I was really amped to be at Wanganui after a disappointing stint in 2008. I had a few mechanical issues then which prevented me from giving it my best.
So with those gremlins behind me, we hit the first practice session. I know that it is difficult to overtake on the tight street circuit, so wanted to qualify well.
I was fortunate to get a clear bit of road and was very pleased to qualify 7th.
The second qualifying session was quite different. I got a little held up behind Dan Kempthorne (sorry Dan) who had lifted his pace from Q1, and I was simply unable to get past him.
I slipped back to 11th place, right behind Dan.
Race 1 and I always get nervous about turn 1 from the green flag. History has shown that in the F3 class, the field will not make it through turn 1 without a pile up of some sort in at least one of the races.
This proved true in Race 1 – I had a bad start with the front wheel heading skyward off the line - as we approached the braking area I could see some bikes had collided in front of me, but was lucky enough to slip up the inside and into a great position – 5th or 6th or thereabouts. Unfortunately the race was red flagged and we had to re grid. All of the bikes in front of me were able to return to the start so no places gained there as a result of the turn 1 incident.
Re start and I got a good one, slotting in behind Dan. I chased him for a couple of laps trying to find an opportunity to pass. Then he had a front end wobble exiting a corner and I was able to scoot past. I could see Neil Chappell up ahead so kept pushing hard in case he made a mistake or something. I was gaining well when we came up on some back markers, which slowed him down a bit. I caught and tried to make a pass just before a yellow flag (probably not the most rule abiding thing to do – sorry Neil). Anyway, getting past had stuffed up my exit speed and he came back past before the next corner.
Ended up like this in 8th position.
Race 2 – I was really keen to beat Neil in this one. It was a close race and I chased him and Dan for the entire time, only having an opportunity to pass Neil once over the bridge, to be re passed before turn 1 under braking.
Ended up 8th again.
Overall, I was aiming for top 10 so was happy to achieve that goal. I was also very happy that I had recorded the 5th fastest F3 time of 55.111s, and fastest lap time for a pro twin bike.
I had always preferred racing at Paeroa over Wanganui, however I had so much fun this year it is hard to say which is my favourite now.
Big thanks to Drew for his help in the pits, and of course, my sponsors below. Unfortunately for some unknown reason my sponsors were not listed in the race programme (sorry about that).
Reply With Quote
), with those lap times you might have been battling higher up the field if you had qualified better.
Bookmarks