring really, finished 6th, Jimbo didn't start as he was feeling pretty bad so we could re-inact our epic battle. It's going to take a lot more work to get up to speed on the GSXR600, need to work a lot on the bike set up as well as a different riding attitude.

TT Email: tracktorque@hotmail.com


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