Hey everyone,
Been a while since ive been on, have come back to see 42000 new posts!!!
Well have toured the South Island and will give you a quick update oin what happened with the racing...
Teretonga (Invercargill): Its my first time doing any of the South Island tracks. Havent ridden the bike in a while, so I was using this as a learning curve for riding the bike and learning the tracks. Track was awesome, Turn 1 was amazing, 2nd gear constant radius left hander that goes for ever!!! You are at full lean for literally 4 odd seconds!!! Thursday was testing day on old tyres. Started to get a hang of the track and was sitting around the 1:04 - 1:05 mark (Lap record is low 1:00 on a 600). Friday started off well, but turned to shit real quick. Sam Smith passed me into turn 2, and took a different line into turn 4 than me, i decided to try it, but turned in far to late. Threw the bike on its side and rolled off the front tyre at about 200kmh. I slid on my back forever but had a good view of my bike cartwheeling as it hit the grass. To say it nicely i wasnt a happy chappy. All that travelling to throw the bike away on a practice day, and let down alot of poeple incuding myself. That was that weekend over.
After alot of hard work by Shaun, Graeme Cole, Humpheries Engineering and Myself the bike was back together ready for Levels (Timaru)
Levels (Timaru): WHAT A TRACK!!! Bumpy as hell but very technical. I spent all friday just learning the track. Aim was to keep it upright for this round. Qualifyed badly due to not having any spare rims and it started raining literally 5 mins before qualifying. So went out on brand new production tyres in the rain, could have gone faster, but no point in throwing it away again. Qualifyed 21 out of 23. Race One, finally got a decent start and came 18th with a best time of 1:11.3. Race Two got an average start and had a good dice with Kevin Brookes for the first 2 laps (got the scratches on my fairings to prove it!) Came 16th with a best time of 1:11.2.
Ruapuna (Christchuch): Probably the best track in the country (although Taupo is right up there with it) Turn one is pretty scary, Come along the front straight at 250 odd kmh and enter the kink, before braking at about the 100 metre mark with the back end sliding out before dropping it into the corner!!! Starting to finally get comfortable with the bike and pushing it harder. Qualifyed 16th with a time of 1:41.5. Race one, had a good dice with Daniel Mclachlan and got past him, started to hunt down Andrew Evans but he crashed right infront of me in turn 2. Came 14th with a best time of 1:41.6. Race Two, Andrew Evans and John Ross. Worked hard and passed Andrew Evans on the 2nd to last lap. Came 11th with a best time of 1:41.2 and all my times over 10 laps were with in 0.6 seconds of that 1:41.2 with the brake lever coming all the way into the bar hehehe.
Finally at a solid base with myself and the bike to start working on going fast. Im still not getting on the throttle early enough. Going to start working on suspension settings with the help of Shaun. Looking forward to Manfield...
Few people to thank: Chloe for putting up with all the travelling around the country. Trev for supplying the bike. Shaun and Moto Dynamix for putting Chloe and I up at his house, all the work done on the bike and all the invaluable info i have learned. Rob for supplying the truck to cart us and the bikes around. Graeme Cole for working on my bike. Jason Hulme for loaning me his rims for Ruapuna. Nicko for the exhaust, heaps more to thank, but cant think off the top of my head, so i thank those people too.
See you at Manfield
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Originally Posted by Speedie
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