ZXR400 Racer with NG

There seems to be more and more members appearing that are racing the ZXR400 so i've created a special section just for you to show off results, discuss meets etc etc.

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400y
zxr400 oc member
zxr400 oc member
Posts: 114
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:32 am
My Bike: ZXR400H1 GSXR600

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by 400y »

Well done. Great write up and cool trophies.
tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

Pembrey 17th September.

Saturday:
As funds are fairly tight i was only doing 1 day at Pembrey and couldn't afford the test day the day before so was kind of going into the race blind as I had never ridden the track before. I got there Friday evening after it took me 4 and 1/2 bloody hours to get there from Bristol! I rushed to get the bike ready for scrutineering and then sprinted down with the bike and got there as they were closing the doors, luckily the nice scrutineers of NG let me have the last go haha. Bike passed with flying colour.

After a cracking night’s sleep, I woke up to the sun beating down at 6:30am, which in Wales I’m sure is rare! I headed out for practise knowing I needed to get better on my down shifts as I was hitting false neutrals a lot at Anglesey. Low and behold 2 laps in and not getting on with the track I have to run on coming onto the back straight as I hit a neutral, I didn't want it trying to throw me off like it did at Anglesey so I just ran on. I got her back in gear and went on again, she did it again going into the first corner, again I ran on to safety and sorted the bugger out. Spent most of my practise pissing about with that and not learning the track so wasn't the most confident starting 3rd on the grid for the quali race.

Quali Race:
We set off on the warm up lap I got half way around and realised my bike was loud as you like, not quite normal. I looked down to see my end can had slipped of the link pipe! I got back to the grid, waited until the Marshall's weren't looking at me and I slipped it back on just. Knowing it wouldn't stay on I just needed it to be not so loud off the start. I got a good start, jumped into 2nd place and held it through the first corner, got passed by the 2nd and the 3rd corners and slipped into 4th to follow my mate Simon on his FZR so I could learn the track. Half way around my exhaust slipped off again so I was running a straight through micron system all race, my god it sounded nice, if I didn't have ear plugs in I think I’d be deaf! I was following Simon for 2/3 laps getting more confident as I was going and slowly gaining on him. Going into the first turn, which at Pembrey is a 6th to 2nd gear hairpin I hit a bloody false neutral again, I didn't fancy running on in the race so I scrambled to get it back into gear, instead of trying to get it down another gear I popped it into 3rd and she was all fine. I came out the corner in the completely wrong gear but at least I was still on the track! This slowed me down a bit and I got passed by my mate Dan on his FZR. I followed him for a lap and dived up the inside into the first corner, he then re passed me at the same place he did the lap before. He almost high-sided coming out the corner which was quite fun to watch, I followed him again, slip streamed him down the back straight and out braked him into the fast right hand last corner, this time making the move stick. I then went to hunt down Simon who was a good 2 seconds up the round, after a 2 flying laps and seeing the last lap flag come out I was sort of within range. With it only being a quali race I didn't want to try anything special so shot right up to the back of him into the final turn and tried to drag him on the way out, I finished 0.225 behind him and was more than happy with that.

Afternoon Race:
I was starting from 4th on the grid but wasn't too fussed about that as I knew my starts were good (Jinxed it myself) got away ok, hit a neutral shifting to 2nd and go swamped! I knew I couldn't let 3rd and 2nd get away from me (1st being Tim Bradley who is about 4's faster than anyone else) Braked super hard into the first turn and had the bike in all sorted of shapes but managed to get myself back into 4th. I got stuck behind a GP45 Aprilia for a lap or so and had to pull a fairly big move to get past as Simon and Martin were getting away. Once I was past the GP45 I felt super comfy on the bike, everything was running well, brakes were fine and I wasn't hitting any false neutrals. Simon put a big move on Martin for 2nd which allowed me to pull up to the back of them quicker. I got a great run into and out of the last corner and dragged martin on his zxr down the front straight and made a bit of a lunge up the inside, the bike was going a bit sideways, which I wasn’t all that used to but I made it stick. It took me another lap to pull Simon is as he was riding really smooth, coming onto the back straight he looked behind only to see me almost on his back wheel! I lined him up through the flat 5th gear kink into the last corner and made the biggest/scariest most exciting move I've ever done. It was all out commitment if I had hesitated at all we would have both been down. I shot up the inside, slammed the bike onto its side, my knee on the deck and had the back end wobbling all over the place mid corner and on the exit but managed to pull it off without touching! I knew Simon was fast and had more pace so I hammered in a fast lap to try and pull away, I’m not one for looking behind me so I just kept my head down. I'd been looking for the last lap flag for a couple of laps and didn't see it. Heading down the back straight my bike hit a false neutral without me touching anything, then put itself back into gear, I was a little confused but it kept going so I didn't worry too much, I went into the last corner fast knowing I lost a bit of pace on the back straight only for me to hit the throttle and the bike run out of fuel! I couldn't believe it! another podium chance taken away from me because of my stupidity haha. Initially I thought the old girl had blown up as it is a 400. It wasn't until someone said "does it have fuel in" that I checked and stopped panicking but got incredibly annoyed at myself.

Newcomers:
After almost brimming the tank to make sure I didn’t make the same stupid mistake again and swapping batteries as mine was flat I was set to head out for the newcomers and to try for my 3rd straight win. To say I was nervous about the start was an understatement! 40 odd bikes 1000’s/650’s/600’s and 400’s all barrelling down to a hairpin corner, it’s a recipe for disaster. I got a good start again, cleared all the Ducati’s and some mini twins and positioned myself on the inside of the track. I braked fairly early just to avoid any mistakes and had another 400 come up the inside of me, I wasn’t too worried I just wanted to make it around the first turn! I rolled around the turn with the clutch in, I came out slipping it and dived up the inside of Steve on his ZXR400 and got myself in the lead. For a lap or so I was following a mini twin and kept making mistakes, which wasn’t helping. Once I passed a few mini twins I felt really good on the bike again, there was a fairly big gap ahead of me to the next group of riders all 600’s and 1000’s so I had a good lap and a half by myself to race the track and pull a gap on the 400’s behind me. I Caught the R6/MV and R1 with 2 laps to go and had a good battle, out braking them, then getting battered down the straight. My corner speed was far better and racing with them taught me a lot about bike position and being able to utilise my corner speed. On the last lap I dived back past the R6 through a fast sweeping right hander, tried to out brake the MV coming into the sharp right before the back straight, I got right up the inside but he didn’t fancy letting me have it, we bashed knee’s and a few other bits and I came out worse off but it was just good hard racing. This clash made me come out of the corner far slower than normal so I was slipping the clutch to get the bike going, the R6 came barrelling back past, slowed in the kink and I dived back up the inside into the last turn, I came across the line 1st, my 3rd straight win in the newcomers in the 400 class and missed out on the championship by 4 points!

Would have loved to have ridden both days but I do love Thruxton so thought it best to save some pennies to race there. I believe I have another year in the Newcomers class so I’m hoping without some silly mistakes I made this year I can have the championship!

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DAClark89
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2016 7:12 pm
My Bike: ZXR400 L4

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by DAClark89 »

false neutrals seem to be the biggest annoyance with these bikes
ive had a few on the road lately, most of mine happen changing up from 3rd to 4th, I'm not having them going down the box while just riding, but I'm getting them coming down as I'm slowing to a stop at traffic lights, occasionally it seems to go into first, then down some more and jam in the neutral....I guess its just down to most of them being around 20 years old now, but ive seen other Kawasaki gearboxes do it too....hell, it even happens to johnny rea on the ZX10 WSBK bike

it must be a great feeling to hammer a much bigger bike in the corners, cant imagine how they must feel when they realise they were out broke by a 20 year old 400cc bike that's handling better than they are biggrin lol
saying that though, at the lights a few days ago I destroyed some old dude on a 2015 bmw S1000 R (the naked one) .... you cant beat the tiny weight of these old 400's
tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

Mine always does it going from 3rd to 2nd, but im running race shift so it would be like you clicking up a gear.

I think it was mainly down to me being a little to hard on the down shift, in the afternoon race i was taking my time going down the gears, revving the bike as i went down and she ran like a dream.

Its great racing the bigger bikes, i didn't get too involved in the pack at Pembrey i believe on race times i would have finished 15th out of 19 in the 600's and 1000's but at castle combe i one my 400 class and finished 9th on time in the 600's and 1000's. The 400 will destroy almost anything in the corners only the boys on the 250's destroy us haha.
tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

NG Road Racing Thruxton 8th October.

Saturday:
After sitting around by myself for a good few hours the day before to make sure me and Ben had a garage and then sinking a few beers i was more than ready to get on the ZXR and go for a spin. And having ridden Thruxton before i was quietly confident going into the race.

My warm up went OK but it felt like the bike didn't want to pull below 10K but wasn't causing too much of an issue, which was a little confusing as it had been fine at Pembrey. I came in and as they went to noise test me my bike shut off and wouldn't start again so i managed to dodge that bullet as i was running my micron system without the baffle in. For the race i was 14th on the grid even though i was 7th in the championship! didn't quite understand why but i was more than happy to battle my way through the pack. Ben was starting 16th so i was hoping to follow him as well to pull me up to the front. I bang the revs up to 10K, lights go out and i let the clutch out to its usual biting point and she almost stall on the line. I managed to catch it and slip the clutch to get me going but i dropped to last in the F400 class. I went up into the complex pissed off and out broke 4 people and then a few corners later went round the outside of 2 people into Noble. After a blast down the back straight i came into the last chicane, dropped the bike into 3rd gear and went to accelerate out the last corner. The bike did nothing, it wouldn't rev at all below 10K and just felt like it was stuck. I spent the whole race pissed off that it was playing up. I managed to get myself up to 6th place but it was an incredibly lonely and frustrating.

I came back in and ripped the tank and ram air system off to find i had made a slight error when cleaning my carbs a few rounds before.... i managed to leave a couple of rags in the air box that i used to clean up some fuel!! not only did i feel like an idiot but i went out on a warm up lap of another race to see if that was the problem only for the bike to still be pissing about. Now i had a bit of fuel coming out of the side of my ram air system, something it hadn't done before but i didn't have time to piss about with the carbs before my race so it would have to do.

Starting from 6th on the grid i took the revs up quite a bit higher so i wouldn't stall off the line again, i got a good start and jumped up to 5th but got lent on a little so had to shut off. Going up into the complex i road around the outside of some bloke on a steam powered tractor (Desmo duo/Air cooler Ducati Monster) i braked later than him but got in all sorts of shapes with the back end in the air and it snaking from side to side. He managed to drop across the front of me so i followed him through the first part of the complex, got better drive out to which he then parked himself in the middle of the corner as i was swinging back to get a good run out and i had to take slight avoiding action (Would have been my fault anyway) i still managed to out drive him but by that time i had lost about 4 seconds on the 400 pack in front of me!

I spent a good 4 laps by myself but then started to slowly reel in Simon Wilkins on his FZR, by that time 2 guys ahead of us had pulled out so the fight was for 3rd until Simon Gates on his ZXR came flying past me. I had managed to hold him behind for a lap after he tried diving up the inside but i was really struggling to get the bike moving out the slower corner on the track so as he got past i instantly lost 3 seconds out the last corner as i was having to slip the clutch.

The following lap i put in my fastest lap of a 1.30.6, looking at the footage i didn't miss a beat all lap, i had it bouncing all over the place coming out of church and had to stand up on the pegs to get it into a straight like, it was class! proper hard riding. I got close to Simon on the FZR into the complex, bouncing around on 1 wheel for most of the braking area (Something i need to fix, my forks are a little buggered) and then got solid drive coming out and went round the outside of him and another bike into and through Noble. One of the steam powered Ducati's was right on the apex of the next corner going fairly slowly and i couldn't go anywhere but up the inside but i was coming at a completely different angle so if i had gone for it i'd have most probably taken us both off at 90/100 mph, something i didn't quite fancy doing. I had to slow down quite a bit but saw there was a patch of tarmac on the infield, quite possible part of the run way so i jumped across the grass and little and onto that to make sure i got past haha. Simon managed to slipstream me down the back straight and got into front into the last corner. I followed him really closely through the chicane and managed to get OK drive out, enough to keep within distance coming onto the last lap. My entry speed was quite a bit better so i nailed the throttle a little earlier and stood the bike up and managed to drive around the outside of him before the braking area for the complex. I broke super late into the complex and had my knee down with the brake still on which scared me!, i kept the rest of the lap nice and tidy, got a good exit through church to see 2 back markers up ahead and i was going to catch them right at the wrong point. I got a long side 1 just before the braking area, went round the outside of him and then dived up the inside of the 125. There's me thinking "Ah job done just go through the last corner nice and easy" as i shift into 2nd my bike as it loves doing drops itself into false neutral and i have to run on at the last corner. I came across the line really pissed off as i thought they'd drop me back a position but fortunately they didn't and i managed to take 4th place and secure 6th in the championship.

All in all it was an OK weekend, i definitely had the pace for low 1.29's and the podium i think but its my fault for not properly checking the bike between races. I managed to improve my lap time from 2014 by 7 seconds so i was happy with that. Big shout out goes to my Brother Ben Harrison (Chowderv4) on here as he won the race by 10 seconds and got performance of the meeting after finishing 4th in the pre injection 700/1300 on his 400!

Now i have a garage the winter will be spent taking the engine out to fix a few bits/new forks/ new fairing (Cheers Ben Palmer) and just generally going over everything and getting new seals. My plan for next year is to win every newcomers race and secure that championship and hopefully challenge for wins in the f400 class.

Here's a few as usual cracking pictures from Kerry Rawson Photography and Hairy Beat Pix and some race footage (Unfortunately my gopro ran out of memory on the last lap!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5YQ55cxNQw

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tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

Winter Update:

Been fairly busy since the season finished taking the bike apart! The gear box needs looking at, nothing major and if something is broken i have 4 spare ones so i'm hoping i can sort something.

I've treated the bike to a new full Scorpion system which sounds sweet, also managed to grab some new forks, adjustable clip on's, Venhill quick action throttle, new fairing (From Ben Palmer, Lovely bloke) and a few other bits and bobs like gaskets etc.

I've got 3 Months until my first race to get everything sorted and i know March will turn up fast so i need to get my ass in gear. My 2017 calendar looks like this so far:

- Brands Hatch - March 3rd/4th/5th (ThundersportGB)
- Brands Hatch - March 18th/19th (NG)
- Oulton Park - April 7th/8th (NG)
- Donington Park - May 13th/14th (NG)
- Snetterton 300 - May 20th/21st (Bemsee)
- Cadwell Park - June 2nd/3rd/4th (NG)
- Castle Combe - July 8th/9th (NG)
- Oulton Park - August 4th/5th (Bemsee)
- Anglesey - August 11th/12th/13th (NG)
- Pembrey - September 2nd/3rd (NG)
- Thruxton - October 7th (NG)

I want to get as much track time as possible and then plan for the Manx in 2018. In the mean time i want the NG newcomers championship, missing out on it by 4 point this year hurt haha. And a solid top 3 in the NG F400 championship would be nice as well but i'll have stiff competition.

Here's to a cracking 2016 and roll on 2017, a year of racing!
tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

Its been a fairly busy start to January after a rather chilled Christmas. I've gone about doing a bit of an Engine refresh with the help of my Brother and his expert ZXR knowledge. Fortunately with the engine being tuned recently its all in good nick where it needs to but. So far I've put a refreshed clutch in,given the engine itself a good clean and replaced all the gaskets.

I got the rocker cover off over the weekend and learnt how to do the valve clearance's with Bens help and bar 4 being slightly out of tolerance it was all good. Now its just a case of waiting for payday so i can get the rest of my bits such as clutch/throttle cable's/fork oil/engine oil/fork seal kit/new fairing amongst a few other bits but its all minimal the hard work is almost done.

Managed to blag myself a compressor as well :excited so respraying the bike shout be a walk in the park. Hopefully it'll all be done by March as I'm out on track at Pembrey the 4th/5th after having a change of plan and deciding not to do Thundersport at Brands.

These pictures should show a little bit of the progress I've made over the weekend, i got bored and sprayed a few bits, excuse the terrible fixes on the ram air box, its messy but it worked haha :smt001

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Dominik
Posts: 110
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 11:05 am
My Bike: Zxr 400 L3
Location: Trier - Germany

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by Dominik »

Hi,
What valve clearance are you guys running on the track? More than Standard like in the Kit Manual?

If you want to have your engine tuned a little then get the intake rubbers matching ;) Cylinder 3 and the seem to be the worse ones as far I can See. Maybe switching them might already help!

Cheers
Zxr 400 SL - 130kg
tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

Running the valve clearances within the manuals tolerance just to be safe ha. When I took the inlet rubbers off I forgot which ones they came off haha so as you said I need to do a bit of mix and matching to see if there's a better fitment mixing them about. Everything's on it loosely at the moment as I've got a few bits and pieces to add but I'm hoping it'll be a finished product by February.
Cheers, Tom
tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

Winter Update:

After a few cold evenings. a lot of parts purchased and a trip to Frome by ZXR is almost finished.
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I've purchased some fairing from Ben Palmer and boy do they look nice! Seat until fits right over the standard sub frame with it only needing a bit of drilling and tapping for it to be fixed on. I've got a spare set of forks which i have purchased some Ktech goodies for and they'll be going on this weekend.

Mechanically the bike is absolutely spot on, since getting the engine back in and running it sounds far better and starts on the button, the new scorpion system sounds far better than the Micron too! All essential parts will be fitted this weekend plus some rear sets I'm borrowing as mine are knackered. All that'll be left to do is paint the bike then and put some sponsor stickers on it.

Oh and I've decided to name it Keith the Kawasaki :pmsl

Roll on the 4th/5th of March for some testing at Pembrey!
tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

Here she is, the finished article!

I'm bloody proud of what myself and my brother have produced here. A lot of blood, sweat, brake cleaner, paint, bolts, more bloody and tears has gone into this bike over the winter, I'm so stoked on how its turned out! (Best not throw it down the road at Pembrey this weekend!)

90% of the bike is new front hoses to clip-ons and even little bits in the engine, I've tried to leave no stone un-turned. My brother always said to me last year "keep your bike clean and do everything properly and it'll be easy", my ZXR is now an example of that. Putting that extra hour in to get it done right is incredibly worth it. I can now go into this season knowing my bike is built how i want it to be!

If anyone's curious about the make of fairing a good friend of mine Ben Palmer makes them and is always happy to make more.

Cant wait to ride the thing biggrin biggrin

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tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

I've been very quiet on here for some reason, probably because I've been lazy (Don't have as much time on my hands at the new job to write reports whilst getting paid :pmsl ) except now of course.

Since I got the bike sorted over the winter I've completed 3 rounds of the NG Road Racing championship. Going into the season I wanted to become more consistent and actually push myself to go faster, something I struggled with last year as I seemed to get into a certain rhythm and then stay at that speed. I've, in a nutshell surpassed my expectations by a huge margin! The season started at Brands Hatch on the Indy circuit, I had some unfinished business with paddock hill as I crashed there last year whilst leading the newcomers. After some brake trouble and swapping of master cylinders I'd only done 3 laps cruising on what compared to last year, was a new bike for me with all the changes I'd made. I'd always had a little issue with false neutrals, half of the problem was me being toad on down shifts, something I really needed to work on/have worked on. To cut a long story short as I was finally getting over my fear of paddock hill I hit a false neutral going into it, pulled a massive stoppie on the way into the gravel and my limited motocross skills definitely keep me from binning the bike but I couldn't restart the race as I was beached! as i'm trying to help the marshals push my bike away 2 other people crash and all the marshals start running, I didn't want to drop my bike so I just hid behind it :pmsl fortunately they both missd me and were OK as it looked a nasty crash.

Results from that weekend were - F400 4th/3rd - Newcomers - 1st - A good start to my season.

I unfortunately had to miss the 2nd round at Oulton Park because I race on a shoe string budget and as it was only a 1 day round I thought it best to miss that rather than a 2 dayer, although I absolutely love Oulton Park so I was pretty gutted.

Onto Donington Park in mid may, i'd been off the bike for almost 2 months and was proper keen to swing my leg back over it. During that time i'd tinkered with it a little more and thought i'd cured a few braking issues I was having. Turns out I hadn't and Donington Park was set up to be a proper scary/fun round. In the morning practise I found out my brakes worked, just! I usually brake with 2 fingers but the lever was coming back so far that I was having to use my whole hand, something that took a while to get used to, and the fact the lever was coming back to far was a little annoying. Basically I had 1 knackered pair of H model callipers, the pistons looked liked they'd been through a blender and I didn't have the money to get new pistons along with seals etc so tried Aqua blasting them and putting new seals in but that didn't work. I purchased some L model callipers from a good friend but they hadn't been used in a while so although in good condition as I was running EBC pro-lite discs which are thicker than standard the pistons were struggling to push themselves out and were pushing the dust seals out with them! I just had to get on with it and hope my brakes worked haha.

The qualifying race went well, Aaron Ridewood buggered off up front and left me to take my best finish of my racing career of a 2nd place, my brother didn't manage to get out in that race so he was starting from the back. Between our quali and championship race Aarons bike blew a gearbox so I thought I was in with a chance of winning! turns out Ben had other ideas and it only took him a lap to get from last on the grid to overtaking me into the first corner :smt010 I was happy to come home with 2nd place and take my best ever points finish. That same day I won the newcomers race and set a new lap record along the way, managing to go 8 seconds faster than I did last year on my NC29. The next day in the quali race Ben was late to the grid and had to start from the back, I lead the whole race until the very last lap when I hit a false neutral half way round the lap, which had a lasting effect on my gearbox and was buggering up my 3rd gearand Ben came past me, then waved the cheeky giraffe, and went on to win the quali race haha. I was a little annoyed but also happy i'd upped my pace again and actually managed to lead for so long. All this with a brake lever hitting the bar as I was getting faster :pmsl

The championship points race in the afternoon had me 2nd on the grid and Ben 1st, I managed to get him off the line as my starts have been bang on this year, I even had it on the back wheel as I went past haha. He then swiftly got me back into the first corner as I was too cautious. I then just wanted to keep him in my sites, I made a little mistake and missed a gear onto the back straight so lost good drive. Then Will Bryant who I didn't think I'd have trouble from came past me. I wanted to try and get back as quickly as possible so tried to line him up into the first corner, I braked as late as a dared with the lever hitting the bar. I just had to throw the bike down and try to carry a lot more corner speed, I thought I was going fast into turn 1 but Will pulled at least half a second mid corner, something that confused me a little. Then he decided to do a bit of Motocrossing and went flying onto the grass, a good explanation as to why he went into the corner so fast. I ended up finishing 2nd, only 2.8 seconds behind ben, again something I was pretty chuffed with.

Results from Donny - F400 -2nd/2nd - Newcomers - 1st

Next up was Cadwell Park.

I'd never been to Cadwell before so was very apprehensive heading into this round. During the test day I stayed out in my sessions for as long as possible to try and figure out where I was going. I thought i'd hate the track but on a 400 its so bloody fun. I was only meant to be racing the Saturday as I couldn't afford the Sundays racing but my 2 good mates I always pitch up with when racing paid for my Sunday's racing after my Saturdays results which i'll get onto.

After the test day I was confident going into the quali race. I got a decent start and the front group was Myself, Aaron and Will. All very close together on the first lap and after watching a lot of Steve Palmers videos at Cadwell I knew I could basically hit the first corner flat out on the 400 after a quick downshift. This brought me up behind Will very quickly so I thought I'd put a move in going into Charlies 2, he didn't see me coming and I hit the back of his bike, fortunately we both stayed on and I ran onto the grass. within a lap we'd managed to pull 6 seconds on 4th so I slotted myself back into 3rd place, really pissed off i'd made such a stupid mistake. This may have helped though as I got my head down to try and reel the leaders back in. Within a lap or so Aaron started coming back to me way quicker than he should have, I got past him as we went over the mountain and saw smoke coming from his bike so pointed at him as he went past. There was only a lap or so left so I didn't really have a chance of catching Will but as I come round to hit the last corner I saw yellow flags, I had a quick look and Will was in the air fencing under his bike, I cruised the last lap and took my first ever Win, albeit in a quali race but I was happy. I felt as though I was gifted the win a bit but after seeing the results I actually went 1.2 seconds fast a lap than the front 2 so that made me feel a little more confident going into the points race.

Aaron was back out in the afternoons championship race along with Will but they were both having to start from last on the grid, I had the whole front row to myself haha. I was very nervous going into this race as I knew I could potentially get my first ever championship win! I knew Aaron would be fast so I had to get my head down from the start, that I did, I got straight into the 1.42's on my first flying lap, the whole racing thinking Aaron was hunting me down. I consistently did 1.42's the whole race along with almost crashing a few times. I should probably add that I had fixed the brakes now haha. I was pushing really hard and I almost lost the front going through Charlies 2 on the bumps in the middle of the corner. I had a quick look behind me on the last lap and then just kept everything smooth. I crossed the line first, going absolutely mental after winning my first race. Turns out Aarons bottom end had gone on his ZXR so he didn't even complete a lap. I ended up winning the race by 23 seconds, pulling a 5 second lead on the first lap! My brother, who wasn't racing at Cadwell, was messaging my mates to tell me to slow down haha.

After celebrating a little bit I only had 1 race between the end of the F400 race and my newcomers race. The newcomers races are always fun and with Cadwell suiting the 400's a little more I thought I'd maybe be able to stick with the 1000's. Off the start I stuck to the outside of everyone, my main newcomers rival Will got along side me but was stuck on the inside, I swooped around the outside of a good 8/9 bikes and slotted myself in. I was really trying to pull a gap but I go stuck behind a guy on a fazer 1000. I kept meeting him at the wrong places and after being stuck behind him for a lap Will got back past me. That pissed me off a bit haha so I knew he'd be a little cautious going into the last corner so I stuffed it up the inside of him and then knew I'd have to put a couple of bikes between us. I caught the fazer just before the gooseneck, I then went round the outside of him coming out of the gooseneck. Directly in front of him was someone on an R6. Into the chicane just after mansfield I believe I knew I needed to get this bloke too so I did a bit of a kamikaze move and just parked my little 400 where he wanted to be. It was a massive bloke pass, I almost came to a stop in the chicane haha. But it backed them all up, meaning Will got caught up in it and it also gave me clear track. With the clear track and it being the last lap I pulled out all the stops to Win. I managed a 1.43.5, not my fastest but we'd been doing 1.47's in the traffic. With that lap time I pulled a 5second gap on Will and broke the newcomers lap record along the way :excited . This now took me to 3 wins out of 3 in the newcomers and gave me a 35 point lead in that championship.

On the Sunday things pretty much went as well as Saturday, as mentioned because of my results on the Saturday my good mates Liam and James paid for my Sundays racing, absolute legends the pair of them! I won the quali race by 8 seconds doing a 1.42.095, so so close to a 1.41. the afternoons race I won again but only by 3 seconds this time. Will got past me off the start and we had a good little battle on the first lap but I overtook him going into the last corner again just to scare him a bit biggrin. Because of my results over the weekend, winning 5/5 races I entered I was given the performance of the meeting! the weekend really couldn't have gone better and Cadwell is definitely one of the favourite tracks now.

Results from Cadwell - F400 1st/1st - Newcomers - 1st
I came out of that weekend Leading the Newcomers championship by 35 points, I can wrap that championship up at Anglesey with a top 3 finish. And I'm now also leading the F400 championship by 15 Points. After missing a round I didn't think i'd really be in the position I am!

Next up Castle Combe on the 8th/9th of July, hoping to keep my championship charge on track!

Here's a few photo's/videos from my races this year.

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Cadwell: https://youtu.be/cy3hmp3OA74
Donington: https://youtu.be/6fmZlpWA6mo
Brands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29NEWlDHoRc
tuckshop1
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:14 am
My Bike: ZXR400 L/CBR 400 NC29

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by tuckshop1 »

Sooo, Its been a while since my last post.

I ended up winning the F400 & Newcomers championships in 2017! After Cadwell we headed to Anglesey, I proceeded to send myself 6ft in the air on the first lap of the race and thought it would be a great idea to land on my head! Knocked myself out for a good minute, cant remember anything after the bike going sideways :pmsl broke my wrist also, so that was my weekend run. My run in the championship had been ruined by that crash.

It allowed my brother (ChowderV4) on here to close the gap to me. We were racing at Pembrey 3 weeks later, I asked the doctors how long the cast needed to be on and he said 6 weeks :smt018 so as you do I cut the cast off the day before we left for pembrey and proceeded to race. After a bit of a battle with the circuit doctors to let me race I finally swung a leg over the zxr for the first time after the crash 5 minutes before my first race, completely missed warm up. Managed a 3rd in the quali race and a 2nd in the afternoon's championship race after a good battle with ChowderV4. The newcomers race was after that, and with a comfy 3rd place I could have won the championship. I ended up winning the race by 18 seconds to take the championship, a belting race as well.

The Sunday was a complete change, the weather was absolutely horrible and I ended up crashing in the quali race after a little mistake took me onto the soaking wet grass, ended up dropping it but fortunately not going too fast. Then just about managed to go from last to 4th in the Championship race. I was happy when the racing was over as it gave my wrist a break and allowed me to relax!

Thruxton was the following round and the last round of the season, 12 points covered the top 3 in the championship with me 3 points behind my brother. Whoever beat the other won the championship pretty much. In the quali race we all got off to a flyer, with me, ben and Steve palmer battling for the lead, Steve started to pull away slightly and ben made a small mistake just before church which allowed me to drive past. Knowing beating him in the quali would put me in a good position for the championship race I wanted to pull away. Going into the final corner I braked as late as possible only for a backmarker who was way out wide to cut back across the racing line, my line pretty much. It was either completely take him out or try to avoid him, I chose the latter but ended up going over the bars almost trying to not hit him, the bike flicked me off the side and I pretty much punched the guys rear wheel and then spun off, he stayed on, I slid on my ass out of 2nd place :smt011 :smt011 :smt011 thinking I'd pretty much ballsed the whole championship up I wasn't happy. But I then didn't see ben come back round, pretty much 5 seconds after my crash his bike broke down.

The stress levels were definitely rising. Ben tried to fix his bike between races, I fixed up my bike after the crash. We went out to start our final race of the year, the championship decider. Bens bike broke down again on the warm up lap so I knew what I had to do. Just as the Marshall raised the red flag to point at the lights my bike cut out, and it bloody hates starting when its warm. I starting shouting and waving my arms, I wasn't going to lose this because of the bike pissing me about. I managed to get their attention and they held the start slightly, I shouted at someone to come and bump start me but as I did the bike fired up. I held the revs at about 13k for a while and got a rocket start. I went from 35th and last on the grid to 5th in 2 corners, 4th by the end of the 1st lap and 3rd by the end of the 3rd lap. I held my nerve and managed to bring the bike home in 3rd to take the f400 championship! A bloody stressful weekend but that's what bike racings all about.

Unfortunately I'm now selling the zxr to move up to a 600, I'm going to miss it dearly but hopefully its going into the right hands.



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banner001
Track day God
Track day God
Posts: 2584
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 3:27 pm
My Bike: ZXR400 L4
Location: Nuneaton

Re: ZXR400 Racer with NG

Post by banner001 »

Good writeup, congrats on the silverware :excited
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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