wharfy
29th December 2010, 17:40
Well the weather was just as predicted the crowd turned up the racing was awesome and I didn't crash !!!
Xmas Day
Van packed ready to roll, had xmas brunch and pressie swap with the family (I got CROZ's book from the lovely Katie O'Donnell !!!)
Loads of traffic reduced to a crawl from Whenua Tapu cemetery to McKay's crossing :(
Arrived at pits in plenty of time scrutineered no problems, wandered the pits doing chatting with people, walked the track, seemed bumpier than last year but hard to tell really.
Katie and I slept in the van in the pits so we would be ready to go on boxing day.
Boxing Day
Quallifying
BEARS
57.514 = 16th on the grid out of 29 right beside Nick Prestige
F2/600
First session I managed to get ahead of Darrin for the first time since we were in clubmans, I hope he doesn't delete the video :)
Second session he was almost a second ahead
57.374 = 11th out of 14
The times took ages to come out I reckoned it was because they couldn't believe wharfy was in 11th spot so had to re-check them :)
Race 1 BEAR's
John Woodley was in the row ahead of me on the grid, I good a pretty good start somehow I managed to get ahead of John Woodly. It only lasted a lap and a half and he took me on the inside and Duncan Coutts and Bernard Ryan shot through the same gap right behind him. I could here a big V-twin right behind me for the rest of the race, I didn't know who or what it was until on the run to the line on the last lap Mark Elmers Buell got the drive coming off the over bridge and pipped me by 0.071 !
17th best time 58.140 :(
Race 2 F2/600
Got a good start, but was quickly passed by everyone except Tupu Gregory who was gaining on me almost the whole race, even had a bit of a duel with Darrin who passed me down the hill from the bridge and I nearly didn't make turn one ! I only had one real moment when someone on a green bike (I assume a Kawasaki :) ) stuffed it up the inside on turn two and clipped my front with their rear as they bounced over the huge dip, I now have a nice new gouge in the bottom of my right fork leg. I got lapped by sketchy right on the line. My forks were bottoming out on the down-hill run to turn one and the bike was weaving around in quite and alarming manner (or so it seemed to me) I decided I should try a bit more pre-load on the front for the next race.
13th best time 58.226 :(
Race 3 BEAR's
Once again my start was OK got ahead of John Woodley again and it took him 4 laps to catch me :) unfortunately Mark Elmers got past on the same lap and try as I might I couldn't catch him.
The lap time show I backed off a bit until lap 4 then after they passed me I picked up the pace again but not enough :( The little bit of pre-load I had added to the front seemed to make an improvement and I was tempted to add more but decided against it.
12th best time 57.341
8th for the series
Race 4 F2/600
Again a not bad start, but quickly ended up at the back of the field. I only managed to beat Bryce Meads and he must have had a moment on lap 5 to drop 6 places ! Again the bike felt a bit better under brakes into turn one than in the first two races
13th best time 57.373
16th for the series
I was a little disappointed that my best time was not as fast as last year (57.135) I was hoping to get into the 56's (or even lower) but hey there is always next year :)
Big thanks to my crew the lovely Katie O'Donnell
Great event thanks to all the volunteers that do the work behind the scenes a real mission on public roads.
The after match function at the race course was pretty damn good as well not least because I managed to finish 8th in the series for BEAR's and got prize money !!
If you want to know how much the scale is on the web site but it only just covered the petrol for the weekend. It is however great to come into work and tell everyone you won prize-money !!!
I also got to say G'day to CROZ and Katie got to hold Stroudy's new baby :)
This meeting is a real buzz and a must do for all racers I reckon !
I better check the dates for Paeroa :)
:niceone:
Xmas Day
Van packed ready to roll, had xmas brunch and pressie swap with the family (I got CROZ's book from the lovely Katie O'Donnell !!!)
Loads of traffic reduced to a crawl from Whenua Tapu cemetery to McKay's crossing :(
Arrived at pits in plenty of time scrutineered no problems, wandered the pits doing chatting with people, walked the track, seemed bumpier than last year but hard to tell really.
Katie and I slept in the van in the pits so we would be ready to go on boxing day.
Boxing Day
Quallifying
BEARS
57.514 = 16th on the grid out of 29 right beside Nick Prestige
F2/600
First session I managed to get ahead of Darrin for the first time since we were in clubmans, I hope he doesn't delete the video :)
Second session he was almost a second ahead
57.374 = 11th out of 14
The times took ages to come out I reckoned it was because they couldn't believe wharfy was in 11th spot so had to re-check them :)
Race 1 BEAR's
John Woodley was in the row ahead of me on the grid, I good a pretty good start somehow I managed to get ahead of John Woodly. It only lasted a lap and a half and he took me on the inside and Duncan Coutts and Bernard Ryan shot through the same gap right behind him. I could here a big V-twin right behind me for the rest of the race, I didn't know who or what it was until on the run to the line on the last lap Mark Elmers Buell got the drive coming off the over bridge and pipped me by 0.071 !
17th best time 58.140 :(
Race 2 F2/600
Got a good start, but was quickly passed by everyone except Tupu Gregory who was gaining on me almost the whole race, even had a bit of a duel with Darrin who passed me down the hill from the bridge and I nearly didn't make turn one ! I only had one real moment when someone on a green bike (I assume a Kawasaki :) ) stuffed it up the inside on turn two and clipped my front with their rear as they bounced over the huge dip, I now have a nice new gouge in the bottom of my right fork leg. I got lapped by sketchy right on the line. My forks were bottoming out on the down-hill run to turn one and the bike was weaving around in quite and alarming manner (or so it seemed to me) I decided I should try a bit more pre-load on the front for the next race.
13th best time 58.226 :(
Race 3 BEAR's
Once again my start was OK got ahead of John Woodley again and it took him 4 laps to catch me :) unfortunately Mark Elmers got past on the same lap and try as I might I couldn't catch him.
The lap time show I backed off a bit until lap 4 then after they passed me I picked up the pace again but not enough :( The little bit of pre-load I had added to the front seemed to make an improvement and I was tempted to add more but decided against it.
12th best time 57.341
8th for the series
Race 4 F2/600
Again a not bad start, but quickly ended up at the back of the field. I only managed to beat Bryce Meads and he must have had a moment on lap 5 to drop 6 places ! Again the bike felt a bit better under brakes into turn one than in the first two races
13th best time 57.373
16th for the series
I was a little disappointed that my best time was not as fast as last year (57.135) I was hoping to get into the 56's (or even lower) but hey there is always next year :)
Big thanks to my crew the lovely Katie O'Donnell
Great event thanks to all the volunteers that do the work behind the scenes a real mission on public roads.
The after match function at the race course was pretty damn good as well not least because I managed to finish 8th in the series for BEAR's and got prize money !!
If you want to know how much the scale is on the web site but it only just covered the petrol for the weekend. It is however great to come into work and tell everyone you won prize-money !!!
I also got to say G'day to CROZ and Katie got to hold Stroudy's new baby :)
This meeting is a real buzz and a must do for all racers I reckon !
I better check the dates for Paeroa :)
:niceone: