Thursday Afternoon leave home and drive the bus to pick dad up from work and leave Masterton at 5PM,
Finally get to Bombay Service station at 2:30 Friday Morning,
Get to sleep and wake at 7:30 at the race track, Get up and have a talk to a few Sidecar guys and then get into the track and set pit up with Shaun and Chris.
Sign on for Friday practice as I want to get some laps in since I had never seen the circuit before, Steve Ward offered to take me round the track with a few of the other 125 riders to get a chance to see it from inside the van and earn some valuable tips from him.
First Practice Friday
Head onto track noting things like don’t mess up turn 1 as there’s no run off, and how bumpy it is through there, Note the back straight length and work on a basic brake marker of 200 metres from the hairpin, Also note the bike is not working how I want it to and is to rich off the bottom end, I was instantly impressed with the Ford Mountain and turn 1 making them my favourite corners on the circuit.
I come in with a best time of 1:17 happy with that as I knew I was no were near the limits.
Decide to have a quiet beer that night as well and walk the track to get a bit more of an understanding of the bumps etc.
Qualifying Saturday
Warm the bike up and head onto track to see what I can do, Practice my launch as I leave pit lane onto the circuit and around turn 1 finding that when on the throttle the bumps are a lot more smoother but you then end up with a lot of front end slide,
Change from 5th gear down to second hard on the brakes and shift my body weight across the bike to the left weight the left peg and tip in at the half way mark of this corner I push hard with my toes and shift my arse over to the right and hang my leg off Get on the throttle just rolling it on I find through Castrol here the bike is very stable and smooth and you can feel the tires on the limit once I hit the Apex I end up just Fatting the throttle onto the stop and down the back straight, I can see why it is the longest in the country Hooking 6th just at the kink I hold the throttle wide pulling 12500RPM The Jetting feels rich as it isn’t pulling a draft at all.
Brake at the 150 metre mark for the hairpin 50 metres more than Friday and come down to first lean the bike over then drag knee and slip the clutch with 2 fingers holding throttle open I change into second then into 3rd as I change were I am on bike to get the bike to turn left and keep the throttle open then flick at right and at the #8 sign on the fence im apexing the Hill running out to the exit and changing into 4th at the top of hill then 5th at the over bridge and using 5th gear to run down front straight, Pulling Max revs come up to the brake marker’s for turn 1 and don’t close the throttle keep it pinned sit up slightly and through knee out release grip on bars and put more weight into my feet through here
After this session I record a best time of 1:14 which was 3 seconds faster than Friday.
I Come in and we recheck charts and run the bike on a 170 main jet and drop the needle position 1 click slightly leaner
Final Qualifying
IM first bike on track and wanted to get a good run with me being on my own for as long as possible with clear track and to see what the fast guys are doing when they pass me from What I find they are passing me on straight line speed me being 6 foot 1 and 67Kgs doesn’t really help on a circuit like this,
I hold 1 whole lap in the lead which I was stoked by and knew I was going faster a few bikes leaving the pits as I came round I had to pass round the outside at turn 1 which is really scary with the speed difference I have on them having the run from the hill and pulling full revs in 5th I end up seeing my 10 lap sign on my pit board and It tells me to pull in a plan I had to
A) Save my gas
B) Save my tires as they were starting to go off
C) Watch what the fast guys were doing
I knew I had gone faster then and dad had told me I did a 12 which I was fairly impressed with but was still starting from last on the grid.
Race 1:
Down on the Dummy Grid warming up and we head onto track I circulate slowly to allow everyone to pass me and I line up in my grid position I had been down in previous races and timed the starters timing of lights it was exactly 4 seconds after all lights went red that the final light dropped and the race was under way so I was casually relaxed and watching most of the guys clicking into gear and really revving there bikes on the first light I still waited and waited until the final light came on then I clicked into gear and pulled the bike up to 11000RPM and then counted 1 2 3 4 then watched the lights drop Instantly I pushed off the line getting a cracker start but a few bikes in the next few rows had shocker starts causing me to quickly back off as I had no were to go and not to rear end them. Into turn 1 dead last because of this and trying to keep ground I had cold tires and as we started braking and tipping into the left my front tire washed away from underneath me I quickly stood on the pegs and picked the bike up and run straight off into the dirt, at the exact same time Ken and Jayden went down in the right hand corner I’m skidding through the dirt and then I see the edge of the rumble strip off the back straight is a massive curb as the dirt has sunk lower I slam into this it sends me forwards and into the tank smacking my balls On the tank, I come back on track with the back wheel in the air and just luck somehow saved it, Knowing I was miles away from the rest of everyone I was trying hard to catch up.
As I come round the kink I see everyone with there hands in the air and the red flags out,
Once I get back into pit lane Dad and my mate Scoot are waiting Dad gives me a water bottle and I tell them what had happened Scoots advice was quite good it was Harden up and ride around good advice.
Just before going back out for our restart I see the ambulance leaving the track which is always a bad sight to see before the race trying to get this off my mind I have a quick drink and head on track they gave us 2 warm up laps to get some heat back in our tires.
Once again I line back up on the grid and this time everyone gets a cracker start and I end up passing about 4 bikes off the line and they get me tipping into turn 1,
As we flick left I once again manage a front end slide through here but hold on I now go into panic mode racing and don’t ride the way I should I feel like I’m riding fast but I’m only doing 13’s so this race I ended up racing in my own race and going down to 5 bikes on the last lap.
I head in and pack up for the night
Sadly on Sunday just2 races before us Derek Hill and Phil Harrison tragically lost there lives,
Knowing Derek as well as I did it was devastating and Shaun told me to pack up for the day which was the best advice I couldn’t have gone back out there riding like that.
Overall for me in my riding it was excellent weekend Improving all the time
But this was possibly my last ever 125 GP race
I would like to thank the following
Shaun Harris for his advice
Dad for being such a good mechanic and knowing what I wanted
Steve ward and Kevin for there Advice they gave me
Hamish for Advice
Andrew Lawrence for his advice
And my Sponsors
Langlands Honda
HJC Helmets
Spectro Oils
Team JDR LTD
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Originally Posted by quallman1234
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