Thanks VMCC for another super weekend called round 2.
2 days of thrills and spills, 3 if you were at the test day like me.
Let me just say for those of you that had more spills than thrills rest up and heal fast its never good to see people carried off in the ambulance when statistically this is actually a very safe sport although not without risk but hey people break legs and arms cooking pancakes and practicing the Karma Sutra everyday so its inevitable that shits gunna happen on the track. My thoughts go out to Nicksta and Phil and anyone else with lingering injuries from the weekend.
Very interesting in terms of race results, there were hard earned gains squandered reminding me of the words to a Linkin Park song “I bleed it out digging deeper just to throw it away” there were opportunities that weren’t taken advantage of and some that were, all in all a very mixed bag as far as I was concerned.
After my unexpected good results at Taupo Round 1 I thought I could come into round 2 and be a solid midpack performer on my “home track” so to speak.
My strategy has been to measure myself against other riders that are just as fast and slightly faster than me and work hard to match their pace trying to push that wee bit harder to out ride them when it matters.
Sinful and Wharfy were always going to be right there in any race but they were still getting used to their machines so believed I would have an edge, I meet Keelim on another 675 on Friday and seemed to have no trouble getting ahead of him. Mike Pera was another one who had given me a run for my money at Taupo and then there was my arch nemesis Bruce Williams on his old but damn quick ZXR.
FRIDAY
So the weather was fine but cold on Friday first session third lap just going into splash low sided and came back to the stables with fairing damage, I had checked my tyre pressure cold but somehow ended up with 40psi in the front tyre, im checking them religiously from now on. To make matters worse the battery lost grunt and thanks to Russell (Jamie Galways dad) found out I had a faulty regulator box, rang Brian Bernard and he told me to just keep the battery on charge between races and cross my fingers, spent the next two sessions looking for a fresh battery and sorting replacement fairings from Wellington (which I didn’t end up using anyway).
Got a couple of sessions in later in the day running mid 15’s on the short track which I was quite pleased about.
SUNDAY
F1 Qualifying 1 Long Track
There were some clouds about but it was obvious that it was looking good for a dry track during the week end we had set up in the double garage Marcus (Mr Confidence), Gah (Mr Ice), Kevin (Mr Do It Hardcore), Phil (Mr Smirk) and me (Mr Weeeeeee!).
First time out on the long track, absolutely nana’ d it too much came in posting a 2:17 which put me last two rows of the grid (bring back my old friend the rain please).
Didn’t like the nasty hairpin, didn’t like the pothole/judder bar on the quadruple apex left hand sweeper either.
F2 Qualifying
F1 is about extra track time F2 is where the bizo is for me so I went out and really tried to bring my times down in this qualifier managing to carve 5.5 secs to give me a qualifying time of around 2:12, Kevin, Keelim and Bill were all infront of me damn.
F1 Race 1
Bad start as always but they just seem to be getting worse, managed to avoid the “Tangle of Triumphs” at the second hairpin but did the same as Kevin and came in too hot I was lucky he was not. I finished the race 26th out of 28 but felt like I had come last, the only consolation was I got down to a 2:09.
F2 Race 1
Got off the line slow and spent my race trying to catch up, by this time I was getting the hang of the long track and I could see I was faster then a lot of other riders especially coming onto the new track left hand sweeper, through the right hand 90 (which was so wide you could take it as a sweeper and coming back onto the short track through Dunlop back onto the start finish straight. I found my self continually having to brake or roll off when I really just wanted to roll on steadily through these areas, when I could do this I got massive drive and was able to pass round the outside. Came in 21st knocking another 2 seconds off my time to post a 2:07.
SATURDAY
F1 Race 2
This was by far my best race of the weekend and even though I got another dismal start I managed to pass Gah on the extn and get in behind Bruce Williams, who was behind Nick Prestige who was behind Aria, this was some very exciting racing for me.
I was able to get infront of Bruce then he over took me then I managed to overtake him and Nick and get up behind Aria I think it was the left hand sweeper onto the new track where I finally got infront of Aria and started to pull away, by this time I was really feeling knackered and because I was now infront I started to lose concentration I made a couple of mistakes and ended up running too fast into splash and had to do some cross country zip zip zip I was back behind all three and couldn’t catch them again, Aria and Bruce were two riders that had been on my list to beat so although they crossed the line before me I felt good that I was contending with them, what a fantastic high coming off that track it was tempered with what could have been if I hadn’t have made that mistake but that’s racing aye. Oh yeah got my best lap time of the weekend 2:04.8 and came in ahead of Gah whose sort of been a bit of a mentor to me.
F2 Race 1
My race weekend sort of started to go backwards around here and I finished this race 20 out of 24 finishers posting a 2:07 I think I was tired cold and making too many mistakes trying to emulate my performance in the F1 race, Keelim managed to get infront of me and just took off, very frustrating, I think Kevin was faster too until he ran out of fuel!
F1 Race 3
Another 2:07 22 out of 25 finishers Kevin and Keelim just bolted and when I came in I just wanted to pack it up hahahaaaa.
F2 Race 3
Never really got into the rhythm because of the bad smash just out of splash racers were called in and eventually the remaining races were cancelled much to my relief too tired to carry on anyway and really need to do some race fitness training what ever that is…
In summary I succeeded in being very competitive and getting in front of some people that ive really looked up to and on the other hand there were riders who I thought I was way faster than them and they took me to town!
I don’t like being back of the pack but I guess it’s a good reality check, the only way is up from here so see youz at round 3 where I hope to have my starts sorted and a new setup with my bike looking extra flash.
SEE YOU THERE!
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Originally Posted by scuzeme
). Good to see everyone at the track again, was a tease having left my racebike at home :-( . But i'll get there and keep you honest again hopefully in the not too distant future for sure. I see you were ahead of chan for awhile too, i was impressed, keep at it man. See you again soon
Bikes For Life "Misfit Racing"
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