Thank God only a few of the really fast guys showed up aye
VMCC Winter Series Round 1 15th May 2010-05-23
Got to my garage fairly early on Saturday morning to check out the track, the weather and get my bike and gear sorted for the days racing.
Having done fairly well at my last meeting (PMCC Round 3 at Taupo) I was hoping that I could build on that performance at Manfeild and start the winter series off on a good footing. It was good to have found some more speed and confidence seemingly from out of nowhere and be dicing it with some very good riders at the sharp end for some podium placings.
The morning was wet and the race meeting was declared “wet”.
Heading back to the garage after the briefing to change to some lovely Dunlop wets I discovered my rear sprocket had 3 cracks in it, fortunately I had another sprocket which was only I tooth down on the useless one I had to replace.
I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for being pretty strong in the wet and as we went out for F2 and F1 qualifying I was quietly confident I could place up the sharp end of the grid, after qualifying was over I found that I was 2nd fastest qualifier in F2 and 3rd fastest qualifier in F1 that put a wee smile on my face early in the day.
By the time the first F2 race was called the sun had come out and the track was showing signs of drying it was funny to see other racers popping their head in and looking to see what tires I was running for the race I was doing the same and saw that most guys were sticking to their wet choice even though the steward and declared the race meeting “unwet”.
F2 Race 1
We did our warmup and gridded up for the F2 race five red lights then blank BANG! We are off Travis Merkel on pole got a good run out in front but I managed to catch up and over take him pulling a good lead by the 2nd lap, the track was dry now and by the 4th lap my tires were becoming a little dodgy due to overheat, Travis and myself must have pulled a good 20-30 secs on the rest of the field and he eventually passed me and got a good lead to the finish, I got a 2nd place with third place Luke Mair about 15 secs behind. My rear tire was pretty shot by the end of the race but it was worth it for the podium finish.
F1 Race 1
Sitting between Sloan Frost, Derek McAdams and a very fast new comer Dion Sellers on the first row of the grid I was wishing the day had stayed wet! Lights are all red long pause the guy next to me jump starts half a second later we get the blanks and were off, I had put a new clutch cable on the bike and changed the levers and found to my dismay I kept hitting a false neutral running into the hair pin and trouble hitting forth gear on the straight running up to Higgins. This allowed Jamie Rajek to under pass me and Marcus Beagly to out accelerate in the space of about 300m, I was running 6th at this stage keeping close to Marcus, BJ Cawthorn got past me on his new R1 but coming out of Dunlop corner a rider in the middle of the track whose bike had run out of petrol caused B J to slow right down, I was able to pass and hold off the superbike to come in 6th but relegated to 5th because of a jump start.
F2 Race 2
Lined up and got a bad start after wheeling off the line the race was stopped after a crash at splash and we lined up again. Got a better start second time around and held third place until Marcus overtook me at the hairpin again, managed to hold on for a 4th place, not bad .
F1 Race 2
This was an interesting race where I found myself in 8th place again, due to my gear changing problems. Damian McKay was about 50m in front of me and I spent the race catching up to him through Dunlop corner. On the final lap I was able to close the gap going again into Dunlop and chanced the throttle way early coming out of the corner, after a slight fairing bash I was able to steal past Damian and take 7th place with nothing between us on the line.
The day had begun to cloud over and the meeting was running a little late by the time the last F2 race was ready to go, there were drops of rain on the ground as we headed out and the actual track was fairly wet when we got out for the warm up lap, I tried the throttle on a couple of corners and felt the rear tire lose grip so I decided it was too dangerous and came into the pits with about 2 or 3 other bikes behind me.
The race was started and there were 3 crash’s in the first lap the race was red flagged and that was the end of the meeting for the day so I knew I wasn’t going to lose points.
I was awarded 3rd for the day in F2 and am currently running 3rd in the series for F2 on 40 points (1 point off 2nd place and 7 points off 1st place).
I am also running 7th in F1 for the series, not a bad place to be in a long series.
I hope I can continue to do well as the year progresses and bring some more attention and exposure to my supporters and sponsors. Thanks again for the support I could not be doing this without your help.
Thanks to TSS Red Baron for the supply of a brand new R6 which I am currently running in and getting modified for the super stock class.
Cheers I hope you like my report.
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Originally Posted by wharfy
Bikes For Life "Misfit Racing"
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