We arrived in Pukekohe at around 10 on Friday night. Got settled into the motel and went straight to bed. I was awake before 5 on Saturday morning and couldn’t really get back to sleep so got up just before 7 and headed out to the track. We found a place in the pits and set about sorting the bike out, signing in and then getting through scrutineering.
The format for the weekend was two 20 min qualifying sessions followed by 3 races, 1 on Saturday (9 laps) and 2 on Sunday (the first a 9 lapper and the second the feature race, 15 laps, the NZTT). Before I knew it the first qualifying session was upon us. Being my first time on the track, I was fairly cautious to start with. I was by myself for the whole session, apart from being lapped towards the end. Would have liked to follow one of the guys that was only slightly faster than me around, but that would have to wait for the race. After 12 laps the chequered flag was out so I headed back into the pits. I got the timesheet from the office and found that my best lap time was a 1.14.4, nothing spectacular but a good start. This left me 15th out of 17, so pretty average but at least I wasn’t last. After the session I decided to put drop the rear sprocket 1 tooth to try and get a bit more top end, as I felt I was revving out too early down the main straight.
Before I knew it the next session had come around. I was determined to drop my times by a lot more in this session and try and get up the starting grid. Again I didn’t have anyone to follow around apart from being lapped by 1 or 2 of the top guys towards the end of the session. I felt I was going better now and was able to gradually brake later and later coming into the hairpin. The bump on the left-hander before the hill was very off-putting as well as the 3 big ones through jennian, but my bike seemed to handle it ok. After 12 laps I was coming up to the hairpin when I saw bits of fairing on the track around 50 to 100m out from the 200m braking mark. I also saw 2 bikes and 2 bodies lying beside the track, this was a nasty accident and knew that the session would be red flagged so just pulled into the pits. What had happened is that a guy was slowing down and had his arm out indicating it, because he had a problem with his bike and was pulling into the pits. Another guy came up behind him, flat out (205kph according to the data logger on the bike) and didn’t see him, smashed right into the back of him and both guys went flying. The guy that was in front, his bike hit the Armco with tremendous force that it actually snapped the frame in half about 200mm down from the steering head (got pics I will post later). From what I heard, both guys received one broken ankle each and also one of the guys broke his wrist too, a fairly bad start to the weekend. Again I went and got my timesheet from the office and found I managed to drop 1 second off my lap times (down to 1:13.4), but still had qualified 15th. Oh well, nothing I could do about it now, just needed to focus on the first race.
At around 3:30 we were called up for our first race. We did our 2 warm-up laps and then were lined up at our grid positions ready for the lights to go out. I got a terrible start, first I missed when the lights went out and then let the clutch out too early and bogged it down a bit, but didn’t end up loosing too much time. Through castrol and onto the back straight for the first time, I was on the arse of another guy but that didn’t last for long. He shot away into the distance as soon as he got into 3rd gear and then it was onto the brakes. I managed to pull up alongside him coming into the hairpin but wasn’t able to make it stick. This continued for most of the race, I was the last in a line of 4 bikes. They would bugger off down the straights and I would make up time through jennian and also under brakes into the hairpin. I wasn’t able to make any passes and finished off 13th. After the race, I again went and got the result sheet and found that I had dropped 2.8 seconds off my qualifying time so now had a best time of 1:10.6. I was pretty stoked with that and that was the 10th fastest time in the race, so knew that I had the potential to finish higher in the standings, but just had to pull it together.
That was the end of proceedings on Saturday, so we packed up and headed back to the motel to watch the black caps kick some auzzie butt.
After a much better nights sleep we were back at the track just on 8am Sunday morning ready for the last 2 races of the meet. Forecasts had said that there was to be major rain on the Sunday but it didn’t look like there was going to be any at all (pretty strange for the weather forecast to be wrong, again, lol). I went out for the tyre scrub in session to do 3 or 4 laps just to make sure everything was good. I had gone back to the 37 tooth rear sprocket as I wasn’t revving the bike out down the straight in the first race. It seemed to be a bit better but in hindsight was still way too high and should have been a 38 tooth at the most, but not to worry.
The second race came around at about 11:30 and this time I had a much better start. I managed to pass 2 or 3 guys off the line and then 1 more coming into the esses. Again they buggered off down the straight and again I managed to pass 1 or 2 under brakes coming into the hairpin. This time I had managed to get onto the tail of Paul Cook and we were pulling pretty even lap times. I was able to pass him coming into the hairpin and then he would pass me down the straights etc. It was the 4th lap and I was feeling pretty confident that I could beat him. Again I passed him under braking coming into the hairpin and he came past down the start/finish straight. I had him lined up to go round the outside at jennian, but then I felt my bike hesitate and loose a bit of power. I thought something had broken in the engine, or maybe I had chipped a reed. I continued slowly back to the pits, a dnf whilst coming 11th on the 5th lap. I managed a best time of 1:11.1 which I was pretty happy with seeing as I was dicing with the other guy on that lap.
Suspecting that I had chipped a reed I went to work on taking out what needed to be removed to get to the reed block. I took the slide out of the carb and instantly saw the problem. For some reason, the clip had fallen off the needle thus letting the needle drop down into the needle jet completely blocking it off. I was relieved that it wasn’t a major problem but also disappointed that I wasn’t able to finish the race, oh well, “that’s racing” as they always say. I managed to get a new clip and put the carb etc back together ready for the final race of the weekend. This was the feature event, the 15 lap New Zealand Tourist Trophy.
We lined up on the grid again after the 2 warm up laps and the lights went red. They went off and again I got a fairly good start and passed 2 people off the line. We were onto the back straight and I managed to get into the slipstream of another guy for about the first half of the straight. This helped quite a lot and I passed 2 guys coming into the hairpin and made it stick this time. The guy that I was with when I pulled out of the 2nd race was right with me again. We passed a couple of times in the first 4 or 5 laps but then he managed to get away from me. I was by myself for the next 5 or so laps until Leonie Rogers had some sort of problem and I caught up to her. We were pretty close for a few laps but then she pulled a gap on me which I was not able to close down. For the last 4 laps I was by myself and just rode out the race. I ended up coming 10th in this race with a best time of 1:10.9. I was pretty happy with that, saving my best race for the NZTT.
So that was the end of the weekend, the first round of the nationals for this season done and dusted. A great learning experience for future years. Now it’s on to Manfeild this weekend. Hopefully I will be able to do a bit better down there, am aiming to finish all 3 races in the top 10. Just need to try and qualify slightly higher than 15th this time.
Was good to meet some new and catch up with some old kbers. Great to see two smoker kicking some butt in F3 and also see the team kb bikes doing really well. If you’re at Manfeild this weekend, come and say hi would love to meet you.
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Originally Posted by scracha
Top effort on the 1:10's especially on an old bike 
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