Well this Race meeting was very interesting to say the least! Where to start? I guess at the beginning. Made it to Taupo on the Thursday night late and went straight to bed at my sisters place...woke up at 4:30am and headed to Feilding for the practice day. What a magnificent day! Arrived some stage in the morning and sat around waiting for things to begin. While we were waiting a Suzuki swift was circulating on the track and shat itself, spilling oil all over the racing line through splash and around the infield hairpin and halfway up the straight to Higgins! That’s handy!
The first thing I was obviously interested in was my gearbox. With some degree of apprehension I took to the track. !st....2nd....3rd....4th.....5th.....woop, sweet! No probs seemed to be evident but I wasn’t going to count my chickens. As it turned out my gearbox is sorted! Big huge thanks to my sponsors www.takapuna.biz and Goetz at www.edhardymotorsports.co.nz for organizing my gearbox for me, I would never have made it without their help! The rest of practice day was non eventfull apart from a pretty quick Yamaha circulating piloted by a ginger!
Race day came about and it was a fine, still day! Nice! Got to the track and began setting up the pits. I have a new sponsor www.kwiknezy.co.nz who has supplied me with an awesome canopy that we set up outside the pit garage and it was fantastic! We had soooo much room to move around in and fix bikes, not to mention how good our pits looked. All day we were complimented on how tidy and professional our pit area looked.
F2 Qualifying
As per usual I wasn’t too fussed about grid position but at least this time i remembered it was a qualifying session so went comfortably fast. Ended up 12th on the grid....two places behind scuzeme! Right...it’s like that is it! It seemed Darrin had found his mojo this weekend and I was going to have to pull finger to compete. I was happy the bikes gears but i was still focusing on the changes too much. I was so used to having a crap gearbox that I found I had got into a bad habbit of rolling the throttle off completely between changes. This slowed me down plus gave me some serious arm pump by the end of the session. My fastest lap time was around 2:08 which was all things considering...slllooooow.
F1 Qualifying
This was a tad better as I concentrated on not concentrating on the gears (blaaaa blaaa...you know what I mean ) I tried to find a groove but found this easier said than done. I had been chatting to Glen Skachill about body position and was trying this out too. Problem was my suspension was not letting me change my position like I wanted to. I usually hang off a lot and was trying to do this less...this put more weight on the rear and completely changed the way the bike handled. It was arguing with me on the exit of Higgins, trying to go straight ahead rather than around the corner....right time for some help!
Before my first race I went over to Robert Taylor to discuss my issues. I have been hesitant to talk to anyone about suspension as I have no money at the moment to purchase anything so didn’t really want to use and abuse their services. I was pleasantly surprised at how accommodating he was and asked me questions regarding what the bike ‘feels’ like. After a bit of discussion and pushing on my bikes seat and watching it bounce, he decided my spring rate and preload was all up the shit. Out it came and in went a smaller spring more suited to my weight. The preload was nonexistent and he was not surprised at all that I was getting no confidence in the bike. He also changed the front end too and said ‘There, go try that Marcus!’...so I did, in a race!
F2 Race one
Got a decent start and safely around turn one. The bike felt magic! I was concentrating on changing my body position which felt good but still distracting as I had to think of that as well as racing. I also was trying different methods of gear changing as I had formed the bad habit of completely throttling off between gears. I was following Keelim Ryan around for most of the race and began winding him in towards the end of the race when all of a sudden after the backfield hairpin he pulls over to the side and slows down! I went past a bit confused and slowed down as I thought I had missed a red flag...I looked up to the next marshall spot and couldn’t see anything so kept a bit of pace but not race pace. I wasn’t sure what was going on so kept my eyes open and coming around Dunlop I saw the chequered flag was out so I gunned it! Lucky I did too cause Scuzeme was on the hunt behind me and apparently went over the line right behind me! Doh! Finished in 6th position with a best lap of 2:03.3
F1 Race 1
Once again I got a decent start and jumped up from 18th to about 13th at the first corner. Scuzeme was right there in amounst it as he went wide around the sweeping right hander towards splash. He beared down on me from the outside and I had to give way to him....brilliant move I was thinking to myself while smiling in my helmet. We settled in this formation for most of the race stuck behind John Baker, Keelim Ryan and Phil Derby. Darrin managed to squeeze past them about a lap before I did so got a good gap on me by the time I got past. I saw the white flag and could see Darrin (Scuzeme) up in the distance. I put my head down and went to work on the last lap as I had clear air ahead. Funny what a bit of incentive does to your racing as I pulled out my Personal best of 2:01.7 on that lap but I still couldn’t catch him! Ended up in 10th position from 18th off the grid so was very happy with that result!
F2 Race 2
Got another great start to tuck in front of Bruce Williams into turn one. Slowly crept away from them throughout the race until Keelim Ryan managed to catch up to me on the last lap and was shadowing me across the line on the chequered. Finished in 8th with a fastest lap of 2:03.
F1 Race 2
Had an alright start..probably the worst of the day but still ok. First lap was really ugly as I was trying to get past John Baker and was feeling some really ugly lines. Gah Chan was stuck behind me while all this was going on. I managed to squeeze through up the inside at Dunlop to get past. I was then following Mark Bennett for the rest of the race until Dunlop on the last lap. Between the big left and the right onto the front straight I gunned it to slingshot past him and get a great line to gun it to the finish, passing him on the last corner of the last lap. That was pretty satisfying.
All in all I had a fantastic weekend with some sensational racing! VMCC put on a great event again! I need to mention a few people specifically...Darrin (Scuzeme) I was so impressed with how your riding has improved immensely! Keep it up as you will make me faster bro ;-)!
Takapuna brake and Auto (www.takapuna.biz) for all the work you have done on my bike to keep me racing...thanks Rob!
Kwik N Ezy (www.kwiknezy.co.nz) for the great canopy we were under at our pits!
All those involved with creating the Biggles Racing Poster...especially Kit (Bugjuice) for your design work and photography (And for making the trek down to watch).
Robert Taylor for transforming my bike and how it handles...I need to learn how to ride it again it feels so good! Its worth mentioning here Robert swapped over my rear spring to a more suited one for no charge...he set my suspension up specifically for my weight for no charge! Thats a pretty good rate in my books (for a poor racer)! Thanks heaps Robert!
I want to really thank all my sponsors as you all have contributed to helping me stay on the race track and I certainly would not be where I am in the Championship without all of your help...I'm still coming 5th overall in F2!
Until next round....Biggles08 out!
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Bikes For Life "Misfit Racing"
Originally Posted by Robert Taylor
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