Well I didn't write up a report about my Pukekohe Nationals, cause I was a touch dissappointed in my 17th placing, but I'll do a summary at the end of my PMCC write up which I was much happier with.
First F1 practice: Bike felt terrible was sliding everywhere on the rear. Was surprised that nobody was going much faster than me. Got in at the end of the session and noticed that the left hand side of the tyre was completely fried. It was a second hand Dunlop that I had got for Pukekohe, and it was fine on the right hand side circuit, but I think the person who had used it before me had ruined the left hand side. I didn't have any spare rears so I was just going to have to ride it like a dirt bike.
F2 practice: Went out with the front group, and again nobody seemed faster than me despite not being able to power out of the corners, felt the bike slide at high speed in the left hander at the back of the circuit very unnerving considering I was only babying the throttle. Power sliding onto the front straight and pretty much every left hander, couldn't put any power down out of the left handers, and even with neutral throttle in the corners it was still moving around. Scared my pants off on that high speed left hander on the back straight with minimal power it was sliding out big time at high speed.
Can't separate all the races in my head, so I'll do a summary for each class.
F1 races: Think I came 4th 5th and 3rd. Got excellent launches, and was always in second place by the first corner behind the Aprilia 1000. But in the first two F1 races I was running the burnt up Dunlop, and was surprised that I was beating anyone. Tried backing off the preload, which definitely helped the handling, but the tyre was boned. In the last F1 race I was on a Pirelli slick that Johnno (KZ) had leant me and being the first time I had ever ridden on a slick, I was extremely impressed, felt awesome, and know that I could get on the power earlier than I was.
F2 races: Think I got 5th?, 2nd and 2nd. Again, had the slick on for the two second places. In the second F2 race, I was in the lead at one stage, until Nick Odermatt caught me on his Triumph, and forced his way past after I stuffed up the exit after the tyre chicane. Then held second for a while until Kyle Key capitalised on another major stuff up, and was gone before I could regain composure and follow his lines. It was about a lap later he had a big highside coming onto the front straight, there was definitely a fair share of carnage in one of the F2 races can't remember which one, which left me back in second. In the last F2 race, I had my worst launch of the day, and ended up in 4th place, whereas in all the other races even from the second row of the grid I was in second by the first corner. NickO led from start to finish, I somehow managed to get past a couple of pretty quick guys, including one nutter on a motard who probably think's I'm a nutter now. Anyway, held second, NickO wasn't making huge strides away from me, in fact he was in my sight for the whole race. Considering he was about 3 seconds a lap quicker than me on my CBR at Pukekohe I was well pleased. Got onto the last lap, and started to lose concentration, knew that I had a couple of guys up me so I started to take Motard lines, you know, real late on the brakes pointing straight at the corner slowing right down in the corner, pointing and shooting. Was working well, was even backing it into a fair few of the really tight ones, but then coming up to the s's before the last sweeper onto the front straight, and I reached for the brakes and missed *insert screams* had another grab and got it, but had badly missed a suitable braking marker had to go very directly into the S's and slow down heaps, threw the bike around so nobody would have any room next to me, and once I got to the sweeper I knew I was safe, cause my strong point is definitely my corner exits, could hear my fairings scraping on the ground around that last corner and powered to the line. Was really happy with that race, and really happy with my riding all day. I've definitely come along way since this time last year when I won my first streetstock race at this meeting... Photos to come.
Oh yeah finished 3rd overall in F2 for the day and 3rd in F1 for the series.
Thanks first and foremost go to my parents, and Peter and Dallas Carbines, for making it possible for me to race in these classes.
To Johno, yes you were leaving darkies out of the corners, but I think I was too on that shagged Dunlop, it's certainly missing a lot of rubber off that side. Congrats on a hard earned Championship win. Awesome
To Leong and DuckAddict, thanks for coming along to support, it's great to have guys coming along and supporting, definitely makes it worthwhile.
To Gran and Col, thanks for coming along aswell, glad you enjoyed it.
To all the KB'ers, especially Goblin, Cowpoos, Keystone, Whitetrash, Kiwifruit(I really need to meet you), Nickster, great to see a growing force from the KB crowd, not just in numbers but also in performance.
Puke Nationals Summary:
Practice and qualifying: Started with 65's, got down to a high 63 in qualifying which put me 0.1seconds behind TwoSmoker on his K5, so I was pretty happy, cause I had the second oldest bike in the field. Think I was 17th on the grid. But very happy getting into the 63's. I'm sure my bike used to get way higher top speed on the back straight when I first got it.
Race day: Didn't get much sleep cause I was quite nervous. Upped the preload on the rear shock, and I think this was my first mistake. Ran pretty consistent 64, ran off the track a couple of times and got two 17th places, but was very dissappointed, cause this is the first time since I have started racing that I haven't made noticeable improvements in my riding. Can put some of it down to being too tired, and some of it down to wrong mindset, and some of it down to poor suspension change, and possibly a poor rear tyre. Anyway, that's the first time I haven't been really proud of my riding/improvement.
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Originally Posted by Drew
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