TL Cup 2009 round two:
Won but got beaten anyway
Sunday 10.5.09
970km of highway in just 8h thanks to no traffic on the German highways. Basically I entered the highway, put in cruise control at about 125kph and quit the highway 8h later (of course I had to stop for a refuel and a short break).
Installed with the usual suspects in the paddock of the Eurospeedway Lausitz. We had no pit, so I had a small tent with me.
Monday 11.5.09
For the drivers briefing I was already in the leathers. Sky looked really dark, so I didn't want to loose any time for the first session. The TL had some starting problems due to old sparkplugs and bad Croatian fuel (still from the last round in Rijeka), but we managed to start it anyway and I entered the track at exactly 9 o clock. Front end felt slightly off and after just some laps it began to rain and I returned back to the pits. Back in the paddock I checked air pressures and found out that the front tyre was missing about 1 bar of pressure, so it basically was missing a lot of pressure which explains that it felt strange.
The rest of the morning is quickly explained: It rained and we decided not to drive. Despite having brand new Dunlop rain tyres ready on rims, I decided it was better not to drive because the track (which was originally an oval built for IndyCar) is EXTREMELY slippery in the wet and the weather forecast for tomorrow (raceday) was good. After changing final drive ratio to 16/39 and adjusting the rebound damping on the front forks, I had a sleep in the van...
...and woke up because of a lot of noise. Heck they're driving again!! It was now about 1:30 and we were in the middle of the free practice session over lunch. I prepared for the next group session at 2 PM.
Well, the track is quite different compared to the last round in Rijeka. Much more work on the brakes, I basically had to re-learn braking. The long 30min sessions in the afternoon were perfect for this. Harry, my biggest opponent returned with a TL500R from his first session. He had lost his front cylinder (or at least the spark) somewhere on track. Finally it was a torn off exhaust valve - bad luck for him.
In the 2nd afternoon session I got my time down to last years PB of 1:56.8 Had a slight moment when I locked up the front wheel at the braking point after the start/finish straight. OK, I'm braking hard enough then. The free practice in the evening was wet again. Prepared a new Dunlop rear slick on the gold rim in the evening.
Tuesday 12.5.09
Weather report: Blue sky and sunny!! So lets get up, breakfast, into the leathers and out on track! The qualification was until 12:00, so exactly three 20min sessions. In the 2nd session I was already down to 1:55.8. I forgot to connect the tyre warmer for the brand new rear tyre for 3rd session, so I had to finish the qualification with the old Dunlop slick from the last round. I found another 6 tenths, personal best 1:55.209.
Finally this was good enough for a front row start, 4th position on the grid in the Pro SBK (750/V2) class.
After lunch break, our race was scheduled for 2:30. Timing was very well and after driving to the grid there was the classic warmup lap and standing start procedure. Willi (Duc 999R) aside me almost jump started. I got away well, but not so good as Angy (GSX-R 750) behind me. Damn! I was already behind her in free practice and couldn't overtake because she drives a perfect line and has definitely more power on the straights. In the 2nd lap I block passed her outside/inside in the very tight right/left combination before the back straight. Now I had to catch up with Willi. I constantly gained a little bit of ground, but at the finish I was missing 0.5 seconds. Harry finished first on his wife's GSX-R 750, so he beat me anyway! But my race wasn't too bad either, I improved my PB to 1:53.339 and won the TL ranking very comfortably. In the Dunlop ranking I was 3rd overall.
Well, an important victory for the TL cup ranking! I improved my PB by a massive 3 seconds compared to last year, so I'm really happy with the result.
Some pictures from the paddock:
My tent-pit:
Wolfgang and Harry looking for a valve:
Weather during Monday moring:
Tuesday the weather was much better:
Greetings
Rufer
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