King of Levels rd1 back on the side
It was the first time back racing on the sidecar since I went off the side back in February at the national round here and broke my arm

In the months leading up to this event my fitness and diet regime consisted of watching TV playing on the computer and eating all the junk food I could find so I was fully fit and ready to go

Levels means an early start so I dragging myself out of bed about 5am and having a bite to eat before heading off to Dave’s where the mighty turbo charged, intercooled slash cut equipped Transit was loaded and ready to go

Arriving at Levels we were pleasantly surprised to find it relatively warm compared to the previous day at Ruapuna where we’d endured bitterly cold wind on the practice day

We got unloaded and got set up, meanwhile we’d been taking bets on whether the Macefield brothers would actually show up after having a three year break but not long after we’d got there they were pulling into the pits after having a stop on the way to secure the sidecar a bit better after trying to drop it off the side of the trailer on the way down

Now for those of you who haven’t met these two clowns (affectionately known as Pig and Goober) rude and abusive is a bit of an understatement in describing them but also very entertaining

All the formalities dealt with and we rock on up for first practice
I’m having a problem on the left to right changes with my timing but things are starting to feel a bit better after a few laps and we’re slowly increasing speed we pull back into the pits for a quick chat then head out behind the Justin/Grant combo on the Windle, they pull back in after a lap with gear change problems and we come in a lap later

I’m pretty well fucked after a few easy laps but we’re not planning on pushing too hard so it should be sweet for the day
Goober is having a whinge about not being able to feel the brakes and gets told to “harden the fuck up”

Race 1
Alex/Kai on the Agip bike jump the start by about 5 minutes smoking the rear as they go past us and are just about at turn 1 before the rest of us launch
For a 68 year old pensioner he doesn’t ride half bad, it’s the first time on this track for Kai and he has a couple of moments which end up with him wearing out the toes on his boots

3 laps in and we pull past him down the straight as Graeme/Colin have caught up as well and we want to pull a gap on them, they both stick with us for a couple of corners and then we ride away from him for the win

We check the fuel and are good to go, Goober/Pig are doing a few more adjustments and Goober is complaining about a lack of brakes which turns out to be a leaking fitting on the front master cylinder which is soon sorted

Race 2
We’re not doing the full hard out launch and Graeme/Colin beat us into Turn 1, we’re hard out trying not to run into the back on them through the corners although he has a reasonable turn of speed down the straight, we chase them for a few laps dropping back and closing up, with a couple of laps to go they run wide onto the back straight so we motor on past and wick it up a bit

Within the next couple of laps we’ve pulled a huge gap and take another easy win
The Windle boys have dropped to doing a 1.22 which is the best they’ve done but are still getting smoked by the pensioner/Kai combination

Goober has had enough for the day because he’s a fucking softcock and is spending all his time bitching about the seating position, the brake lever, the war in Afghanistan and anything else he can think of

Race 3
Carbon copy of Race 2, we’re running about 3-4 seconds off our Nationals pace which suits my fitness level spot on and as we’ve slowly increased the speed it’s all started getting a bit easier the changeovers are feeling better although I’m still struggling a bit with the crossover to the right exiting the Chicane where I fell off last time

All in all a pretty good day and good to see the Pig/Goober combo back on track albeit briefly, they came away with a good few things to change to make it better for the next round so hopefully they can pick up the pace from slower than a dead snail to keeping up with the pensioner