Taumarunui, 5-6 March. Who's going?

**Rick 52** · 4th March 2011, 18:51

My girls don't like the rain so its me a Will sleeping in the van ..
See you all lunch time ....

**SHELRACING** · 4th March 2011, 20:57

Hi guys, its only rained once here today, this morning.

The track is laid on pumice, so it drains very quickly. Its not slippery like Mt Welly.

I've ridden there in the pouring rain and it wasn't bad at all.

Sunday is forcast for showers, but that may not happen here.
The rain does not always fall in Taumarunui as its suppose too.

Bring down some warm clothes as well, as it can be a bit chilly first thing in the morning at the moment.

**Arronduke** · 4th March 2011, 21:32

Got to say it is pissing down at my house in hunua... AKL

And i mean pissing.

Kel came around to drop off his bike and nearly drowned getting out of his car.
And he left with his bike!!!

Based on whats here its a no go.... but we will look again in the morning.

**Pumba** · 5th March 2011, 09:44

Well my bike is down there already, but I am having a hard time convincing the Mrs that staying in a tent when server weather warning have been issued is a good idea

Might call the locals for a weather report at the track this morning

**SHELRACING** · 5th March 2011, 17:06

Been down to the track today. Racing has been good.

Its been drizzling all day but only rained hard once in the afternoon.

Everyone has commented on how sticky the track is, even when its wet.

Nobody has fallen off due to the wet track, as yet. Some are racing on slicks too.

However one not so bright Aucklander did forget to put gas in the bike

The call from Steve Bennett is; if the weathers bad, racing will start approx 10am,
so its over and done with early.

Its only very light drizzle here at the moment.

All those staying at the track dont seem to be unhappy about the weather.
They seem to be having a blast.

You can always sleep in the clubrooms if you want too, Pumba.

**Dutchee** · 6th March 2011, 16:55

what rain? Dunno what you lot are on about??????

We all had a blast. The night racing was verrrry interesting, with Captian_Soup excelling (much to everyone else's disgust), but how they saw the track in the dark we're not sure about. There were no bikes involved in that, and the youngsters kicked their competition's butt - actually, the track kicked his butt as well.
Was a bit chilly this morning, but not so bad.

Bike 84 is somewhere, dunno, can't quite remember which farm it was being delivered to, but someone else might remember. I do recall it was a John Deere tractor parked out front, but they'll possibly move it at some point.

The racing at the sharp end was intense. The "B grade bike" rider won't be living that comment down.

No further comment from me, you missed it, we had lots of fun.

**Henk** · 6th March 2011, 17:44

Just got home after an absolutely awesome weekend.

Headed down early on Friday with the intention of getting the tent set up before Michelle arrived from Taupo, on the way down I was thinking we might end up in a motel somewhere for Friday night so the she could get a warm shower since I expected her to be wet through and freezing given the weather I had to drive down through, then halfway between Te Kuiti and Taumarunui the road dried up and the skies cleared. Seems she only had a few showers on the way over and was still pretty dry. I’d been at the track for all of three minutes when she rode up so we set up the then and inflated the mattresses and headed into town for a burger, when we got back Terri was there with the keys so we opened up the clubrooms and toilets switched on the lights as beacon for others, had a couple of quiet drinks and went to bed early, five minutes later Steve Bennet rolled in closely followed by part of the Wellington contingent and we got to bed again around the 2am mark.

Saturday
Woke up to a warm muggy morning with threatening rain and feeling slightly the worse for wear after the late night, noticed a tent and ute that hadn’t been there when I went to bed, Captain Soup and Willow had turned up about five minutes after I had passed out, the late arrival was partly due to the fact that they got a little lost on the way down and had started driving back to Auckland at one stage.
By the time practice got under way we had grooved up a set of slicks as an experiment and the standard wet weather wheel and tire swapping had been completed. Practice was interesting with varying amounts of water falling from the sky with things called off for a while as it was raining so hard that the clerk of the course couldn’t see the whole track. The racing for the Taumarunui cup was intense with some great battles all the way through the field. Entertaining to watch which I had a great chance to do in race one after running out of gas on the warm up lap. I had looked in the tank in the morning and decided there was plenty, thought about throwing some in as I walked to the bike before the start but mistakenly thought that I’d be fine for 10 laps. Kamil and Gavin had a coming together that left them both briefly on the grass but upright with Gavin managing to rejoin and still take the win. Race two was a cracker as well, the surface is so much grippier than Mt Wellington in the wet, Blair Robson came past me and cleared off about half race length, riding like a demon on slicks. Close battle for the lead between Rick, Gavin and Craig that was very entertaining to watch when they lapped me. Results for the day were Gavin first, Rick second and Craig third (I think). Two of the wellington contingent decided to take each other out at one stage with the apologies flowing from both parties involved before the crash was over, result one damaged CBR150 and one very sore leg. The bike could be fixed on the day the leg unfortunately didn’t heal overnight.
Racing over the wet leathers were hung up in the clubrooms to dry and ten of the tent contingent headed into town for dinner. The Thai restaurant on the main road is highly recommended, which came as a welcome surprise since it seemed to be the only sit down eatery in the town that was open.
Back to the track and after a few beverages were consumed a night race on rollerblades was suggested, great fun and surprisingly no injuries although there were a few tumbles, I will say the hill up to the cliff is a lot steeper on inline skates than it is on a bike.

Sunday
Woke up feeling a bit seedy due to another late night and to slightly overcast but clearing skies. More wheel swapping back to slicks and racing got underway early, the race program was 10 lap 20 lap 30 lap then pack up and go home, the pace was significantly quicker with some more great battles all through the pack. 30 laps did seem like quite a long time. Results will no doubt be up at some stage but the leader board for the NI series currently stands at Gavin first, Rick second and B Grade Tim third.
Loading the van was an interesting exercise since we had more stuff to take home than we arrived with after the seeming traditional swap meet, a quick clean up of the site and everyone was away.
The only slightly disappointing thing about the weekend I guess was the lack of numbers, with sixteen people signing on. The weather forecast is probably responsible for the low turnout but those that didn’t come really missed out. The track is in a gorgeous spot and beats some places I have been camping as a hands down as a place to go for the weekend racing or no.
Thanks to everyone that turned up, Steve for organizing the whole circus, Natalie and Natasha for lap scoring and everyone else that helped make for another great weekend. Bring on Tokoroa.

**Trudes** · 6th March 2011, 18:25

Enjoying the reports, keep 'em coming

so I can live vicariously as I'm bummed I couldn't make it this time.

**Henk** · 6th March 2011, 18:53

Photos at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hz13/se...7626205797906/

**Captian soup** · 6th March 2011, 19:28

wel henks sumed it all up quite well so im just going to say cheers to steve for organizing and running a great weekend and to all those there that made it great, specaily that fella that was shoving steves tequila down our throats before stammering off to bed mumbling somthing about good cunts.! bloody great weekend. fingers crossed il be heading down to tokoroa.

**Captian soup** · 6th March 2011, 19:31

oh and that 84 bike had a couple of cows leaning on it when i drove past

**Rick 52** · 6th March 2011, 20:00

Great weekend if a little damp on the Saturday, Cheers Gavin and Julie for putting me and Will up for the night ,But Gav you could have let me have 1 win !!

Will Is still buzzing after having a good ride on Michelles bike

,The drive home was good until we met the Fuzz and got pulled over Bugger !! Cheers to everybody Brilliant

**Dutchee** · 6th March 2011, 20:18

Originally Posted by Rick 52

Great weekend if a little damp on the Saturday, Cheers Gavin and Julie for putting me and Will up for the night ,But Gav you could have let me have 1 win !!

Will Is still buzzing after having a good ride on Michelles bike

,The drive home was good until we met the Fuzz and got pulled over Bugger !! Cheers to everybody Brilliant

Southern motorway? Saw a van pulled over and thought it looked like yours, but decided it hadn't been. Lots of mr plods again on the motorway.

Will did say he didn't know why he's not allowed an FXR, but I did say that it's a great idea to get him racing F5, then B (where he'll kick my ass) before moving up to A (where he'll kick yours hahaha)

**Dutchee** · 6th March 2011, 20:19

Originally Posted by Captian soup

oh and that 84 bike had a couple of cows leaning on it when i drove past

Had they stopped licking it yet? They seemed to think it was edible, but I did spot the bull seemed to be quite intent on getting into his girls' paddock to take on the opposition.