Having done two meets of the Nat’s superbikes.

[CHOPPA]

The way things are looking your sitting in 9th place with a bloody good chance of staying there! A big number 9 is gonna look bloody good on that new bike...

[slowpoke]

Good shit Eddie! All these club racers are gonna get a shock next time they race ya, specially if you break out the secret weapon....

Exactly what I was thinking, you'll be showing manfeild some new tricks when you get there, fo sho!

Mate without a hint of a joke, well maybe a little one..............you and Sloan are kinda my heroes, I always root for the little guy...( no that does'nt mean if you were smaller I'd root ya ).
Big ups to the pair of ya.................

Yup, it takes some stones to rock up and mix it in that company, and that's something that 90% of us don't have judging by the number of entries. It's not like you were in a different league either, your times were more than respectable and you deserved your place on the grid. You've literally pulled yourself by your boot straps and formed a great team from absolutely nothing.

The way things are looking your sitting in 9th place with a bloody good chance of staying there! A big number 9 is gonna look bloody good on that new bike...

Just think how many club racers there are in NZ....and you could well find yourself in the top 10. Don't forget us lil' people will ya Mr Superstar?

[Robert Taylor]

Just got back shagged’ (No... not literally Tony or Frenchy!!) from a few weeks away down south. caught up in Timaru with Sloan We had a few practice days and I really enjoyed levels, its an awesome track.

I have to say I was a slight bit apprehensive jumping on a track with the best of Nz (or most of them anyway) and it was by pure luck and a bit of clever work that I was there amongst them, including 6 factory backed teams. Guys that have done isle of man’ and superbikes on a international level, and the list and accreditations goes on.

So here I am.. I guy that done about 9 race meets in total!! And yes it did cross my mind “albeit swiftly”What the FUCK am I doing here!!
I…. qualified ermmm.. last….. on the grid at timaru (levels) only 9 on grid. We line up on grid and start lights go out and off we go,
I was straight away amazed by the lightning speed at which everything happened, so different than club racing and what I had experienced so far,
I managed to hang on to Rhys holmes for some time, until he got the better of me and I started dropping back finished 9 th ..cos Shirriffs bike well…(I wont speculate ) kinda spat the dummy and he came in after a few laps..

Second race levels (superbikes)

More nervous than the first.. I lined up on the grid and it started spitting more and more you could see the drops of rain coming down as the lights went out.. Took off and saw Brad Selfe still at the grid it seemed he wanted no bar of this, I can only suspect he probably had a few hectic weeks ahead of him with work and ‘couldn’t’ or didn’t want a possible off”( he ended up doing some wheelies and pulling off after a lap or two)

Oh and I forgot… before as we lined up on the grid the lights about to go out, Graig Shirriffs sticks his hand up, and im thinking WTF… seems his bike packed a sad again and stalled, so they push started it and as rules stipulate he had to start from dummy grid. He came up behind me after half the lap, overtook me in the turn and as im thinking, jeez.. hes cutting this fine.. he’s sliding around on his arse in front of me,
Anyways I finished 8 th

We head of to Ruapuna the following day.

This is one hell of a track, very technical in some places fast and slow around the whole track, this is where you want your suspension tuned to the max.

I struggled to come even close to any of the guys in practice and if I had to lay blame and trust me I have thought about this. I would split it up like this,
20% bike and engine, 30 % suspension, and 50 % rider ability and fitness.
No matter what I did to my bike it wouldn’t turn fast enough for me, Robert’s time is very limited during the nat’s and pinning him down was fairly hard even though I appreciated his advice and time imensly my bike handled far from even close to perfect , I came out of the infield during practice and the front started wobbling, I had ‘nt lost the front end at that stage but it folowed shortly after ,still on a hard lean I landed on my knee slider and pushed of hard, and amazingly the front picked up again, the still in the turn the front slid out again, and I bounced of my upper knee and thigh and thought this has got to be it, but no the front picked up again and it tossed me out of the turn still on the bike
Now don’t get me wrong like I said, its 50% rider if not more but I couldn’t gell with it for whatever reason.

The Racing on Sunday was great I and really enjoyed it and I think I learned a great deal, I felt somewhat honoured to have Strout” as well as Hayden, slow down in qualifying for me, so I could follow them and their lines. That to me was a high point of the weekend.

Sloan has done extremely well in the the last two meetings , especially Ruapuna, where he came 6 th and 7 th don’t forget there are 6 factory backed teams there… so hat of to that boy for sticking it to the “man” .It was great to see Sloans Dad and mate come down to chchc as well as Brione and Ang. basically we couldnt have done this without their support

One last thing” if someone asked me what could be done better at the nats, I would say this.
They need to work on their marketing in a big way, I wont go in to the nitty gritty but I think a monkey with a bottle of Jack Daniels could do a far better job compared to what has been currently done about it.

Anyways all in all a great event and very well run except for the small flaw above. And im looking forward to Manfield hope to see some of you there

The issue is those forks need to come apart and be upgraded, they also likely have not had any maintenance for a considerable period? I suspect they are Traxxion Dynamics and we have moved on somewhat from those, although we can effect a major improvement with some Race Tech pistons, the type that give instant midvalve control. I guess the lesson is you cannot go into the Nationals without a reasonable base setup and an assurance that the internal condition is okay. We help people where we can ( beyond the contracted distributor riders ) but at the end of the day we cannot effect wonders by external adjustments if there are internal issues that havent been pre-addressed.

[GIXser]

The issue is those forks need to come apart and be upgraded, they also likely have not had any maintenance for a considerable period? I suspect they are Traxxion Dynamics and we have moved on somewhat from those, although we can effect a major improvement with some Race Tech pistons, the type that give instant midvalve control. I guess the lesson is you cannot go into the Nationals without a reasonable base setup and an assurance that the internal condition is okay. We help people where we can ( beyond the contracted distributor riders ) but at the end of the day we cannot effect wonders by external adjustments if there are internal issues that havent been pre-addressed.

i totally agree as i said" you worked your magic the best way possible with very limited time, i think the issue goes further than just forks though, i think its the whole set up,
as said i appreciated your time imensly.

[Robert Taylor]

i totally agree as i said" you worked your magic the best way possible with very limited time, i think the issue goes further than just forks though, i think its the whole set up,
as said i appreciated your time imensly.

Yes indeed, but the forks are the biggest issue because they are imbalancing the whole bike.

[Matt Bleck]

The way things are looking your sitting in 9th place with a bloody good chance of staying there! A big number 9 is gonna look bloody good on that new bike...

Good stuff Eddie!!!

[driftn]

Great work dude must feel pretty good to be in the top 10 in NZ. Give it heaps brutha

[Nicksta]

awesome shit Eddy!!!!
so good to see you out there competing with the country's best
bit sad to see your comment on the marketing aspect.. but it appears the truth hurts
well done dude!!

[SWERVE]

RESPECT to ya mate
I would have been there in 600sp at the back like yourself ( if i hadn,t virtually totalled the "trumpet" in Dec)
Its the only way to improve............ by playing with the "big boys"
A few more should take your lead............................ And stop trophy hunting in Clubmans
Respect to Arron on the kawa 600 for making the jump to 600sp after blitzing clubmans at levels
Keep up the good work dude

[kiwifruit]

Well done Eddie! All the best for the future rounds

[CHOPPA]

RESPECT to ya mate
I would have been there in 600sp at the back like yourself ( if i hadn,t virtually totalled the "trumpet" in Dec)
Its the only way to improve............ by playing with the "big boys"
A few more should take your lead............................ And stop trophy hunting in Clubmans
Respect to Arron on the kawa 600 for making the jump to 600sp after blitzing clubmans at levels
Keep up the good work dude

Yeah man that guy rode great that stepped up from clubmens all those superbikes in there should have stepped up as well! Felt sorry for that guy having to start from pit lane though!

[wharfy]

An excellent adventure by all accounts - good stuff