posted on May 06, 2010 10:19
Oulton Park learning curve for McAleer
After a difficult weekend at Thruxton a few weeks ago, Omagh's Nicole McAleer was hoping to have a better race weekend at Oulton Park over the Bank Holiday, however it was not to be. McAleer had gearbox trouble during qualifying. Once the gearbox was sorted the Splash Racing team had more drama during the morning warm up session when the Triumph failed to rev above 8000 rpm, but she was able to put it all behind her during the final chance to qualifying in the "Shoot Out" race.
McAleer was soon off the grid and working her way through the traffic, having qualified at the back of the grid and had managed to work her way up to 20th place when the safety car was deployed, she used this to her advantage and once the safety car pulled off she was off moving up to 19th place. At the end of the eight lap dash she was in 17th place, not far enough up to secure a place on the grid for the main race, but she was more than delighted to have taken more than two seconds off her times from the start of the weekend, when she started out with 1.47.727 as he best time in the opening free practice session, before getting her timings down to 1.45.407 during the "Shoot Out" race.
Although disappointed not to have made it into the main race, she is encouraged that she is improving each session and is starting to get more comfortable on the new bigger machinery, she will now move to Cadwell Park in just under three weeks time for the fourth round of the Championship on Sunday 23rd May 2010.
Oulton Park
Well this weekend I finally got a power commander put on my bike and we got it set up Friday morning. First practice came and i was in group B and I was basically learning the track trying to get the right lines and breaking markers. By the end of the session I was down in the twenties and was making some big changes to my suspension. My qualifying session went well but it wasn't enough to get me in the main race, so I started down on the 7th row in the shoot-out race. In the race I didn't get my start well and was last going into the first corner, but by the end of the race I had pulled myself up into 17th place. After the race we found a few problems which explained why my start was so bad, as a selector went in my gearbox and the teabag in the tank was blocked so very little fuel was getting through.
I would just like to thank my sponsors because if I didn't have them I would not be competing this year, megabikes.ie, taunten, Daytona, p17crw, western catering, gortrush foods, Micky G and lisa, Boyd, Ac Promotions, shoei, R Potts haulage and girlracer.
Thanks, Nicole #69
nicolemcaleer.com