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Report Braga II
Race Report – Macau 2011 As I write this I have been back in London for a few days and able now to digest the craziness of the past couple of weeks. I took off for the Far East on Nov 12th and was out until the 22nd but my Macau adventure started way earlier, back in late summer when I begged, borrowed and stole to get an invite to the event. Luckily for me the stars aligned perfectly and I managed to get through to The List. That left only the small matter of wrapping up the SStock 1000 championship in Portugal (I came 2nd) and one last SBK round at Portimao with the worlds. I used the latter to test the small changes we would be using on the Macau bike namely updated motor (with different cam timing and a little bit more top end), upgraded front brakes (disks & pads - don t use the rear one) and also upgraded electronics (Bazzaz system with traction). Ultimately decided against the latter and had to re-work the workings of the back of the bike to get it to gel with the stronger brake system. But ultimately all good. Flew off to Macau on the 12th and settled with surprising ease into the normal Macau racer routine for the early part of the week – i.e. drinking and going out. Most difficult thing was getting over being star struck by the cream of international road racing that was racing at the event! It was with great anticipation that we came to Thursday 17th and with it first (and only) free practice. Weather was good and we started to roll out our plan. It in essence aimed at trying to get us on to the race as safely and conservatively as possible by allowing enough time to assimilate the track properly. I went out on used tyres with no agenda other than to put in as many laps as possible to learn my way round. Firstt thing that struck me was how physical the track is. Not sure if that is just a factor of the intense frequency of bends or there was also a stress element at play. Probably so. Gradually I started feeling my way and came out satisfied with two low 2.50 laps which set a good tune for Quali. Bike remained well behaved and we knew it would be precocious to start changing things until we fit the proper racing slicks I would be using for the Quali - supposed to happen that very afternoon. Unfortunately rain came in & that session was not to be. Bikes don t run in damp conditions in Macau. It’s a dangerous enough place in perfect grip conditions ... let alone when wet/damp. The long wait had officially begun. Friday saw again the morning session (which was to be Quali 2 in the original schedule) cancelled with another attempt at getting bikes to run in a make shift pm session also thwarted by adverse weather. That brought us on to Saturday... theoretically race day … with only 1 practice session and no Qualis under our belt. It was agreed that -weather permitting – the warm up slot in the am with be used for Quali with the race in the pm. It was once again not too be. Morning was still damp …. Weather finally cleaned up for the pm and Quali would be on in very much dry conditions. I had slicks on and was feeling well rested from the past couple of days of waiting. Still had the small problem of having to have off circa 10 seconds off my time to make the cut (even assuming Mr Rutter would not have to put in a 2.23 to qualify on pole). I went out and the bike was feeling good... by the 3rd lap I had already taken out 6 seconds and was feeling confident and progressively more at ease with the track. Then a hiccup... missed my braking marker coming into the Melco hairpin and went straight … dropping the bike... Nothing serious – comical if anything .. check YouTube for Quali highlights and you see it - but still had to come in to the pits to have everything checked... Fortunately all was good and I could carry on with Quali which I did ... shaving off anywhere between 1 and 1.5 secs on each of my subsequent flying laps. My best time of the session 2.41.7 would allow me to qualify was it not for a last minute effort for pole by Michael Rutter which left John McGuiness more than 3 seconds away in second. Sadly therefore I was out. Thanks Michael) I am not one to go out without a fight. And logged with the organizers a start permission request on the basis that as a rookie I had been unduly disadvantaged by the reduced track time & but that my lap time progression was encouraging and should allow me to – under normal circumstances – qualify for the race. My arguments found some amount of support with the Commission but unfortunately request was still denied, leaving me to wait for another year for a bite of the cherry. All in all a good experience... would have liked to have been able to get proper track time to test myself against this mythical track. Was encouraged by my performance in the time that I had and will be looking to go back next year if possible for sure. Macau is definitely not done with me!! Nuno Caetano #77
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