This round I was taking Stevie’s ZXR to the track with some gear, so the car was packed pretty tight.
After a pretty boring drive alone, I arrived to find the usual suspects Hel’s, Malcolm and Alan setting up in the garage. A couple of motard boys were out the front of the garage also, taking advantage of the power for their tyre warmers. Cheers for the beers boys !
There were packed fields this round, with a number of racers making the trek from CHCH and also big numbers of post classic bikes.
Because of this, VMCC decided to run PC Snr and Pro Twins together. I knew that this would be interesting with the good corner speed and braking of the pro twins, vs the sheer grunt of the big bangers down the straights.
Qualifying
I knew qualifying well would be quite crucial to getting away off the line into Turn 1 ahead of the PC Snrs, so as not to get held up through the tighter infield.
The track felt pretty grippy but I was struggling to get my head around the newly sealed edges of the esses. The right hand seal was pushing me wide on the entry, which was spoiling the sweeping line through the left hander.
Ended up qualifying 4th - Dan Kempthorne has improved steadily throughout the year and qualified third. I was concerned that he would get between Ash Payne and me which would have dire consequences for my points lead over Ash.
Dan told me he had switched from Conti’s to Pirelli’s and it had made a big difference to his lap times.
Race 1
We were told that Pro Twins would start ahead of the PC Snrs on the grid, so I thought we might just get to turn 1 before the fastest of them. I’m pretty sure that Phil Duxbury came flying past though. His GSXR1100 is a monster – I heard someone say 150+ HP.
We were circulating in the same order as qualifying, with me behind Dan and Ash. Geoff Booth was checking out as per usual. A couple of PC Snrs were holding us up through the infield and I was concerned that Ash was getting away, and that Dan was in front of me, taking valuable points. Then coming through the infield, Dan’s bike did a big wobble and he ran off the track to the left of the hairpin. I’m not sure if he ran into the back of a PC Snr or just had a moment.
I couldn’t make any ground on Ash and finished third.
Race 2
After a good night’s sleep I made my way back to the track. It was drizzling heavily in Palmerston North and I wondered if the weather would play a part in the day’s racing.
We were told that we would grid up with PC Snr as per our qualifying times, which put me 6th on the second row. I got a good start and went around a couple of Posties entering splash. I was only changing down one gear instead of two and concentrating on getting a better line through there which helped a lot.
I got held up a bit by a couple of PC Snr’s through the infield and was dicing with Dan – we swapped places a couple of times but Ash was getting away again. It was a good battle trying to keep ahead of the Posties going into turn 1 (they would come roaring past on the front straight) in order to have a clear infield.
Then Ash either went off the boil or got held up himself and Steve Mossman, Dan and I were gaining on him fast. First Steve got in front, then I showed Ash my front wheel a couple of times and got by him at the hairpin. I had tried at splash but felt discretion the better part of valour and backed off – having looked at Steve’s video footage I see that there probably was room, but it doesn’t look so clear cut when you’re on the bike !!
Ash got back past me, then Dan did a block pass on me into turn 1. Steve’s video footage shows us battling away behind him and he was hard up Phil Duxbury. The white flag came out and I knew I had to get past Ash and Dan. Coming into Higgins, Ash seemed to try a bit hard and ran wide, with Dan taking advantage and shooting up the inside. I followed but Ash came back so I slotted behind him down the back straight. The slipstreaming worked nicely and just before the braking mark into the Dunlop sweeper, I pulled out and slipped up the inside. We dragged to the line and I finished 0.143 ahead to take 3rd. I was stoked.
I was even more stoked when I found out I had set a new PB on that last lap of 1.16.8. I have been trying to get into the 16’s for some time now and was beginning to wonder if I had peaked. I now know that I need to think more about what I am doing rather than ‘just racing’.
Race 2
Feeling a lot more confident, this race went pretty well. I got past Dan on the front straight with his bike stuck on the limiter – turns out his footpeg had come loose and he couldn’t change up through the gears.
I was hot on Ash but had a muppet moment going into the hairpin and changed down instead of up…..DOH.
I lost momentum and wasn’t able to bridge the gap.
Then to my surprise and near horror, Zane Brooks came past me, then Russell Josiah……I was thinking of the points. If I finished behind these guys Ash would overtake me in the race for the championship. We diced for a couple of laps, then I managed to block pass Russell into turn 1 and then Zane into Higgins. With two laps left I changed tactics and protected the inside of the track into these two corners, to try and keep Zane and Russell at bay. I found out later that once I had gotten past, I managed to pull out quite a gap, but I didn’t dare look back to check.
So another 3rd place, and 3rd overall for the day.
Ash is now only 4 points behind me with 2 races to go. Does anyone know what happens in the event of a draw ?
Big thanks to all my sponsors, my wife and dad for their support, the VMCC and all the volunteers. Thanks to the ducks for not getting in my way and to the pro twin racers who made it so much fun.
Reply With Quote
Karma ... Justice catches up eventually !! 
Originally Posted by Kickha
.
Bookmarks