After a massive effort by Robert and Rey from Takapuna Brake and automotive to try to repair the issues I was having with my gearbox I picked up my bike from them Wednesday evening to get ready to leave for Manfield the next morning.
We arrived at Manfield thursday night and had a quite night in. Woke on Friday for practice day and saw the weather was anything but fine...nevermind the forcast was for clearing in the afternoon. Waited around most of the morning for it to clear but alas it never happened. I eventually gave up and put my wets on as I really wanted to test the gearbox prior to race day.
Went out on the track for a few sessions and discovered the gearbox still wasn't 100% but a lot better than it used to be. After pottering around in the rain giving scuzme a glimmer of hope for being heaaaaaps faster than me, I decided to call it a day.
Race day. I arrived at the track nice and early and commenced changing the wets over to the Dot's. upon doing so I thought I would have a look at the pads...DOH! only about 1mm left! I went around all the other sheds to see if anyone had any pads availiable for my bike but nope. Went to the local bike shop but nope. Rang the next closest in Palmy but nope....they did have some 03/04 ZX6R ones though that with a bit of modefication would fit mine. I sent Rob and Rey off to get them for me. Didn't have time to get them in before my first session was due so went out with my worn ones still on. Once again I forgot the first session was actually qualifying so went about crusing around the track in my own wee world. Came in and was talking to Kevin when he said he didn't think he would have a good grid position...thats when I realized it was my qual session! Ended up in 20th off the grid so had a bit of work to do!
The racing was a mix of good starts followed by missed gear shifts making me focus on defensive lines rather than fast lines. I believed this paid off as I managed a 13th and 12th in F1 and a 8th and 6th in F2. Overall I'm happy that I only dropped 1 place in the championship and I'm currently running in 5th place in F2 overall. Have a look here at the last session (F2 race 2) and you will see 'blocking' in action
I would like to thank Robert and Rey from Takapuna brake and Automotive for all your support over the last month working on my bike in the evenings. I hope you feel like it was worth it...believe me that the results I got would have been far worse had you not been here to help me!
If you haven't already done so please go sign up to my race page on facebook as my sponsors are watching so the more the better! You can find it here
Now to figure out how to afford round 4?????
Biggles out!
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Gives me a chance to keep up.
Originally Posted by Kiwi Graham
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