What a different meet than the first!
PrettyBillie and myself left Auckland nice and early on Friday afternoon at around 3.30pm only to be held up in the traffic from the shooting incident on the NW motorway....took 2 hours to get on the Southern motorway from Massey! DOH!
We arrived in at Taupo to pick up JR Randoms bike from Kiwifruit at around 10.30pm I think...ended up getting to our accommodation in Fielding at 130am!!!! What a trip.
Friday was the first time I had ever seen Manfield so was very interested to see how i would go.
First session I went out behind scuzeme who had spent the last 3 days screaming around there (I think it was that...he was busy bragging at how much fun he had been having on there lately :-)) so I figured he would know where to go. followed him for a few laps then thought I would have a crack on my own. Ninjaboy came up behind me a followed me for a bit and later told me we were doing 1:16 laps which apparently was not bad.
For the next few sessions I had prettybillie standing on the side taking lap times and they varyed between 1:18 - 1:16 so I was happy with that for the day. I was pretty buggered from no sleep the night before so I skipped the last sessions and called it a day. I talked to the other two guys
Shane and Reece who I had been playing with at round 1 and they were doing similar times. Reece was a bit quicker on 1:15's so I knew I was going to have a hard day at the office!
RACE DAY:
Had an awesome sleep so was nice an realaxed. Headed out for the practice sessions and felt like I was nice and smooth but ended up qualifying in 3rd with only a 1:18.169
Race 1:
I realized I was underpowered with the R1 and thought I needed to get a good start to get in front and then the plan was to defend defend defend. Flag drops I'm off....front wheel about 20cm in the air for a good 15mtrs and I had a great start....first into turn one and I turn it in a bit tighter to hold out Reece who was trying to pop up under me on the right sweeper before 'splash.' Managed to successfully do this and just as I was thinking of braking for splash and heading over to the left this ZX6R screams up under me for the left! Doh...I had just been given the mean learn from Shane Tunnicliffe!!! I gathered myself and followed him to the hairpin....well untill Reece Pickett went under me there too!!! All in all I ended up racing in 4th place as Bruce mannaged to get past me somewhere too and I was struggling to hold on at the back of these three bikes all race...finished in forth with my pb lap time of 1:15.73
Now, while we were waiting for our second race we found out that all four of us were getting kicked out to F1/F2 for the next round to be held at Taupo so we all (Apart from Bruce Williams) decided to go up a class for our second race as we might as well try to accumulate some worthwhile points.
Race 2:
Started off the back of the grid in my first ever F2 Race...Shane was right beside me. Flag drops...I bog down a bit and pull in my clutch to get more revs.....and I'm off...not the best start but I ended up into turn one in about 7th place so not so bad.....Shane on the other hand had a mean start screaming all the way to about 3rd I think!!!! (While pulling a nice wheelie through the mix!!! lol). I was following Ninjaboy (on a GSXR!!!! whats wrong with that name bro!!! hehe), a white honda I think and a ducatti. Four of us raced around for a couple of laps until the honda had a moment at splash that let Ninja boy and myself through...we managed to get past the ducatti at some point and I also got past Ninjaboy somewhere...I held my position in 4th for about a lap I think and then had a bad gear change down the front straight and found a false neutral bouncing off my rev limiter madly trying to regain a cog......Ninjaboy sees the chance and rips past me like I'm standing still....doh! I follow him for a while watching his lines....he didn't know where I was I found out later and he wasn't sure how close. I was following at about between 10-20 meters behind struggling to stay in touch. I would catch him on the corners but couldn't get the gas on quick enough in the exit as my rear wheel was spinning too much. Finally I was right on his rear wheel on the second to last lap as we approached splash and I looked ahead to see a lapped bike up in front. I figured this was my chance so gassed it to get right on his back wheel. Hairpin....Ninjaboy goes deep much to my delight as I stick it up underneath him and the lapped rider he was following into the hairpin....hit an early apex under heavy brakes at a snails pace, drop around the hairpin and open her full in second....third....forth....no ninjaboy, think I made it stick! Woop! Finished my first ever F2 Race in 4th position! Giddyup!
Now I'm stoked with this result but I gotta take my hat off to Shane Tunnicliffe who had a blinder day!!!! Fark that boy can ride! watch this fella people he has a very very bright future and quite honestly I had no answer to his pace around Manfield! He was well ahead of me consistently lapping at 1:14's and in the invitation race pulled out a 1:13.27!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He bet BJ in this race and this is his first time at Manfield too!!!!TOTALLY IMPRESSED BRO!!!!
Big thanks to Prettybillie for all your help on the day and making lunch for us in the pits :-). Thanks to my sponsors METZELER, MotoTT and Mt Eden Motorcycles for helping me get a chance to learn to race!
I'm thinking maybe Nationals in three weeks :-)
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Tony.OK
hehehe....and 'young fella'...oh boy its been a while since I've heard that!!! :-)
Bookmarks