It had come round remarkably quickly, the final round of the 2008 Castrol Superbike championships was upon us at Pukekohe. I arrived early Friday morning and set about waiting for things to get underway. Finally at 1300 we managed to get our first session in.
I spent the afternoon relearning the track and sorting out the best line in and amongst the bumps. I made a few small changes to suspension but more importantly settled on a good gearing setup. In the last session I managed a low 1.07 which was nothing extraordinary but my times were heading in the right direction and I was confident I could find another second in qualifying the next morning.
I got Saturday morning sign in and scrutineering out of the way and for once they were nearly on time. My first qualifying session came around just before midday and I went out at the front of the pack and did 4 or 5 solid laps. I came in and found my time was a 1.06.9. Fairly happy with that, faster than I had gone the previous day and I had a newer set of tyres to put on for the next qualifying session. Incidentally, this left me provisionally 6th on the grid. I needed a front row start so would be out to find that extra second in the next session.
The second session rolled around soon enough and I had the plan of going out to do 3 or 4 good laps, come in and check my times and then go out and try to get a slipstream. That plan went out the window right after I exited the pits. I was in a threesome with James and Adam and we were all out to prove which of us was the fastest. We diced for a few laps and then I setup a good slipstream down the back straight and thought I had done a good lap. I came into the pits and Dad told me I had done a 1.05.9. Knowing this would be pretty competitive I decided to save myself and the tyres for the race and take the gamble that I wouldn’t be able to improve it.
This paid off finishing up 2nd on the grid, only a few thousandths ahead of Adam and James in 3rd and 4th respectively. Jason Easton had qualified in 1st with a blistering 1.05.4 laptime. So it was a good start to the weekend but we all know qualifying counts for little when the race comes round so now I had to focus on the weekends 3 races, the first of which was upon us in an hour or so.
We gridded up and I zeroed in on the starters lights ready to go. We were off and I didn’t get a great jump off the line but split between Adam and Jason and lead the pack into turn one. I was still leading coming over the hill when I saw a red flag. There had been a crash coming into Castrol and the race had been stopped. After a short break to clean up the mess we were off again. This time I got a much better start and lead the field into turn one and held onto this for the first lap. I got a bit enthusiastic on lap two and had a bit of a moment coming into Castrol. I caught it and ran a bit wide. This totally stuffed up my run onto the back straight and I lost 5 places to be demoted back to 6th. Next lap Avalon Biddle screamed past me down the straight and I was down further. The next few laps were a bit of a struggle to try and make a few passes but on the 5th lap I got clear of Avalon and could still see the leading bunch of 5 riders battling it out in front.
By now the gap had gone out to the best part of a second but I kept my head down and gradually pulled the gap back. I set the three fastest laps of the race (1.05.9, 1.05.9 and 1.05.7) and had joined the tussle for the lead. It was absolute chaos, you could easily go from 1st to 6th in one corner. We were 3 or 4 wide going into the hairpin and it was a lottery as to which position you came out of it in. I had worked my way up to 4th place and out of the corner of my eye I saw on someone’s lap board L9. So only one lap to go. Adam was in front of me and I kept on his wheel and came over the hill just that fraction faster than him and slipstreamed him over the line for 3rd. I slowed down and got down to the back straight. I had noticed that no one else seemed to be slowing and so all of a sudden I had the realisation that maybe I had miscalculated. My thoughts were correct, I had made a major stuff up. So just managed to hold onto 6th position over the line, grr!
I was pretty gutted with the result, knowing I had blown a top 3 and with a chance of even winning the race. Not the way to do things. Again some inexperience showing in my race craft but a mistake I won’t be making again any time soon. There were still two races left for the weekend and I knew I had the pace to run right at the pointy end of the field. Incidentally, according to my datalogger I achieved a top speed of 214kph. That’s fair humming on a 125, showing I had it setup fairly decently.
As with Saturday, Sunday was again another beautiful warm and sunny day. We had riders briefing early and then the three lap scrub session. I wasn’t going to go out but decided to just test a small change on my bike for 2 laps. I sorted it and then began the nervous wait for the race. Due to other events, there was a bit of a delay and thus our two races for the day were reduced to 8 laps.
As with most races this season, I again got a great start and rocketed out into the lead. I held it for two laps and then the cavalry came. Again it was a race of multiple passes every lap. I dropped back off the leading 3 on the third and fourth lap due mainly to some aggressive passing manoeuvres coming into the hairpin by Jason and James. I kept my head down for most of the race and apart from when Avalon fell off on lap 7 coming into the main straight and I had to use evasive action to miss hitting her bike it was fairly sedate. This dropped me down to 6th position.
On the second to last lap I stuffed up the run over the hill and Jason Easton pulled a slight gap on me, I also had Alastair to contend with slipstreaming me over the line. I came across the line for the white flag in 6th. I took care of Al down the back straight and took a defensive line under brakes into the hairpin. Jason was a few bike lengths in front of me. Knowing I had the pace to pass Jason if I could get the slipstream over the hill I focussed on that. I rolled off a bit later than usual and got on the throttle faster than the prior lap. This worked perfectly and I got right on his back wheel and beat him to the line by 0.2s to take 4th.
I was fairly happy with this result, again not quite having the pace to stay up the front, just fading back slightly and then pulling back 2 positions in the last lap. There was one more race left, the NZTT. I had a good result (3rd) in this race last year and knew I had the pace to better that result this year.
There was a short turn around between the two races and within an hour we were up again. I got a good start and lead the pack on to the back straight for the first lap. Tim came past halfway down, my bike felt slightly lethargic but it was too late now. I could feel it was lacking a bit of top end power. He came past so early that I was actually able to get back into his slipstream and take the lead back. I again took the slightly defensive line into the hairpin and crossed the line leading.
As with the first lap, this time Cameron came past me down the straight and this time we went into the hairpin side by side. I had to give up the position but kept right on his back wheel over the hill. I came onto the back straight for the third time in the race and this time I was swamped. I was missing out on a few kph down the straight and it showed. This time I was demoted to 5th but I wasn’t giving up any time soon. We again did the 5 wide brake manoeuvre into the hairpin and this time I came out in 4th. Next lap was the same again. I moved into 2nd position, right on Tim’s back wheel when coming over the hill we saw the red flag.
Two riders had come a cropper on the way into Castrol and rightly so the organisers got the ambulances out there asap. I came back into the pits to find the stewards had wielded their big stick and penalised me with a 20 second jump start penalty! I was pretty rotten at this, I know I absolutely did not jump the start. If I did then every one of my starts this season was a jump. Knowing I couldn’t do anything about this I just accepted it and moved on waiting for the second part of the race. Even though I had gotten the 20 second penalty and thus come last in the first part I could still redeem myself in the second part, which would be a 4 lap affair.
Seeing as our grid positions were decided by the result of the first part of the race I was dead last in 14th on the grid. I lined myself up to get a good run at the outside of turn 1 and again got a great start (incidentally not a jump). I went round a high percentage of the field through turn 1 and came across the line in 5th place. The next few laps were a bit of a blur, this circuit and 125’s is just a recipe for chaos! I stuck with the lead bunch and before I knew it the last lap was upon us. I went into the hairpin lottery and this time I came out in 3rd. I got a great run out of it, better than Adam in front but had no where to go so had to just button off a fraction. Annoyingly this gave him the little jump he needed and I couldn’t get into his slipstream before the finish line.
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Originally Posted by scracha
) but at the moment I don't believe I have the skills I would need to be successful. Not to mention the money side of things.
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