For the whole time, I had kept my mind completly blank to stop myself from stressing out about it all. On Friday afternoon I came back home after lunch and started putting my bike together. I finished by about 7 and left Auckland with all the gear with Andrew. We reached Taupo at about midnight after clocking the van somewhere along straight roads.
Next morning, had a nice shower then had a nice coffee that slim made for us. Me and Andrew left the motel and went to the track. As we parked at the pits, I had just realised that I had left my race licence along with my backpack at the motel! Thanx to Maduck, I got the backpack back and got myself sussed for going racing.
The individual who had previously denied my application to F2 was still stuck on her point about not letting me do anything but clubmans to begin with. She said that she’ll see how well I’d do then she’ll think about it. From then on in my mind, I had something that I needed to prove.
After riders briefing, all the novice riders that included me got to go around the track for the first time. The weather was quite nice. It was cloudy and the track was wet (which I don't mind at all). I went on the track and it felt really nice. I was in full control of the bike along with each and every slide that I was having. I must have done about 5 laps and I was really confident. Comming around after finishing my 6th lap, I got my knee down at the hairpin in the wet and thought "Sweet, I am warming up well". Then I came around the little right hander and then the Ses. As I was exiting the Ses, I looked at the stands for a split second for some reason and before I knew it, I was helmet surfing on my new Suomy!
I picked up my self and the marshals picked the bike up. I was unscratched so I just followed the marshals as they told me where to go. We went over to the pits and looked at the bike and it was basically unmarked apart from a graze on the stator cover. It also had some minor scratches on the bottom half of the fairing only, all thanks to the crash bungs.
Apparently I did a high side/low side acording to some people that were watching. Almost a highside but it didn’t kick me off hard since it was wet. . I went over the bike and hit my head hard on the track. I had just shifted to 4th and powering up for the straight and lost the back real quick along with the front almost instantly. No one could really discribe it all that well to me so I guess its just one of thoes things that I can expect to happen while I am learning and experimenting with the bike on the track.
That person who was stopping me from going into F2 was now even more stuck on the point since I had obviously made a big dick out of myself by being the first person to crash on the first very few laps on the day. My confidence was down as well so I had no intention of fighting back so I thougth that it was probably for the best.
I borrowed a helmet from KK and got to go on the track again. Thanx man! This time round it was basically all dry but I was going real slow. I went in for another round of practice and picked up the pace a little bit.
Practice was over and the racing began. I watched everyone that I knew race which was really cool. It was now Race 7 and I was on Que for basically what I had been waiting for all my life. Well, not clubmans to be exact but just the racing part. "Motoracer" really defines who I am I think, specially now... I am not commenting on my riding ability or anything like that but something about racing just feels right to me and I feel at home with it.
After 2 laps of warm up we lined up for the 1st round of Clubmans. I was in neutral and was just checking the helmet strap as the green flag went down. lol I was like oooops! Anyway, I clicked it in 1st and basically used my unfair power advantage over the smaller bikes in clubmans and went into midfield by turn one. Half way through the track I was in second and just after that I got the lead. I was thinking that I would be nervous when I race but it was the coolest feeling in the world! For the first time in my life, I was riding fast for a cause. I just did the best 6 laps I could and almost ended up lapping most of the clubbies after crossing the chequred flag. I came in and was given the pat on the back by everyone which was really nice!!
Frosty had a chat with that person holding me back from F2 and she continued to not let me go into F2 and be rude to me aswell. She obviously had no backup from any of the officials so in the end I was allowed to go in with the F2 guys! YAY!!
I was all excited and did my warm up laps with the rest of the F2 guys which was really cool. We lined up and again when I wasn’t ready, the green flag went down… Not that it really mattered cause I was told to start from way at the back. They also told me that I was on watch and if anything at all happened that was out of ordinary even a little bit, I’d get done. I just followed thoes guys in F2 and it felt like the coolest feeling I have had while riding a bike. I wasn’t falling back too far behind on most places except for the hairpin where I later found out that I was using the wrong gear which made me loose about at least a second or two each time. Coming around after a few laps I saw 2 bikes go down big time. That was very ugly… One of the bikes was munted real bad. It just made me realise how lucky I was cause it was possible for my bike to end up like that as well. The bank owns more than half of my bike still so if I was to total it, I can’t even imagine what would happen after that…
We got a race restart and we went around again. Again I was coming last but it felt WAY better than coming first in Clubmans. Just watching these guys ride improved my own riding heaps!
After I finished, a few more races went ahead then the weather turned real crap. It started pissing down real hard and the racing was cancled. We packed up and headed back to town center and had a chat over a beer before having an interesting trip up but that’s another story (it didn’t include any illigal activity btw)
The post is already too long but there were so many cool things that happened and its impossible to discribe it all without writing a book about it lol. I really enjoyed the Taupo circuit and I rate it as a much more enjoyable and entertaining track than Pukekohe. Personally I think it absolutly was a perfect first race meeting for me. I am still feeling sooo cool right now just from the entire experience, it was just amazing. I know that that experience was only the tip of the iceburg in terms of speed, crashes, racing/dicing with each other etc. so there are a lot of things to look forward to and some things to hope that it will never happen. I just can’t wait to get my self organised and actually start fiddeling my bike to set it up and get some more practice to get the pace for F2.
It wouldn’t have been all possible if it wasn’t for some people who have helped me out so much so I would just like to thank them for what they have done. I would like to thank my Brother for introducing me to bikes and encouraging me every step of the way and helping me out financially. I would like to thank FireFight for the help he has given me every step of the way. Andrew mate, you made this race meeting possible by coming with me to the track and helping me out so much. Also your company made the whole trip really enjoyable. Frosty, thanx for giving me that final nudge to get my shit together and get sorted for the race day and your encouragement all the way along. Thanx White trash for the help in getting me the bike sorted with advises and the tires. There are a few more people who have made it all possible for me and I thank them with all my heart. You are all great people and I appreciate every thing that you have done for me.
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Originally Posted by Motoracer
Proud but not arrogant! Nice to see.
. Glad it all went well, look forward to a blat with you soon.
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