The day was brought to us along with only the best of weather! A few clouds in the sky during the day but they were quickly hurried away without hesitation. First up was our first of two sessions of practise laps (5mins), Had some trouble for the first 2 laps getting her to fire on all 4 cylinders, but this was a short lived problem and surely enough she came right though everyone was too far ahead to try and cling onto and remind myself of the track having not been there for over 3 months.
After those problematic then plain slow, just not getting into the groove, laps I came in and kindly Hoon(KB) let me sped some quality time with his well developed Taupo race manual, and shared with me some of the knowledge he picked up from the Freddie Merkel training day. With this now in mind I set off trying to keep some good pace in the final set of practise laps… when the unfortunate happened. Heading into the sweeper I took what I can only remember to be a fairly standard line (if there is one?) and my back end slung out from underneath me, faster then I thought I could catch it but turning the bars to go with it and pulling her upright meant I was still in the saddle with the rubber down!- only now I was headed for the sand trap followed by the tyres… flew off the track fortunately not at any great speed and made it almost to hitting the tyres when the front wheel bogged to the discs in sand and dumped me off. Standing up and spinning around in pure frustration of not knowing what on earth just happened (at this stage I suspected I could have hit some oil, though only the back end went shooting) I see another three or four bikes smashed down on their sides complete with riders… ran over as fast as I could to what looked to be the most injured of the riders to give a hand but the ambulance was there within seconds. I soon found out that apparently the guy behind me had somehow (still not sure, anyone who saw please update) hit the rear of my bike causing me to head off track… Anyhow the bike was almost undamaged and good to ride so I thought myself to be fortunate.
It was now time for my first race, and I was nervous as ever thinking I had just had 2 practises wasted without doing one proper fast lap. I started up front on the grid and here came time to show your skills, it was a KB Drag with Hoon, Frosty, and myself all lined up gunning our engines in excitement, when the flag dropped! I thought for a second there I might have been with Hoon but in all excitement I prematurely forgave the clutch of the harsh slipping at around 8K and she bogged… Hoon was off and as for Frosty-well mate I don’t know where you were?. Anyway with chasing Hoon most of the race I managed to slip passed him (or just stop in front of him and cut him off) in the hairpin and that was us!.. Sorry don’t know positions but id guess at about 6th.
After the first race, the lunch break, and the riders (+ girlfriends in one case) doing stunts came my second race! I was pumped and ready to head into it hard! Managed the front row of the grid and off we flew to a great start, was up around 4th place for a good 2 laps till a black ZXR400H nipped passed on the sweeper, knowing I could not make any more places then the one in front of me I began my plan for an overtake… Almost gave it away as I near T-boned him heading into the hairpin but with luck the bike was kept upright and the plan to nip under him on the hairpin of the last lap was perfect. Only with few laps to go 2 motards managed to find their way back where they belong (not injured, but in the dirt!), and the red flag came out. So the race was restarted and I was stuck in behind Hoon after wasting much time trying to get around an SV650, only before I had time to plan an overtake the race was over, I completely missed the white flag along with the chequered flag but I got the idea when I flew passed Hoon into turn 1 thinking how well I must have out braked him, when I realised the other guys ahead were coasting too *doh*. A good race all in all however.
Well after much excited pit talk amongst the KB F3 Racers we were out and lined up for the 3rd and Final race I was on the second row of the grid with the unfortunate view of Frosty and Hoon’s rear ends! The flag was once again dropped and Hoon sped off to an awesome start, I yet again failed to hold my revs so she bogged but the start was good enough for my liking anyway! Eventually making back lost time and places on Hoon over a few laps I spent a good 5 laps studying his stuff, it seemed he was generally quicker all over the track short of the hairpin, so yet again the decision was made to do a white flag, jump up the inside and cut him off, smack 1st gear and RUN!... Here is the final lap and I’m trying to keep Hoon's tail but there’s significant distance between us as I pass the white flag – and what the?! – a 2 stroke 250 flies passed me and slots in between Hoon and I… what can I say! Here I was with 1 complete lap to go and Hoon is 2 places ahead? I was on a downer, but a downer pumping straight testosterone! It had to happen! And sure enough the gates opened! Zooming through turn 1 loosing my right foot off the peg I saw the guy between Hoon and I jam up the inside of Hoon halfway to the hairpin, I cant explain why or what went wrong on Hoon’s side as there was significant distance between us but after the first guy barged through he certainly shuffled wide heading towards the hairpin and I saw the light! Held the throttle open as long as my mind would let me and jabbed the brakes almost forgetting to change down, smash down down down down all those gears till it squealed and dropped the clutch letting the rear squiggle, yes! I was only just passed Hoon and hanging left and halfway thru the hairpin ready to nail it, bang, wide open she goes again and in all my excitement of being ahead id forgotten to hit the gearshift up firmly:spudwhat: , so she found neutral! nooo! The frustration was immense as I knew Hoon would be on my back tyre after a slow realisation of the random finding of neutral I smacked second gear and away we were again! Very fortunately from there the race to the finish line worked on my part and it was sweet and smooth.
Great Days racing and great to watch a few races of F1/2 (well done Sudeep!!!)
And of course on behalf of Eh Boy Racing id like to thank All the KB’ers for their attendance both as spectators and racers(cheers guys!), Hoon for his Taupo race notes(dude, cant thank you enough), dodgyiti/Sellotape + Loctite(my fairings wouldn’t be held on and my engine casing would be leaking without you!), and Milky for the help changing exhausts, and finally my team mates for the help and support (Eh boys!)
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you guys put up a great show!!!
really sorry i couldnt make it down there to race with you 
Are you doing Paeroa?? Im hoping to do it, so that might be the race day i get to watch you blast into the distance...
Originally Posted by XJ/FROSTY
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