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1999 NZRRC Rnd 4, Pukekohe, Auckland.
NOHAIR Racing, http://www.nohair.co.nz
Reuters Antipodes Thu Dec-02, 1999
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Good new from Pukekohe race track today...
Our intrepid hero and beautiful wife to be, were seen trackside at Pukekohe today. Chris now has the Remus exhaust can on the bike and was out lapping in the mid to high 1:04\'s. He\'s happy as this equals his best practice day times last year. His best lap time at Pukekohe is 1:03.8 so this will be under serious threat this weekend.
He also tried out the steering damper, but found this was hampering how fast he can change line, so he\'s trashed the damper and is just going to sit as far forward as possible to control the front end!!!..... Go Chris !!! He\'s braver than me !!!
Chris Wiltshire Thu Dec-02, 1999
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Further to the following post yesterday, we visited our good friends at Red Baron to re-dyno the bike with the Remus can installed. I had noticed at the track that the bike felt a little \"fluffy\" and didn\'t want to pull beyond 14.5k ~ 15k rpm. This was proven on the dyno with the loss of the high sustained power curve which we saw with the standard pipe. - Instead of a high plateau lasting from around 13k ~15.5k it peaks and drops sharply.
Also, the top end power fell from 98.6ps to 92.8ps. A loss of 6 horse power. Clearly at this time the best thing to do is to race with the standard pipe.
Again, this speaks so highly of the standard setup of the R6. I\'m also looking forward to the extra 6 horsepower to demolish last year\'s lap record. (Fingers crossed..)
Chris Wiltshire Fri Dec-03, 1999
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We\'ve regained our lost horse power!
Happy, happy, joy, joy!
Another trip to our friends at Red Baron and another 2 runs on the dyno has proven that the bog standard setup is the best that we can do currently.
Both runs today were slightly lower than the previous runs (comparatively) as the temperature and humidity were a little higher. Click here to see the section of this website which shows the dyno traces.
Anyway, after putting the standard end can back on the bike, we\'ve regained the lost power, so this should make for a very interesting weekend.
Chris Wiltshire Sat Dec-04, 1999
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Official practice day at Pukekohe today, I had an incident in the morning when I was pushing quite hard early on. I had misread my pitboard and thought that I was doing 1.07\'s when I was doing 1.05\'s - Thinking I had a 2 second margin to work into I pushed harder and lost the front end in Jennian corner. Very little damage done to the bike, all things considered. I didn\'t hurt myself at all.
We buffed the bike and got back out there to get my times back down to 1.05\'s again, but for a while my confidence was shaken a little.
Tomorrow will tell. I\'m off now to get a good night\'s sleep.
Chris Wiltshire Sun Dec-05, 1999
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So to sum up our season to date:-
- Great new paint job on the Thundercat. The bike was looking fabulous.
- Fantastic to get support from Red Baron.
- Engine conditioned and rebuilt before heading south. - Run in with time to spare.
- Tyre blow out on the trailer on the way to Invercargill.
- Problems with misfiring on Saturday at Teretonga.
- Took a knock in the spirit of speed race which ripped gloves, and bent handlebars.
- Blew up the Thundercat at Timaru. - Big end on #1 got fried, turned out to be the bearing shell clearances were too tight on all 4 cylinders. (Small oversight..)
- New bike arrived at Christchurch in time for Round 3. - New Yamaha R6.
- Good fun round at Ruapuna, very impressed with the bike.
- Fell off the R6 at Pukekohe on the Saturday of Round 5. Not hurt, the bike wasn\'t damaged very much at all.
- Times for the rest of the weekend were a whole second slower than the best time in practice on Thursday.
It\'s been a very different series for us this year. We\'ve not managed to achieve as much as we had hoped. Now it also looks very much like the goal of \'a Top 10\' finish is unobtainable. So we go into Round 5, at Manfeild mainly for fun, and to get out there to try to re-gain some of the lost confidence after the fall at Pukekohe.
