This round I was fortunate enough to have my family come with me. I get a real kick out of having my two young sons at the track, as they really get off on all the noise and bikes. And I love to hear about my oldest (3y/o) being able to pick me out on the track and he is obviously enjoying watching me racing.
I had unpacked the bike and gear into the garage on Friday afternoon so it was all pretty relaxed come Saturday morning. Although the weather was giving me, and many others a lot to think about – wet tyres or dry ?
With the track drying and rain holding off (just), I decided to stick with the Pirelli supercorsas.
Qualifying
The tyre choice was the right one, with only a few damp patches here and there. Higgins was probably the worst with a few trickles of water running in from the outside of the track. There were also some damp patches on the exit which caused a couple of mild slides but nothing too bad. I stuck with Geoff Booth until we came upon another bike which took a couple of corners to get past, but thought I had qualified pretty well.
Ended up 5th on the grid, but with Scott Moir next to me in 6th, I knew I’d be very, very lucky to hold him out.
Race 1
As predicted, Scott blasted away from the line and I was 7th into T1 behind Gavin McKay on his KTM motard type bike. I got past Gavin pretty quickly as I did not want the leaders to get away. I hung in there behind Dan Kempthorne for a couple of laps, but then he slowly peeled away from me. I ended up in a huge space by myself –one of my mates watching said for half of the race I was the only bike on the front straight !! Pretty boring stuff !!
Race 2
I was trailing behind Geoff and Dan by about 2.5s per lap and didn’t know what I could do to bridge the gap. I was determined to tack on to them and stick with them, but in the end they just steadily peeled away from me. I was all alone again with no one close behind chasing me.
I was thinking what a waste of time so I had an epiphany and decided to try and take something positive from the race and improve on my best lap time. This idea failed as I ended up making mistakes pushing too hard, particularly at splash. The best I could manage was 1.16.8 – over half a second off my PB.
So a bit disappointing really. However, something positive - my lovely wife is shouting me Levels 1 and 2 at the California SBK School next year so hopefully I will learn the skills needed to get those 2 seconds a lap quicker and give Dan and Geoff a run for their money.
I don’t want to jinx myself but I have big plans for Wangas !! To beat Geoff and Dan !! I put in a faster lap time than Dan last year, and it will be Geoff’s first time on the streets, so it may be my best opportunity yet.
Dan had run off at T1 in race two on Saturday. This actually puts us 5th equal on 60 points each.
Jason Easton didn’t race at Hampton Downs but got 1st and 2nd at Manfeild. This puts him on 47 points.
I know Jason will go well at Wangas, but there is a chance I could get 5th overall if I beat Dan. My goal for the Tri Series was top 10, but top 5 sounds so much better !!
As my son now says – only 6 more sleeps !! He even wanted to put his pyjamas back on this morning – I guess he can’t wait either !
Thanks again to everyone for their support, and my friends and family of course.
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Originally Posted by discodan
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