Teambwr47
23rd February 2009, 19:40
Paeroa......What an absolutely fantastic event, one of the most enjoyable and memorable days racing I've experienced.
I was doubtful looking at the weather forecast that the event would be on and the downpours on route to Paeroa didn't do my (clean leaving Auckland) bike many favours, especially with the road works on route adding mud to the equation...
Arrived in town at about 1pm and the paddock was already filling up with all the spaces by the dummy grid taken or fenced off so I managed to find a space about three doors down from scrutineering. Got chatting to a lady who owned the business i was outside and she very kindly let me plug into the mains in their place for the weekend. I think her name was Debbie...... thanks a million if you're reading this.
Meet up with Tony O'Keefe who I had a wager with for the fastest lap between us over the race day and the high stakes bet was on, winner takes all....... a whole $10.
Town on Saturday night seemed quiet and we got a curry then a beer and off to bed. I put up a camp bed in the awning and managed to get off of sleep only to wake up at 2am to the sounds of Pink Floyd "wish you were here" being played live..... Actually to be more accurate a guy who lives at the back of one of the buildings next to us was trying and failing to learn it on the electric guitar at 2am. According to the locals he gets pissed/stoned on a regular basis then thinks he's David Gilmour, much to their annoyance:lol:
Race day dawned wet and more rain fell through the early morning meaning practice was postponed until the road dried. I took a walk along the back straight and the white lines certainly felt slippery in the damp and i was more than a little worried they would get going with the track still damp...:(
I was stood gassing to a few people when the tannoy said all newcomers to the grid for their practice (we were to get an extra 4 laps practice) Not yet in my leathers I got ready as fast as possible and went to the dummy grid.
When I got there I'd missed the practice but so had quite a few other riders who were less than pleased. There had apparently been a message saying they hoped to get under way at a certain time subject to track inspection etc, but a bit more notice would have be good.
To compound the issue, in the confusion of an official sending me back to our pit area, we missed the Formula 2 session which was first up....:doh::oi-grr::weep:
Great, first street race ever and no practice I thought, as there was talk of just one session per class. My mate Nigel went to talk to the grid guys to see if i could sneak out in Formula Paeroa and when he didn't come back I set off for the dummy grid....
Seems like he was explaining the situation when i came to the grid and as Nigel said 'he was late for practice' the guy said 'ok mate' and waved me through.......... I didn't need a 2nd invite as i assumed all was sorted. If i did wrong sorry all but nobody pulled me up on it.
Well what can i say about those first laps of Paeroa....
scary and bumpy as hell in parts I thought how the hell can we race around here......the straight seemed shorter than I thought and the wheelie ramp and jump on the back straight just mad.:lol:
Managed to get another practice in with Formula 2 and started to try and work out where to brake, what gear to be in etc and i seemed to catch and pass quite a few people so at least i wasn't going to be the slowest out there.
Into the first Formula 2 race and being a Paeroa virgin I was at the back of the grid on row 5. Off the start i did ok and made up a few places and some more on the brakes to turn 2 and 3 but when we rounded the hairpin for the first time I looked up the straight to see a cloud of black smoke rising over the buildings from the far end of the track and the red flags out. Turned out that a few bikes had gone down and one leaked fuel causing a rather big fire that destroyed one bike and badly toasted another but all riders seemed ok.
The restart was ok and I made up places through the race eventually getting onto the back of Adam Chambers and finishing just behind him for 8th with a best of 49.501 and a lot more track knowledge absorbed.
Went and watched Tony then take the $10 lead as he put in a 49.446...bugger
Next up was the invitational event and I managed to get in at 23rd on the grid alongside Tony. The start to this race was OK and I made up a few place into turn 2 for 10th and there was a group ahead the first of which was Lance Lowe. I got well and truly stuck behind Lance for the whole race I just couldn't find a way past him. Every time we got to braking and through the square I'd be right on him just to see the kwak 1000 tear off on acceleration down the next straight:(
This allowed Tony to close me down and he passed me down the front straight but i got him back on the brakes then he showed me a wheel a few times. Onto the last lap and I was still 10th and into the hairpin i got badly held up by Lance allowing Tony's Onda 1000 to get close to me but I thought I had the place as i was tucked up to Lance Lowe.
Unfortunately as as we got towards the line Mr Stunt king decided to hoist a huge wheelie which I wasn't expecting while trying to follow close behind and the momentary lift off the throttle i made let Tony demote me to 11th...... GIT!!!!
Time wise we'd both gone faster being into the 48's but he was still in the $10 box seat and I was starting to think the bet was a lost cause.
The 2nd Formula 2 race to my surprise had a grid based on the result from the 1st race and I'd moved up to the 2nd row:2thumbsup
Got a reasonable start and stayed in 8th place and on the back of the train of bikes up to the leaders. I thought I had to go with the group to try and up my pace and all was going well until lap 3 when I thought about moving up the placings and pushed a bit to hard....
I got the braking wrong for turn 2 (the end of the front straight) and had to go straight on.....:doh:
One big U turn later I'd lost maybe 4-5 places and a shit load of time but i managed to get back to 8th at the flag passing Shane Tunnicliffe just metres before the line.
While i was a bit pissed at the mistake I made i felt i'd gone faster and was pleased with way I rode to get the places back through the race and had set a 48.475
Back to the pits and time to pack up but we thought we'd watch the last Formula Paeroa race and take some piccies of Tony...
After the race i got to packing away and Tony wanders down with a smug smile on his chevy chase.... I just know he's $10 better off by the look on his face but to my surprise no I've sneaked it by a country mile, OK to be honest it was just 6 Thousandths of a second advantage to me.....:2thumbsup
Have to say thanks to all those who helped me get ready for Paeroa and for the organisers for taking my late entry. This event is a superb motorcycling spectacle that will live with me forever and I hope to be back next year but this time with some track knowledge.
I was doubtful looking at the weather forecast that the event would be on and the downpours on route to Paeroa didn't do my (clean leaving Auckland) bike many favours, especially with the road works on route adding mud to the equation...
Arrived in town at about 1pm and the paddock was already filling up with all the spaces by the dummy grid taken or fenced off so I managed to find a space about three doors down from scrutineering. Got chatting to a lady who owned the business i was outside and she very kindly let me plug into the mains in their place for the weekend. I think her name was Debbie...... thanks a million if you're reading this.
Meet up with Tony O'Keefe who I had a wager with for the fastest lap between us over the race day and the high stakes bet was on, winner takes all....... a whole $10.
Town on Saturday night seemed quiet and we got a curry then a beer and off to bed. I put up a camp bed in the awning and managed to get off of sleep only to wake up at 2am to the sounds of Pink Floyd "wish you were here" being played live..... Actually to be more accurate a guy who lives at the back of one of the buildings next to us was trying and failing to learn it on the electric guitar at 2am. According to the locals he gets pissed/stoned on a regular basis then thinks he's David Gilmour, much to their annoyance:lol:
Race day dawned wet and more rain fell through the early morning meaning practice was postponed until the road dried. I took a walk along the back straight and the white lines certainly felt slippery in the damp and i was more than a little worried they would get going with the track still damp...:(
I was stood gassing to a few people when the tannoy said all newcomers to the grid for their practice (we were to get an extra 4 laps practice) Not yet in my leathers I got ready as fast as possible and went to the dummy grid.
When I got there I'd missed the practice but so had quite a few other riders who were less than pleased. There had apparently been a message saying they hoped to get under way at a certain time subject to track inspection etc, but a bit more notice would have be good.
To compound the issue, in the confusion of an official sending me back to our pit area, we missed the Formula 2 session which was first up....:doh::oi-grr::weep:
Great, first street race ever and no practice I thought, as there was talk of just one session per class. My mate Nigel went to talk to the grid guys to see if i could sneak out in Formula Paeroa and when he didn't come back I set off for the dummy grid....
Seems like he was explaining the situation when i came to the grid and as Nigel said 'he was late for practice' the guy said 'ok mate' and waved me through.......... I didn't need a 2nd invite as i assumed all was sorted. If i did wrong sorry all but nobody pulled me up on it.
Well what can i say about those first laps of Paeroa....
scary and bumpy as hell in parts I thought how the hell can we race around here......the straight seemed shorter than I thought and the wheelie ramp and jump on the back straight just mad.:lol:
Managed to get another practice in with Formula 2 and started to try and work out where to brake, what gear to be in etc and i seemed to catch and pass quite a few people so at least i wasn't going to be the slowest out there.
Into the first Formula 2 race and being a Paeroa virgin I was at the back of the grid on row 5. Off the start i did ok and made up a few places and some more on the brakes to turn 2 and 3 but when we rounded the hairpin for the first time I looked up the straight to see a cloud of black smoke rising over the buildings from the far end of the track and the red flags out. Turned out that a few bikes had gone down and one leaked fuel causing a rather big fire that destroyed one bike and badly toasted another but all riders seemed ok.
The restart was ok and I made up places through the race eventually getting onto the back of Adam Chambers and finishing just behind him for 8th with a best of 49.501 and a lot more track knowledge absorbed.
Went and watched Tony then take the $10 lead as he put in a 49.446...bugger
Next up was the invitational event and I managed to get in at 23rd on the grid alongside Tony. The start to this race was OK and I made up a few place into turn 2 for 10th and there was a group ahead the first of which was Lance Lowe. I got well and truly stuck behind Lance for the whole race I just couldn't find a way past him. Every time we got to braking and through the square I'd be right on him just to see the kwak 1000 tear off on acceleration down the next straight:(
This allowed Tony to close me down and he passed me down the front straight but i got him back on the brakes then he showed me a wheel a few times. Onto the last lap and I was still 10th and into the hairpin i got badly held up by Lance allowing Tony's Onda 1000 to get close to me but I thought I had the place as i was tucked up to Lance Lowe.
Unfortunately as as we got towards the line Mr Stunt king decided to hoist a huge wheelie which I wasn't expecting while trying to follow close behind and the momentary lift off the throttle i made let Tony demote me to 11th...... GIT!!!!
Time wise we'd both gone faster being into the 48's but he was still in the $10 box seat and I was starting to think the bet was a lost cause.
The 2nd Formula 2 race to my surprise had a grid based on the result from the 1st race and I'd moved up to the 2nd row:2thumbsup
Got a reasonable start and stayed in 8th place and on the back of the train of bikes up to the leaders. I thought I had to go with the group to try and up my pace and all was going well until lap 3 when I thought about moving up the placings and pushed a bit to hard....
I got the braking wrong for turn 2 (the end of the front straight) and had to go straight on.....:doh:
One big U turn later I'd lost maybe 4-5 places and a shit load of time but i managed to get back to 8th at the flag passing Shane Tunnicliffe just metres before the line.
While i was a bit pissed at the mistake I made i felt i'd gone faster and was pleased with way I rode to get the places back through the race and had set a 48.475
Back to the pits and time to pack up but we thought we'd watch the last Formula Paeroa race and take some piccies of Tony...
After the race i got to packing away and Tony wanders down with a smug smile on his chevy chase.... I just know he's $10 better off by the look on his face but to my surprise no I've sneaked it by a country mile, OK to be honest it was just 6 Thousandths of a second advantage to me.....:2thumbsup
Have to say thanks to all those who helped me get ready for Paeroa and for the organisers for taking my late entry. This event is a superb motorcycling spectacle that will live with me forever and I hope to be back next year but this time with some track knowledge.