F5 Dave
20th May 2008, 13:23
This is a well run & enjoyable race meet. Mt Wellington kart track.
Sat was practice which was somewhat delayed by a bad accident on a pitbike. Poor lass got a broken collarbone & concussion. This despite full gear.
OK so I was to ride the F5 50cc class. The track was run anticlockwise which I hadn’t raced for quite some years (alternate every year, but my sprocket carrier failed 3 laps in last time). I always find this track hard to learn. There are some bumps that are hard to see & there are specific lines that are hard to learn.
Last year it took me part way through the race to finally click.
This year I was struggling again, but in the last practice & after picking Karl & Garry’s brains I clicked to what I thought was going to be a good pace. I was worried about an arm injury but it never surfaced so I can’t even add that to ‘The Big Book of Excuses’.
So this year there were 4 riders expected to be in contention. Mark a local on his Aprilia that was very fast & had been doing some winning recently. Dave.D another local on his Derbi engined TZR who usually wins there & now his son also on a Derbi who was increasing in speed.
The race started, 50 laps for F5. Well here is my only bitch, the start was jumped in my opinion pretty obviously. I didn’t even bother to let out the clutch & stayed on the line as I thought it would be pulled. But it wasn’t so I sort of haphazardly followed off with about 3 corners delay. I came around the lap expecting a red but it wasn’t there. The officials hadn’t really noticed, but one rider admitted he went when he saw another moving then the flag dropped.
Anyway I’ve been racing long enough that I should have just gone. The start was jumped last year, so I was a bit angry that here I was making my way through the field instead of dicing for the lead. The lead incidentally had been taken by Dave’s son & held fairly well until he binned it quite nicely into the hairpin a few laps latter.
So Dave led Mark. Slowly I caught up over what must have been 10 laps. But then made a mistake overbraking into the hairpin & had to make it all up again. Every lap catching. Mark got past Dave & by the time I was up with Dave had a comfortable 2-3 corner lead. I put a move or two on Dave but with door closed I often had to make up some time, but was confident I would get past & had a plan. His bike stuttered momentarily so I past before I expected feeling a little guilty but he was back on my tail so I concentrated on making a break. But I really couldn’t make a dent into Marks lead & was making silly mistakes. Mt Wgtn is bumpy in some areas & I kept running into these spoiling my drive & almost giving my position back. So I just rode to stay in position as there were few laps left.
So congrats to Mark. Good ride. I think he would have won anyways, but would have liked the chance to see if I could have pushed the point had I not wore myself out gaining back the distance at the start. Really I was a bit disappointed with my riding, the constant mistakes show lack of practice & perhaps condition. Last year I was considerably more fit.
F4 race was looking as a 3 way battle. Gary & Karl on very hot CB125 Twins & Nigel on a hybrid Suzuki 100. Nigel was fav as had won previous 2 years & his bike is blistering. Race started with Gary in front but a mistake & a few slides cost him the pos. Karl lead for a while but eventually Nigel passed him & just kept pressing that lead out further & further. Top ride.
I’ll let others add to races themselves, the B grade Mt Wgtn cup was won by Rick, in his first proper start. Top job.
Sat was practice which was somewhat delayed by a bad accident on a pitbike. Poor lass got a broken collarbone & concussion. This despite full gear.
OK so I was to ride the F5 50cc class. The track was run anticlockwise which I hadn’t raced for quite some years (alternate every year, but my sprocket carrier failed 3 laps in last time). I always find this track hard to learn. There are some bumps that are hard to see & there are specific lines that are hard to learn.
Last year it took me part way through the race to finally click.
This year I was struggling again, but in the last practice & after picking Karl & Garry’s brains I clicked to what I thought was going to be a good pace. I was worried about an arm injury but it never surfaced so I can’t even add that to ‘The Big Book of Excuses’.
So this year there were 4 riders expected to be in contention. Mark a local on his Aprilia that was very fast & had been doing some winning recently. Dave.D another local on his Derbi engined TZR who usually wins there & now his son also on a Derbi who was increasing in speed.
The race started, 50 laps for F5. Well here is my only bitch, the start was jumped in my opinion pretty obviously. I didn’t even bother to let out the clutch & stayed on the line as I thought it would be pulled. But it wasn’t so I sort of haphazardly followed off with about 3 corners delay. I came around the lap expecting a red but it wasn’t there. The officials hadn’t really noticed, but one rider admitted he went when he saw another moving then the flag dropped.
Anyway I’ve been racing long enough that I should have just gone. The start was jumped last year, so I was a bit angry that here I was making my way through the field instead of dicing for the lead. The lead incidentally had been taken by Dave’s son & held fairly well until he binned it quite nicely into the hairpin a few laps latter.
So Dave led Mark. Slowly I caught up over what must have been 10 laps. But then made a mistake overbraking into the hairpin & had to make it all up again. Every lap catching. Mark got past Dave & by the time I was up with Dave had a comfortable 2-3 corner lead. I put a move or two on Dave but with door closed I often had to make up some time, but was confident I would get past & had a plan. His bike stuttered momentarily so I past before I expected feeling a little guilty but he was back on my tail so I concentrated on making a break. But I really couldn’t make a dent into Marks lead & was making silly mistakes. Mt Wgtn is bumpy in some areas & I kept running into these spoiling my drive & almost giving my position back. So I just rode to stay in position as there were few laps left.
So congrats to Mark. Good ride. I think he would have won anyways, but would have liked the chance to see if I could have pushed the point had I not wore myself out gaining back the distance at the start. Really I was a bit disappointed with my riding, the constant mistakes show lack of practice & perhaps condition. Last year I was considerably more fit.
F4 race was looking as a 3 way battle. Gary & Karl on very hot CB125 Twins & Nigel on a hybrid Suzuki 100. Nigel was fav as had won previous 2 years & his bike is blistering. Race started with Gary in front but a mistake & a few slides cost him the pos. Karl lead for a while but eventually Nigel passed him & just kept pressing that lead out further & further. Top ride.
I’ll let others add to races themselves, the B grade Mt Wgtn cup was won by Rick, in his first proper start. Top job.