The weekend started with a testday on Friday. This was valuable tracktime for me as I had not ridden the manfield circuit on a 600 for over a year. The weather treated us well with slight overcast but dry conditions for a successful days testing. Robert Taylor from Ohlins spent huge amounts of time throughout Friday trying new settings, moving forward every time we adjusted something. By Fridays close I was extremely happy with the Dave Cole built Yamaha R6, and was excited for the following days racing.
Saturday brought a stunning day, A surprise to everyone I think! The format would start with Qualifying for f2 and f1, Along with a 6lap and 12lap race for each class. I started the day on a good note with a pole position for f2 and 2nd in f1 behind Nick Cole.
The first f2 race saw a blinding start from Johny Burkhart off the 2nd row, followed by myself and Nick Cole. By lap 1 Nick built an impressive lead with me chasing him in 2nd. Nick is an absolute demon on brakes and made me work hard to get past and win the race by a second.
F1 race one gave Derek Mc Adam an early lead, followed by Nick Cole and myself. After a few minor mistakes I settled for a solid 3rd place, Behind Nick and Derek.
In between races, the ever so thorough Robert Taylor and Dennis shaw did yet more development on the rear shock which made for an exciting 12 lap f2race. After dicing with Nick Cole the whole race I was lucky enough to build up a minor lead after some back markers worked in my favor. This was my rear tires last race and I was happy to see I managed my fastest lap of the day on lap 12 with a 1:10.0.
My last outing of the day was a 12 lap f1 race. After getting the holeshot I managed to lead early on with Nick Cole hounding me every lap. After half race distance Jimmy Mair came past, he was carrying a fast pase and was on a mission. However Jimmy crashed (luckily a gentle lowside) and handed the win to me closely followed by Nick Cole.
Id like to thank Robert and Dennis from Ohlins for putting hours of time into making me alot more comfortable on the bike, everyone knows you guys are legends! Thanks to Dave Cole for an immaculately prepared r6 and congratulations to you and Sue on your baby girl Georgia. Thanks to Yamaha NZ for the continued fantastic support. Also thanks to Sloan and Briony for letting me and my girlfriend stay with you. To the rest of my sponsors thankyou!!!
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Originally Posted by Kickha
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