k14's North Island Nationals Report

[k14]

Hampton Downs

After a solid 3rd round I was looking forward to continuing my good riding and challenging the top 3 positions in the championship. We arrived at Hampton Friday morning to gloomy skies and a wet track, the forecast for the weekend was for much of the same and so the wets were put on and stayed on for pretty much all weekend.

Having never ridden the track before it was quite interesting learning a new one. The track is a bit stop start and with some hills it made it a lot different to any other NZ tracks. After the three practice sessions I was quite comfortable with the track and also getting some good confidence with my wets so was looking forward to qualifying. Saturday the weather hadn’t changed much with some more heavy overnight rain keeping the track wet and the occasional shower coming through just to ensure the slicks stayed in the van. First qualifying was good and I just did three laps to see how my times compared to the other riders, not wanting to wear out my only set of wet tyres. The times were out and I was 5th fastest, only 0.1s behind Tim Gray on his Aprilia. Only wanting to get on the front row I was close but was going to have to find a few more tenths in second qualifying.

Before long it came around and a steady drizzle had arrived, making the track quite a bit wetter. I was on my fourth lap and my lap timer showed I was on a good one when the session was red flagged and stopped for about 5 minutes to clean up a mess. I went back out and we only had another 4 minutes meaning an out lap and two flying laps. My first was a 1.21.4, just a sighter. My second showed up on my lap timer as 1.20.45, knowing Tim had already set a time of 1.20.35 I knew I was very very close to his time. When the results came out I was ecstatic that I had grabbed the final place on the front row by 0.009s!

The race came around and I was fairly confident of hanging with the front guys and gunning for a top 3. The lights went out and I got a good start, sitting in behind pole man Johnny Small in 4th position. On the second lap I came over the crest of the hill to tip into the left hand hairpin and boom, my front wheel was out from under me and we were both sliding down the hill into the kitty litter. I got up fine but the bike was a bit worse for wear, nothing structural but the fairings had been pretty much destroyed. It was a relatively long afternoon but by 6pm my pit crew and I had managed to get the bike ride able again and headed home to nurse my bruises.

Consequently Terry Fitzgerald had finished 2nd in the race and that put my chances of a top 3 in the championship at very slim. However I still had to ensure I protected my 4th position and try salvage whatever possible from the weekend. I checked everything was ok in the scrub in and apart from the dash showing funny numbers and no tacho the bike seemed to be fine. I think a bit of water got into the dash when we were washing the 3 tonnes of kitty litter out of every crevice of the bike but that didn’t affect the running of the bike.

The race started and I was very tentative for the first few laps, Ken Jones came past who was 5th in the F3 championship and I knew he was my main opponent who I needed to beat. I tagged onto the back of him and on lap 5 used the power advantage of my bike to pass him on the start/finish straight. I continued to focus on riding smoothly and had the occasional look over my shoulder to check the gap, every time he was hot on my heels. After ten laps (race distance) the white flag came out and I held on to beat Ken by 0.4s and take 4th place.

There was still one race left and as the weather forecasters had predicted the rain had left and the track was slowly drying out. I had the front tyre already changed to a slick and the rear wet, knowing that it was going to be a 50/50 call. Just as the superbikes did their warm up lap a light shower came back over the track and the officials decided that they get preferential treatment so delayed their race and called up F3. Having thought I had the superbike race plus a lunch break before my race I was very annoyed this had happened and didn’t even have my leathers on. The officials gave us 10 minutes to get ourselves ready for the 15 lap NZTT and I had to make the decision to go wet or slick, I decided to take a gamble and put the slicks on. The track was still relatively dry and waiting to go out for the warm up lap I had thought I made the right call.

However going into turn 2 the light drizzle appeared again and wet the track just enough to make wets the clear best tyre for the conditions. I took it very tentative for the first few laps, having a few rear end slides and knew I would just have to focus to bring it home in one piece. By about lap 7 the sun had made another appearance and the track was back to semi dry. I gradually improved my pace as the race went on but getting lapped on the 12th lap showed how slow my first few laps really had been, hadn’t been in that situation for a very long time! However I finished the race and still was in 5th place due to only 7 F3 riders finishing.

So that capped off a pretty disappointing weekend. The crash in the first race really summed things up, but I was happy with how I came back and managed to ride decently on Sunday and knowing that wet riding is probably my weak point. So it was onwards to Manfeild, the final round of the 2011 season and also my final nationals race for the foreseeable future.

[k14]

Manfeild

This would be my last hurrah for a while, prior to the season starting I had already decided I would give racing a break for a while after the 2011 nationals and I hadn’t changed my mind. I even had someone lined up to buy my bike so all going to plan I would be driving back to Alexandra sans bike. After the previous weekend I had a bit of work and cleaning to do on the bike. One of the jobs was to get the swing arm stand bobbin welded back on, it was ripped off when I crashed at Hampton. I got that all sorted and headed to Manfeild where the weather forecasters had some more promising predictions for the weekends weather. Friday was a bit cold but the track was dry and I got down to business straight away, working out gearing and getting used to the interesting changes of seal and bumps that the track is well known for.

By the second session I had got into the 1.15’s which was even with my PB the first time I rode the bike here 18 months ago. I went out in the third session testing some suspension settings when on the second lap coming out of the hairpin my rear tyre started sliding and just didn’t stop. Before I knew it I was sliding on my butt off the circuit and onto the grass, luckily avoiding a highside. I was pretty furious at myself still not really knowing the cause. As is usually the case I had ripped the swing arm stand bobbin off that had just been welded on, but thanks to Greg at Feilding engineering he dropped everything and welded it back on in about 20 minutes, man what a legend! Luckily the rest of the damage was minimal and we got the bike rideable again and packed up for the night.

Saturday again was a bit chilly but the sun was out and first session I took things pretty easy just trying to get my confidence back after the crash. I went out in first qualifying and took it easy before trying to get a semi respectable lap time in. I managed a 1.15.3 on the old tyres I was running and that put me in 3rd position which I was very satisified with. I knew the rest of the guys would go faster in the next qualifying session so chucked on a new rear and better front tyre to protect my front row start. I improved my time to 1.14.5, a personal PB and consolidated my 3rd position on the grid, just what I was after.

The first race was up and I got a terrible start, running around in 5th position for the first 3 laps. On the third lap I was following Johnny Small when he made a mistake and ran wide into the final corner, I passed him to take 4th although straight away saw the red lights and flag at the start/finish line, someone had crashed and the race was stopped. I made my way back to my pits and put the tyre warmers back on to await the race instructions. We were advised there would be a full restart so I chucked in another 3 litres of fuel and went back to the grid. This time my start was much better and I came across the line on the first lap in 2nd position. Knowing Terry Fitzgerald would be hot on my heels I daren’t looked back for the entire race, thinking I could hear an engine right on my tail. I focused on riding smoothly and when the chequered flag came out I had a quick look over my shoulder to see that I couldn’t see anyone behind me and had beaten him by 6s. Shows the value of having a lap board, seeing I was only 1.3s behind race winner Jason Easton I may have been able to push a little more to try and bridge the back between us. No to worry though, there were still two races on Sunday.

Later we put on a brand new set of Continental slicks for the final day of the 2011 season and loaded the bike in the van for the final time. With a 1 hour sleep in thanks to daylight savings, we arrived at the track to another brilliant day and by the time our race was up it was nearing 20 degrees. The lights went out and I got a good start, however the front wheel started coming up and kept rising. Even though my brain was saying don’t roll off I did just that a lost 3 places in the blink of an eye. I didn’t hold back for the first two laps passing both Glen Williams and Johnny Small under brakes into turn 1 at the end of the first lap and doing the same to Terry Fitzgerald a lap later. Now I had Jason Easton in my sights and he was about 0.7-1s ahead of me. I rode very hard for the next 5-6 laps trying to bridge the gap that got as low as 0.6s. I could see the strengths and weaknesses of both bikes very apparently. From the final corner to the hairpin I would make up a decent gap, maybe 0.3s. But the drive his bike got out of the hairpin and Higgins negated my gain and probably pulled another 0.1-0.2s just to add salt into the wounds. By lap 7 the gap had grown to just over 1s and I knew I wouldn’t be able to beat him unless he made a mistake so I settled for 2nd and bought the bike home 2.7s ahead of Terry in 3rd. In the chase for Jason I managed to get my laptimes down to 1.13.3, pretty decent but still 0.1s slower than Jason’s fastest time. It was hard to know if he was having to push to keep me behind or just riding as fast as he needed to.

The third race of the weekend, final race of the 2011 season and final race of my nationals career for now was upon us. I knew that I had to get a good start and try to dice with Jason if I had any chance at a race win. However his starter motor had other ideas and gridding up to an empty pole position gave me a few butterflies in my stomach. I got a good start and tipping into the first corner in 3rd I barged past Johnny Small and got good drive towards turn 2. I was alongside Terry going into turn 2 but had the inside line. I held on for long enough to see him disappear out of my vision and had clear track in front of me. I put down several fast laps and had a quick look over my shoulder coming out of the hairpin. I could see a decent gap behind me and had to make sure I kept my head clear and didn’t make any mistakes. Those last 3 laps were very hard, knowing I was so close to my maiden nationals win but still well aware I hadn’t won the race yet. I gradually bought my braking markers slightly back and just cruised around to take the victory by a massive 5.6s. To say I was over the moon was an understatement. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I’m not ashamed to admit there was a small tear in my eye on the warm down lap.

To add icing to the cake Jason finished 4th in the race, meaning he had 63 points for the weekend and I had 65. So adding to my first nationals race win was my first nationals round win to boot. I had certainly been lucky but a win is a win. I parked the bike up and gave it to its new owner highly satisfied at how the weekend had gone. To come back from the crash on Friday was very satisfying. It is a day I will never forget.

Finally I have to thank my sponsors for helping me out over the last few years, I can’t say how much easier it has made it for me. Alexandra Panelbeaters are great, with my crashing record you’d think someone offering to paint my fairings would be pretty mental but they were happy to! Two Wheels Unlimited Alexandra and Alexandra Signs have also been very helpful along with Continental Tyres, Shoei Helmets, Silkolene Oil, RK Chains and Afam sprockets. Finally I would like to thank Chris Osborne for all the help and assistance he has given me over the last 18 months. My bike has always run really well and if you need any engine work done make sure you give him a yell.

[lostinflyz]

don't worry im not still bitter about you stealing my first front row..............jerk.

you rode well in that second race to hunt back down ken, good effort.

[Deano]

Great reading - nice racing Kirk.