Better later than never....
My first ride at all on the KTM was at the Friday Crail trackday before the British Champs being held at Crail (26/27/28 June). Had about 30-40 mins max time on the bike on this Friday... incl a high speed lowside to wake me up a bit! First impressions of the 450SX were WOW! Power wheelies and exit slides all over the place, incredibly light, and less work on track than the DRZ (all obvious I guess).
I was then persuaded/armtwisted in entering the British Championship "SM Cup" class.... and so I did! Just the Sunday though. I had planned on just keeping doing only the Scottish Champs this year but decided why not just have a go.
Saturday I wasn't racing (although everyone tried to presuade me, but I held firm!) so got to relax and just spectate, watching the Pro Clas was amazing and top entertainment (Iddon, Winstanley, Etc). Also spied on the SM Cup class that I'd be racing in on Sunday to scope the lines folk were taking and stuff
Sunday, up and ready for signing on at 7am.... shi$@ing myself bigtime by this point I have to admit after only 30 mins on this new KTM and jumping straight into my first British Champs race Got signed on etc and then hung about till my groups 10 min free practice session... went well and felt comfy on the bike but was a bit daunting out on track with 25 very fast riders at once.
Then came my group's 20 min qualifying... went out and pootled around for 2 laps then found a mate that's faster then me and hung on his coat tails for 3 laps, right on his back wheel (which is a first with him, so already faster then the DRZ).... came in and checked the timing screens... I had beat his best time by 1/10th of a second Ended up qualifying 19th of 25 so surprised and chuffed (but still nervous as hell).
Race 1 Holy shit, adrenaline overload on the grid (way more than the Scottish Races)... got away clean then on the second corner a couple of folk tangle and we all ride around them... good race but I was getting REALLY exhausted and started thinking these 15 lap races (compared to our club 10 or 12 ones) were going to be too much... almost retired... but then the last lap came out and so hung on and ended up finishing 18th. That'll do... especially since I was starting to 'properly' back the bike into the corners.
Race 2
More relaxed and better start, so not as tired through the race, was in 17th until I accidently let 2 riders through (that I was in front of) on the blue flag when the leaders came thrugh to lap us. So ended up with 19th same as my grid start. Happy with that, but hacked off at the blueflag thing.
Race 3 (the one with the DNF crash)
Most relaxed race of the day, settled in to a good battle with another Scot with us swapping positions (16th/17th) 2 or 3 times per lap, all going great until I overcooked the sliding into the fastest turn from about 70mph... down the gears, drop the clutch, let the slipper do its magic, got the backing in slide going, good, good, whoaaaa... great, I'm sliding better than ever, feck me full opposite lock sliding into the corner, cool, I'm great, oh, oh, OH, ****, ****, arghhhh.... HIGHSIDE!... bars rebound, ooof... my gut/ribs, oh I've hung on!, oh feck now I'm airbourne, oh look here comes the gravel trap.... pffft pfftt cough spit, oh I appear to have faceplanted into the gravel at a good speed... hmmm, sore chest but I've survived, oh good But hang on WINDED! can't move. Then my mate and a marshal came over... "DONT MOVE" they shout, I'm shouting "get my helmet off me... I'm fine but I'm eating kittyliter here and can't breathe". Helmet off, that's better, "can you move they say". <have a go - nothing> "er no I can't" still winded.... eventually they drag me out the gravel and I ask for a help up... hoorah I can stand and walk again... I'm fine Outcome was just a big winding and one or two more bruised/bust ribs.
Anyway, for the first time on the ktm and first time 'properly' I was geting the sliding/backing it into corners thing sorted I knew it would involve crashing while learning, so fair enough... but hope to master it soon.
The races will be on TV on the Extreme Channel at some point.
So the verdict is... LOVE the new bike
All that said, I still won't hear a bad word against DRZs - when I was riding road/commuting as well as track days and racing it was ideal. But now I'm racing/track only it made sense to get a full on track SM. I'll miss my yellow DRZ
Some photos...
Photos catching 2nd half of crash sequence LOL
