SWERVE
5th December 2011, 20:30
The weekend started with Junior twilight training on Friday. Again well supported with another 3 newbies on their first visit. Thanks to Dan for your time training & John Hecker / Dennis Adair for help with organisation and officialdom.
Saturday was a perfect day for racing mid 20s and a slight breeze. Once again all classes were well supported and some of the National guys were out to play.
Clubmans/Motards was full of a wide range of machines and riders as usual.
Streetstock/F4/Prolite - Once again a big turnout with all three classes battling it out for the top honour. The wisdom of Jock & Larry and the young talant of Scout / Glen and crew.... add Mr A Hoogie on his F4 missile and you have some great racing............ a certain S Devereux was debuting his new prolite ... ! (more later)
F3/125/Protwin... The awesome 450 yamahas were setting the pace.... closly followed by Alistair H on his brothers protwin and Bryan Hill on his PT. 125,s had a good showing and looks like there will be a good national turnout.
Sidecars were there in small numbers once again.
Senior 1000/600. was class of the day in my eyes. James Smith was a little inconsistant but into the 1:31s when on form. Just behind was John Ross on his 600 (my tip for national title this year) Dennis C was in close pursuit. However my pick of the day were Johnny Small who is consistantly getting faster........ and even MORE impressive was Jake Lewis who gave Ryan Hampton a wake up on last lap of final race.
I believe Jake will be the next BIG thing to come out of NZ. Cant wait to see him within the Bernard camp at Nats.
It was OS Racings first meeting this year as a full team.
Ants rode the protwin very consistantly all day and improved his best time at Ruapuna by 1.4 secs. Still a little off the pace needed but with 2 rounds of the Tri series coming up he should be up to speed by 1st round in Jan. 8 months of hard gym work has certainly paid off.
Seth got to see his new 250 prolite on Sat morn. After a few rider position adjustments he was set..... He rode in from 125 practice hopped straight onto 250 and was away!!!!!! but having forgot to swap transponder (or was it me who forgot) so no time.
So it was a start from back of grid. He got a blinder of a start and was in the top 10 by first corner. He gradually picked them off one by one untill he was 3rd in lap 3. With the leaders just infront he hit a neutral going into the top of dipper.... so with brakes applied and no engine braking..down he went. The bike only went down lightly but suffered major damage (good way to treat a new bike eh) the gear side footpeg & lever had twisted towards to motor and gear shift pedal punched a hole in the oil sightglass. And the footpeg mounting bolts had pulled out of the frame!
So Seths debut was short lived.....however he had already manaed to get from last to 3rd in 3 laps and set a 1:54 lap so not to disappointed.
Having stripped the Ninja on Sunday it is plain to see that the peg mounting area is a real weak point on the bike... and wont be surprised to see a few torn frames in the future. Luckily i work in sales at an engineering company so all equipment to repair was available and by Sunday lunch it was fixed..... only a couple of minor scuffs to cover up.
So its off to the Tri series for us next weekend....... leaving ChCh on wed eve so will be at practice day on Fri.
Lets hope Ants can keep improving and Seth can stay upright.
Bring it on.
Saturday was a perfect day for racing mid 20s and a slight breeze. Once again all classes were well supported and some of the National guys were out to play.
Clubmans/Motards was full of a wide range of machines and riders as usual.
Streetstock/F4/Prolite - Once again a big turnout with all three classes battling it out for the top honour. The wisdom of Jock & Larry and the young talant of Scout / Glen and crew.... add Mr A Hoogie on his F4 missile and you have some great racing............ a certain S Devereux was debuting his new prolite ... ! (more later)
F3/125/Protwin... The awesome 450 yamahas were setting the pace.... closly followed by Alistair H on his brothers protwin and Bryan Hill on his PT. 125,s had a good showing and looks like there will be a good national turnout.
Sidecars were there in small numbers once again.
Senior 1000/600. was class of the day in my eyes. James Smith was a little inconsistant but into the 1:31s when on form. Just behind was John Ross on his 600 (my tip for national title this year) Dennis C was in close pursuit. However my pick of the day were Johnny Small who is consistantly getting faster........ and even MORE impressive was Jake Lewis who gave Ryan Hampton a wake up on last lap of final race.
I believe Jake will be the next BIG thing to come out of NZ. Cant wait to see him within the Bernard camp at Nats.
It was OS Racings first meeting this year as a full team.
Ants rode the protwin very consistantly all day and improved his best time at Ruapuna by 1.4 secs. Still a little off the pace needed but with 2 rounds of the Tri series coming up he should be up to speed by 1st round in Jan. 8 months of hard gym work has certainly paid off.
Seth got to see his new 250 prolite on Sat morn. After a few rider position adjustments he was set..... He rode in from 125 practice hopped straight onto 250 and was away!!!!!! but having forgot to swap transponder (or was it me who forgot) so no time.
So it was a start from back of grid. He got a blinder of a start and was in the top 10 by first corner. He gradually picked them off one by one untill he was 3rd in lap 3. With the leaders just infront he hit a neutral going into the top of dipper.... so with brakes applied and no engine braking..down he went. The bike only went down lightly but suffered major damage (good way to treat a new bike eh) the gear side footpeg & lever had twisted towards to motor and gear shift pedal punched a hole in the oil sightglass. And the footpeg mounting bolts had pulled out of the frame!
So Seths debut was short lived.....however he had already manaed to get from last to 3rd in 3 laps and set a 1:54 lap so not to disappointed.
Having stripped the Ninja on Sunday it is plain to see that the peg mounting area is a real weak point on the bike... and wont be surprised to see a few torn frames in the future. Luckily i work in sales at an engineering company so all equipment to repair was available and by Sunday lunch it was fixed..... only a couple of minor scuffs to cover up.
So its off to the Tri series for us next weekend....... leaving ChCh on wed eve so will be at practice day on Fri.
Lets hope Ants can keep improving and Seth can stay upright.
Bring it on.