nicko
18th February 2008, 22:28
Well I'd start by saying it was an eventful day at Paeroa but it's always an eventful day at Paeroa.
Been a while since I've put up a report, largely because I haven't raced in ages but think yesterday deserves a bit of a speel. I had my trusty 675 & had also been offered a ride by a Tauranga MV enthusiast on his MV Agusta 312 after I had tested the bike at the Road Race Spectacular at Taupo on New Years. Feeling like the kid on the block at christmas with 2 bmx's in his garage it was gearing up to be another great Paeroa Battle of the Streets.
Qualifying was done on Wanganui lap-times so I was lucky I had been down there to get some times on the board which started me front row F2 on the 675 and front row in BEARS and second row F1 on the MV, with 6 practice sessions & 7 races it was going to be a busy day so excuse me for a long report.
Practice was valuable as I had only ridden the MV for about 20 laps at Taupo due to crap weather so it was a good chance to get myself familiar with the bike. All I'll say is if you get a chance to ride one - take it! This MV is as they come out of the box, road fairings, standard exhaust/suspension, literally a road bike with number-boards. It's also the same bike Paul Heard campaigned at the recent land speed-record attempts where he achieved over 295kph second only to a NOS'd up Busa.....& I was sporting the same Pirelli tyres that had been used for the record attempt.
F2 Race 1. Quite simply the highlight of my day. 5th in lap one, Jason Hulme down on 2nd lap bumped me up to 3rd, kept it pinned & got past Paul Brown on the 3rd lap. Then had a bit of work to catchup to Dave Sadowski on the Bernard R6 over the next 3 laps. Dave took a tight defensive line into turn one on the last lap but had scrubbed off too much speed so I managed to roll it round the outside & held the lead (just) till the line. First of the big street meet wins for me & great start to the day.
F-Paeroa Race 1. Average start off the 2nd row at 11th position as the MV has a bit of a touchy clutch off the line. Up to 9th in lap 3 and get a good run down the hill towards post-office corner about to make a move on the next rider when he suddenly veers left & dead ahead of me is a rapidly slowing Neil Martin on a GSXR 1000 with an electrical fault in the middle of the track! One of those impact-immenent let's try to miss but not looking good - wish the glass was half-full moments that lastest all of .00002 of a second and WHAM!!!!!!!!! Clean smacked the Gixxer up the rear at a speed differential of what must have been over 100kph. Massive shunt, bits of fairing everywhere, hold on for dear life & realise I've actually kept it upright (probably more fluke than skill) and stop the bike & rest against the bales half shocked half bloody stoked to have kept the thing upright. Race eventually got red-flagged & I gathered the broken fairing & what suprised me even more was I was able to ride the bike back to the pits & even better glad to see Neil also kept it upright & was unhurt as well.
Next race BEARS race 1, I was lucky I had the Triumph as back-up and although pretty rattled & a bit bruised after the incident I got out on the Trumpy for another hoon. Got stuck behind the KTM of Steve Briggs for the first few laps and Pete Tanner riding bloody well on his Aprilia had cleared off ahead so I settled into 2nd place.
King of the Streets, probably should have saved my energy for F2 but went out on the 675 again. Finished up about 9th or 10th in that race.
F2 - second race. Good start into second but unfortunately my arms let me down in this race, was getting some pretty wicked arm pump and just couldn't turn it under brakes as well as I had in race 1 and ended up finishing 5th. Bit dissapointing after the first race result but that is racing & overall points put me 3rd for the day so not all bad.
F-Paeroa race 2. My crew, thanks so much guys, got the MV back 'together' again, naked bike styles and minus a front fairing & plus a new front tyre (impact from crash had blown the last one) I started off down the back of the grid due to the DNF. I actually had quite a bit of fun scrubbing in the tyre & working my way up the field on the now naked MV & made my way up from last to 11th, I can empathise somewhat with the motard guys now I realise you get a fair bit of wind pushing your helmet when you're doing 240+kph minus a front fairing!
BEARS - race 2. Final race of the day for me & feeling the pinch of the days events. Again on the naked MV had a shocker of a start and ended up about 10th into turn one but got through the field to 2nd on lap 3, Pete Tanner a fair way off but thinking I might just be able to catch him, 4th lap & didn't need to as Pete had gone down at the hair-pin. Not pleased to have won the race without a fight & gutted for Pete to have come off but great to finish the day 1st overall in BEARS .
So all in all a huge day & we finished 3rd in F2 and 1st in BEARS, looking forward to heading south to the Sound of Thunder this weekend down at Ruapuna in Christchurch.
I'd like to say a huge THANKS to all those who helped me leading up to & on the day...
My long standing sponsor FREDCO MOTORS in Union St CBD & Archers Rd Wairau, Auckland for all your continued support, thanks Craig & the boys.
On the MV - MV AGUSTA MOTORSPORT NZ & BAYRIDE MOTORCYCLES
On the Triumph - AMPS, TRIUMPH, WAIKATO SANDBLASTING, OHLINS, CORSA DISMANTLERS, PROTECTA INSURANCE
And on both counts thanks to PIRELLI, BP, CASTROL, AGV Helmets & Leathers, EBC pads, Sidi Boots & Steve & co & family for their awesome help in the pits.
Thanks to www.bikestore.co.nz for these photos - mint shots - just reattaching your photos here guys.
Been a while since I've put up a report, largely because I haven't raced in ages but think yesterday deserves a bit of a speel. I had my trusty 675 & had also been offered a ride by a Tauranga MV enthusiast on his MV Agusta 312 after I had tested the bike at the Road Race Spectacular at Taupo on New Years. Feeling like the kid on the block at christmas with 2 bmx's in his garage it was gearing up to be another great Paeroa Battle of the Streets.
Qualifying was done on Wanganui lap-times so I was lucky I had been down there to get some times on the board which started me front row F2 on the 675 and front row in BEARS and second row F1 on the MV, with 6 practice sessions & 7 races it was going to be a busy day so excuse me for a long report.
Practice was valuable as I had only ridden the MV for about 20 laps at Taupo due to crap weather so it was a good chance to get myself familiar with the bike. All I'll say is if you get a chance to ride one - take it! This MV is as they come out of the box, road fairings, standard exhaust/suspension, literally a road bike with number-boards. It's also the same bike Paul Heard campaigned at the recent land speed-record attempts where he achieved over 295kph second only to a NOS'd up Busa.....& I was sporting the same Pirelli tyres that had been used for the record attempt.
F2 Race 1. Quite simply the highlight of my day. 5th in lap one, Jason Hulme down on 2nd lap bumped me up to 3rd, kept it pinned & got past Paul Brown on the 3rd lap. Then had a bit of work to catchup to Dave Sadowski on the Bernard R6 over the next 3 laps. Dave took a tight defensive line into turn one on the last lap but had scrubbed off too much speed so I managed to roll it round the outside & held the lead (just) till the line. First of the big street meet wins for me & great start to the day.
F-Paeroa Race 1. Average start off the 2nd row at 11th position as the MV has a bit of a touchy clutch off the line. Up to 9th in lap 3 and get a good run down the hill towards post-office corner about to make a move on the next rider when he suddenly veers left & dead ahead of me is a rapidly slowing Neil Martin on a GSXR 1000 with an electrical fault in the middle of the track! One of those impact-immenent let's try to miss but not looking good - wish the glass was half-full moments that lastest all of .00002 of a second and WHAM!!!!!!!!! Clean smacked the Gixxer up the rear at a speed differential of what must have been over 100kph. Massive shunt, bits of fairing everywhere, hold on for dear life & realise I've actually kept it upright (probably more fluke than skill) and stop the bike & rest against the bales half shocked half bloody stoked to have kept the thing upright. Race eventually got red-flagged & I gathered the broken fairing & what suprised me even more was I was able to ride the bike back to the pits & even better glad to see Neil also kept it upright & was unhurt as well.
Next race BEARS race 1, I was lucky I had the Triumph as back-up and although pretty rattled & a bit bruised after the incident I got out on the Trumpy for another hoon. Got stuck behind the KTM of Steve Briggs for the first few laps and Pete Tanner riding bloody well on his Aprilia had cleared off ahead so I settled into 2nd place.
King of the Streets, probably should have saved my energy for F2 but went out on the 675 again. Finished up about 9th or 10th in that race.
F2 - second race. Good start into second but unfortunately my arms let me down in this race, was getting some pretty wicked arm pump and just couldn't turn it under brakes as well as I had in race 1 and ended up finishing 5th. Bit dissapointing after the first race result but that is racing & overall points put me 3rd for the day so not all bad.
F-Paeroa race 2. My crew, thanks so much guys, got the MV back 'together' again, naked bike styles and minus a front fairing & plus a new front tyre (impact from crash had blown the last one) I started off down the back of the grid due to the DNF. I actually had quite a bit of fun scrubbing in the tyre & working my way up the field on the now naked MV & made my way up from last to 11th, I can empathise somewhat with the motard guys now I realise you get a fair bit of wind pushing your helmet when you're doing 240+kph minus a front fairing!
BEARS - race 2. Final race of the day for me & feeling the pinch of the days events. Again on the naked MV had a shocker of a start and ended up about 10th into turn one but got through the field to 2nd on lap 3, Pete Tanner a fair way off but thinking I might just be able to catch him, 4th lap & didn't need to as Pete had gone down at the hair-pin. Not pleased to have won the race without a fight & gutted for Pete to have come off but great to finish the day 1st overall in BEARS .
So all in all a huge day & we finished 3rd in F2 and 1st in BEARS, looking forward to heading south to the Sound of Thunder this weekend down at Ruapuna in Christchurch.
I'd like to say a huge THANKS to all those who helped me leading up to & on the day...
My long standing sponsor FREDCO MOTORS in Union St CBD & Archers Rd Wairau, Auckland for all your continued support, thanks Craig & the boys.
On the MV - MV AGUSTA MOTORSPORT NZ & BAYRIDE MOTORCYCLES
On the Triumph - AMPS, TRIUMPH, WAIKATO SANDBLASTING, OHLINS, CORSA DISMANTLERS, PROTECTA INSURANCE
And on both counts thanks to PIRELLI, BP, CASTROL, AGV Helmets & Leathers, EBC pads, Sidi Boots & Steve & co & family for their awesome help in the pits.
Thanks to www.bikestore.co.nz for these photos - mint shots - just reattaching your photos here guys.