The next day was our first chance on track. Valencia is a place I had never been before and its certainly very different to any British circuits. Its a bit like a go-kart track, its all contained in such a small area and there is very little chance for a rest and there are very few bumps. It is a very technical circuit with undulations and most corners being decreasing radius, as well as it being anticlockwise so most being left handers! The weather was comfortable at about 23 degrees although there was a slight wind.
The first session was used just to learn the place and setup gearing etc. It turned out to be faster than Snetterton, which you wouldn't have said by looking at the place! We used the afternoon to try and get a base setting for suspension settings. The Wilber shock was working well pretty much straight out of the box with only ride height adjustment necessary. We spent the first day just twiddling away with the K-tech internals just to see exactly what effect different changes would have on the bike. Because of the new circuit and bike I wasn't really going fast enough to make any changes that were likely to be relevant the following day and for the rest of the year.
The next day started slightly cooler than before but also less windy. Straight away both Ian and Myself felt more comfortable with the circuit and the bike and pushed on. Within a few laps had gone two seconds faster and started to make meaningful changes to the bikes. It was pleasing to see that even thought they have different rules (Kit ignition boxes etc) our bikes were competitive against the european 600 superstock bikes. By the end of the day we had fiddled around and got a good base setting and changed the geometry of the bike slightly as well as made changes to make the bike more stable on the brakes, the one area I felt was losing me most time.
In the last session of the day I had my first ride on the team's Superstock R1 that I will be riding at the international road races this year. Once I had got used to how fast the thing goes through the gears and the fact that it is pretty much wheelying whenever your on the throttle, I really started to enjoy myself. It quite suited my riding style because you had to stop it and then fire it back out instead of holding loads of corner speed. The extra weight was actually quite helpfull in making the bike feel more planted and far more stable on the way into the corner. This was the same feeling that we needed to chase on the R6. The only downside was that the ground clearance on the bigger bike was too low and most of the Valencia track is spent leant right over. .
By the final day we were running low on tyre's and decided to just do a couple of sessions on the 600's with the last tyre's and try to push for times. The new tyre's immediately gave a few seconds a lap and at this new pace I started to really learn what the tyre's do at this level. Its the first time I have ever really felt comfortable going in to corners knowing that I will lose the front but catching it. The Metzeler racetech's give so much confidence to 2 wheel drift or get the thing spinning up on the way out. It was a good experience as this is how hard I will have to ride this year every single lap if I want to be at the sharp end of the grid! My last flying lap was my fastest of he weekend and just pipped Ian by about a tenth so was quite happy. i also had two more sessions on the R1 and improved further. The big bike is nowhere near as intimidating as I thought I might be and is actually very user friendly. I will have no reservations in riding the bike at the road races now, its just like a fast, lazy 600 that will pull in any gear!
The first round is next weekend at Brands Hatch so will update afterwards!