Jonno KZ Gnats

[kickingzebra]

This is an unapologetic rip from my Sportsbike post. Which is unapologetically poorly written, something about internet cafes just doesn't inspire me as it should... and my hands are damn sore cause I was going soo low I kept scraping my hand sliders (gloves) on the ground...

OK you get the pic... here tis. I am officially not the slowest. But nearly.
The calibre of guys out there is incredible, you just don't get this in club racing. Very humbling, but as has been pointed out, I have nothing to prove, and everything to learn.
Shaun has been great working with me over the weekend, can't thank the man enough. Shining example of humanity despite what some may think. Thanks Shaun.

Nationals round one survived!!!
Practice was windy, quailifyinbg was windy.
I ran off in turn one of the eventual actual qualifying, (we had three..)
Qualified 9th of 16 in the pissing down rain (not everyone out)
then a bit lower when the rain had lightened, then they decided to run actual qualifying. I ran a real hot first lap on the tail of sam smith and nicko. Was going swimmingly well, until the final turn Elbow. That is a very hard turn. Incredible. Tryed to break from 4th gear, drop to second and belwo 100 km all from on the 100 metre marker. Then I target fixed. Off into the gravel I went. But it is deeep. Couldn't keep it up long enough for pregnancy to be an issue. Took a spill into the gravel, and my lanyard pulled.
The bastard thing of tuning a bike is that they can be really hard to start when hot. Or cold. argh. Took 5 minutes to get it started. The gravel was too deep to push out by myself, I am right in the crash zone, my bike won't start, no marshalls are helping...
What a bastard. So after the 5 minutes and a nearly flat battery it started for me, and I put in a few nice laps with gravel rattling around in my helmet.
Pulled a 1.08.4 which put me exactly last on the grid.
22nd out of 22, could be worse. Still, the fastest were 1.01 or so. So within the 15 percent cut. Wheww.
Racing, what a series of dramas.
Andrew Stroud came off in turn one on lap 8, after his coolant hose blew off, and leaked water onto the tyre... At 220. Ouch...
He didn't move. Lets just say there is so much more to the competitive edge of this racing game than just going faster than everyone else. Spect.
Red flag, ambul;ance comes out. Then eventually we have a restart, as they try and figure out if we should be restarting 20 laps or just the remainder.
Stroudy comes out with us, and that is a great story in itself, but 8 minutes on the timer says I must type fast.
Lap 9 of 13, I was lapped by Sam smith, Craig Sheriffs and eventually Seaton.
Then I lost concentration for half a second. Up onto the ripple strip, and down onto the ground.
Thinking to myself, bugger this, Im gonna pack up and go home...
I roll and roll and roll. It is a forth gear corner, but not flat out. Thankfully I didn't touch my new helmet down.
My lovely new blue quasimoto suit isn't soo lucky unfortunately...
Hurt my hands pretty bad, but they are coming right slowly.
Got the thing back together and re scrutineered... (duct tape hides much... muhahaha) and went out for the second race.
Managed to pass a 05 zxr600 on the end of the straight, and kept him behind me for the whole race, to my surprise. I am seriously noticing the lack of horsies. End of the nats is definitly a new bike for me.
So I am coming 20th of 22 entrants in 600 SS with 0.000001 points (or something like that, but I am learning a hell of a lot.
It is the best race environment ever, everyone is so friendly and great.
Full respect to the guys campaiging 2 bikes. Hell of an effiort.
Thanks to Shane (MT) Quasi, and Shaun, Chris, Chloe, Rob, Anthony, Nick, Frosty and Robert Taylor. All these people, and everyone else in the paddock who is making it such a worthwhile experience.
I'll come back a faster little boy!!

[Keystone19]

Good on you Jonno. At least you are there and doing it - unlike the rest of Team MaD Racing...

Glad everything is repairable...

Love you long time...

[skelstar]

A great read Jonno. Good to hear youre having 'fun'.

[k14]

Yeah good stuff mate. I'm a dumbass for not meeting you, or did i? Will see you at levels. Oh yeah, got some photos of you too. Will post them up later.

[ZeroIndex]

wow... that sounds awesome. Good luck with the rest of the Nationals

[Cleve]

Good for you teammate. Proud of you regardless of your distinct lack of podium finishes.
Maybe in Manfield you will not be last (that will be me instead!! - ha ha...)
A great report and the reading was almost as entertaining as the riding must have been...
Any TV cameras out there?

[k14]

Any TV cameras out there?

There was one on the 125 dummy grid for the last race that I saw. Apparently they have got TV coverage of all rounds. With the first report of levels/teretonga on the 21st of this month on tv one motorsport, sunday afternoon.

[motobob]

Great effort Johno. That 1st National is hard aye. Good luck in the next round and keep that bike sunnyside up.

[sugilite:Me]

Great race report, great effort and superb attitude dude!
It was encouraging to see your smiling face throughout the weekend.

kudos to you and see you at levels!

[Shaun]

Johno, you did dam well mate, and you are doing yourself proud.

It is great to see guy's like you out doing it, you have nothing to prove but keep on trying, that is exactually the attitude that will take you far in life.

Great to see your whole family along with you as well

[Torque]

Good on you mate!! really enjoyed watching you race and good to see you walking around with a big smile on your face, i still owe you a coffee.

[kickingzebra]

Hehe, Rob, you owe Bron the coffee I am told... She is a Hot choco drinker
Thanks guys, am really loving it, Beginning to realise that to go fast for someone like me, though possible, certainly isn't just a matter of getting a fast bike and not thinking of consequences.

Gonna take a year or two of learning to get up to a reasonable pace, but I am gonna give it my best shot.

Bron is really enjoying the South Island, as we are meandering our way through all the little towns, staying in camping grounds etc.
Sarah is really enjoying all the hugs and adoring smiles from complete strangers, and all the sleeping time in the truck.

Levels this weekend, scared and excited. The bank balance is demanding I keep it rubber side down this time, so I'll do my best to finish all of the races.
Let y'all know how it goes!

[Cleve]

Good luck matey. Can't wait to catch up in Fielding.

[FROSTY:Me]

Bloody good effort mate--It was cool seeing you dicing with sam there for awhile --Im only upset I diddnt get to be stepdad to ya lil gal--she is serously cute --Nahh mate Im kidding --bloody good to be out on the tr4ack with ya

[kickingzebra]

That was a slow weekend, but thanks to the generousity of the stewards, I was allowed to continue racing despite being lapped twice.

They instituted a rule saying in the interests of safety, if you are going to be lapped twice, you will be black flagged. I was fuming, because there were only two people on the track who that would apply to, and me, being at the back by a few seconds, was one of them.

the fast guys were seemingly not too bothered about having to ride around me, and I wasn't racing aggressively, to try and hold others up.

The goal for me for the weekend was to hit 1:15 s. didn't care where in there.
In qualifying I ended up getting a 1:15.8. I was pretty stoked, and thought, I will have to up my aim a bit. After hearing the black flag news I went out for 2 laps in tyre scrub session (on decidedly second hand tyres) and set a 1:15.2 on the second.

Was pretty happy, but had to be turning over 1:12s in order to avoid being lapped twice, in a 20 lap race by the heads of the feild doing 1:06.5s

Went out in the first race, fair pissed off (trying to foster the angry) and got an average start, last into turn one, 20/22 on the grid. Put in a couple of quick laps till I hit a nasty false nuetral at 240 on the straight. Bucked my rythym, and I settled from doing a 1:14.08 back to 1:16s and the like. really erratic. I was waiting for the black flag, being curtious to let the fast guys take the fast lines, and the next thing I see is a black flag with 16 written on the board. Aye?? I am 132? I know I am dead last, and I am expecting it.

Then The white flag, then the checkered!!! I was soo stoked to finish the race. Guy Merryweather, the MNZ steward, saw me on the grid, while marking my (now very very second hand) tyres, and said, the race was spread, so there wasn't any danger, so we let you finish. That man deserves a DB (sorry Nicko!!)

Much happier, at being allowed to finish the race we have spent thousands of dollars to get to, the day bore on, soo damn hot, it was unbelieveable.

Watched Hayden Fitzgerald throw his mighty honda 3 metres in the air at 280 kmph, land on the roof and windscreen of one of the marshalls vehicles, parked up and off the track. Shit that would have been scarey, sitting in the seat!! Hayden hit the tyre wall. I Thought that boy, hes dead. He wasn't. Got on the spare bike after the restart, and put in some smoking laps!! Let down by a loose clip on, but I suspect the hurt of the impact was catching up.

They trimmed our next race to 15 laps, which was good. I actuallly jumped about 3 places on the start, not turn one! (gradually lost them unfortunately)
Put in 14 laps, with each lap being within 1.8 secoonds, so the consistancy was coming.

I would like to come back to the SI mid year, and just refresh my memory.

Next year I aim to be a lot faster, and not have to worry about black flags.

Any, up to Ruapuna with the beautiful Bronwyn, and the sweet Sarah.

Is gonna be a goos week.
Love you all, buh bye!!