Hey everyone,
Well I went to Pukekohe with zero expectations of myself. It is also 12 months to the day today (crashed on the 12/03/06) that I had my huge crash at Pukekohe... Time to see if I still had some phsycological demons at Puke...
Test day: Spent the day getting reaquainted with the track, slowly upping the pace and working out what the suspension was doing. Was doing consistant 4's and a couple of high 3's (slow) but was slowly upping the pace. Shaun recommended some suspension changes which as usual helped emmensely, giving me more confidence in turn one.
Practice 1: Did more suspension changes and increased pace alot into turn one, was having issues braking for the hairpin, but that was remedied with new brake pads and a little less fork oil. Still going to slow through the lefts (where i crashed) and over the hill. I was slowly but surely increasing the pace through these corners though. Dissappointing time of 1:04.584.
Practice 2: Due to a crash and a red flag, there wasnt alot of time for practice. Got stuck behind some people, so did not get a clear lap. Backed off but got stuck behind people again.... Session over with a slightly better time of 1:03.74.
Qualifying: I know what i have to do to go fast. With the help of Shaun the bike is handling great. But my mind wasnt letting me do it. I was very dissappointed with my time of 1:03.870 putting me 16th on the grid.
Race 1: Time for the race face. Got a shocking start, but quickly rode around the outside of alot of bikes and jumped into around 12th place. Got passed on the back straight by a couple of bikes, but shoved it back up the inside at the hairpin. Andrew Evans, Ricky Mckay and Kyle Key got past me on the back straight and I was pushing hard to keep them insight. Geoff Booth then passed me on the backstraight. I nearly hit his back tyre coming up the hill, then he gained a small gap with power, I would fly up behind him into turn one, go around the outside and stuff it up the inside into turn 2. I would try and get the fastest exit possible onto the back striaght, but everytime geoff would come past on the backstraight, just for me to catch up on brakes and it would start up all over again. Towards the end of the race i was staying infront of Geoff (found out later he was just staying behind to let me do the work) In the last couple of laps Geoff got past and stayed in front. Crossed the line in 15th 1 second behind Geoff with a 1:03.360 as a best time.
Race 2: My bike is underpowered, but that is still no excuse as i can still ride it faster. Got another average start, but once again went around the outside of bikes on turn one. Geoff was infront of me, and i was riding hard to catch up. He had caught onto my tactic into turn 2, and started blocking me, managed to get past once there but nearly went sightseeing in the grass. Made one pass on the hairpin, but couldnt make it stick on the exit. Ricky also got past me on the back straight and they both got a little bit of a lead on me. Couldnt have that so I pulled finger, and worked on my slow areas, the hill and turn one. Finally was getting full throttle through both lefts and up the hill (with a small roll off when changing direction) Had a good back end slide on the top but it didnt faze me. I could see I was reeling them in, but it was the last lap. Not enough time to catch them, but close the distance to 0.9 of a second to once again finish in 15th. Was pretty happy to see that I got a time on 1:02.713.
Bike and myself plenty more to give, and could definately see high 1:01's as the bike is as is. Conquered my demons, didnt crash, and consistently improved. Im pleased and am looking forward to improving more over the winter ready for the next nationals.
Huge thanks goes to Chloe, normally she supports me alot, but she also helped out alot in the pits this round, taking parts off the bike, tightening and checking bolts and doing a great job (Hopefully i can train her my cowboy mechanic ways so she can do it full timehehehe). Also big thanks to Shaun and Motodynamix for helping me this nationals. Have learnt heaps and your time has been invaluble, Cheers mate
. Big thanks to Trev for supplying the bike
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Originally Posted by Two Smoker
) a bit of track time....hehehee
, I too kinda have a curvy figure which makes it worse beacuse im a guy. Well the waist kinda goes in and the bum pushes out. When I was in college the girls in my year would slap me on the arse and squeeze because apparently it is firm, tight...
I wear jeans
lookout peoples....
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