Was trying for Round 3 also but various electric parts were hard to come by at that time so Round 4 it is!
About a week before, I have to everything to do as usual to get the Canary ready for the track. My mate from work Andy(Dr Andy) offered to drive me and the bike down to Taupo and even had a big tent to stay in overnight with all the camping gear... Camp Hillbilly is born!!
Saturday 10th April: Got gas for bike in Taupo and headed to the track for the MototTT track day and to set up camp...
Picked a good spot and Andy and his young fella Angus proceeded to set up camp while I went and signed in... Seen Matt Bleck who was to be my pitmate on Sunday and said our pit garage wasn't avaliable til Sunday... Hmm I thought, no tire warmers for first session on a brand new pair of slicks(Thanks B.A.D.D-awesome! ) Shit happens, back to camp to see what is goin down. The tent goes up with a few hitches but it is erected! (lol)
2nd session Group 1: Gingerly inched my way around the track for the 1st 2 laps until i could feel the tires and picked up the pace... Hadn't been on the track since late last year so wobbled my way round... Excellent feeling being back out thereBy the end of that the tires were scrubbed in and I had arm pump lol... sweet.
The rest of the day went without hitch, Seen some really nice bikes out there and seeing them in action from 2 ft away is quite something
And at the Lunchtime business I won a free track day too
Had a BBQ and a few beers at the tent that night with Chris and from Huntly, Chris races a TZ250 in F3... Talked a bit of shit for a while and then all crashed out(Forgot my banjo goddamit!!)
Sunday 11th April: Got up and went and registered and put the bike in pit garage next to Kel's 400 and Mr Blecks impressive lookin K3... Andy had the barbie on and breakfast was hoovered. That man knows how to whip up a good artery chokin feed first thing in the morning... Sorted for the day
Practise/Qualifying F1
I have ridden track 2 once, a couple of years ago so after riding track 1 all day the day before i had to take it easy...ish. Was like i remembered it tho... Bike felt good but was lacking horsepower somewhere... no worries it was track 2Also found that my rear shock might need some attention and rear tyre was shearing a bit on left hand side. Wish I knew more about suspension setup but next project.
Qualified 9th with a 1:18.49... sweet, only 6.34 secs off Tony Rees!! LOL
Race 1 F1 Superbike
9th on the grid is 3 rows back but right on the inside coming into turn 1... Lights went green and she was all go, Having never done a race start before it was all very new hehe but sorted it into turn 1 and the next few corners were fairly close combat.. yeeha this is cool! Got stuck behind some dude and couldn't figure out how to pass him, must have been holding up traffic cos In there somewhere was Gah Chan and he passed me coming off the back sweeper into the lil chicane to go onto back straight when I think his front went out right in front of me and seen him and bike slide off the track,
looked painful but he was standing to the side of track when I came round nextcos 2 guys went flying past both of us further around the track... fuck this, so i weaseled past and tried to catch up to the naked zx6(Colin Stanley?) but he was too far ahead...
Finished 11th... Fastest lap 1:16.363. Was stoked with that... rear tire was pretty chewed up but she'll be right for next race
Race 2 F1 Superbike
Right, had a fair idea what happens at start and first corner now so thought I'd see if could better 11th and my lap time... Lights go green and we're off again, out of the first corner i was in 8th so good start to that and just got into it... I was thinking maybe i should have swapped the rear tire around cos it was squirming and sliding out of the left handers big time. I remember doing a big power slide out out of turn 1 cos i was getting a bit pissed about no traction... lesson 1 learned...
Lesson 2 was remember your brake point, coming into turn 1 and must have been daydreaming, then i realised i should have started braking back there a lil bit... Hmm, grabbed a handful and Weee the arse end just shot up in the air... fairly high I might add too.... I needed to brake to keep out of sand trap so released the brake a little and stoppied until I had to turn in!! Lost a bit of time there but held my position...
Next lap and turn 2, was going from 2nd to 3rd gear just as i was entering the corner and hit a false neutral..eek! gave it another try but it cracked back down to 2nd with no revs on.....
HMMMM well the back end shot out the side and came back and proceeded to launch me over the bars , was looking at my front wheel and realised my forward motion was jamming my front brake on...got my wrist off the bars somehow but was heading to the grass anyway so did a bit of moto-x and rejoined waaay down the pack...
Finished 15thFastest lap 1:17.031 .... Was pretty happy bike was one bit... Still had big silly grin tho
That was my first club race meet and wont be my last
A massive thanks to my sponsors Dr Andy, B.A.D.D, Combined Contractors and Coro Demons race team and NODROG racing and thanks to my friends and family who came down to watch me flail around the track... The Poseur crew and their Mexican wave was awesome lol and to Fish and Rosco(Spud thought hunting deer was more important than coming) Jos and Zak and Trent for support crew and fans
And thanks to Paul, Kel, Steven and the MotoTT crew for putting up with me in their garage and for a few tips
Looking forward to next meeting
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Originally Posted by Kornholio
- Mega Oarsome Stunting and Moto-X skills!! 
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