The worst thing about racing at Wanganui is the drive up, it generally sees me hauling my arse out of bed about 3.30am on Christmas day and Divvo pulling up in the van not long after, this year we’d organised my brother to do a BBQ breakfast at Blenheim on the way up, so I flick him a txt as we hit Seddon and when we pull up the BBQ is cranking, a feed of Bacon, Eggs and Sausagesand we’re off to get the boat
The crossing gives me the shits, it’s like 3 hours of my life wasted, I loose about a week a year on these bloody boats, screw the environment and foreshore erosion I want FAST FERRIES
Arriving we breeze through sign in and scrutineering and the lovely Jo comes to meet us, having flown into Palmy and getting a rental rather than spend a day each way in the van with us, not sure what that’s about?
Race day and we’re on the way to the track about 6.30am, all our gear was locked up there the night before so we quickly get set up, tyre pressures and fuel and we’re all set to go, riders briefing they impress upon us the need to be prompt getting to the grid and how if we don’t know our position when we grid up we’ll be taken off the grid and tossed out of the meeting
Qualifying 1
It doesn’t seem to long before we’re called up and a short wait on the grid and we roll out, we’re taking it easy for the first few laps warming both the bike and ourselves up, a couple of laps in and we slot in behind Darren/Karl and pull past them on the way up to the bridge, we come up behind a group of three outfits down Taupo Quay, but Pete the Pirate/Dion pull off at the end to put a little fire out
Darryl/Ben are just in front with Des/Darren having slipped past and it’s time to dial it up a bit, off the railway we move up past them into the s bends and just about into the back of Des/Darren at Robert Holden and also spot Tracey/Astrid just in front of them
We’re having a look around the outside of the Ladies into turn 1 when Des/Darren chop across in front of us, so we take him down the outside into turn two and close up on Tracey/Astrid off the railway and around the outside of them into the cemetery and start to hit it a bit harder but as we come over the bridge the chequered flag is out courtesy of Stu/Chris barrel rolling up the track through the cemetery, luckily both of them are ok and the outfit is repairable
As the session was cut short before we got cranking we’re only 6th fastest doing a 1:00.783 which we know we can easily better
The outfit gets a check over and we sit about waiting for the call for Q2
Qualifying 2
We make sure we’ve got enough space for a clean few laps without traffic and after a couple to warm up we hook into it, on the right into the cemetery my right hand gets a bit of a bash between the fairing and the kerb and being a slow learner it isn’t until it happens on the next lap I actually work out what it was as initially I thought I must have touched the rear wheel
We drop down to a 57.752 and move up to 4th on the grid, close to 2sec slower than the guys on the front row but around what we did the previous year and 3 sec ahead of the guys on the row behind us
Head mechanic Spike sets about repairing the cracked fairing where it took the hit on the kerb through my handgrip and rivets a bit of angle iron in, then the wait for race 1 starts
We wait and we wait some more, then we wait even longer, when they call Superpole and we still haven’t been out I’m starting to get pretty fucking cranky, Dave asks me about changing the ferry tickets and I reply I’d be quite happy to pack up and fuck off now if we can, turns out that wasn’t quite why he was asking though
Finally over three hours after our last qualifying we get called up, by that time I really can’t be arsed, the wait on the grid isn’t to long and the lap and a bit warmup gets me in the mood again
Race 1
We get a good start but get hung out on the left and with the chair wheel hopping get a bit untidy into turn 1, we”re alongside Adam/Stu but on the outside with everyone jammed up the right of us, the Lawrences beat us off the corner and Steve/Denny make a smooth inside move over the railway to drop us into 4th
We close up into Robert Holden and then loose a bit over the bridge but close up again through the cemetery, the Lawrences get a bit wide out of Robert Holden and Steve/Denny go through
Chasing hard and there’s four sidecars in a row running nose to tail, Steve/Denny go past Adam/Stu into Turn 1, we get the big slide on as we toss it in across the railway clip the curb and loose a length or two, next lap and the yellows out in that spot as Astrid has gone off the back of their outfit through the cemetery
The Lawrences are starting to put the pressure on Adam/Stu as the white flag comes out, out of Robert Holden and at the next right Johnny/Rat have gone around
Steve/Denny go around the outside while Adam/Stu and the Lawrences try fitting through side by side on the inside and doing a bit of rubbing, the Lawrences make it through in front of Adam/Stu with Steve/Denny in the lead and we finish in that order, we’re pretty happy to be sticking with them and even happier when we find we had a best lap of 55.973 which was about 1.5 sec better than our best last year and third fastest lap of the race
Head mechanic Spike (when he’s not fucking about working for everyone else) pops the fairing off, fuel is checked and the side where we snotted the kerb is given a once over for damage, we borrow a wheel off Pete the Pirate and swap our tyre onto it and grab some food
pt 2 to follow
Originally Posted by scracha
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Funny you should say that. I have just been talking to another broken-racer about sidecars, and he reckons he can get his hand on a bucket sidecar for a good price. I reckon I'd be great swinger. I move bloody fast when I'm frightened.
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