Shane - Superlite (#43)

Friday morning I was off to Taupo for the Honda day. It turned out to be cheaper to do that, drive back home afterwards then head back down again on Sunday for the BRM Pacific Club Round 2. If I had've done Saturday/Sunday instead I would've had my wife with me so we'd have needed to get a decent motel room and food to keep her sweet about having to be at the race track 2 days in a row. I keep telling her Street Stock is perfect for her but she steadfastly refuses to think riding motorbikes is a fantastic idea.

When I got to the track on Friday it looked like there weren't that many people there, however it was early. I signed in and wandered around to see about a shed, ending up in shed #1 with Jamie Rajek.

As it was a day run by Play Day there wasn't any scrutineering so I had nothing to do other than wander around. It was weird being at Taupo and hardly knowing anyone, but it was a Friday and everyone else would be turning up for the Saturday track day. Still, there were plenty of people, all keen for a good day of riding. At least I didn't turn up on the wrong day like pommy Nigel did. He thought the practice day was Friday and racing Saturday so he'd got there bright and early and got all set up in the car park. Sign in had been really confusing until he figured out what the story was. If it wasn't for the fact he didn't have the tyres to do an extra day it would've been all good, but as it was he had to sit out the day to make sure his tyres lasted for the practice day, race day and Paeroa.

The track was hot and sticky. The surface was great except for a couple of minor scuffs and a bunch of pot holes on the A1GP corner. They were so bad the inside of the corner had been coned off and we had to take a wide line through there all day.

At lunch time a sidecar got out on track, taking some of the Honda guys for a bit of a scoot. When they came in some guys from Fulton Hogan went to have a look at the damage on the track surface. I got to hear a whole lot about that surface over lunch, things that will be very useful for racing.

By 3:30pm I'd used all 20 litres of fuel I'd taken with me, I only had what was left in the tank. We were going to get 1 more session in and I was chilling out getting my mind on the job. After such a long, hot day with so many laps it's really easy to lose attention and make a mistake in the last session. Unfortunately the last session was cancelled when a fairly rough old slab side GSXR750 blew up on the main straight. Instead of pulling off the track the rider rode the entire length of the straight and through the left and right into pit entrance, leaving a trail of oil almost the entire way.

As soon as I saw the huge cloud of smoke I started packing up. I was leaving my bike and trailer in Taupo for the 2 nights so I didn't have to drag it all the way to Hamilton and back again but everything else was going with me. Once I'd got out of my gear and dug the cold beer (not ice cold but it certainly wasn't warm) out of my bag I wandered down to the Honda shed to snag a sausage off the bbq. Having a couple of sausages in bread at the end of the day is easily the best thing about the Honda days, followed closely by the price of the day.

Saturday morning I was glad I'd elected to ride Friday and Sunday rather than two weekend days. I was quite stiff and a bit sore from so much riding in the heat the day before and I knew I would've had trouble concentrating if I hadn't had that break in between so a nice relaxing day at home was just what I needed.

I'd told my wife (repeatedly) that we were leaving at 6:00am on Sunday morning, expecting to be the regulation minimum 15 minutes late. Surprisingly we were pulling out of the drive at 5:57am so there was no need to hurry.

We rocked up to the track and I signed on before heading for the shed to sort the bike out. For scrutineering the belly pan has to come off and it still has a side stand (the most useful thing ever), but for racing it has to be wired up. Seems the guys doing scrutineering aren't particularly happy with that but it's in the MNZ rules so they grudgingly accept it.

Getting the belly pan back on was a mission. For some reason it just wouldn't go on correctly but eventually I got it all fastened up.

F3 was scheduled second to last so I had plenty of time to wander around and talk to people. It was much more familiar as there were lots of people I knew there, unlike at the track days.

Qualifying I did my usual and went out last, taking things fairly slowly to get the tyres up to temperature and waiting for everyone in front of me to push off so I've got clear track. For some reason the gap between me and them didn't materialise so I had to spend the second lap idling down the main straight in 3rd gear to get some clear track. However, once I created the gap I started to wind things up a bit.

The third one felt good so I turned it up on the fourth lap but by the fifth lap I'd caught up to the guys in front again. End of that lap and I knew I wasn't going to do any better because the traffic was getting thicker so I bailed, knowing we only had a maximum of six laps anyway.

Checking out the times I'd qualified a good 3 seconds ahead of Peter Woodford, who I usually end up dicing with in the races. Also, there was only one person between me and Abby Mes, which was pleasing as my 450 is stock except for an HRC head gasket and Power Commander. Whereas her's has had a fair bit done to the engine and it pulls a good 30m minimum on me on the straights.

The surprising thing was Chappy's ZXR650R. Holy crap is that a fast bike. He qualified with a 1:38.6, over 1.2 seconds faster than Sam Croft on the DH Racing SV650 (a fast bike with a fast rider). Chappy said he was having problems with the back tearing up and losing grip. He estimated he should be a full 2 seconds faster.

Lining up for race 1 I thought we might have some problems as PMCC don't put Marshals out on the grid to make sure everyone is in the right place now. However, it seems everyone had taken heed and made the effort to be in the right spot so for once the grid behind the 3rd row wasn't a mess.

The red flags were withdrawn, the lights came up and we were off!!

What a shocking start. It was absolutely awful. All of the row behind got past me and I had to scramble not to be overtaken by those on the row behind them. We all funnelled into turn one trying not to hit each other. I was right behind Peter Woodford out of turn 1 and he went right while I went left around the outside of turn 2 so that I didn't have to slow down. Out of turn 3 Abby was directly in front of me and she went right, leaving me looking straight down at a body bouncing along the track and a bike spinning on it's side. On the brakes I pulled to the left but I could see the guy in the middle of the track was looking at the safety of the left side of the track as he got up. Luckily he froze then looked back towards us. If he had've done what I could see was on his mind he would've run directly into my path while I was braking heavily.

The guy I dodged was only 1 of 3 that went down in that crash and thankfully everyone walked away from it.

Back to the pits and everyone is lined up in the shade. It was damn hot and we didn't know how long it would take to clear any wreckage. A couple of minutes later and we're heading out for another warm up lap. Taking it easy through turn 4 and I see Chappy pulling off to the side of the track and heading for a safe parking spot. Seems his battery was stone dead. That's the problem with the Lithium's, they're giving 100% right up to the point where they stop altogether. There's no warning, you don't get a couple of laps with a dead dash like with a normal battery, the bike just stops and there's nothing.

Forming up again and the flags withdraw, the lights come up and once again we're off!!

This time I got a much better start, but Peter (who was directly behind me on the grid) got the second best start of his life (his best ever was red flagged a few minutes earlier). Turn 1 and Mark Ellen on an RGV (I think it was him) blows past me around the outside. I quickly get to work and pass a few bikes on the first lap, mostly into turn 4 and on the exit of turn 5.

I'm right behind Abby again and start looking for somewhere to pass her but her bike has so much more grunt than mine. On the straights she pulls 30-40m on me which I then make up through the twisty bits and get close enough to think about having a go at a pass. Unfortunately I can't get alongside her before she opens the throttle and spend 2 entire laps chasing her. Lap 4 I make a mistake at the end of the main straight, missing a gear change and going too deep. I hurriedly get back on line thinking I'm about to be mugged any second but it seems I'd put a decent gap between me and the next guy so the last lap I settle down and just finish the race instead of screwing up again.

Back in the pits and I was so glad to get my hot gear off. Usually I don't bother taking my leathers off cos it's such a hassle getting them back on again but with Under Armour on it's a hell of a lot easier. So for once between races I was walking in clothes instead of leathers.

Wandering up pit lane I bumped into Fred Merkel who was looking for the Riders Rep, Chappy. I was actually heading to see him to find out why he'd pulled out on the warm up lap so Fred and I cruised up to shed 8. Seeing as Neil didn't have the Shorai charger for the battery I went back and got mine as I hardly need it these days. Total loss systems are a total pain in the arse and I'm not ever going to run a bike without a charging system unless somebody else pays for 3 Lithiums and is 100% responsible for charging them and swapping them in and out of the bike.

When I get back to his shed he's disappeared so I plugged the charger into the battery and wander off.

It's lunch time so I catch up with John and Janet while they're wolfing down a curry and some dessert. The PMCC feed their helpers well I must say.

The hours the track can operate are bloody stupid. Things were dragging on with a few crashes including one that required an ambulance for a collar bone/AC joint combo. That one got rather heated as the father of the racer that was down got involved and started claiming the other rider took him out. It was just a racing incident though with the guy who went down clipping the back wheel of the other bike while braking into turn one and he cart wheeled through the air. Unfortunate but it's the sort of thing that happens when you're going hard. Still, there was lots of yelling, swearing and arm waving and the uninjured rider had to be held back when he went for the father. Skippy jumped in and laid the law down in no uncertain terms and nobody was going anywhere until after Nigel and the team sorted things out. This took a while.

So it was looking distinctly like we wouldn't get all 3 rounds of racing in. By the time our second race was up I'd informed my wife we were packing up and leaving as soon as it was finished. However, she seemed to be having a great time meeting and chatting to the wifes of other racers.

Second race and we're lined up watching the lights. Again I got an ok start but Peter got a much better one and blew past me. By turn 2 there were 3 bikes between us but I passed one of them straight away into turn 4. This left Abby and a ZXR400 between us.

I started looking to pass Abby but I was finding her really unpredictable. She must've changed something on the bike cos she was looking very uncomfortable and was all over the place. I really didn't want to push for a risky pass and have her collide with me. After an entire lap I decided the only safe places were going to be into turn 4, out of turn 5 or into turn 7.

Coming out of turn 3 I got on the throttle early but her bike is so much faster out of turns so I wasn't close enough to do it. Turn 5 I almost went right around the long way but again her bike had too much grunt. So into turn 7 I dived up the inside and parked it on the apex in a safe but not so sporting block pass. I'm pretty sure she got a fright at seeing me up the inside there cos she jumped so I'm guessing she really wasn't liking things.

After that I had the ZXR400 to catch, which didn't take long. Up the inside of him at turn 11 and I was off in pursuit of Peter. However, Anthony Clarke (who I believe was riding the ZXR) had other ideas and passed me under brakes into turn 1. That seemed to put him off a bit and he wasn't smooth through turns 2 and 3 so I was able to push past him into turn 4. This time I took off after Peter and I was gaining on him all the time. However, with about a 1 second gap between us the chequered flag was out dammit.

By this time everyone had been told we weren't getting a third race so while Clubmans were racing we were all packing up. Eating when I'm racing pretty much consists of nothing bulky but gives me energy for racing, but by the end of the day I'm seriously in need of carbs etc so I asked my wife to see if she could get me a Chilli Dog and coffee. Seeing as it was late in the day only the coffee was doable so we both had one while we packed up. I'd also put in a couple of beers.

It was a really enjoyable weekend and I can't wait until the next meeting in March.

I'd like to thank:

• my wife for being my pit crew this time
• Jamie Rajek for being so hospitable with the pit shed etc
• Gary, Tony, Eddy, Ash and the crew from Play Day on Track and the Honda guys for the great Friday
• Nigel and all the crew from Pacific Club for the great days racing
• Bike Rider Magazine for backing the summer series
• Stefan @ DL Consulting
• Allan at Grey Street Motors
• Tony, Diane, Boaz and Eve for looking after my bike
• Phil Smith for some great photos from the weekend

Click image

Image from Phil Smith aka clmintie