Hi All,
Round 4 of the Bridgestone Victoria Motorcycle Club Championship Winter
Series was held at Magic Manfeild. It has been 6 weeks since the last round. The
sun was shining through. It seemed like we were in for a great day of racing.
I arrived at the track a little later than normal. I’m not sure why but I felt there was no
need to rush. After getting some fuel for the day I headed for the Sign-in office and
handed in my race licence. Then I headed to the scrutineering with my bike. Naturally
it passed with flying colours. Once set up I still had a while to wait for Riders Brief.

Among other things we learnt at Riders Brief that Manfeild had made a significant
change to the Gravel Trap on the Exit of the last turn (Corner formally known as
Dunlop). In stead of there being a big gravel trap to prevent river and machine hitting
the fence there is now a huge tarmac run-off area. This at first glance changed the
safety aspect of the corner significantly…. So the riders were referred to the Duty
of Care Statement that the Clerk of the Course read out at the start of the meeting. It
appears all riders were happy to race as nobody packed up their bike and went home.
I then got changed and the bike started for my qualifying session.

Qualifying:

To get noticed I made sure I was first on the track. This also means nobody can get in
my way. I had a good look around the track at a rather pedestrian pace and bedded in
my new brake pads. After a good look at the last corner and realising there wasn’t too
much to worry about if I fell as the trajectory would mean there would be very little
chance of hitting the wall. The rumble strip had been changed to more severe blocks,
however I have ridden over this type on the past and never really had an issue. So it
was down to business for me. I reeled off a lap of 1:32.565 on my 3rd lap with a vision
to go quicker on the last 2. Unfortunately I struck a little traffic on the laps I really
wanted to go fast in and had to take slightly slower lines to get around them. No stress
though I still qualified 2nd on the grid and fastest 250 Production. Pole was
Graeme "Billy" Billington (#21) on his Honda CBR250 Minilite Bike with a
1:29.065, and 3rd was Marc-Antoine Jaquet on the Hyosung GT250R Production Bike
(#57). It would have been a little exceptional for me to get a sub 1:29.

Race 1:

I won the warm-up lap and got to my grid spot quite early…..
Last to arrive as usual was "Billy" Billington who was on pole position.
The lights came on one by one very quickly and went out. I noticed by light 2 Billy
was still looking around with his visor up! By light 4 He finally had the bike in gear
and on the 5 th light he took off! I waited until they all went out and then took off….
Just as it states in the rules that Billy himself wrote! Talking to him afterwards he was
a little put off by the rate at which the lights came on and got himself all flustered.
This earned him a 20 second penalty. I knew he had jumped the start straight away
and did my best to keep up with the flying 4 cylinder bike. Unfortunately I couldn’t
stick with him for long and his lighter weight, faster bike, and more experience
showed…. I rode 5 laps as quickly as I could without taking any risks what so ever as
to finish first, first you must finish. All I wanted to do was finish within 20 seconds of
Billy and I would have the overall win. On lap 3 I had a look around for Marc-Antoine
while exiting the Hair-Pin as I thought he was on my tail. It became apparent
that he wasn’t and as it turns out he had a problem with his bike. I spotted Simon
Robson on his Ninja 250r a little way back so just eased off a little.
I achieved the goal of finishing within 20 seconds of Billy so I was very happy. I
managed a 1:31.436 (just shy of a 120km/hr average speed) on my 3rd lap with all my
laps within a second of each other. Still a little off my best ever, but as I said there
was no risks taken what so ever.
So that is another 25 points to me and another DNF to Marc-Antoine. Simon picked
up the 22 points this time in the 250 Production Championship.

Race 2:

Race 2 was after the lunch break so after a long rest and lunch I was very keen to
get out there again. While lining up on the dummy grid I noticed Marc-Antoine was
sitting there on his BMX… I was a little puzzled by this and thought he didn’t hear
the Call-Up. As it turns out he was disqualified for 1 race for breaking a rule in race 1.
Good to see that the rules that are laid down are enforced but a shame for MarcAntoine.
It is safe to say he will never make that mistake again!
Once we were let out on the Track I got the bike nice and warm and lined up on my
#2 Grid Spot. This time everybody got a good start and I went into Turn 1 in 2nd place
and exited 2nd… Billy gave me a signal to stick with him. I was easily gaining on him
through the esses however as soon as we got onto the straights he left me for dust.
I rode 5 reasonable tidy laps to finish 1st in Class and Simon Robson got second in
the 250 Production class. He is still trying to find corner speed within himself on his
Ninja. Fastest lap of a 1:32.140 for those interested.

Race 3:

This time Marc-Antoine said he was looking forward to a battle. So after lining up
and setting off I was expecting a Hyosung to be near me for a dice. As it turns out the
fact that Marc-Antoine hasn’t really been on the Hyosung for 6 weeks and has spent
most of the day on the IMD 250 Moto3 type bike, se struggled to come to terms with
the difference in the handling of the Hyosung. So in effect race 3 was the same as race
2 for me. I did find that I was getting faster and faster through the final turn though
as I need to change into top gear a lot earlier than I used to down the front straight. I
finished the race first in class again with Billy taking the over all win. Best lap that
race was a 1:31.852.

With the round win with 75 out of 75 points secure in the Championship I now have
297 points with a lead of 101 points over Marc-Antoine Jacquet and 111 Points over
Simon Robson. I was pleased with the results overall and I am really looking forward
to Round 5 at Manfeild on September 21st.

Thanks go to:

RNZAF

Forbes and Davies + Dunlop

ProRider

Celtic Leathers

Race Fairings

City Honda

My partner Coral for all the support on the day and at home.

Last but by no means least, the Victoria Motor Cycle Club for putting on an awesome
Day. I don’t think there wasn't a single Red Flag situation (Race Restart).
For the second meeting in a row the Ambulance never actually had to go out on track.

For those that are interested the footage from all the racing can be purchased on
DVD from www.ctaslive.co.nz. Or you can watch it race by race for $2.50 each or
$20 for the lot for 30 days!