Drew
22nd March 2010, 20:49
Finally put a set of fairings back on my bike, and some front brakes (thanks for the lend Stevie) after the crash I had at round three of the vic series, the week leading up to this years hill climb.
Yep, it's been seven months since I rode a bike before last thursday night, I am a slack marther fletcher indeed.
Got up there Saturday and was feeling just a little bit jaded from the friday beers at Mikey's, but nothing serious. I did the first sighting lap in jeans and tee-shirt to wake myself up a bit, to find one of the coolest corners on the track had been very poorly patched, and bloody sketchy.
Flagged the second sighting lap and geared up. Promptly followed by a lot of hurrying up and waiting, as there were a couple accidents that needed time to sort out. (Very glad to hear that Wilbur was alright after his chopper ride, and some very disturbing initial reports on his health.)
Anyhoo, got my first shot at the hill around 1pm, and everything felt pretty good, let some air out of the rear tyre and away we went again. 2min16sec runs for the arvo, I'm happy with that so decide I can have a couple drinks at the rally as I was comfortably quicker than Phill and John in second and third place.
WHAT A GREAT BLOODY NIGHT!!! The band were fantastic, and after I had shown no-body else was gonna look as silly as I did on the dance floor we set about partying. Knocked it on the head around one and left a few hard core folk at it. About half way back to the car, I realised I might have overdone it a bit, as I was staggering a bit and generally feeling pretty damn pissed.
This was confirmed to me as I came to on the Sunday morning feeling VERY second hand. First couple runs came and went, and I hadn't given much thought to times at all. As I lined up for the third run of the day though, Deano hung out the door of the comentry caravan, and gave me a rev up about Phill Derby setting the same times as me. So I turned it up what I thought was a little bit and dropped four seconds.
I was really looking forward to a battle with Phill, but as it turned out he had a spot of bad luck with the tricky left hand turn after the finish line, and wasn't gonna get what was left of his bike out for anymore runs.
This was quite a blessing really as by this time I wasn't hungover anymore, I was crook as hell and feeling like a right plonker. So I flagged doing anymore runs, and left my bike on the warmers for Drew Avery to have a crack at the end of the day. He declined in favor of beating Deans time from last year however, but I'll let him tell ya how that went.
A massive thanks again to the organisers, great event that cant be compared to anything else I've ever raced.
Huge thanks to Rach for supporting me and generally looking after me the whole weekend.
To our sponsors below of course, making it possible.
A big thanks to everyone helping out, the weekend is so good up there in big part due to everyone pulling together. The entire pit is keen to help anyone in need, and it's a rare thing to find such camaraderie anywhere these days.
Well done to everyone that entered, see you all next year.
Yep, it's been seven months since I rode a bike before last thursday night, I am a slack marther fletcher indeed.
Got up there Saturday and was feeling just a little bit jaded from the friday beers at Mikey's, but nothing serious. I did the first sighting lap in jeans and tee-shirt to wake myself up a bit, to find one of the coolest corners on the track had been very poorly patched, and bloody sketchy.
Flagged the second sighting lap and geared up. Promptly followed by a lot of hurrying up and waiting, as there were a couple accidents that needed time to sort out. (Very glad to hear that Wilbur was alright after his chopper ride, and some very disturbing initial reports on his health.)
Anyhoo, got my first shot at the hill around 1pm, and everything felt pretty good, let some air out of the rear tyre and away we went again. 2min16sec runs for the arvo, I'm happy with that so decide I can have a couple drinks at the rally as I was comfortably quicker than Phill and John in second and third place.
WHAT A GREAT BLOODY NIGHT!!! The band were fantastic, and after I had shown no-body else was gonna look as silly as I did on the dance floor we set about partying. Knocked it on the head around one and left a few hard core folk at it. About half way back to the car, I realised I might have overdone it a bit, as I was staggering a bit and generally feeling pretty damn pissed.
This was confirmed to me as I came to on the Sunday morning feeling VERY second hand. First couple runs came and went, and I hadn't given much thought to times at all. As I lined up for the third run of the day though, Deano hung out the door of the comentry caravan, and gave me a rev up about Phill Derby setting the same times as me. So I turned it up what I thought was a little bit and dropped four seconds.
I was really looking forward to a battle with Phill, but as it turned out he had a spot of bad luck with the tricky left hand turn after the finish line, and wasn't gonna get what was left of his bike out for anymore runs.
This was quite a blessing really as by this time I wasn't hungover anymore, I was crook as hell and feeling like a right plonker. So I flagged doing anymore runs, and left my bike on the warmers for Drew Avery to have a crack at the end of the day. He declined in favor of beating Deans time from last year however, but I'll let him tell ya how that went.
A massive thanks again to the organisers, great event that cant be compared to anything else I've ever raced.
Huge thanks to Rach for supporting me and generally looking after me the whole weekend.
To our sponsors below of course, making it possible.
A big thanks to everyone helping out, the weekend is so good up there in big part due to everyone pulling together. The entire pit is keen to help anyone in need, and it's a rare thing to find such camaraderie anywhere these days.
Well done to everyone that entered, see you all next year.