Sketchy Glen’s Taupo Spectacular and first Endurance Race
What a weekend! First of all I want to say my thanks to the following people
•Scrivy and Chris Lawrence, what an amazing weekend these guys put on for us all. Such a fantastically run event. Thanks so much guys!
•All the marshals and helpers on the day. So many people putting in so much effort for lucky buggers like me to do what we love. Amazing!
•My team. Malcolm (my father) Andrew, Leigh, Paul, Steve and anyone who helped out on the days, fantastic guys, I can’t thank you all enough!
•Jason, my race partner for the endurance race. He did amazing, rode with great pace and consistency all day.
And a huge thanks to our sponsors
• Hi Torque Cycles – Paraparaumu
• Victoria Motorcycle Wreckers
• Carbines Engineering
• Pakuranga Dental Surgury
• Moto Academy New Zealand
Saturday – 27th
This was just a practice day on the 250 which I was to be riding for the first two days. Very tame day doing mediocre times, but just keeping in mind it was the first day of three hard days of racing motorcycles. Had great fun, I love the Taupo circuit on the 250 very satisfying when you get it right. Especially from turn 1 - 6. So flowing.
Sunday – 28th
This was race day on the 250. Had some great battles with the Japanese rider Kissy Y (don’t know his last name) He was very slow mid corner on his Honda 600, but got very good drive out of the turns. It made it very hard on the 250, as I would lose a large amount of my corner speed having to slow for him mid corner and the 250 doesn’t have the outright power to stay with him down the straights. I can’t remember where I finished in the races, somewhere near 10th place I think.
Monday – 29th
The Endurance Race
I traded the 250 for my new 600 which my riding partner Jason was riding for the first two days. It takes quite a bit of time to adapt from the riding style of the 250 onto the 600. They are very different bikes and need to be ridden very differently. I opted to take the 600 out for the first of the two practice sessions. I did about half a dozen laps then the pit board came out to signal me to come in and let Jason get some laps. He ended up getting only one lap as I hogged the session. Sorry Jason. I was very happy to see that after only a handful of laps we were in second for qualifying and only a couple of seconds off the Hayden Fitzgerald and Jeremy Holmes team.
Shortly after that session the rain started coming down. This really stuffed us as we only had one set of second hand wets that I had been gifted from Phil (Toast). They had already seen quite a bit of track time so I was very anxious about them being up to the standard of the new tyres most the other teams were on. By now the rain had set in quite well, so there was no second guessing that we were going to be racing on wets. Steve set about getting them swapped over on the rims while Jason and I hung around looking very nervous. Jason and I decided that in the next session we would only do a few laps each, just enough to familiarize ourselves with the wet track, and wet tyres, but not to wear down the tyres anymore than absolutely necessary.
Jason was doing the Le Mans start as he is super fit and can run really well. He got an excellent start and was almost first into turn one. I only watched the occasional lap as I was so nervous. I think throughout the race the worst position we were in was 4th place. After 45 mins and sitting in 3rd place Andrew put the pit board out to call Jason in to do our rider swap and fuel up. The pit stops went flawlessly. Everyone worked amazingly and knew where they needed to be and when. Paul held the bike while Malcolm and Andrew fueled it using two jerry cans. While that happened Jason and I swap positions. It took us just over 20 seconds to get 12 litres of fuel and riders swapped. I was very happy with that.
On the track! The first thing I found out was that even with wets the 600 was aqua planning all over the show. The worst being braking near the old track pits before the sweeper. Man that was un-nerving! I settled into a groove, passing the odd rider. I had no idea what my lap times were like compared to the other teams, but no one came past me so I figured I couldn’t be too far off the pace. 50 minutes passed and the number 47 Pit board was shown. I came in and did the pit stop with a fair amount of thumbs up around the pits. I was dumb struck to find out we were in first position just before the pit stop. Unbelievable! By now the track was just starting to show it was going to dry out. This worried me be a bit as I had no idea how the wets would handle the dry track with stock suspension which quite a few people have made it very clear they think that the stock suspension will eat tyres.
Pit stop time. By now the track had a very dry line. As Jason came in I quickly inspected the tyres, I was glad to see that they were still looking ok. Jason later told me he rode conservatively which would have helped. I knew our team was in first as I headed onto the track, and this was a shorter session, so I put my head down and picked up the pace. I was surprised at how well the wets were holding up in the dry. I made sure not to wheel spin them too much as I know that would really chew them out. I was so happy when I saw the last lap flag come one. I had a quick glance behind and couldn’t see anyone so knew all I had to do was finish that lap.
The most amazing feeling I have ever had was crossing that finish line. I couldn’t stop smiling and cheering with joy. Coming into the pits and seeing and hearing everyone cheering and clapping was just amazing.
There were many a hug and handshake passed around once we were in the pits. I had a beaming smile that I just couldn’t remove, nor did I want to. This has certainly been the biggest highlight of my racing venture.
Again I can’t thank all the people that sponsored us and helped us for this meeting and Jason for being such a fantastic rider.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, can’t wait until next year!
Cheers,
-Glen Skachill #47
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Originally Posted by vtec
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