Hello again to you all,
We are all done with weekend number one of the nationals. We are now in Timaru at the Top Ten Holiday Park feeling a bit tired because yesterday we did the trip up from Invercargill via Queenstown, but after taking a bit too long in the stop there we didn’t get here until almost midnight.
The first few days in the South Island didn’t really go as planned. We were counting on testing at Ruapuna on the way south on the Tuesday, but they had had some flooding in a storm a few days prior, meaning the track was dirty with lots of silt and crap across it, almost like riding on oil and talcum powder, I reckon. Because of this we only did two sessions so I could ‘wear in’ some new gear and have a quick play with control heights and positions. After this we stayed another night in Christchurch and drove down to Invercargill on the Wednesday.
Again, we were thinking we were going to get to test at Teretonga on Thursday, but there was a real doozy (well, for a North Islander anyway) of a storm going on so the track was never opened. Instead, while setting up the Ezi-up, a bolt of lightning struck the building beside us, coming within a few feet of Mishy and scaring the beejeesus out of all of us. We proceeded to finish setting up in the driving rain and then promptly got out of there off into town, when of course the sun came out. Bugger it.
On Friday we finally managed to get some testing in. The first session was wet, but was a good chance to have a go on the bike and have a look around the track as it had been a while since we were there last. The rest of the day was fairly dry although a little cold, and we made some progress with bike feel, particularly with a new dampening setup in the forks from Robert Taylor of Ohlins.
Saturday dawned similar to Friday for the first official day of the 2009 nationals. Although it was damp early on, the track was mostly dry by the time we got on it and I bettered our time from Friday straight away. Times again came down in the second session, leaving us in eigth prior to qualifying.
After a little bit of thinking about the track, and a few setup tweaks, qualifying went fairly well for us. I progressed time-wise throughout the session putting in my best lap right at the end to secured fifth on the grid. This was not quite where we had wanted to be a week before, but not too bad considering the limited bike time we’d had before the trip south.
Sunday, for the first time since arriving in Invercargill, was beautifully sunny and warm right from the first moment. We tried another bike change in the three lap scrub (considering the day finished at 3:00 pm but could have run till 5:30 pm, three laps seemed a bit stingy) but the verdict was out on whether it was an improvement. We decided to leave one part of the change in and remove another.
Race One
I got a fairly good launch and tucked in behind Sam Smith for the run to turn one. He broke earlier than I would have liked, and there wasn’t room to move around him so I had to sit and watch as a few people came around the outside of us. After making a pass or two and losing a place to the storming Nick Cole in the opening laps, my head was down chasing Nick, Sam, and Jared Love. The gap was growing a little lap by lap, as I just couldn’t seem to hold as tighter line as the others. On about lap seven Sam ran off at the final turn, rejoining just in front of me and letting me go past with more speed down the front straight. I held him off for five or so laps, when I saw Dennis Charlett off the track at turn two. Dennis came back on track right in the middle of turn three just ahead of me. I sat up to go around the outside of him when he looked over his shoulder at me then sat up into my path doing a whole lot less than race pace. I made some ‘avoiding’ moves and got round him, though it was closer than I would have liked. Sam came back past after this, and the next lap we hit a backmarker in a bad spot letting Dennis past both of us. We managed to draft past him that same straight, with me in behind Sam. I was looking to make a pass on Sam into turn two but Dennis passed me through turn one so I didn’t get the chance. This was the last lap, but unfortunately I didn’t get close enough, meaning I finished seventh.
Race Two
In race two my initial launch was better but I put myself in the wrong spot for turn one and got squeezed out wide. We had made a big change to the bike’s geometry between races to try and even out where I was losing time to others. This really worked and I tucked in behind Nick Cole again, but this time being able to pace him well. On about lap six Dennis had the most spectacular crash at a fast piece of track, and in the following corner Sam ran off again, this time apparently after being struck with a piece of Dennis’s flailing bike. This left Nick and I in third and fourth place. I made a pass at the end of the straight but Nick went right back by me when I ran a little wide. I was really surprised he was able to make the bike move there, he did really well and wasn’t where I was expecting him at all. I made a few mistakes in the next laps and lost the tow from Nick when Jared Love started to catch me. I tried to keep my head down but the gap got smaller, right down to what I was being told was one second with four laps to go. Fortunately, Jared’s tyre went off or he gave up, I’m not sure, but the gap was out to three seconds the next lap, and got bigger to the finish. By the end I was almost a second behind Nick, still hoping for him to make a mistake but it didn’t happen, leaving me to finish fourth, and much happier than after race one.
Although we had hoped to be higher up the order after round one, we are pleased considering our limited testing beforehand. We’re also stoked with the rapid way in which the bike is improving and I’m really glad at how I’m getting on with it more and more. We are now looking forward to this weekend at Timaru, at one of my favourite tracks.
Talk to you all again in a week,
Jay #3.
(Photos by Jay's little brother Sven)
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Thanks for the write up
Originally Posted by Dean
, I too kinda have a curvy figure which makes it worse beacuse im a guy. Well the waist kinda goes in and the bum pushes out. When I was in college the girls in my year would slap me on the arse and squeeze because apparently it is firm, tight...
I wear jeans
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