Tim 39
15th September 2007, 17:13
I turned up at what I thought was bright and early at 7.30am (when I was told the gates opened but clearly not!) to find Kevin and Steve already there, along with about 20 others!
Into the sign in queue I went and got all of that drama out of the way, then got my bike ready to go. After I had mixed my fuel and set my radiator tape, I was ready to go. There were still problems with the streetstock tyre rules, which held the meeting progress up a bit. In riders briefing I asked for a split start from Formula 3 (125’s off first to give us a chance to race together) after a bit of yes, no, maybe… it was approved.
Time for practice… I hadn’t been to Ruapuna for just over 7 months, and hadn’t been there on my new bike so I took my time to make sure I had my lines fairly well sorted, and was used to the track again. Practice was a very long session so I got fairly well sorted and was slowly mastering the freshly sealed corner onto the front straight, with the new seal and slightly changed shape it could be attacked from a few different angles.
I was glad to hear them announce that 125GP was starting at the front of the grid. We lined up on the grid and soon enough the lights were out and it was go time. I was second into the first corner behind Gregor, which I was happy enough with because I didn’t get a very good start. I tagged onto the back of Gregor for the first few laps, then he made quite a bad effort of the infield which allowed me to get past. My time in front was short this time as I was still low on confidence through the corner onto the front straight, as it looked very greasy. Sure enough with my bad drive out of there Gregor came past me down the straight, I was a long way off just letting him beat me so I had a go at getting him back exiting the corner at the end of the straight, but could only get alongside. I stayed within striking distance and got realy good drive out of the infield sweeper, but again only got alongside and not far enough in front to pass. I ended up sitting in second until the last lap when I managed to get past, but there were new complications as we came through the 10 or so Streestock guys. I got a clear enough exit to the last corner to get good enough drive to win it.
As we lined up on the dummy grid for the second race I was told that we weren’t getting the split start anymore (oh well at least I tried). I got on the front row of the grid and got a reasonable start, but of course got dragged off by a lot of the Formula 3 bikes. At the first corner I got past most of the slower ones, and the chase was on to catch the faster ones. Gregor wasn’t making much progress on getting past a 400, so I passed him and managed to get past the 400 only slightly later which meant I wasn’t too far behind the front runners. By the second last lap I caught up on the two guys at the front and had a go at getting past both of them in one go on the last lap, but they managed to push their way through leaving me in third place for that race (the first 125).
The last race was called so out we went, I got the best start I’d had all day but not as good as a guy on a 400 behind me because as he went past so close my leathers were rubbing on his fairing. Into the first corner I got past about 5 of them in total and there were only a few left to catch before I got to the front runners, Gregor was picking his way through them ahead of me but I was holding the gap between us. I caught up on a 400 that was very hard to pass as he seemed to have an unlimited supply of little tricks to not let me past! I finally got past him in the square section before the dipper, Gregor was making good progress and was a bit further ahead. I started catching up with Gregor again but he got past Tom Bos on the ER6, straight away while I got stuck behind for enough time to not be able to catch back up with the leading two. I was still happy with my 3rd place in junior class and 2nd 125GP for that race!
I was very pleased with my days racing, the bike was going well and the setup was spot on, I still have a few areas to tidy up, so hopefully I can tidy those up next time I’m there.
I would like to thank those awesome people out there that help me…
Into the sign in queue I went and got all of that drama out of the way, then got my bike ready to go. After I had mixed my fuel and set my radiator tape, I was ready to go. There were still problems with the streetstock tyre rules, which held the meeting progress up a bit. In riders briefing I asked for a split start from Formula 3 (125’s off first to give us a chance to race together) after a bit of yes, no, maybe… it was approved.
Time for practice… I hadn’t been to Ruapuna for just over 7 months, and hadn’t been there on my new bike so I took my time to make sure I had my lines fairly well sorted, and was used to the track again. Practice was a very long session so I got fairly well sorted and was slowly mastering the freshly sealed corner onto the front straight, with the new seal and slightly changed shape it could be attacked from a few different angles.
I was glad to hear them announce that 125GP was starting at the front of the grid. We lined up on the grid and soon enough the lights were out and it was go time. I was second into the first corner behind Gregor, which I was happy enough with because I didn’t get a very good start. I tagged onto the back of Gregor for the first few laps, then he made quite a bad effort of the infield which allowed me to get past. My time in front was short this time as I was still low on confidence through the corner onto the front straight, as it looked very greasy. Sure enough with my bad drive out of there Gregor came past me down the straight, I was a long way off just letting him beat me so I had a go at getting him back exiting the corner at the end of the straight, but could only get alongside. I stayed within striking distance and got realy good drive out of the infield sweeper, but again only got alongside and not far enough in front to pass. I ended up sitting in second until the last lap when I managed to get past, but there were new complications as we came through the 10 or so Streestock guys. I got a clear enough exit to the last corner to get good enough drive to win it.
As we lined up on the dummy grid for the second race I was told that we weren’t getting the split start anymore (oh well at least I tried). I got on the front row of the grid and got a reasonable start, but of course got dragged off by a lot of the Formula 3 bikes. At the first corner I got past most of the slower ones, and the chase was on to catch the faster ones. Gregor wasn’t making much progress on getting past a 400, so I passed him and managed to get past the 400 only slightly later which meant I wasn’t too far behind the front runners. By the second last lap I caught up on the two guys at the front and had a go at getting past both of them in one go on the last lap, but they managed to push their way through leaving me in third place for that race (the first 125).
The last race was called so out we went, I got the best start I’d had all day but not as good as a guy on a 400 behind me because as he went past so close my leathers were rubbing on his fairing. Into the first corner I got past about 5 of them in total and there were only a few left to catch before I got to the front runners, Gregor was picking his way through them ahead of me but I was holding the gap between us. I caught up on a 400 that was very hard to pass as he seemed to have an unlimited supply of little tricks to not let me past! I finally got past him in the square section before the dipper, Gregor was making good progress and was a bit further ahead. I started catching up with Gregor again but he got past Tom Bos on the ER6, straight away while I got stuck behind for enough time to not be able to catch back up with the leading two. I was still happy with my 3rd place in junior class and 2nd 125GP for that race!
I was very pleased with my days racing, the bike was going well and the setup was spot on, I still have a few areas to tidy up, so hopefully I can tidy those up next time I’m there.
I would like to thank those awesome people out there that help me…