OS Racing (1st championsip of the season)

**SWERVE** · 19th September 2010, 18:02

The first series championships of 2010 were decided on Sat as the King of Levels winter series came to an end.
This was the first all dry race meeting since the South Island Cup first round back i April.
It was a shame not to have one of our main rivals racing this weekend (but Jonny Small had decided to take a trip to manfield ) We had done the same for rds 1+2 to gain valuable time on a different track) But James Hoogie was back with his pro-twin after mech probs earlier in the year).
Although it was a sunny day the temp was very cold and qualifiyin saw everyone takin it a little easy........ a new re-surfaced section of track and dry conditions were adding to the caution.
Neil Smith on the R450 F3 bike was the fastest with James Hoogie (PT) Marty Wood (450/F3) and Ants (PT) making up the front row.
Race 1.
Ants got a holeshot and led onto the back straight but Neil passed him into the infield and pulled a gap............ James Hoogie was right on Ants tailpiece for the whole race james was pushing and they both began to catch Neil. Another couple of laps and they would have caught him, but 6 lap races are all about making the early gap! But nevertheless Ants held of James to take 2nd overall / 1st Pro-twin.

Race 2
Another good start saw Ants leading onto the straight but both Neil & James passed him on Lap 1. They pulled a good gap on the first 2 laps, but as they battled together it gave Ants a chance to catch up....... close but no cigar... once they started catching back markers the gap stayed the same...... so a 3rd overall / 2nd Pro-twin
This gave Ants the King Of Levels pro-twin championship for 2010....... it may only be a club champoinship...... but its our first .....and we are "stoked"

Race 3.
This is an 8 lap race towards the King Of Canterbury champs. A slightly slower start saw Neil & James make a break one lap one again. Ants knew he could catch them with the extra couple of laps (he goes better as race goes on) he was catching them and by lap 5 was set to make the last couple of laps very interesting..... but a huge "tank slapper" through the esses near the pit wall saw him drop back and had to accept 3rd overall / 2nd Protwin again. Neil/James/Ants were all lapping in the high 1;12s so it could ave been a close finish.

We are very pleased with our season so far. Having the two wet rounds at Manfield earlier in the year really helped us as the first two rounds at Levels were also wet.
The new front end was working real well yesterday but as we expected has really highlighted the imitaions of the ZX10 rear we are still running( just checked my lotto ticket........... sorry Dr Robert the chq is still on the slow train) but its still moving

With Jonny not competing the King of Canterbury points are pretty close with 5 points covering the top 4 riders.......roll on Ruapuna.

Off to Teretonga next weekend for the South Is Cup rd2. Ants will be riding both the SV and the RG as he is currently leading the Sportzfotoz junior cup and joint leader for the overall South Island Cup................... and he like Teretonga.....so watch out

Gutted for all you guys at Manfield...........especially Jonny & crew.
Just watchin the news.......... we could be fitting skis for next weekend

**wayne** · 19th September 2010, 21:34

very good write up and good riding

**Duke girl** · 20th September 2010, 08:16

Good write up and glad that somewhere in NZ was getting the good weather. Yes we are all doing it hard here on the North Island with the missing out on our Round 5 at Manfield but l guess we will be all keeping our fingers crossed for the Sun to be showing its face for Round 6 next month.
Goodluck to you for the remaining rounds in your series and Yes its a shame that Johnny had to experience the bad weather we had here.
I guess thats Mother Nature for you.