4th round of UCAL ROLON Road Racing Championship

Hi! Friends,

Been preparing for this since the last race day. Tried having a practice session on 27th SEP 08, but family commitments and to cancel it.

9th OCT -08 - Started early morning at 5:00 a.m picked up KILLER aka Samir from J.B. Nagar and headed towards Hosur road little before electronic city onwards it was bad roads till TN border. Just into TN it started drizzling and was not a good indication for us, we stopped at Adayar AB for break fast and headed towards Krishnagiri.

By 9:45 a.m we were at the tracks,it was completely dry and Killer’s tunner Murga was waiting for us. A quick greetings with some friends at the track, I was ready in my leathers. Since my bike had not yet arrived was expected only by late evening Killer had offered to ride his bike. After a short practice by killer I started my practice on the long loop. I was doing a timing of 2:35 and this was the first time I was clolcked and hence not aware of my previous timing. the track record on the long loop by Killer during r-15 race was 2:15….. so I am way behind.

By 11:30 we checked into “Pleasant Days” resort, a pretty good resort. A quick lunch at our favorite joint MUSCAT BAKERY and we were back to track for the next session of practice. This time i started the practice with few laps on the short loop (with out timing), Just when Killer was above to start his practice(2:30 p.m) there was heavy down pour and we decided to head back to the resort. While heading towards the resort we observed that the down pour was only at the tracks and the highway was dry :).

At around 4:00 p.m.we were restless and getting bored at the resort so decided to head back track to have look at it :). we actually could have had practice session, but Killer’s bike was locked in super bike pits. So just took a walk around the short loop with killer explaining his lines and breaking points. Back to the pits had some conversions with officials and headed back to resort. I landed up at the pool (Excellent pool) and some vertical Laps. A quick dinner and we were off to bed early.

PS Note : during the day there were amazing calculations by Killer - which for obvious reasons cannot post up

10th OCT - Friday - Pretty disappoint morning. firstly the “TVS race a bike” event was canceled for the weekend, there goes my chance of some practice :(. Had some quick practice sessions on Killers bike (long loop). I am told not to comment on the bike hence no details about how my ride was ;-). After the session KIller and his tuner headed to change the tyres.

Right then Mr. Kalkat enters the pits right from the highway. Still no sign of the A***n racing truck that was carrying my bike along with their bikes. By noon the truck arrives and I get the bad news that my bike was not loaded :(. I immediately call up K**** who was suppose to load my bike into the truck and all he said was “Sorry Anil in a hurry my guys forgot to load your bike. Disappointed I head to the pits and start calling up my RTMC friends Poo, Chenthil … then realized its working day. Spoke to my good friend E.Clark about the my status…. and we tried some options of getting it onto a KPN travel bus etc….. nothing happen and I decided to ditch race and click some snaps ( yes I have a lot of pics , since I has Eaga swagy’s camera with me. Kalkat too was kind enough to give his bike for some practice.

Finally headed to MMST office spoke to Sri Seshadri and requested him for some work as official and he was suggested if I can help the Chief Time Controller, Wow that was an amazing offer and grabbed it right away. So I will be wearing an officials badge and working at the Time control office.This was also an excellent opportunity to get to know some key people in MMSC/ MMST :). With all this mixed feeling around I get a call from Savitha to inform me that Pari has rolled over on her own… wow a great news J

After some good watching some good sessions on the track headed back to hotel and I had kalkat for company today at the pool :). NOw was the hunt for a perfect dinner place, the requirement was “Kutu Parota with NV curry” so we headed to our regular joint “MUSCAT Bakery” to realize that NV items were closed for the day. So again based some information we headed further west towards Bangalore in search of our food 3 kms no food joint headed back towards chennai…. stopped at various street joints but no NV available just “Kutu Parota” ….. but Mr. Killer was very specific about NV curry….. further towards east….. 10Kms from our resort we reach HIGHWAY Motel ….. but again Pure Veg :(. Now all three of us are were fedup with KIller’s requirement and we headed straight to our resort to have some resort food. Meanwhile I was also busy searching for some TASMAC stores (Wine shop) to pick up beers for the gang.

Saturday - 11th OCT – Since it was more of official role for me I wanted to head to the track as early as possible. Woke up at 6:00 went out on my morning walk and then 30 mins in the pool … by then rest of the gang was ready too. A quick breakfast and we all headed to track.

Thanks to Abdulla Bhai he opened up the super bike pits for us and we parked out asses, bikes and car out there.

Went around places to click some snaps and then met with chief timing controller Ajay K an excellent person to know (Will write about him some other time). Immediately got into the job of understanding the technology behind transponders & recorders, the software and timers. Did some quick data entry of groups /entrants and was ready for the events.

Started off with mopeds, 130 cc 4s (Victor and gang), 130cc 2s ( RX135) followed by the king of races group D 4s 165cc. The experience the time controller office was extremely good. Had opportunity look at first hand timing information, best lap etc.

There were two races – Mopeds and 130cc 4s. I don’t remember the results.. but sure checkout bikeszone.com shortly for official results. Killer and gang went to hotel much before me to the resort. I headed to resort after the race at around 3.30 p.m only to be back at the track by 5:00 p.m. The gang was felling bored at the resort so decided to headed to track for a walk. So Kalkat, Murga and me went around the track long loop for a walk (3.7 Kms). Kalkat was happy doing just the short loop.

By 6:30 p.m we headed back resort spent some time in the pool and this time I managed to swim horizontally with life guard aroundJ. Now again our hunt for “Kuthu parota with NV curry” started. So headed straight to MUSCAT Bakery and realized that there is no kuthu parota available (the chef is on leave). So packed some NV curry at MUSCAT and headed to our road side Kuthu parota hotel . ordered some kuthu parota and it was too much for four of us J. Once at the resort I prepared some lime soda for the gang.

Since 7:00 p.m. Killer is busy with his points calculations for championship….. he is been trying all his permutation /combination with 4 races including one qualifier to go. His tuner Murga is now getting frustrated with this calculationsJ. Kalkat is just watching all the fun around him.

By 10:00 p.m we realize that it’s raining heavily outside and now our Killer’s stars of with different calculations J.

12^th OCT – SUNDAY. Woke early morning for a wet weather. Right after breakfast I headed to tr

ack on Kalkat’s R-15 and went around track (short loop) quickly since I had missed my morning walk. Clicked some photos too.

9:30 a.m no clue of the race staring the COC, Race stewards and other officials were making their rounds on the track for inspection. Meanwhile I picked up the timing equipments and set up the system before the chief timing controller Ajay arrived.

At 10:15 a.m. the first race was announced for 130cc 4S instead of the mopeds. The weather was cloudy around and my first race as assistant timing controllerJ. Just into the third lap of the race it started drizzling … while the riders we at the bridge corner drizzle turned into rain…. Just when the first position rider crossed the entry corner… other followed him only to crash at the corner one behind the other. The race was stopped immediately.