I attended a local race meeting a few months ago and was amazed how close the production 250/300 racing was, even the racers at the rear of the pack looked like they were having a ball battling each other.
The idea of the production 250/300 class is to keep racing costs as low as possible allowing more people to start racing without mortgaging their house [emoji13]. The class allows minimal modifications to reduce costs and everyone is basically on a level playing field allowing for the rider with the best skills to get the best results. Mods that are allowed include brake lines, brake pads, clip-ons, fork internals, sprockets, rearsets, exhaust and DOT approved tires.
One of my buddies picked up a race-prepped ninja 250 about a month ago and was generous enough to allow me to race it last race round (he doesn't have his race license yet). I had not ridden a 250 for many years but managed to get myself booked in to a tuning session the day before race day. Although I didn't manage to perfect my lines and times I did get comfortable on the bike and did get an idea of some of the lines I should be taking.
RACE DAY- practice sessions felt great, testing out a few overtaking spots, seeing what worked and didn't work. I didn't really want to tweak with the bike too much since I was just borrowing the bike. Unfortunately since I didn't race in the class in the last round I needed to start from last (19th). I got a great launch, unfortunately missed 2nd gear and ruined my great start. I battled through a lot of the slower riders(including making a mess of a few corners) I ended up finishing 10th. 2nd race I started 10th (where I finished last race), I got an O.K launch this time (not as good as the first race but didn't miss a gear [emoji4]). I had soon made my way to 5th, unfortunately 1st-4th had already disappeared in to the horizon. I reeled off consistent lines and times for 2-3 laps before being overtaken on the exit of the second last corner of the second last lap, within the next lap and a half I had many attempts to re-gain 5th position with no success, 6th was as good as I would accomplish that day.
I probably used 5-10L of fuel (MAX), the tires looked like they were barely worn. WOW... This really is a cheap way of racing!!!
I started looking in the classifieds for a cheap 250/300 (it'ld definitely need to be a 300 with my competitive personality[emoji12]). Nothing second hand came up within a reasonable price to turn in to a race bike but there was a damaged/salvage motorcycle auction coming up with a damaged 2013 ninja 300. It was time to cross my fingers and hope I wasn't extorted too much [emoji385]
I ended up with the bike at a price I was happy with [emoji3]. Initial damage identified includes: fairings (need to be replaced with Fiberglass fairings for racing anyway), headlight (no use to me), cracked dash surround (dash still functions), front fairing stay/bracket, bent left foot gear selector (could be straightened but planning on rearsets anyway) and no key.
Barring any unforeseen major costs this should be a fun, cheap way of racing competitively [emoji3]
The idea of the production 250/300 class is to keep racing costs as low as possible allowing more people to start racing without mortgaging their house [emoji13]. The class allows minimal modifications to reduce costs and everyone is basically on a level playing field allowing for the rider with the best skills to get the best results. Mods that are allowed include brake lines, brake pads, clip-ons, fork internals, sprockets, rearsets, exhaust and DOT approved tires.
One of my buddies picked up a race-prepped ninja 250 about a month ago and was generous enough to allow me to race it last race round (he doesn't have his race license yet). I had not ridden a 250 for many years but managed to get myself booked in to a tuning session the day before race day. Although I didn't manage to perfect my lines and times I did get comfortable on the bike and did get an idea of some of the lines I should be taking.
RACE DAY- practice sessions felt great, testing out a few overtaking spots, seeing what worked and didn't work. I didn't really want to tweak with the bike too much since I was just borrowing the bike. Unfortunately since I didn't race in the class in the last round I needed to start from last (19th). I got a great launch, unfortunately missed 2nd gear and ruined my great start. I battled through a lot of the slower riders(including making a mess of a few corners) I ended up finishing 10th. 2nd race I started 10th (where I finished last race), I got an O.K launch this time (not as good as the first race but didn't miss a gear [emoji4]). I had soon made my way to 5th, unfortunately 1st-4th had already disappeared in to the horizon. I reeled off consistent lines and times for 2-3 laps before being overtaken on the exit of the second last corner of the second last lap, within the next lap and a half I had many attempts to re-gain 5th position with no success, 6th was as good as I would accomplish that day.
I probably used 5-10L of fuel (MAX), the tires looked like they were barely worn. WOW... This really is a cheap way of racing!!!
I started looking in the classifieds for a cheap 250/300 (it'ld definitely need to be a 300 with my competitive personality[emoji12]). Nothing second hand came up within a reasonable price to turn in to a race bike but there was a damaged/salvage motorcycle auction coming up with a damaged 2013 ninja 300. It was time to cross my fingers and hope I wasn't extorted too much [emoji385]
I ended up with the bike at a price I was happy with [emoji3]. Initial damage identified includes: fairings (need to be replaced with Fiberglass fairings for racing anyway), headlight (no use to me), cracked dash surround (dash still functions), front fairing stay/bracket, bent left foot gear selector (could be straightened but planning on rearsets anyway) and no key.
Barring any unforeseen major costs this should be a fun, cheap way of racing competitively [emoji3]