I headed down to Hampton Downs on the Sunday with my son. Thinking I would join a small straggle of loyal bike racing supporters and have the place to our selves (like in previous Puke years), I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a good crowd of people there. We wandered the pits and were confronted by a number of friendly racers willing to sign their personal posters for my son and have a quick chat to me about their; crashes, close calls, progress in the championship... Great stuff and thanks to those for that. My son now has a wall crowded with NZ bike racers on it. HD is still definitely a work in progress and a track that is not without faults (can you imagine coming up and onto the front straight in a wet race??!!!). Having been around HD on a bike on a track day I know the track is awesome to go around on and I look forward to going around there some more in the future and returning to the 2011 Championships as a spectator (or competitor??!!). And as Shaun said, thank god Puke is gone!
"...New Zealanders, for all their faults, have virtues that are precious: an unwillingness to be intimidated by the new, the formidable, or class systems; trust in situations where there would otherwise be none; compassion for the underdog; a sense of responsibility for people in difficulty; not undertaking to do something without seeing it through - "
Michael King
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