So Southland ay???
Well after the last outing down there and my huge crash at the end of the loop i was looking forward to heading back. Invercargill is a great wee track thats super easy to push yourself on. Yeaaaaa.
Rnd 1 – Rain.
Round one was a wet meet. While not raining it was misty and wet all day. It was nice to finally use the wets again having been almost a year since my last rather short wet meet. Race one was interesting. I had no idea what the start would be like and stalled on the dummy grid so was super nervous as at the start. I completely bogged it down and struggled away from the line chasing the few others in the race. Fortunatly i had the wets and no one else did. A good wee battle developed with mike on his zx6 with pass for pass each lap. Man that things quick in a straight line. Fortunately on the last few i got some more confidence and was able to pull ahead. Yay. My first ever win (in a massively depleted field).
The second race was slightly drier and it was good to have race one done (i ifinally had completed a wet race). Being drier mike was heaps quicker and got away. By mid race id kinda given up but saw i was pulling back towards him so gave it a shot. Managed to finally get round through the esses and just dropped the hammer. I’ve never tucked in like that down the straight and wasn’t sure id got it till the end. But success was awesome.
The final race was much drier and the guys on slicks didn’t struggle so much so no f3 bike could stay up with the 600’s i paced it slow and knew id be going home leading the points with a handy lead and even leading all formula classes. Yay.
Rnd 2 – Rain
Showed up for round two pumped. Unfortunatly it was way wetter and colder than last time. And everyone else had wets, but there was no f3 bikes this time.
Race 1 got a much better start but couldn’t hold onto mike’s zx6 and the tz250 streaking away. By mid race i had discovered that i brake like a pussy in the dry and wets have much more grip than i thought. I began to catch back up to mike but the gap was too great but i was just playing trying to see how much grip was there. Quite a number of front end wobbles in the rights ill tell you. Silly me thought id try braking late into the elbow as the last corner of the race and dropped the bike just shifting into third. Almost a year to the day i destroyed my bike in the wet at timaru i did the same at Invercargill. Bike slide along the road till the bloody gravel trap which then put it in the air. Damn crash bungs i say. Anyway the exhaust and parts of the sub frame went through the tail along with the front fairing and blade getting smashed and it squished the radiator. And i dislocated my other shoulder. Fuck.
Got up and knew my shoulder was done so went back to pits to strip down before a trip to the good looking nurse at radiology at the hospital. Unfortunalty she wasn’t there. WHY?????? Its the only reason i like crashing
Anyway 1200 odd bucks later and alotta work i was back race ready for rnd 3.
Rnd 3 – Rain-ish
Rnd 3 was not raining but wet. I had a nice shiney set of new slicks on and couldn’t be bothered switching tyres so i used them.
Well lets just say i had a prick of a day. Hhaha.
Got down early as to be ready and all was good till about 3 min before the briefing. Snapped the end off my new throttle cable. Shit. Lucky i had predicted such an eventuality and had spares. Skipped practice.
Race one – scary wet track. Scrubbing in tyres. Great start. Bike dies lap one heading into the elbow. Leg out fast to not get run into. Think kinked fuel hose problem.
Race two – kinked fuel hose not the problem. Bugger.
Race three – Jock Woodley is a genious. Blocked breather on the tank keept vacuuming the tank. Cleared and good to go. I felt so unbelievable nervous with all the problems and bike rebuild so took the race super easy knowing i would score the winter series if i finished. So just putted round. Man the loop is scary when theres a 4 in. Odd wide dry strip and everything else looks wet. Just brought it home last i think so i could prove im not ALWAYS a crasher.
Anyway overall it was a good wee series. It was a disappointing turn out till the last round. If theres guys anywhere in the south its well worth the trip down to Invercargill for the races, and its prob. By far my favourite track now.
Cheers to all the SMCC guys and to john smart for constantly picking up the many pieces of my bike when i leave them all over the track. And ya for finally winning something, even if it was against few others.
Hope to see everyone out there again soon>
Cheers
Tim
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by SWERVE
Bookmarks