What a farkin’ month! We’d nearly “finished” our new house and just sold the old joint (ourselves, bugger the real estate agents) when I got home from 3 weeks offshore so it was straight into battling the council over the subdivision of our rural property, stirring up slack lawyers, making the new place inhabitable and moving from/cleaning up the old’un for the new folks. Thank Christ for beer, is all I can say.
With the property settlement on the Friday prior to the Manfeild NZSBK round I’d always intended to scoot up to Manfeild on the Sunday for a look see but with the chaos at home, and only one test day since Xmas, I never considered entering…..until the call went out for Clubman’s. That got the tired lump of grey matter upstairs quietly thinking as I carted stuff backwards and forwards. A call to the lovely Debbie Ritchie confirmed an entry on the Friday test day would be fine if I could make it. Another call to the good guys at Motomart had a new set of Pirelli’s on their way to Manners Saturday morning with one of Dion Sellers crew.
So 10pm Thursday night we realised we’d done all we could do, and my good lady told me to bugger off for the weekend. So with no lights yet in the garage it was a case of parking the car in front, headlights on, and digging my way through 2 weeks worth of moving crap to drag out the bike and chicken scratching around for whatever other bike stuff I could find to throw in the trailer.
Friday test was just an exercise in trying to get my head back up to something like reasonable speed. The 3 year old well used tyres were pretty sad and only a 55 rear profile so it was a pig to turn, but it was just good fun doing a few skids again. And what’s not to like about being on track with legends like Bugden, Stauffer and co? Sure you might only see ‘em for a corner or two but watching them get on the gas in a way you didn’t think was possible gives you the impetus to twist the wrist a lil’ harder yourself.
I’d been looking at the front end to try and get the bike steering better but a consult with Dr Bob had me looking at the back instead. Sure enough the bike was improved but still hard work so it was a case of chipping away at it all weekend. The new Pirelli SC1’s that arrived Saturday also helped, with a taller 60 profile on the back. I couldn’t quite get a clear run in qualifying but on the outside of the front row with a 1m15.5 wasn’t the end of the world. The always quick but similarly out of practice Johan on his booming Duc just pipped me, with the front row all within about 0.7s: should be fun!
And it was. I got a shocker of a start and was about 7th out of the first corner, blardy hell I could learn a thing or two off the Post Classic boys when it comes to start time that’s for farkin’ sure! So lotsa work to do but it took me a while to settle into it. I picked a few off then set about chasing down the front three who had bolted. I caught Philip Vranek on the last lap and had a go into Dunlop for the last time but wussed out and instead lined him up to use that sweetest of “skills”, brute horsepower, to win the drag race to the line. So 3rd, (my first podium) and fastest lap of the race with 1m13.3 had me pretty stoked. My PB was a flat 1m13s 18months ago on my beloved old Honda (sorry Tones!) and to be somewhere near that after struggling recently was a relief more than anything.
Sunday and Race 2 was a similar story. Better start but swamped into Turn 1, as per usual just waaaay too polite: “After you sir”, “no after you”, “no no, you first, I insist”…....wuss. But I got into the work a bit better and found myself in 2nd with a few laps to chase down Mark Bennett who had scarpered, and was doing it comfortably out the front. So it was into stealth mode and creeping up until I think he realised at the very last corner I was there. I just concentrated on a good line and drive out of Dunlop to blow past the poor wee R6 in the run to the line. 1st! No quicker than the day before though.
So after some setup advice from TonyOk it was on to race 3, but I was pretty much rooted and ready for a wee kip. Mostly from the stress relief of all the house shit being over more than anything, I think, it’s just been a crazy few months. Anyway, this time I get a great launch…..but out brake myself into Turn 1, aaaaargh! 4th out of turn 1 after leading into it, with Mark already head down and arse up out front. I manage to squeeze past I think it was Mike Webster riding the wheels off his Kwaka and Phillip Vranek and set after Mark. His whole body language has changed from the last race and he knows it’s game on, there’ll be no sneak attack coming outta the sun this time. It was an interesting exercise chasing him down, he was stronger into turn 1 and I was stronger through Dunlop, so once I caught him I could run up on him through Dunlop and pass him down the front straight but he’d outbrake me into turn 1. I had him with about 2 laps to go I think, getting by on the inside into turn 1, but was concentrating so much on keeping it tight so he couldn’t run back up the inside on the exit that I nearly parked it in the corner and that kept him close enough to run up and block pass me through splash instead: DOH! I then ran a lil wide at the hairpin, losing drive and it was enough for him to pinch a few 10ths of a second. So a 2nd place by 0.8s to complete a trifecta for the weekend. But the result was pretty much secondary, it was just brilliant fun dicing with Mark, Johan and all the rest of the Post-Classic/BEAR’s/Clubman’s crew.
The coolest part was that Sunday morning Mark (pitted back to back with me) had said mock-seriously/sternly that our aim was to get into the 12’s which I kinda laughed at. My tyres were in good nick but with more than 40laps on them before the last 10 lap race, and literally blisters on my non-wanking hand from trying to get the big girl to turn, I couldn’t see too much of an improvement coming. As it turned out he did a 1m12.5 and I did a 1m12.4 both on the very last lap of the race. Not great times by NZSBK standards but you should have seen us two old buggers back in the pits, grinning at each other like schoolboys peering into the girls changing room.
So from chaotic beginnings it ended up being an awesome weekend catching up with some good people, checking out/racing against some cool bikes, and enjoying the great organisatipn of the Manawatu-Orion Club. A big “Thanks!” to them, Motomart, and Nationwide Accessories for making it all happen.
Spud
GSXR1000K7 #89
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by flame
Bookmarks