KS34
2nd April 2010, 12:55
Last weekend would have to be one of the craziest weekends I have ever had! Leaving Lower Hutt at 7am friday and back at 5am Monday morning the whole weekend seemed like a wet dream.
I had never been to Hampton Downs before so a quick look on late friday afternoon settled the nerves a bit and confirmed what an awesome weekend this was going to be.
We got to the track early Saturday morning and set up our pit along with Danger Dave for the weekend which was great as we could keep an eye on each other as we had our own little 2 round championship going on which he ended up winning 3 races to 1! good on ya mate.
Out on the track for the first practise was amazing, I love the track from the corner 2/3 fip flop to the plunging 5 a mad front wheel hop up the front straight/arc to the crazy arcade game like run to the first corner we are soooo lucky! I was happy with the first practise with 1:15.6 and even bragged during the break that the bike had never been down! I learnt very quickly to keep my mouth shut!!! as the second practise came and I was chasing Spud, I got way past the start finish line and realised I had left it too late with the brakes I straightened the bike up and hit the picks.... with the new pads my little 750 launched the back wheel in the air ...off the brakes then back on them to get some pace off before getting in to the sand.... up in the air again and this time she went over to the right then the left.... christ this is a bit wild... both wheels back on the ground and the wobbles set in holy shit am I going to be able to control this, well yes she settled and I coasted in to the gravel at this stage I'm about to celebrate when the front wheel locks and PLOP a soft landing. Luckily it just scuffed a bit of paint and all was well the highlights to this was it got the crash monkey off my back and also Andrew Stroud commented to me on the dummy grid how spectacular it looked from behind! Managed to get a 14.5 from the practise and was looking forward to qualifying. I was going to run another used set of tyres for qualifying as the ones on for practise were the tyres I had on for the races at manfeild but they were still looking good so kept them on and came away with a 12.7 stoked!
The racing on Sunday was amazing, both Dave and I were abit worried about the 20 lapper and understandably after the state we were in after 15 laps but it turned out the 20 laps were fantastic, we had a great battle in the TT and the laps flew past with Dave in front over the line.
At the finish I saw Craig and James sail past me into the sand and thought I had caused it! Christ last lap of the TT and I F@$*$^$ it up for the fast boys I was gutted, when Craig came back on the ute I appologised, He is a legend he just looked at me and said thats racing mate I felt so much better.
The weekend was Huge everyone I met for the first time and people I caught up with were amazingly cool. People to thank would be Dave, Spud, Shaun, Big Rick, Lynette (AMCC) and so many more. I came away from the weekend with a week long grin I have so much respect for all the top riders what they do do on a bike still stuns me and I feel priviledged to be able to share the track with them. I'm like a stuck record but if you have a chance to do the Nationals you should take it with both hands, I for one am Hooked, you may very well see me next year on a grown-ups thou! who knows one thing is for sure If I'm not I'll be peddling the 750 even harder and loving every minute.
Last words to my Sponsors, Thank you for supporting me in my first year in the NZSBK series Motomart, Pirelli, EBC, Ripe Coffee, Slot Media, Total Body Shop Supplies and Wurth deserve huge success.
I had never been to Hampton Downs before so a quick look on late friday afternoon settled the nerves a bit and confirmed what an awesome weekend this was going to be.
We got to the track early Saturday morning and set up our pit along with Danger Dave for the weekend which was great as we could keep an eye on each other as we had our own little 2 round championship going on which he ended up winning 3 races to 1! good on ya mate.
Out on the track for the first practise was amazing, I love the track from the corner 2/3 fip flop to the plunging 5 a mad front wheel hop up the front straight/arc to the crazy arcade game like run to the first corner we are soooo lucky! I was happy with the first practise with 1:15.6 and even bragged during the break that the bike had never been down! I learnt very quickly to keep my mouth shut!!! as the second practise came and I was chasing Spud, I got way past the start finish line and realised I had left it too late with the brakes I straightened the bike up and hit the picks.... with the new pads my little 750 launched the back wheel in the air ...off the brakes then back on them to get some pace off before getting in to the sand.... up in the air again and this time she went over to the right then the left.... christ this is a bit wild... both wheels back on the ground and the wobbles set in holy shit am I going to be able to control this, well yes she settled and I coasted in to the gravel at this stage I'm about to celebrate when the front wheel locks and PLOP a soft landing. Luckily it just scuffed a bit of paint and all was well the highlights to this was it got the crash monkey off my back and also Andrew Stroud commented to me on the dummy grid how spectacular it looked from behind! Managed to get a 14.5 from the practise and was looking forward to qualifying. I was going to run another used set of tyres for qualifying as the ones on for practise were the tyres I had on for the races at manfeild but they were still looking good so kept them on and came away with a 12.7 stoked!
The racing on Sunday was amazing, both Dave and I were abit worried about the 20 lapper and understandably after the state we were in after 15 laps but it turned out the 20 laps were fantastic, we had a great battle in the TT and the laps flew past with Dave in front over the line.
At the finish I saw Craig and James sail past me into the sand and thought I had caused it! Christ last lap of the TT and I F@$*$^$ it up for the fast boys I was gutted, when Craig came back on the ute I appologised, He is a legend he just looked at me and said thats racing mate I felt so much better.
The weekend was Huge everyone I met for the first time and people I caught up with were amazingly cool. People to thank would be Dave, Spud, Shaun, Big Rick, Lynette (AMCC) and so many more. I came away from the weekend with a week long grin I have so much respect for all the top riders what they do do on a bike still stuns me and I feel priviledged to be able to share the track with them. I'm like a stuck record but if you have a chance to do the Nationals you should take it with both hands, I for one am Hooked, you may very well see me next year on a grown-ups thou! who knows one thing is for sure If I'm not I'll be peddling the 750 even harder and loving every minute.
Last words to my Sponsors, Thank you for supporting me in my first year in the NZSBK series Motomart, Pirelli, EBC, Ripe Coffee, Slot Media, Total Body Shop Supplies and Wurth deserve huge success.