OS Racing - HD RD4

[SWERVE]

Me & Ants finally rolled up at HD on fri morning to team up with Seth who had travelled up with Robbie Stokes and his grandad. They already had the tent set up and we quickly unloaded and set up.
Friday practice went well with both riders feeling comfortable..... as they had both ridden the same bikes at the Tri Series we had some good base settings.
We tried some different gearing on the 250 and some different rear spring settings on the SV.
Qualifying saw Seth in 4th spot. He was still getting out paced up the hill to the finish. We sat down after qual and discussed possible reasons as we had tried 3 different exhausts during he last two days with no real difference. A plan was hatched!.
Ants had gone slighty quicker than he had at the Tri Series and qualified 3rd in Pro Twin. The rear spring settings were working real well and rear tyre was looking mint.
Prolite 250/Race 1
Me & Seth had decided that the new injected ninja had different power to the carb version so a different riding approach was needed. It worked.... Seth came home 1st........But as warned in riders briefing anyone crossing yellow merge line into pits would be penalised..... he had crossed it and was given a 10sec penalty which relegated him back to 3rd spot. Rules are rules and were duely applied.
Race 2
Again a battle with Sam Croft for honours with Sam taking the flag ahead of Seth.
Race 3 / NZTT
Seth took an early lead... but Sam fought hard and took the lead 1/2 way thru the race. Sam has pulled a good gap when it started to rain. As the 250,s cant run wets the race continued....... i knew the dodgy conditions would suit Seth and he slowly closed the gap to take the lead on the last lap.... another epic battle to the line with Sam...this time it was Seths turn to be the winner.

ProTwin /Race 1
Ants got a good start and was running up the field. As the race went on he gradually edged his way up the field. A chasing Bryan Hill had a huge motor explosion across the finish line. Ants was lining up Jason M when he crashed and left it for Ants to take his first national win in Protwin.
Race 2
Ants /Robbie/Nick all missed the call for this race and had to start from pitlane. Again Ants was consisantly improving his lap times and slowly picked off the field one by one to catch leader Jason M on lap 5. As he went for the pass exiting T1 Jason had a highside/tank slapper and Ants collided with him. From winesses it was a "biggie" with Jason heading to the infield and Ants ending up way down the hill against the barrier. BUGGAR

Upon inspection the bike was pretty banged up... with a hole in bottom of rt hand fork tube (looks like it hit Jasons swingarm) and a bent stanchion. Fairings completely destroyed / throttle tube & cables ripped off etc etc........... What do we do???...ring Deano in Waikato hospital and ask him in his morphine adddled state if we can rape his bike for spares......... like a true "Good Bastard" he said yes. Unfornuanately i couldnt get it together in time for last race so we had our first DNF and DNS on the same day. BIG THANKS to Dan Kempthorne who came over and helped me try to fix it in time..CHEERS Dan.

So after starting the day in 3rd place Ants had risen to 2nd and ended up in 4th........... with Deanos crash earlier and Bryans engine failure it was gonna be a very mixed bag in Protwin.
So we licked our wounds and tried to come up with a plan to be ready for Taupo.
One of the sports true "GOOD BASTARDS" came to our rescue with an invitation to head over to Mt Manganui for repairs. Graeme "Billy" Billington your are a LEGEND. Billy and his lovely wife put us up for the week....... manufactured a new top fairing in record time...... provided a workshop..... and put us in the direction of another Top bloke by the name of Gary Pendelton at GP motorcycle wreckers. We sourced all the parts we needed and Gary tig welded the fork tube and we managed to straighten the inner.
Put it all back together on Thurs eve and got ready to leave for Taupo early on Fri.

Once again an eventfull race event with my stand out performances being:
Dan Ornsby (sorry if i spelt it wrong..again) for a TT Superstock win
Tyler Lincoln for a great 125 ride
Sloan Frost for a brilliant scrap with Stroudy (and a massive save at T1)

Once again none of this would be possible without help from the following:
HAMILTON SEED LTD
KAWASAKI NZ (thanks for the advise Mike)
SKF
TOTAL LUBRICANTS
W WHITES WHOLESALE
DWAINS SERVICE CENTRE
SOUTH ISLAND VEHICLE FINANCE
RACE SUPPLIES
SHORAI BATTERIES

Taupo report to follow soon...................

[slowpoke]

Good write up Merv, and great effort by you and your lads. And yes, great to see some of the awesome spirit on display behind the scenes eh?

Standing by to hear your impressions of Toe-paw.

[puddytat]

So Swerve how are Ants & Seth sitting points wise ?

[SWERVE]

So Swerve how are Ants & Seth sitting points wise ?

Hi Puddy
At the close of the HD round Seth was 2nd in prolite & Ants was 4th in Protwin.
The championship has since been decided (but if ya wanna wait i will post Taupo report soon with final results.

[jellywrestler]

i knew the dodgy conditions would suit Seth and he slowly closed the gap to take the lead on the last lap.... another epic battle to the line with Sam...this time it was Seths turn to be the winner.

epic finish, a win by 2/1000ths of a second

[puddytat]

Hi Puddy
At the close of the HD round Seth was 2nd in prolite & Ants was 4th in Protwin.
The championship has since been decided (but if ya wanna wait i will post Taupo report soon with final results.

Alright....I'll get the

[SWERVE]

epic finish, a win by 2/1000ths of a second

I do remember a similar finish at Round 1 / Ruapuna in race 2........... this time it was Sam ..... Jelly im sure you remember the margin.

[SWERVE]

Well here goes the last race report from the 2012 NZSBK championship.
We had been rained on all week at Mt Manganui and had been watching the weather forecast closely. The horror stories of a wet Taupo had been coming from all directions.
We crept out of Billys driveway at 5.30am to be greated with a warm dry morning.......... this continued untill we turned of at Reporoa and then it all started to get a bit damp. Arrived to a very wet & cold Taupo around 7.30am.
Seth & Robbie had managed to secure themselves a garage space as they had been there on Thursday for the extra practice day. So we set up over the back next to fellow mainlander Richard Newberry.
We decided that if it continued to rain we would flag the test day as the forecast for sat/sun was better. Although Ants needed to get to know the circuit doing it in the pouring rain wasnt ideal. However by mid morning it had cleared and was drying so we set the bike up for the dry and waited............ by lunch it was dry so we did the afternoon getting 2 sessions. Ants struggled immeadiately with the track...... he was intimidated by the surface on the inside of turns and just couldnt gell with track. Seth took the 250 out as we had decided to try a Pirelli SC1 on the front as all crashes had been from the front end.... and Seth knew there was a possibility of taking the title so he would have to push harder than ever. He was raving when he came back in after 1st session saying that the front felt awesome and had huge grip. (maybe we should have shod it with Pirellis at the beginning... but as i reminded him..it was his choice to run bridgestones.)
Saturday graced us with warm/dry weather.
Qualifying
Ants looked a lot more comfortable than he had on Friday an initially seemed to be on the pace of Robbie and Nick but the second session saw them and Bryan improve by about 2 secs.... Ants didnt so he ended up qualifying 4th.
Seth was looking more relaxed than i had seen him all year..... although he had a very heavily strapped hand a was in a lot of pain from his big highside at HD.
He did the business and qualified pole.
Race 1 Protwins : Ants was not running at the pace of top 3. The race was red flagged and at the re-start he was knocked off at T1. Got the bike back to pits.. straightened handlebar and sent him out for restart. He came around and straight into pits........ turns out dirt had packed itself into the clutch lever/perch so the clutch was slipping badly.
Race 2 After having wets on the bike all sun morn it decided to dry quickly leading up to our race. As there was still a couple of wet areas on corner entry we decided to keep the wet front and put a dry on the rear. Didnt care if he screwed the front wet and as it was new he should be able to push it as hard as a dry for 10 laps. He had " complete brain fade" and just couldnt get his head together this time (still dont know why!) and finished way back in 9th. Any chances of getting a top 3 finish in champs had just disapeared.
Race 3.. a little better but still not in the game..... started to look more relaxed towards end of race but finished 5th.

Race 1 / 2 / 3 Prolite: What can i say Seth was on fire this weekend ... best riding of the champs so far. Although Sam had taken the championship in race 2, Seth still went out and won his 3rd race & made it a total of 6 wins for the day. And NOT A SCRATCH on the bike........... another victory.

Taupo highlights for me were:
Josh Mc Grath taking a victory.......... awesome result for you / the team / and your family........... good luck for the future young man
Johnny Small for mastering Taupo so well and proving he is one of the ones to watch
Seth for winning 6 from 6.......... for not giving up and reaping the "just rewards" in 125gp.......... well done champ.
Nick Cain for being the bucket king.......... another SI youngster with heaps of talant.

So the final results for OS Racing were Prolite 250 - 2nd Protwin - 4th and Seth taking the 125gp title (that was down to him although i will class it as a team victory
Have to say im pretty pleased with the results... considering that my budget was smaller than ever this year and bikes were constructed in my living room. I hope that the opportunity that i gave both riders has helped them in some way or another. Ants has proven that he can run at the sharp end and has taken his 1st national win... although he does need to work on his consistancy and self belief. He is still only 18 so hopefully has plenty of time to learn/improve.
Seth certainly doesnt lack in ability or self belief........... but does need to learn more self control and organisation.
It has been a pleasure boys........... and i hope you both enjoyed it.
Not sure what the future holds at this stage for OS Racing......... will have to concentrate on work now to start paying the bills........ although i have some sponsorship promised for next year it isnt enough, as i have picked up most of the "tab" this year and i will still be paying for it for a couple of years. I have some people to talk to over the winter... so hopefully they can see that we have some potential and will help us move forward. I would like to also continue with the promotion of junior racing within the Prolite 250 class.................... fingers crossed.

As always none of what we have achieved could have been achieved without help and support from the following (i will try to list you all)
HAMILTON SEED LTD - Pete & Jackie have been with us from the beginning and have spent $1000,s... LEGENDS
KAWASAKI NZ - Thanks Mike for believing in us and for your input through the season.... heres hoping we can work together in the future.
DWAINS SERVICE CENTRE - Dwain & Judith have been great.. thanks for arranging the 250 and for all your help/support thru the year.
TOTAL OIL - The team at ChCh have been very supportitive...... hopefully we have shown that we are worth investing in next season!
SKF - The team at ChCh have been great... thanks to BJ and Cameron for your support.
SOUTH ISLAND VEHICLE FINANCE - Thanks Mike T for pulling a few strings when i needed help.
GEOFF HAMPTON ENG - My employer for financial support and tolerance for when i spend more time organising racing than i do working.
SOUTHBRIDGE 4 SQUARE - Thanks Carmen & Gary for helping us with entry fees.
RACE SUPPLIES - Thanks Kev for always delivering on time (even when busy) great service and products.
SHORAI BATTERIES - Cheers Ed for a superb product and your personal support.
KSS - Thanks Robert, as always top service and advice.
MCC - Thanks for transponders at NI rounds and for club funding/support. Awesome bunch of people and results speak for themselves.
GREAME "BILLY" BILLINGTON - Cant thank you enough for you and your wifes help/hospitality.... BLOODY LEGEND
G P DISMANTLERS - So grateful Gary for you help and taking the time for us.
W WHITES WHOLESALE - Thanks for your support throughout the year.
J TWISS - The man who paints the bikes (and they do look good) and who works on boxing day for us..........top bloke.
SPYDA - For keeping us amused all year - and for some sound advice..thank you.
ALL THE CLUB OFFICIALS AND VOLENTEERS - You guys/girls are the unsung heroes......... take a bow.
ALL THE RIDERS/CREWS - who have made it what it was....... special thanks to Chris Osbourne - John Adair - Wade Van De Arend - Biggles - The Coles - Dan Kempthorne - Nick Southerwood - Dean Bentley - Richard Newberry............... if i have missed you im sorry and thank you.

I am interested to here from you guys out there what your perception of us is/was................. and any ideas you may have.......... maybe PM me as such replies on a public forum might end up in a S*"tfight........... it is KB.

[puddytat]

Having both met you & your son Ants, & raced against Seth as well, its been a real pleasure to be kept informed of your teams progress with your great race reports. I am surprised at the lack of '"news " on KB when it comes to events & results, which make your efforts even more special. GOOD ON YA !!!

[SWERVE]

Well im very pleased to say that Seth Devereux WILL be campaigning a Kawasaki zx6r in Superstock 600 next season. OS Racing will hopefully be working alongside SD Racing to help in anyway we can.
Like to think that we have played a hand in making this possible............. a very talented young man with a great attitude and desire to WIN.
And i thought i could take a breather......... roll on 2013.