vtec
18th June 2006, 17:52
Hi all and sundry. Welllllll, in the days up to the second round of the VMCC racing meetings, the weather reports were not looking good, TV3 kept showing us a couple of those blue coloured fronty things that were going to be moving over Palmy just about the right time for me to be racing. And you know what? They got it right.
Packed up and left home by about 9.30am on the Friday, spent the day driving, and got to the motel at about 5pm, so it was already getting dark, and it was bloody freezing. Still I'm trying to get fit for the summer athletics season, so I put on my slightly water resistant jacket and went for about a 30 minute run. Seriously there's nothing better than a bit of a run the night before a race. I find it helps me sleep a lot better, and it helps me loosen up the body after a day sitting on my arse in the van.
Luckily my dad had booked a unit at the raceway court motel with a separate room on it this time, so I was going to be guaranteed a reasonable sleep with only muffled snoring noises coming from the next room. But I ended up watching the end of the 'Troy' movie, cause I was feeling too tired to get up and turn it off until the end. Was only about 11pm, but dad wanted us to get to the track by about 7am, to see if we could get some shelter in the stables to pit in.
Woke up at about 6.15 by dad. Didn't even have time for a wake up shower, so I just went to the bathroom to splash some approx 4 degrees C water on my face... that did the trick, felt a lot more awake after that. Chucked some cereal down the throat, brushed the teeth, and threw all the gear in the van. Made it to the gates about 7am, and there was already a decent queue to get in. Now we know it's get there at 7am, or you're out in the elements, unless you can get someone to save you a half a stable.
Unloaded the black beauty (my little CBR), I finally got some new fairings for it, so I was no longer going to be racing it naked, and they are currently in pristine condition, cause we got a shiny black paint job done on it. Beautiful. Still, didn't want to take it out and wreck them in my first meeting, which is what I had done after dad had bought me a brand new windscreen, that had got smashed after about 1.5 practice laps out Taupo.
Texted Texmo to let him know I had some room in the stable for his bike right next to mine. Texmo rocks up with his dad, and gets the bike set up. We do a few minor things to get our bikes ready, his number's had blown off his bike on the way down, so he had to put twink on instead.
The scrub in session was called up, I didn't go out in it, cause I decided that I would adjust my chain and check my oil before the Streetstock practice session. Straight afterwards, was the Streetstock practice, was a bit nervous, cause I knew that Neil Chappell was a bloody legend in the wet, but I had gotten into racing with the idea that there was no reason that anybody should be faster than me if I just follow their lines. I had started to think that maybe that didn't apply to wet nearly freezing conditions. I was still going to give it a shot though. I was going into this wet meeting with a completely different mentality from the previous wet race that we had at Manfeild in which I had come 3rd, for some reason I felt no fear about the slippery surface. Must have been that last time it was only a couple of weeks after I had come off in the wet at Taupo chasing F3 bikes.
Anyway, the 125's and Streetstocks are let out onto the circuit, a few of them take off pretty swift down the pitlane with the intent to get some clear road, a few of the Streetstocks get between me and Neil, and I'm loath to pass them back down the pit straight, cause it's not the best place to start playing those games. So we spill out onto the circuit, and I could see Neil a couple of bikes up ahead get into his groove at the first bloody corner, MotoXXX (Eamon) was right on Neill aswell. So I followed them around for most of the practice about a couple of seconds behind them the whole time. RaceyRider (Alex) came up my inside on the midfield lefthander, I take quite a wide line there, but I'm always slower than the 150's on the exit anyway, but I got him back on the straight. Kept it nice and smooth and as safe as possible. Fingers really started to freeze, cause the gloves that I had just bought off Quasi from DSS3 were quite thin with no padding which I really like to race in, but just not suited to the conditions. Brought it home upright, and got some good wet track practice. Still got left behind by Neil and Eamon. Got hold of the results, and was satisfied to see myself on the front row of the grid in 3rd place, my best time was nearly 3 seconds slower than Neil and Eamon, but I was in a good position to see if I could stick with Neil in the race.
Went out in the F3 practice, and ended up following Eamon around, this times I was feeling a lot more confident, and was able to stick with him for most of the practice, I bunged up a corner and he got away from me, but I maintained the gap, and I felt that I was going a lot faster than in the Streetstocks practice, was getting the tail of the bike sliding on throttle a bit on some corners, but still felt pretty safe. This second practice session was a big boost to my wet confidence.
Didn't have too long between the F3 practice, and our first 15 lap streetstock race, but still went round and talked to a few of the dudes. Spoke to a mildly annoyed RG100 (Glen), he'd missed the practice/qualifying, and would be starting from the back of the grid. He was going to have to work some wonders in these races to keep his points chase intact.
Packed up and left home by about 9.30am on the Friday, spent the day driving, and got to the motel at about 5pm, so it was already getting dark, and it was bloody freezing. Still I'm trying to get fit for the summer athletics season, so I put on my slightly water resistant jacket and went for about a 30 minute run. Seriously there's nothing better than a bit of a run the night before a race. I find it helps me sleep a lot better, and it helps me loosen up the body after a day sitting on my arse in the van.
Luckily my dad had booked a unit at the raceway court motel with a separate room on it this time, so I was going to be guaranteed a reasonable sleep with only muffled snoring noises coming from the next room. But I ended up watching the end of the 'Troy' movie, cause I was feeling too tired to get up and turn it off until the end. Was only about 11pm, but dad wanted us to get to the track by about 7am, to see if we could get some shelter in the stables to pit in.
Woke up at about 6.15 by dad. Didn't even have time for a wake up shower, so I just went to the bathroom to splash some approx 4 degrees C water on my face... that did the trick, felt a lot more awake after that. Chucked some cereal down the throat, brushed the teeth, and threw all the gear in the van. Made it to the gates about 7am, and there was already a decent queue to get in. Now we know it's get there at 7am, or you're out in the elements, unless you can get someone to save you a half a stable.
Unloaded the black beauty (my little CBR), I finally got some new fairings for it, so I was no longer going to be racing it naked, and they are currently in pristine condition, cause we got a shiny black paint job done on it. Beautiful. Still, didn't want to take it out and wreck them in my first meeting, which is what I had done after dad had bought me a brand new windscreen, that had got smashed after about 1.5 practice laps out Taupo.
Texted Texmo to let him know I had some room in the stable for his bike right next to mine. Texmo rocks up with his dad, and gets the bike set up. We do a few minor things to get our bikes ready, his number's had blown off his bike on the way down, so he had to put twink on instead.
The scrub in session was called up, I didn't go out in it, cause I decided that I would adjust my chain and check my oil before the Streetstock practice session. Straight afterwards, was the Streetstock practice, was a bit nervous, cause I knew that Neil Chappell was a bloody legend in the wet, but I had gotten into racing with the idea that there was no reason that anybody should be faster than me if I just follow their lines. I had started to think that maybe that didn't apply to wet nearly freezing conditions. I was still going to give it a shot though. I was going into this wet meeting with a completely different mentality from the previous wet race that we had at Manfeild in which I had come 3rd, for some reason I felt no fear about the slippery surface. Must have been that last time it was only a couple of weeks after I had come off in the wet at Taupo chasing F3 bikes.
Anyway, the 125's and Streetstocks are let out onto the circuit, a few of them take off pretty swift down the pitlane with the intent to get some clear road, a few of the Streetstocks get between me and Neil, and I'm loath to pass them back down the pit straight, cause it's not the best place to start playing those games. So we spill out onto the circuit, and I could see Neil a couple of bikes up ahead get into his groove at the first bloody corner, MotoXXX (Eamon) was right on Neill aswell. So I followed them around for most of the practice about a couple of seconds behind them the whole time. RaceyRider (Alex) came up my inside on the midfield lefthander, I take quite a wide line there, but I'm always slower than the 150's on the exit anyway, but I got him back on the straight. Kept it nice and smooth and as safe as possible. Fingers really started to freeze, cause the gloves that I had just bought off Quasi from DSS3 were quite thin with no padding which I really like to race in, but just not suited to the conditions. Brought it home upright, and got some good wet track practice. Still got left behind by Neil and Eamon. Got hold of the results, and was satisfied to see myself on the front row of the grid in 3rd place, my best time was nearly 3 seconds slower than Neil and Eamon, but I was in a good position to see if I could stick with Neil in the race.
Went out in the F3 practice, and ended up following Eamon around, this times I was feeling a lot more confident, and was able to stick with him for most of the practice, I bunged up a corner and he got away from me, but I maintained the gap, and I felt that I was going a lot faster than in the Streetstocks practice, was getting the tail of the bike sliding on throttle a bit on some corners, but still felt pretty safe. This second practice session was a big boost to my wet confidence.
Didn't have too long between the F3 practice, and our first 15 lap streetstock race, but still went round and talked to a few of the dudes. Spoke to a mildly annoyed RG100 (Glen), he'd missed the practice/qualifying, and would be starting from the back of the grid. He was going to have to work some wonders in these races to keep his points chase intact.