Shane - Superlite (#43)

The Cliffhanger Hill Climb is a great fun event. Unfortunately this year we lost a good man at it. Kevin "Wharfy" Waugh died of injuries sustained in a crash while competing. He was a gentle, decent, sincere man who was willing to stand up when he saw something wrong. He was passionate about injustices, political and environmental issues. Respected by friends and loved by family but for me Wharfy was an inspiration because he was out there racing motorbikes when his peers were gardening, having a nice quiet cup of tea and generally acting old. He showed us that getting older and having major medical problems isn't a good enough reason to act like an old aged pensioner, that you can still be out there exploring the boundaries when you're closing in on retirement. He will be missed.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to Wharfy's funeral but it was very well attended and great tribute to him.

Three days before race day I'd travelled down to New Plymouth to have the suspension reworked. It was a long day; 7 hours driving, pulling the forks and shock out (what a prick of a job), putting them back in (the shock is even worse to get back in) and sorting out remote access on a stinking Windows 7 Home Edition machine. Messing around with the damn Windows machine turned out to be worth a tidy discount on the bill for the suspension work though so I can't complain too much.

These days I'm over having McDonalds for a race day breakfast so I needed to create a new routine and stopped off at BP Connect for a Bacon and Egg pie and a coffee.

Thankfully Gary was around to take care of the sheds this time making life so much simpler. Even before unpacking the car I went to sign in then head to scrutineering. Unfortunately while the entire front end was out of the bike I hadn't checked the steering head bearings and there was a little bit of movement in them so Scotty told me to go away and sort them out. Thankfully Nick from NV Motorcycles was moving into the shed so he gave me a hand to find out exactly what was going on in the steering head and after adjusting the main nut it was all sorted.

For qualifying I was going to take it really easy as there was every chance we'd have to make adjustments to the suspension.

Heading out of pitlane the bike felt like it was planted rock solid on the track. Feed back was hugely improved, particularly for the initial suspension movements and it immediately inspired confidence, unlike last time out in Qualifying where nothing felt right and going fast wasn't an option. However, I'd put brand new brake pads in and hadn't had a chance to bed them in yet. Also I still didn't know how it was going to handle the rest of the track so I gradually got a little quicker until I was almost up to a decent qualifying pace when the chequered flag came out. Turn 1 wasn't feeling too good as I ran a little wide a couple of times and thought it was probably the brake pads weren't fully bedded in yet.

Back in the pits I was happy with how the bike had handled and felt it didn't need any adjustments at all other than having a look at the brakes. Eventually the only thing I did was adjust the fulcrum length on the master cylinder to it's full power setting rather than the maximum feel setting I generally use.

Sitting on the dummy grid waiting to head out for race 1 I'm thinking "I'm on row ...... ummm ..... oh crap!!". We hadn't checked where I'd qualified and it was now too late so I'd have to start from the last row.

Out on the dummy grid I sit on the last row and can see an empty spot that I guess is where I'm meant to be. But I'm not sure and we're too close to the race start to bugger around moving so stayed put and got my head into the game.

The lights come up and we're off!!

I get a decent start, getting a wheel in front of Neil Slater but not quite getting past Matt Ferguson so into turn 1 I'm pretty much stuck between the two of them and get squeezed. I start to settle in and check out what's happening in front of me as Matt, Neil and Grant Douglas sort themselves out. Into turn 1 it feels like I run out of brakes and run wide, coming out of it really slow. Same happens again on lap 2 so I decide to take it very easy and brake early as I'm losing a lot of ground on Matt. Getting my head down I start clawing Matt back until I can pass him up the hill to the finish line on the second to last lap, which I hold until the finish.

This time I make certain I head over to have a look at the Qualifying times so I know where I'm meant to be starting. I also take note of the nasty tail wind heading into turn 1. It's no wonder I'm running out of brakes as I'm getting to turn 1 alot faster than I'm used to.

Second race I'm in my correct grid position and get another good start but there's a huge cloud of foul smelling blue smoke and it isn't coming from a two stroke, rather it's from Nigel Lennox's R45 triple. Neil Slater got a good enough start to keep the inside line and Matt Ferguson follows him through on my right then parks it in front of Neil. I'm quickly onto the back of Matt but I'm very, very wary of the burning oil smell from Nigel's bike as it's really strong and there's visible blue clouds so I'm not sure if there's any oil on the track. As usual I lose ground on Matt and everyone else out of turn 5 but make it back up on the straights. Third lap I'm looking to pass him over turn 3 but there's yellow flags waving for Nigel whose broken bike has finally crashed out. Seeing the yellow flags Matt gets out of the throttle and I have to dive to the right and get off the throttle to avoid hitting him. Next lap I've caught back up and am ready to try through turn 3 again but can't get around the outside. Out on the short straight into turn 6 Matt is staying to the right to prevent me from having the inside line but this time I don't need it and blow past him on the left before tipping in. Across the line and as I'm cruising back to the pits it starts to spit a little, a few minutes later it hoses down so a lunch break is called to let the rain pass. Matt must be getting sick of me getting past him in the last laps of races because that's the fourth race in a row I've done it.

Third race it's bone dry again and I've decided to get my finger out, stop getting tangled up in the mess of the first lap and get onto the back of the guys that are a bit quicker than me. I get a great start and immediately latch onto the back of Grant Douglas. Although there isn't much to tell this is the best race for me as I only have quicker guys in front of me so I can chase hard right from the start. It looks like upping the tyre pressures a little wasn't a good idea as I'm drifting wide at turn 6 a lot, probably because the brief bits of sun we had weren't enough to get any heat into the track and also because the front tyre is close to knackered. That and the guys in front exiting turn 5 faster and faster means I'm struggling to hold onto them. However, it isn't until the final lap that I lose them as it starts to rain again.

The weather was patchy all day but my qualifying and races were all perfectly dry, with the rain holding off until mine were finished. Great for Superlite but I expect everyone else got pissed off with having to change tyres repeatedly.

Overall it was a great days racing. The new suspension is excellent but has one big problem; due to the much better hydraulic control the revalving gave us we ended up going too hard with the front springs. So now the front is being held up a bit so the steering is heavy but the worst thing is it won't turn on the brakes anymore as the springs are holding the front up, giving it too much trail and applying the brakes has a lot more leverage making turning extremely difficult. Shame it's so hard to estimate these things before doing them but swapping the springs is an easy fix that can be sorted out in 5 minutes at Taupo's NZSBK round this coming weekend.

• Cherie for helping out in the pits
• AMCC, marshalls and ambulance crew that made for such a good day
• Robert and Dennis at KSS for the suspension work
• Craig @ Grey Street Motors
• Stefan @ DL Consulting
• Tony, Diane, Boaz and Eve for looking after my bike