I had an amazing weekend with great people, great bikes and a great road, read on to see what panned out...
Saturday:
Rache (Sisterecho) and I had a lazy start to the weekend with a relaxed departure time from home of 8.30 am (Dad, with the trailer and bikes in tow, was not going to be leaving the Hutt till 11am). This was much appreciated after a reasonably big night on the turps in honour of Derek. We arrived and I got straight down to the hard and dirty work of shit-talking with Drew. After hearing stories about the gravel on the course I was unruffled, thinking “Not to worry, it will all have been rubbed off before my bike shows up...” Hang on, Tui isn’t brewed far from the Cliffhanger...
Mum and Dad arrived closer to 1pm than 12, and after the Ezi-up was erected (hehe, erected) the bike was stuck underneath it and on the warmers. We had decided to make this meeting an easy one by doing no work on the bike. We left it exactly as it was at Pukekohe a week earlier, down to suspension setup and even tyres, we used the same pre-raced tyres that were on the bike after Pukekohe all weekend. There was just enough time for me to slip my leathers on and tag on for the second run of the day. A couple of surprises awaited me, including gravel on the lower parts of the course, and the high speed of the top sweepers, which I had never seen at race pace before. The time was completely unremarkable, but the Sunday was the timed race day anyway.
A couple more runs of going “Sh*t, I should have been faster through there!” ended the day with a 2.13.3, 0.1 seconds off what I believe to be the previous course record. This was the best time of the day, but with Drew’s own admission of “still looking around and getting ready for tomorrow” and his extra 400cc I was still very nervous of what he may be able to achieve the next day. My feeling was that my bike and I would be capable of a 2.09, and I said so to a couple of people who asked, but it seemed my estimate had been wildly circulated by the time we got to the rally site! Unfortunately, in the last run I caught a stone with my radiator, and this meant Dad finished the day completely breaking the no maintenance promise, changing the radiator and sneaking an underhand gearing change in there as well!
Rally:
From what I remember it was a really fun night...ZX-6R’s make wicked blue flames in the dark (eh Dad...)
Sunday:
A sleep in (till almost 9am!) gave me a head start on the competition.After a gruelling 30 second drive down to the race course, and a never-ending 2 minute pit setup, we were exhausted, but prepared.
With the weather (and some people) looking much seedier than Saturday I was aware of the need to get a good run in first-off, in case the weather took a bad turn. Unfortunately, upon returning from the first run I learnt that Drew had gone a whole poofteenth of a second faster than me! Now it was my turn to sweat about what the weather might do...
Fortunately it held off and in the next run I put it together a bit better, recording a 2.11.0 to Drew’s 2.12.6. As we were coming back down there were spots of rain on the visor and Drew was quickly lining up to try and squeeze a quick dry run in. It didn’t work for him though, as it was raining down the bottom before he got even a minute up the hill, though he still did a very respectable 2.13. I waited and wasn’t going to run, before the weather did a complete about face, with the sun even making an appearance. :O I lined up right at the back, and the course was looking good, allowing me to put in a 2.10.19.
Back down the bottom and I was in two minds about whether to run again. I decided to after seeing the determination in Drew’s eyes, and knowing there were still quite a few areas I could make up time (particularly the starts, I hadn’t done one I was proud of so far all day). I listened in to hear Drew had done 2.11.9, and I was a little surprised, I thought he may have improved a little more than that (I heard from him later that he really struggled with traction in this run). Anyway, I lined up and really felt like I had nailed the start, cementing the run up the hill with a wide open turn one, for the first time that weekend. I held a gear higher in a few turns, and this seemed to make a big difference. I had a bit of a moment over bumps in the first right hander after the bridge and the long left, but the run still came together with the kind of time I was hoping for – a 2.09.68 run.
After this I decided to stay down the bottom and see if Drew could better it. After it was confirmed that this indeed would be the last run of the day, I waited near the timing caravan. Watching Drew’s beautiful start and seeing the big Duke boom up the hill and round turn one put the nerves back into me again, as I wasn’t sure there was much left after I put that time in; maybe a high 2.08, riding a little bit crazy... but I certainly didn’t want to put it to the test. After a little wait it came through – Drew’s final time was a 2.10.fuckall, amazing with a very nearly 2 second improvement on his previous best, but still 0.4 seconds away from me. My emotions were a bit mixed, gutted for Drew cos he is a good mate and an even better competitor and I knew the effort he was putting in, but also stoked that I had won one of the events I had been looking forward to all year!!
I want to thank Museum Hotel, Continental tyres, and Kawasaki for their support.
But mostly I want to thank the organisers for a ‘Fuckin A’ meeting, and my darling girl Rache for being her smiley fun self all through the weekend. I want to say cheers to my parents; Dad who took tyre warmers on and off, and changed a radiator (I hope the weekend was still a relax for him after the long and arduous Nationals) and to Mum who even made coffee for CowPoos (overkill!) but also was happy and ready in the pits, and even gave up her and Dad’s tent to Rache and I when I forgot to include ours in our preparations....thanks!!
And lastly, to Drew, who is a demon rider, awesome mate, and brilliant Ozzy Osbourne impersonator...and a bloody great competitor. When he came down from that last sterling run, although he must have been a little disappointed, the first thing he did was come over and shake my hand and congratulate me...what a flaming champion.
And to you, who may have bothered to read this whole report, but I understand if you didn’t....
Jay #37
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SENSEI PERFORMANCE TUNING 
Originally Posted by Kickha
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