Well.. How long has its been since the MotoGP? Feels like yesterday? The bike was packed up and off we went on Thursday afternoon heading for the Isle of Phillip. The weather was pretty dull and wet so we wrapped the Oilee GSXR up cosy with blankets so not to get her wet and covered in road dust. After all she did deserve it. Shes been spoiled rotten over the last few months with everything fitted and tested that Al wanted and needed. The motorcycle Gods himself gave us some sunshine and blue skys just after we rocked up at the track. The grandstands where in place and we where pretty pumped to arrive to our destination. The moment we had planned and worked so hard for. :) Two toots of the horn was blasted as we entered the tunnel leading us to the infield of the track for good luck and we queued up for scrutineering.. Its an oldie but a goodie when watching the scrutineer check over the bike.. I stay straight faced as attention is paid to the right hand side controls. Theres no throttle or brakes fitted but they just keep looking for them. After a wee hehe I draw their attention to the left hand side and explain where the throttle, brake and clutch lives. Then I explain that the rear brake is also fitted to the left hand side. A quick scrutineer of Al. Then the penny drops lol. Only job left was to set up our pit and sticker up the bike. Ive been looking for 100% from this project and we couldnt of done it without Deans excellence at ccsigns.au/ who printed up our stickers. The bike was done and we stood back and had a group hug. :) The bike was looking sweet and had been prepared the best we could. So chuffed. So the Supersport 600 class 1st practice was to kick off at 7.55am We bought a few snaggs on the way to our home for the weekend, cooked them up and planned for an early night. I got off to sleep and woke up to the bedside clock radio which in my wisdom had not gone off yet. Jeez, I thought that was a nice sleep as I listened to Kookaburras sing good morning. I gazed over to check the time... HOLY S+++E! Ive slept in! I believe the record for any human in history descending a flight of stairs in boxer shorts was totally smashed. If Norris McWhirter was there with a stop watch Im sure I would be in the latest edition of the Guinness Book of Records. The boys where awoke and two dark lines where left from Cowes to the track as we raced to get there to sign on and prep for morning practice. Pheeew! we made it. During the practice session Alan looked to be getting into it. With all the tuning of the slipper clutch he seemed to be entering into the hairpin at turn 4 with plenty of confidence. It was a cold track with no wind but soon into the session he exited the track and came back to the pits. Houston we have a problem Fortunately for my own sanity it was a problem out of our hands. We had a product failure (what does the MotoGP call it so its politically correct) Oh thats right we had an electrical issue. So the pressures on. We have the fastest guys in the country in our class and we have a 20 minute qualifying session to get within 115% of the pole position time set. Basically, Alan has to smash his P.B by over 5 seconds! BUT not for 1 second did we admit defeat. The bike was fixed with thanks to Chris Tyler pitted next door for lending a few bits and bobs. Tyre warmers where switched on and the moment of truth was approaching... Jeez that was an emotional session for me to watch. Alan went out and smashed it. Tried his best and came in after the session with a P.B (cant do better than that!) with a time of 1.54. BOOM! I was so proud. He wasnt the slowest out there by any means but didnt make the cut off. Even after lapping 3 seconds faster than he ever before he missed out by about 2 seconds if I can remember correctly? Great effort. Our work here had been done. We got here, put in 100% and had given it a crack! Under the rules and regs there is a clause which reads under mitigating circumstances a rider which has not reached the qualification time may be allowed to start the race from the rear of the grid. So off I went to explore these mitigating circumstances to see If Al could qualify to race under these conditions. After our case was heard we where granted by the F.I.M to take part in race 1 to see if we could improve our lap time over 3 laps and maybe be able to continue to compete in race 2 & 3. We where very thankful for this opportunity and Al reckoned he was going to give it a bloody good go. :) Race 1 started and Al got off the line better than he had ever done before. His opening lap was close to 10 seconds quicker than he had ever done. On lap 2 you can see in my shaky video that in fact he chased caught and passed a rider who had qualified with a 1.50 lap time! He was flying! Wow, we were pumped but alas the rider rocking number 0.5 didnt appear next time round. We ran back to the pits with our fingers crossed to hear the good news that he had slid off at turn 2 and the rider behind him slid off as well narrowly missing impact. Rumors where that he was hopping about waving to the fans lol. The bike came back safe and sound so all was good. :) So, the plan was to prepare a bike, get Al some testing and compete at one of the worlds premier events and show that anything can be done if you believe it. His story was told over and over again to grown men in tears, to school kids and motorcycle enthusiasts world wide. We came we lapped faster than before and crashed with a smile. JOB DONE! :) As Al had not completed his flying lap and did not improve on his qualification time as agreed upon we didnt get a chance to continue awesomeness for the rest of the weekend BUT we all completely understood and thanked everyone involved for the opportunity to shine. And yeah. Alan Kempster shined like a star! Thanks again to EVERYONE involved! We all had a cracker weekend and is pumped about our next project! In the meantime I have been servicing a few road bikes and race bikes (Giz a call 0423 763 061) and Im thinking of making the Oilee GSXR and Team available to other racers wanting to give there dreams a go too :) Are you reading this locally or from afar and would love to be able to race at the worlds greatest short circuit but dont know how? PM me :) Call me o email: [email protected] Your closer than you think to your dream.. You dont necessary need to race at the MotoGP or WSBK. There are plenty of race meets down here.. Have a think about it. We will show you a great time :)
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:12:56 +0000
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