A bit late but woteva…
Left Auckland on Friday after picking up Chris when he'd finished work. Stopped in Tokoroa for a nourishing BK dinner then made a good attempt at sleeping in Taupo. Went for a walk at 6am an saw a couple of vans full of race bikes around the place. Seemed like a dry was on the cards, so all good.
Got the trusty old CBR out and set the pit area up in record time and pretty much had nothing to stress about. In hindsight I shoulda checked my suspension settings 'cos the rear preload was off a bit too much. I think I'd softened it at Paeroa. This may have explained a my issues with holding a tight line at some stages. Excuses out of the way...
Qualifying - Superbikes
Was expecting the usual slippery cold Taupo in the morning, but it wasn't actually that bad. I got down to about 1:41.5, 2 seconds of my officially recorded best around here, but I was actually happy with that compared to my qualifying efforts last year. It was good enough for 14th on the grid and put me within arms reach of GIXser's kill switch and boot length of Archer's arse so I was all set for a good time
Qualifying - Supersport
Feeling pretty good for this one after having the Superbikes qualifying to warm up…but I couldn't seem to get anything approaching a clean lap in and went slower than in Superbikes Qualifying, which was annoying. 18th on the grid meant that I would have to put in a better starting effort than I did at Paeroa.
Race 1 - Superbikes
First race of the season, what a feeling!!! Few things are cooler than 36 bikes on the grid being revved in anticipation of the lights going out. Someone in the control box was clearly savouring it too, 'cos it took seemingly forever for the final lights to go out, leading to a whole lot of creeping and false starting by others in the field. Finally they went out and I got a decent launch, slipping the clutch out and keeping the front wheel almost planted through first, getting past Brian and making good ground on those in front. In to second, nail it, and then the bike jumps out of gear! Shit myself for a minute thinking that I might get rear ended as I bounce off the rev limiter but luckily everyone is on to it. Lose a whole lot of places from that and arrive at the first corner shuffle later than ideal. I had a good dice with Archer on his ZX10, swapping places multiple times and a bit of paint in the process. He got by on the second to last lap and I mess up my chance to say in touch by outbraking myself in to turn 1 and running a bit wide. Finished 17th with a best lap of 1:40.110. Kinda dissappointed with the lap times but it was good fun and first race out of the way without major incident.
Race 1 - Supersport
Get a reasonable start this time and find myself passing Glen Williams on the back straight on the first lap. He passed me again, in turn one I think it was, which I didn't mind 'cos I was quite keen to follow the old learned one. Perhaps a bit too keen 'cos I made a few mistakes and got further behind. I needed a bit of late braking to get back ahead on the second to last lap and went for it. Ballsed up the down shifting big time though and the arse slid out a bit. I thought about turning in but didn't wanna scratch my sparkly new paint so I stood it up and went on the grass. I only lost a second and a bit (had a bit of practice at gravel/grass riding), and went about trying to catch the Sketchy Racer on the 250 and Glen Williams. I managed to make up a bit of ground on Sketchy but it wasn't enough and I was still making mistakes. I wound up 13th after stealing a place from a new R6 who had just run off the track with a best lap of 1:40.049 which was disappointing ;cos I really wanted to get back to consistent 39's and preferably 38's.
Race 2 - Superbikes
Decent start again, ran off the back straight again on the second lap after duffing downshifts again. I was getting every so slightly put off by what I thought was rain on my visor but I think it was just condensation or something inside. On the final lap I thought I'd lost my leg on the A1 corner, when my slider hit the rumble strip or maybe something else, putting a hole cut in the slider and ripping the backing material half off. My leg was all numb so I wasn't sure if it was alright but kept going 'cos Archer had just passed me. Still wanting to ruin his day by beating him I got a bit better drive on to the back straight but it was never going to be 50hp worth of better drive. Feeling a bit less than heroic braking at the end of the straight I just sat behind him and Rhys Holmes for 16th. Was absolutely gutted that despite some clear track for a while I was still only doing low 1:40's, albeit consistent.
Race 2 - Supersport
I told myself to wake the hell up and go nail some 38's. Ready to rumble and get off the line okish. In to turn 1 and some dude on a blue '07 ZX6R dumps it in front of my. I and another rider swerve to avoid and then turn back to get a good view of the 10 guys stealing my spot. I chuck my toys out of the cot at the realisation that I'm probably not going to get my 38's and consider the option of just parking for 30 seconds then going for it to get good laps. Didn't really seem very sporting though so I carry on having a few nice dices, riding pretty average and end up finishing behind a 250 and an SV again…not quite how it's meant to be but I console myself with the fact I didn't chuck the bike down the road. Finish up 15th, again in the 1:40's
Cruised around for the Derek Hill memorial ride which was a good chance to reflect on the sport that I'd just spent a day enjoying.
So overall it was good fun, even though I didn't reach my goals and was a bit disappointed with my performance overall. It's nice to be back racing and good to catch up with everyone. Bring on round 2 I say!!!
Massive thanks to the Vic Club for a well run day, and ofcourse to my olds for coming down to support (Dad has just learnt what a 'pit bitch' is) and hooking me up with accomodation in Taupo.
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Originally Posted by Toast
Great cure for the post-race blues
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