VMCC round 6- Mihi Banks...I did it!!
The smack talk in my house started getting more and more....serious as round 6 arrived. By Thursday I started to feel a little bit of nerves coming on never having raced at Taupo before, and knowing dad had. He had also done bucket racing the weekend before but I hadn’t (come to think of it he needed the practice).
We headed up to Taupo on Thursday morning, it was a quieter than normal trip to the track.
Friday Moto TT Track-day
It was a humid day with overcast but no rain 
went out in group 4 so I could get to know the track and just have a bit of a play around with lines and things. On the second time out ( I think it was) my bike seemed to sound a bit different but I didn’t really take much notice of it, when I got back into pits dad pointed out that my exhaust can had fallen off and was now only connected by one bolt in the middle of the can....so there was something wrong, Doh!! We had to force a few screws into the exhaust can so that it would stay on for the weekend, and it did!! The rest of the practices went good getting more comfortable with the track and finding the right gears, braking markers and lines for the corners. I was set for Saturday whoop whoop!! 
Friday night
Steve Bagshaw of Moto Academy took us for a walk of the track, giving us lots of helpful tips for the track. It turns out that the patches are quite helpful for reference points!!
Race day!!
Woohoo a sleep in...Well until 6.30am instead of the normal 4.30am wake up. Well the nerves had arrived!! (I think dad was a bit more nervous than me). Signed in, said hello to everyone and began to do some serious thinking on how I was going to do this thing. We had riders briefing and warmed up the bikes, well I warmed up mine while dad tried to get his started a good 5 minutes later Alex Hockly of Ride Life got his very nicely presented KR150 running and it was warmed up and ready to go as well.
Qualifying
I qualified 16th out of 25 with a 1.40 (dont know how good that is cause I dont have anyting to compare it to), 0.02 seconds behind Aaron Hassan (#42 ss150) and wait for it......1 second infont of dad (#41b ss150) the day was going good so far.
Race 1
It was dry and warm. I got a really good start, getting amongst it in turn 1 dad had the inside line and got me through the corner but I got him under acceleration into turn 2 (he thought I was still behind him), I had a good race didn’t battle with many people because I was in the middle of the two groups that our class kind of splits into, I was expecting dad to pass me sooner or later but I couldn’t even see him behind me wonder where he was....he couldn’t be that slow could he?? Crossed the line 6th in my class with a 1.37, 3 seconds better than my qualifying time
Turns out dad pulled in to the pits having 'bike trouble' the bike seemed to be cutting out on the new hairpin that was put in the track. The bike fault was due to the bigger jet I think...don’t know why, but hey I’m not complaining.
Race 2
It was raining!! And I had a lot of confidence in my Heidenau tyres in the wet, a bit more than dad as he is used to wets!! Another good start and was in front of dad again, we got a couple of laps done when the race was red flagged due to Sam Crofts crash in turn 1 (#24 Prolite 250). So a ride through the pits and then back out to the start grid to try again, another good start!! Got around the first corner in front of dad (man I love the first corner) but by the time we got to the second corner it was red flagged again....due to someone crashing on the start line?? Back in to pit lane again and our race was postponed until after F3.
Very eventful race(s) they were.
Race 2 relived!!
It was raining still and I got my best start all day . Had a lot of contact in turn 1 with 3 bikes, one on either side of me as I went up the middle of them and another one lightly hit my rear tyre coming out of the corner (not sure who they were).....man that was good 
. Passed another couple of people through the infield, dad was way behind me. Raced with myself for a couple of laps then was behind Sarah Rosacker (#12r Mini Lite 250) for a lap or 2 before the race was red flagged....yet again 
due to another crash, not too sure who it was but got told Simon Vollmar (#4 Prolite 250)??
We had done enough laps to call it a Race and I crossed the line in 5th with a 1.52, dad was in 7th with a 1.58.
Overall it was a really good day, I got to grips with a new track bet dad in all our races that we had and had a lot of fun!!
I got Rookie of the year and $50 from Ride Life for the most points out of me and dad for the meeting
This season has been awesome I’ve learnt heaps and had so much support.
I would like to thank all my sponsors and supporters: Ride Life (Alex Hockly), Moto Academy (Steve Bagshaw), K2 racing (Wharfy and Katie), Shaun Harris, Billy, Jeff Whitehead, Dad and all the VMCC volunteers.
Bring on the PMCC summer series
Mihi
WHEN I am famous I will definitely remember: K2 Racing (Wharfy), Ride Life (Alex Hockly), RaceFairings.co.nz (Billy), Motodynamics.co.nz (Shaun Harris), Jeff Whitehead, Moto Academy (Steve), Victoria Motorcycle Club (VMCC), and the Crofts.
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Originally Posted by RideLife
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