Hey Everyone,
Sorry for the length, but I have a lot to say.
The last few weeks have been pretty busy for me. After making more repairs to the bike from the Mosport national round, I went to the second to last regional round 25-27 July.
To cut a long story short I hardly got any riding time at all due to extremely bad weather…. I.E. lighting and thunder like I’ve never seen/heard it before!!
It cleared up for the race on Sunday and it actually got quite hot. I decided to stay with my used soft compound tire in order to save cash (I normally have a new set of tires for every race and medium compound tires handle the heat better). I think this was a bad choice as I got way out in front in the race, broke a lap record, then I felt the bike sliding around a bit and decided to slow down. Ironically I crashed in the next corner.
It was quite a big high side crash with my head hitting the back wheel and my arm getting stuck under the seat!! My riding gear was completely torn up, but I was fine other than really sore hands and left heel.
Because the bike landed on top of me there actually wasn’t that much damage to it. I managed to pick the bike up and finish the race to get some points. However I went from leading the point series to being third. With one race to go it’ll take a miracle for me to win the regional championship, but that’s racing.
After getting back home repairs and maintenance continued until I left for the 20+ hour drive to Novia Scotia for round 5 & 6 of the national championship.
Novia Scotia felt very similar to the West Coast of the South Island in terms of landscape and the people. The track was a run down trail around a farmer’s field in a tiny farming town called Schubenacadie.
Although the track wasn’t the best I’ve ridden, it was really fun and the crowds were amazing. People were arriving as early as I arrived, with many building their own viewing platforms around the track. All of them were definitely there for a great time. With many thousands of spectators it was a great atmosphere….. But the partying until the small hours meant I had to get a hotel room, instead of camping at the track as usual.
I got used to the track reasonably quickly. However I couldn’t manage to get as quick as my main rival Cody Matechuck, who was extremely light and had previously tested at the track, doing over 150 laps with a top Canadian Superbike racer. Because this track was so bumpy, being light had a huge advantage.
To shorten this e-mail here’s the highlights from the race weekend:
• Qualifying: I got on par with the lap record on a disturbed flying lap. I qualified 3rd.
• Practice before the race: Blew an engine!!! After considering packing up and going home I hunted around and manage to purchase an engine from a competitor….. Giving up is not the Kiwi way!! RMP Racing came up to the play again and helped me change over the engine…. It’s a real cherry on top of my season. Bike issues have been my major obstacle this year. I guess that’s what happens when you race older machinery.
• Race 1: With no time to get used to the clutch I went out to race. The clutch felt really bad and it caused me to get a bad start. Turn 1 and 2 was shoulder to shoulder with other riders. One actually ran into me and just about caused me to crash. I put my head down and managed to climb to a second place finish, even though the engine felt hugely under powered compared to my last engine…. I actually broke the lap record that existed before the weekend, however Cody went faster than me and set a new record.
• Race 2: Using straight MR9 (Race Gas) to get the bike up to reasonable power I thought I’d have a chance at winning the race. However on the start the clutch grabbed again and I was 2/3’s down the pack at turn 1. Lap by lap and corner by corner I was passing people until I got into second, where I finished. Again I was over half a second faster than the existing lap record, but Cody went even faster.
So it’s been an interesting few weeks for me. Now I’m leading the national championship by 2 points, meaning that if I beat Cody in the last race I’ll win the championship. If he beats me then he’ll win the championship….. So it’ll be an interesting race on the 31 August. You can see the results at www.cdnsuperbike.com
Thanks for reading this.
Cheers JJ
Here is some photos:
Podium after Sunday’s race (Bottom right photo)
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...091&Itemid=192
Me and Busby on Saturday’s race (Second from the bottom on the right)
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...071&Itemid=192
A bad photo of me squirting Cody with Champagne (Bottom right)
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...071&Itemid=192
Me at Thursday practice (Bottom row second from the left)
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...035&Itemid=192
What happens when you get a corner wrong
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...066&Itemid=192
And again
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...072&Itemid=192
And again
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...050&Itemid=192
A perk of racing
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...068&Itemid=192
Some locals (Top left)
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...071&Itemid=192
Here’s what Suzuki Canada said about my race: (Last three paragraphs)
http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.ph...094&Itemid=173
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Originally Posted by JJ58
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