Buff
Grey Hound
Setting the scene:
Early in the new year we took delivery of a brand new Yamaha WR250F which was supposed to be my wife’s new race weapon. It took one ride on it for her to realize that it was too much bike for her right now and for me to realize that I really liked the bike. So we reached an agreement that I could race the bike until her lap times in training are faster on the WR250 than on her current TTR230… sounded fair to me ;D
With us both being on Yamaha’s, Droomers Yamaha in CT invited us to be part of their Support Team for the race season. We pay our own way but they’ll kit us and the bikes out in their Droomers Racing livery and look after us in the pits on race day, win win situation :thumleft:
Race day:
I started on the 7th row of the grid on my brand new boney with its shiny new sticker kit done by ByKleyn Graphics in CT and my fancy new Droomer Yamaha Racing shirt. I thought I was the main freckle.
The lights went green, I dropped the clutch, the front end went North and in my effort to get it under control I got out-dragged to the first corner by my teammate on a YZ125
The dust was insane, it went from full vis to no vis in an instant and I was forced to back off immediately because I could see jack sh1t
We hit the riverbed section within the first kilometer of the race and before dropping into it, kippy here hit probably the only lurker in the dust which threw me straight off the embackment into the river 2m below me on my right. It was one of those moments where for a split second I thought I could save it but my momentum was all going right and my fate was sealed. I landed heavily with my right hip on a moerse rock and the WR landed on top of me. It actually dunked me, helmet and all under the water.
I kinda lay there for a second or two thinking “WTF just happened here?” ??? Then I began talking to myself in a language unbefitting of an adult.
It took me the best part of 10mins to get myself sorted and then find a way out of the section I was trapped in, while all the bikes where passing me at just above head height blissfully unaware of this chop stuck down in the river undergrowth… fudgeit !!! Fortunately with the bike landing on me it never sucked water, that would have been a royal cock-up.
Needless to say I was somewhat rattled and sore and I couldn’t get a good look at what the damage was to my hip because of my neck brace and body armour so I decided to try ride it off. The next 1.5km’s of riverbed negotiation was a bloody nightmare, I was all over the place and managed to drop the bike again on the slippery rocks.
Once out of the river, the course opened up and it was wide open, rally type tracks & farm roads where you could run the bike 6th gear flat out. Dust was a huge issue here, making it very difficult to put passes on the back markers I was catching.
It took me the remaining 50km’s of the lap to find my rhythm again and stop feeling sorry for myself. The only challenging section here was a very steep and slippery climb that had an A and B option to it. A was straight up the climb, B was around it and slightly longer. I took the A line on every lap and even though I dropped the bike on lap 2 & 3 on the climb, I was able to get going again and ride it out thanks to the traction on the little 4T.
By the time I reached the pits I was into the swing of racing again (the laps where approx. 55km’s long).
The 2nd lap went much better and with the bikes spread out, the dust was less of an issue. I was getting into my stride and enjoying the new WR250F. Having always raced a 2T it took some time to get used to the engine breaking and traction on the 4T. I found I was on the brakes too early for corners and then not on the gas hard enough out of them. With about 10km’s to go in the lap I came across our main, Yamaha SA & Droomers sponsored team rider stranded without fuel. He was well in the lead when he ran out of juice and seeing as my own race was pretty much compromised after my fall, I decided to top his bike up from my tank to get him to the pits. Being fuel injected I didn’t want to pull pipes off so I had him sacrifice his camelback. We laid my bike on its side then I used my fuel breather hose to syphon petrol out of my tank into the camelback and decanted it into his bike.
Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly a speedy exercise with the breather hose being so small and the poor kid had ants in his pants to get racing again. With 2l of fresh fuel he took off like a rocketship to try and make up lost time on his rivals.
I’d just got going again when I noticed the amber reserve light on dash light up “You.have.got.to.be.shitting.me”. The WR doesn’t have a reserve petcock because of the FI system but the amber light tells you that you have 1l off juice left in the tank so I was forced to back off the loud lever and nurse it back to pits as I had no intention of pushing it for 5km’s.
I also need to mention that just before we hit the wooded section near the end of the lap I got passed by our very own WD Dakar hero… Superman aboard his KTM RR450. Believe me, the man can ride… FAST !!! He must have loved those wide open roads on that beast. Unfortunately for him, the WR250 is obviously way easier to handle in the tight wooded section so I was able to pass him again before reaching pit lane after he put his bike down on a slippery little climb coming out of a mud bog.
There was also a nasty little stream crossing in this section that hung up a lot of riders after a large tree root got exposed on the embankment and kept on snagging back wheels. A big thanks to Beserker who was marshaling and took the initiative to cut it and assist get the bottleneck cleared at this point.
Lap 3 went without incident and I really enjoyed the track. Even the riverbed section became a breeze by then as clear lines had been ridden out and you could ride everything with momentum. I even managed to pick up a nice little mid pack dice with a few riders that made for some exciting moments. Coming into pits I was secretly hoping to be sent out on another lap as I hadn’t even started cramping yet by sadly I got shown the flag, game over.
All in all a fairly disappointing ride I guess as it didn’t quite go according to plan but it did have its moments that I really enjoyed. I’m nursing a huge bruise on my right hip for my effort but fortunately the bike is undamaged.
Eventually placed 13th out of 23 in what is a very strong Masters field this year. It can only get better :thumleft:
Amazingly, Calvin (the kid I helped) pulled back almost all his lost time and missed the top spot on the podium by 43secs. These kids sure can haul ass on a bike. We both started on new Metzeler 6 Day tires and I can probably do another 4 races on mine where his rear tire is totally trashed
The missus also never had the best of rides when she had to stop and assist a fellow lady rider that had a very bad off. She waited until the medic arrive and then was able to continue her ride. Although she was credited her time back after the race it meant she was only able to do 3 laps instead of maybe 5 or 6 but it's all in the name of fair sportsmanship.
She still however managed a 3rd place in the Ladies Intro Class :thumleft:
Big thanks to our pit crew from Droomers Racing for taking care of us all day and a huge shout out to the Western Cape Offroad Club who presented a great opening event to the 2016 season :thumleft:
Pics:
1. The new WR250F
2. Team Shirts ;D
3. Team Bikes
4. My daughter being my own umbrella girl... we take our racing seriously
5. Cats on the start line
Early in the new year we took delivery of a brand new Yamaha WR250F which was supposed to be my wife’s new race weapon. It took one ride on it for her to realize that it was too much bike for her right now and for me to realize that I really liked the bike. So we reached an agreement that I could race the bike until her lap times in training are faster on the WR250 than on her current TTR230… sounded fair to me ;D
With us both being on Yamaha’s, Droomers Yamaha in CT invited us to be part of their Support Team for the race season. We pay our own way but they’ll kit us and the bikes out in their Droomers Racing livery and look after us in the pits on race day, win win situation :thumleft:
Race day:
I started on the 7th row of the grid on my brand new boney with its shiny new sticker kit done by ByKleyn Graphics in CT and my fancy new Droomer Yamaha Racing shirt. I thought I was the main freckle.
The lights went green, I dropped the clutch, the front end went North and in my effort to get it under control I got out-dragged to the first corner by my teammate on a YZ125
The dust was insane, it went from full vis to no vis in an instant and I was forced to back off immediately because I could see jack sh1t We hit the riverbed section within the first kilometer of the race and before dropping into it, kippy here hit probably the only lurker in the dust which threw me straight off the embackment into the river 2m below me on my right. It was one of those moments where for a split second I thought I could save it but my momentum was all going right and my fate was sealed. I landed heavily with my right hip on a moerse rock and the WR landed on top of me. It actually dunked me, helmet and all under the water.
I kinda lay there for a second or two thinking “WTF just happened here?” ??? Then I began talking to myself in a language unbefitting of an adult.
It took me the best part of 10mins to get myself sorted and then find a way out of the section I was trapped in, while all the bikes where passing me at just above head height blissfully unaware of this chop stuck down in the river undergrowth… fudgeit !!! Fortunately with the bike landing on me it never sucked water, that would have been a royal cock-up.
Needless to say I was somewhat rattled and sore and I couldn’t get a good look at what the damage was to my hip because of my neck brace and body armour so I decided to try ride it off. The next 1.5km’s of riverbed negotiation was a bloody nightmare, I was all over the place and managed to drop the bike again on the slippery rocks.
Once out of the river, the course opened up and it was wide open, rally type tracks & farm roads where you could run the bike 6th gear flat out. Dust was a huge issue here, making it very difficult to put passes on the back markers I was catching.
It took me the remaining 50km’s of the lap to find my rhythm again and stop feeling sorry for myself. The only challenging section here was a very steep and slippery climb that had an A and B option to it. A was straight up the climb, B was around it and slightly longer. I took the A line on every lap and even though I dropped the bike on lap 2 & 3 on the climb, I was able to get going again and ride it out thanks to the traction on the little 4T.
By the time I reached the pits I was into the swing of racing again (the laps where approx. 55km’s long).
The 2nd lap went much better and with the bikes spread out, the dust was less of an issue. I was getting into my stride and enjoying the new WR250F. Having always raced a 2T it took some time to get used to the engine breaking and traction on the 4T. I found I was on the brakes too early for corners and then not on the gas hard enough out of them. With about 10km’s to go in the lap I came across our main, Yamaha SA & Droomers sponsored team rider stranded without fuel. He was well in the lead when he ran out of juice and seeing as my own race was pretty much compromised after my fall, I decided to top his bike up from my tank to get him to the pits. Being fuel injected I didn’t want to pull pipes off so I had him sacrifice his camelback. We laid my bike on its side then I used my fuel breather hose to syphon petrol out of my tank into the camelback and decanted it into his bike.
Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly a speedy exercise with the breather hose being so small and the poor kid had ants in his pants to get racing again. With 2l of fresh fuel he took off like a rocketship to try and make up lost time on his rivals.
I’d just got going again when I noticed the amber reserve light on dash light up “You.have.got.to.be.shitting.me”. The WR doesn’t have a reserve petcock because of the FI system but the amber light tells you that you have 1l off juice left in the tank so I was forced to back off the loud lever and nurse it back to pits as I had no intention of pushing it for 5km’s.
I also need to mention that just before we hit the wooded section near the end of the lap I got passed by our very own WD Dakar hero… Superman aboard his KTM RR450. Believe me, the man can ride… FAST !!! He must have loved those wide open roads on that beast. Unfortunately for him, the WR250 is obviously way easier to handle in the tight wooded section so I was able to pass him again before reaching pit lane after he put his bike down on a slippery little climb coming out of a mud bog.
There was also a nasty little stream crossing in this section that hung up a lot of riders after a large tree root got exposed on the embankment and kept on snagging back wheels. A big thanks to Beserker who was marshaling and took the initiative to cut it and assist get the bottleneck cleared at this point.
Lap 3 went without incident and I really enjoyed the track. Even the riverbed section became a breeze by then as clear lines had been ridden out and you could ride everything with momentum. I even managed to pick up a nice little mid pack dice with a few riders that made for some exciting moments. Coming into pits I was secretly hoping to be sent out on another lap as I hadn’t even started cramping yet by sadly I got shown the flag, game over.
All in all a fairly disappointing ride I guess as it didn’t quite go according to plan but it did have its moments that I really enjoyed. I’m nursing a huge bruise on my right hip for my effort but fortunately the bike is undamaged.
Eventually placed 13th out of 23 in what is a very strong Masters field this year. It can only get better :thumleft:
Amazingly, Calvin (the kid I helped) pulled back almost all his lost time and missed the top spot on the podium by 43secs. These kids sure can haul ass on a bike. We both started on new Metzeler 6 Day tires and I can probably do another 4 races on mine where his rear tire is totally trashed
The missus also never had the best of rides when she had to stop and assist a fellow lady rider that had a very bad off. She waited until the medic arrive and then was able to continue her ride. Although she was credited her time back after the race it meant she was only able to do 3 laps instead of maybe 5 or 6 but it's all in the name of fair sportsmanship.
She still however managed a 3rd place in the Ladies Intro Class :thumleft:
Big thanks to our pit crew from Droomers Racing for taking care of us all day and a huge shout out to the Western Cape Offroad Club who presented a great opening event to the 2016 season :thumleft:
Pics:
1. The new WR250F
2. Team Shirts ;D
3. Team Bikes
4. My daughter being my own umbrella girl... we take our racing seriously
5. Cats on the start line
