Sketchy's NZSBK Rd 4 – Manfeild
Where do I start! It's going to be very hard to put one of the most exciting, successful and busy race weekends of my life into words!
Well firstly I want to thank the people that helped me out this weekend:
Chris Osborne (Ozzy27) – I really cannot find the words to thank you mate. The effort you put in and the help you gave me this weekend was amazing. Not only supplying me the awesome Ozzy450R but also spannering both the 600 and 450. I wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for you and I can't thank you enough.
Andrew Lawrence from Darbi Accessories - For all your assistance over the weekend helping me with the awesome Continental Race Attacks. I don't feel I did the tyres justice this weekend on the 600 and know they have so so much more to offer which I hope show as I learn to ride the 600.
Hamish Laing, also from Darbi accessories – Thanks for all the help with tyre changes and your knowledge on the Conti Race Attacks. Your the first person to tell me to sit down and let someone else do the work on the bike since i've been racing!! Amazing!
Robert Taylor from Crown Kiwi Technical – Thank you so much for the loan of the rear shock over the weekend and brining down the forks and tyres from Shaun. It was great to finally meet you.
Shaun Harris – Without that phone call about 3 weeks before the round I wouldn't have even been there mate. Thanks so much for your help and the parts you sent down, it was a shame you can't have been there to be part of it.
Victoria Motorcycle Club and all the Volunteers, A fantastic meeting which was awesomely run. You guys put in so many thankless hours to let us race, so on behalf of all racers, Thank you!
Andrew and Leigh Presant – Thanks for all your support from the ride there and back to all the little odds and sods, you really don't know how important all those little jobs are such as keeping hydrated.
As you can see there is so much more to it than one guy going around in circles on a race track. All the above people and so many more have put so much effort in, and it needs to be recognised. Thank you all so much!
Now the racing!
I arrived to Manfeild Raceway on the friday morning to see that Chris had already set up the pit with the 450 in it.
I got the 600 unloaded off Andrew Presant's trailer (he kindly gave me a ride up and back on the weekend) and into the pits. A few odds and sods more and we were unpacked. Shortly after that Chris and I headed over to Robert Taylor who was kindly lending me a shock for the weekend and bought down a set of forks from Shaun which was awesome. Chris got the shock and forks in the bike while I went and got the entry for the test day sorted. Unfortunately the weather wasn't so flash on the friday but I decided to get some laps in on the 600 for a bit of experience. It was the first time out on the Conti Race Attack Rains which were really amazing. I had got used to the performance of the Dunlop MotoGP250 wets that Steve had on the 250 so was expecting these to be a down grade from that. Boy was I wrong. The front gave so much feel and so much grip, I was astounded. Despite the rear being second hand and the track not really being as wet as it needed to be to keep the tyre cool, I was quite pleased with the times I was cutting, not far off what I did on the 250 in full race pace in similar conditions.
Saturday
F3 First practice
After being able to enjoy a really nice sleep in at the Raceway Motel because we were already set up for the weekend, I walked from the motel to the track in the crisp morning sun. The day was going to be a stunner.
Chris was already at the track with everything ready to do. Went to riders briefing and had a chat with a few guys.
Gear up and I'm ready to go. I had ridden the 450 once before at a test day so knew roughly where my times were going to be. Chris had made a couple changes to the bikes suspension since then, so I was looking forward to seeing how it changed the bike. I was rewarded with quite a bit more rear grip exiting the turns which was fantastic. Beside from a few wet spots on Higgens the track was looking nice and I got down to a 1.13.209 which was a bit off the pace from the test day times, but was fastest of that session by about half a second.
Sports Production 600 Practice
Unfortunately for me the 600 practice/races were directly after the F3 sessions which were going to test my fitness. I thought I was going to be ok, but over the weekend was reminded that these motorcycle things take quite a bit of energy to pilot around the track. I have only ridden the 600 once in the dry before and doing a mere 17 laps of manfeild on the machine, so this was going to be an awesome experience and learning curve!
I only completed 2 laps before heading in to the pits for a suspension change. With no previous dry set up on the bike done because of only receiving the suspension on friday, the bike was a touch to stiff for me to ride. Chris made the necessary adjustments then I headed back out to complete the session. Best time was 1:13.746 which put me 11th in that session.
F3 second practice
Unfortunately I didn't manage to capitalise on the previous practice only achieving a 1.13.277 and getting a spanking from Glen Williams jaw dropping time of 1.12.098, but I did manage to get more time to focus on particular corners I was struggling at which were Splash and the hairpin which is where I was slowest all weekend.
Sports Production 600 second practice
Again Straight out after the F3 practice onto the 600 I was hoping to at least improve my times from the last session. I had made an adjustment to the foot peg position which helped quite a bit. I wasn't expecting how hard it was to change from one bike to another. The 600 was really really hard to ride in comparison to the 450. But it was a good challenge. The session went well and I dropped a second off my previous session with a 1.12.662
F3 First Race
Go time. I was really looking forward to the race and was hoping to be able to latch on to the lead group. Having not done a race start on the 450 It was going to be interesting how I would manage the start. Well lets say I didn't managed it, and I cooked the start something shock, not only wheel spinning but also doing a wheelie which made things worse. I ended up about 7th place coming out of turn one and really thought my chances of a good result was long gone. I didn't give up and put my head down, slowly picking them of one at a time. I'll tell you what though, at national level no one pisses around, everyone was right on pace from the flag drop. After a couple of position swaps with Jason Easton, I went on to catching Terry Fitzgerald. I managed to pass him exiting the sweeper which I feel was one of my stronger points on the track to take 2nd place. Fantastic. By then Glen W had made a significant gap and there was no was I was going to pass him. I finished in a comfortable second and was amazed to hear that I took the lap record with a 1.12.565.
Sports Production 600 Qualifying
Again straight out after the F3 race. I was starting to feel much more comfortable with the 600 and this showed in the qualifying session with me dropping off another second of my PB. I qualified 10th with a 1.11.532
That was it for Saturday and I was looking forward to a good nights sleep.
To be continued...
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Gixxer 4 ever
next time. 360's!!!
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