HDTboy's spectacular

[HDTboy]

Yes folks, I am spectacularly slow on my new bike.

Went out on Saturday in the first session and got thoroughly soaked trying to get the bike to run on 4, and scrub in a new tyre. Had a huge wheelspin most of the way down pit straight when the 4th cylinder kicked in.

Got quicker through the day, but was still cruising.

Qualifying race Straight back into my old habits on the new bike. Got a less than stellar start, and spent the rest of the race working my way back through the field.

Didn't get much sleep on Saturday night.

Motoracer picked me up first thing in the morning and we cruised to the track and unloaded his bike into our pit garage. It was cool to have 3 mates on 3 different bikes in the same garage doing the same races.

Race one Got a slightly better start than Saturdays effort, was happily picking my way through the field when I came up to a K6 who seemed slower through the midfield than I was. I passed him between turns 3 and 4 on the right hand side, dropped into turn 4 and slid wide on the paint. Very concious of how close the guy was behind me, I did what I could to stay on the track, and finished in that position.
Post race, I went to his garage to apologise but couldn't find him. A few minutes later, he showed up in our garage with his dad all fired up. We had a chat, and sorted things out.

Race two By now I was coming to grips with launching the bike, only lost two or three places off the line. Cruised around for a bit picking up places, the came up behind the same K6. Not wanting to start more shit, I held my position until steve_r6r passed me, we cruised in close formation through to the end of the race.

Race three Had fun avoiding the crash over the hill. Had a bit of a slide, and almost got thrown out of the seat exiting turn 7, the left hand hairpin. I don't remember much else other than being able to keep Vtec and KickingZebra in sight which meant I must've been getting quicker.

Formula Taupo Invitational I managed to get a good start, and passed a few bikes within the first few laps. I was trying harder in this race cause I couldn't bear to be beaten by an F3 bike on my new machine.
Funnily enough, I was beaten by lots of F2 bikes. I managed to outbrake myself coming into the last set of corners, and had to cut the last corner off. That cost me a lot of places, but I saved the bike.


Thanks to:
Carbines Engineering
VTEC and family for the help on the day and bringing the bike to the track.
Goblin for driving, and the motivational speech.
KZ for the leather loan
E-man, R4Q2, and the rest of the Rotorua Rat Riders for telling me how slow I am.
MR and Nicko for showing me how slow I am.

Things to improve next time:
I need to learn how to adjust the suspension I have, to set the bike up for me.
I need to harden up.
I need to find tyres which don't rip up.
I need new gear.

[Goblin]

You did bloody well Gav! Good things take time ya know. Was your first race meeting on the bike so you can only get faster!

[kiwifruit]

In good time.
Love the sig.

[justsomeguy]

In good time.

What the good kwaka rider says.

You've got at least 20 years racing ahead of you - can you even imagine how good you're gonna be???

[vtec]

Hey man, you were doing alright out there. On a foreign bike and all. My first F2 race I got a right royal spanking. The bikes are like bloody rocket ships. It seems to take forever to get comfortable on them when you make the step up. I'm still far from comfortable on my one even after several meetings.

Also, there's heaps of pics of you on that guy's website who took all the photos at the meeting. I'll let you go through and find all the ones you want to post up cause it takes bloody ages.

[HDTboy]

I'm gonna whip you at the next PMCC round buddy

[Steve_R6R]

Great write up.
Good to meet you, those pesky white lines were kind of skiddy.

Catch ya later

[HDTboy]

That's an understatement, glad to hear you and KZ kissed and made up after I watched him hit you

[SixPackBack]

You looked good on saturday Gav..passin' dudes around the outside aint' easy.

you'll make it.

[Shaun]

What I really want to know is who is the pussy with the K6 and the dad?

[HDTboy]

Karl Morgan, they came over after racing had finished for the day, and they were happy as.
Do you know how to adjust WP suspension Shaun?

[Matt Bleck]

E-man, R4Q2, and the rest of the Rotorua Rat Riders for telling me how slow I am.

WTF!

[Cleve]

Well done and good to see you doing well on a pretty good little Gixxer.
Next round buddy...

[emaN]

E-man, R4Q2, and the rest of the Rotorua Rat Riders for telling me how slow I am.

WTF!

Tboy! don't go writing his name in capitals...he don't like that! makes him sound like a robot outta Star Wars or summink'

Well done for keeping the "Bro" shiny... And for the record, i never said you were slow......just that you weren't fast (yet) .
Like i said tho', take it easy, learn the bike and how it feels on brakes, mid-corner, under power etc, get some better rubber and give it time.

cool pics tho, esp those where you're "looking" at the lens!

[Matt Bleck]

Tboy! don't go writing his name in capitals...he don't like that! makes him sound like a robot outta Star Wars or summink'

Well done for keeping the "Bro" shiny... And for the record, i never said you were slow......just that you weren't fast (yet) .
Like i said tho', take it easy, learn the bike and how it feels on brakes, mid-corner, under power etc, get some better rubber and give it time.

cool pics tho, esp those where you're "looking" at the lens!

I reckon you should change your name to "the missing link"