Two Smoker
28th December 2005, 13:56
Hey everyone,
With the help of KK taking my bike down (huge thanks mate) Chloe, Milky and I made it down to Wanganui (We travelled on bikes). Leaving Auckland at 4pm we arrived at Hooks' place by 11:30pm (Big thanks for putting us up mate :niceone: )
It was an Early start to Boxing Day. We were up early at 4am to ride accross to Wanganui for the morning scrutineering and sign in. Once that was all done it was time for my 4 sighting laps (ive never done Wanganui before) I got out there and had to scrub in my tyres at the same time as my sighting laps. What an awesome circuit!!! The funny thing is i didnt even notice the railway lines until the 3rd lap!!! It had bumps everywhere and a nasty rise in the braking area for turn one... I was keen to get out there and go hard.
Qualifying: We were given two sessions to do qualifying but each session was only three laps long. I managed to get out early in the second session to put in a semi decent lap and that resulted in my placing of 7th on the grid with a time of 56.764 in a sea of motards. I was stoked with this, being my first time there, and knew i could get more out of me and the bike, so was keen as to get out there in the race.
Race one: Revving the motor on the start line, the flag dropped and it seemed like 50 million motards went past me. Turn 1 was absolute chaos, but with late braking and a bit of pushing and shoving i settled into 7th place. Then on lap 2 i braked too late into turn one, resulting in the back wheel coming up and another motard got past me. It took me the next 3 laps to finally get past him and I was finally back in 7th place. I crossed the finish line in 7th place and was absolutely stoked!!! My new best time was a 55.954.
Race 2: I got a shocking start and got pushed out by motards in turn two, I was sitting in about 10th place when the race was red flagged due to a motard crashing on turn one. We sat on the run off area before our race was lined up again on the grid (glad to see the motard rider was ok)... I was on the start grid waiting for the flag to be waved, then two of the front row guys shot of the start before the flag was waved. I thought "Ah ok, false start" so i dropped my revs to wait for the start... BUT NOOOOO!!!! They waved the flag anyway... My revs were at about 4000rpm, and my start was a joke. I dropped back to about 17th and with alot of going around the outside of people and late braking i pushed upto 13th. I was in a big dice with Mark Wiggley and a guy on a KTM motard. I would get Wiggley under brakes and try get the martard on the inside, but the motard would cut me off everytime and because of the slower corner speed result in me having to brake in mid corner... This happened every lap for the rest of the race. I was really disappointed in myself for letting my revs drop, but also in the event organisers for not calling it a false start. Ah well thats racing, and there is always next time. My best lap time in that race was a 56.579 which should have seen me in at least 7th place.
Due to my time i had put down in race one, i had qualified for the fastest 40 non-qualifyers of the Robert Holden Memorial Race. This put me 3rd on the grid. Being on the front row, i got a great start and quickly settled into 4th place behind a ZX-6R. I was chasing him down hard, then made a braking error into turn one resulting in a motard getting past me. After another 2 laps i got past that motard putting me in 4th place again, hot on the heels of the ZX-6R. Then on the final lap I went up the inside of the ZX-6R on Robert Holden Corner, and made it stick in turn 8. I pushed hard towards the finish and just made it in 3rd place overall!!! With a new personal best of 55.946 and winning the F3 class.
Huge thanks to my girlfriend Chloe for the support, Milky for being my mechanic, KK and Nod for taking my bike down, Shaun Harris, Hooks, and all the KB'ers that came and watched, or said gidday.
Only one issue with the day, and that was the motards. Awesome bikes, and wicked to watch them racing. But i dont believe they belong in F3, it is a completely different style of riding and results in confrontations (would you mix V8 supercars with drift cars?). They have their own class, and most of them are eligible for Bears aswell. The Supermotard class also got 3 races while everyone else got two. This results in a shitload of racing for them and putting alot of the F3 racers off.
But anyway, Cheers everyone :niceone:
With the help of KK taking my bike down (huge thanks mate) Chloe, Milky and I made it down to Wanganui (We travelled on bikes). Leaving Auckland at 4pm we arrived at Hooks' place by 11:30pm (Big thanks for putting us up mate :niceone: )
It was an Early start to Boxing Day. We were up early at 4am to ride accross to Wanganui for the morning scrutineering and sign in. Once that was all done it was time for my 4 sighting laps (ive never done Wanganui before) I got out there and had to scrub in my tyres at the same time as my sighting laps. What an awesome circuit!!! The funny thing is i didnt even notice the railway lines until the 3rd lap!!! It had bumps everywhere and a nasty rise in the braking area for turn one... I was keen to get out there and go hard.
Qualifying: We were given two sessions to do qualifying but each session was only three laps long. I managed to get out early in the second session to put in a semi decent lap and that resulted in my placing of 7th on the grid with a time of 56.764 in a sea of motards. I was stoked with this, being my first time there, and knew i could get more out of me and the bike, so was keen as to get out there in the race.
Race one: Revving the motor on the start line, the flag dropped and it seemed like 50 million motards went past me. Turn 1 was absolute chaos, but with late braking and a bit of pushing and shoving i settled into 7th place. Then on lap 2 i braked too late into turn one, resulting in the back wheel coming up and another motard got past me. It took me the next 3 laps to finally get past him and I was finally back in 7th place. I crossed the finish line in 7th place and was absolutely stoked!!! My new best time was a 55.954.
Race 2: I got a shocking start and got pushed out by motards in turn two, I was sitting in about 10th place when the race was red flagged due to a motard crashing on turn one. We sat on the run off area before our race was lined up again on the grid (glad to see the motard rider was ok)... I was on the start grid waiting for the flag to be waved, then two of the front row guys shot of the start before the flag was waved. I thought "Ah ok, false start" so i dropped my revs to wait for the start... BUT NOOOOO!!!! They waved the flag anyway... My revs were at about 4000rpm, and my start was a joke. I dropped back to about 17th and with alot of going around the outside of people and late braking i pushed upto 13th. I was in a big dice with Mark Wiggley and a guy on a KTM motard. I would get Wiggley under brakes and try get the martard on the inside, but the motard would cut me off everytime and because of the slower corner speed result in me having to brake in mid corner... This happened every lap for the rest of the race. I was really disappointed in myself for letting my revs drop, but also in the event organisers for not calling it a false start. Ah well thats racing, and there is always next time. My best lap time in that race was a 56.579 which should have seen me in at least 7th place.
Due to my time i had put down in race one, i had qualified for the fastest 40 non-qualifyers of the Robert Holden Memorial Race. This put me 3rd on the grid. Being on the front row, i got a great start and quickly settled into 4th place behind a ZX-6R. I was chasing him down hard, then made a braking error into turn one resulting in a motard getting past me. After another 2 laps i got past that motard putting me in 4th place again, hot on the heels of the ZX-6R. Then on the final lap I went up the inside of the ZX-6R on Robert Holden Corner, and made it stick in turn 8. I pushed hard towards the finish and just made it in 3rd place overall!!! With a new personal best of 55.946 and winning the F3 class.
Huge thanks to my girlfriend Chloe for the support, Milky for being my mechanic, KK and Nod for taking my bike down, Shaun Harris, Hooks, and all the KB'ers that came and watched, or said gidday.
Only one issue with the day, and that was the motards. Awesome bikes, and wicked to watch them racing. But i dont believe they belong in F3, it is a completely different style of riding and results in confrontations (would you mix V8 supercars with drift cars?). They have their own class, and most of them are eligible for Bears aswell. The Supermotard class also got 3 races while everyone else got two. This results in a shitload of racing for them and putting alot of the F3 racers off.
But anyway, Cheers everyone :niceone: