Following our recent track day at Oulton Park we headed to the Three Sisters circuit for some cheap track time (£39 for a two-hour session). When we started racing in the 1990s we spent a lot of time at Three Sisters, but we hadn't visited the circuit since 2012 - since then the circuit had been resurfaced and was looking very tidy.
We arrived at the circuit around 10:30 which was well in advance of our 12:00-14:00 'open pit lane' session and gave us plenty of time to put the Kawasaki Supersport machine on tyre warmers and then have a chat with fellow racers Ian Robinson and Paul Daley.
We arrived at the circuit around 10:30 which was well in advance of our 12:00-14:00 'open pit lane' session and gave us plenty of time to put the Kawasaki Supersport machine on tyre warmers and then have a chat with fellow racers Ian Robinson and Paul Daley.
When 12:00 arrived we headed straight out on track and did an initial run of 5 or 6 laps. On the 600cc bike, it felt like we were riding around a car park - with the bike unable to properly stretch its legs. Only 2nd and 3rd gears were used all day and our hands were already aching due to gripping the bike so tightly!
Through the day we continued to do short runs - a total of 11 runs and 65 laps during the two-hour session. With each run we got looser and more comfortable on the bike and were cirulating around the 1-minute mark. Once the lap times had stabilised, we started to play with the suspension adjustments on the Supersport machine - something we've not really had an opportunity to do as it has mainly been ridden at race events. Regardless of the adjustments, our lap times remained similar but we could identify and articulate what changes they made to the 'feeling' of the Supersport bike - we now need to work on using that information to try and reduce lap times in the future.
Through the day we continued to do short runs - a total of 11 runs and 65 laps during the two-hour session. With each run we got looser and more comfortable on the bike and were cirulating around the 1-minute mark. Once the lap times had stabilised, we started to play with the suspension adjustments on the Supersport machine - something we've not really had an opportunity to do as it has mainly been ridden at race events. Regardless of the adjustments, our lap times remained similar but we could identify and articulate what changes they made to the 'feeling' of the Supersport bike - we now need to work on using that information to try and reduce lap times in the future.
Photo by David Andrew
Fellow Northwich rider Tim Poole was also in attendance at the test day and during one of our runs we were able to follow him for a short while. Following an unfortunate crash in 2009, Tim suffered a leg injury which has since restricted his movement whilst riding - but as can be seen in the video below, he's now looking very comfortable once again. Tim is planning to compete in the 2021 Southern 100 Pre-TT Classic and 2021 Classic TT races on the machine he is riding in the video.
Following a final set of suspension changes, we headed out for our final run of the day to see whether we could put in a clean lap. Prior to this test, our Personal Best lap time around Three Sisters was a 1'00.6 lap in 1998. In the earlier runs we had logged a best of a 1'00.04 - so we desperately wanted to put in a sub-minute lap as the cherry on top of what had already been a very useful and successful day of testing. We left the pit, found a clear lap and registered a lap time of 59.76 - our first ever lap of Three Sisters under a minute, as shown in the video below. A nice little personal victory for the day! :-)
Our next outing is just over a week away, at a Darley Moor track day on Monday 20th July. We are hopeful that we can get some dry sessions during that track day so that we can compare acceleration data before/after the engine tuning performed by MSS Performance.
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