On arrival at the circuit the puddles were growing larger. But there was a positive feeling from all those around me that the sun going to come save us. Even though I whinged and blabbed on that I needed to switch to wets……(good on ya team for telling me to harden up) lol. This meant a delay to the day commencing, and therefore just the one 6 lap practice session.
Team instructions were stuck in my head “ Keep her and ME shiney side up for Sound of Thunder next weekend” …..I’d kick my own butt really hard if I miss that one!
PRACTICE
I needed more! The bumps seemed worse than last year, and I was struggling to find my lines by the end of the session.
But what a hell of a lot of fun!!!!
'BEAR's' RACE ONE
I wasn’t yet confident, as I wanted some more practice laps. Starting from grid pos 16, I managed a reasonable start, but could see Nick Prestige getting a good gap on me. Another bike passed me on the first lap so I tried to follow his lines, only to find his lines left me scraping bits of my bike on the hairpin floor. My confidence started to grow by lap 3-4 and I tried to close the gap on Nick. Gradually getting closer but not near close enough I finished in 13th place. I was shaking all over on returning to the pits, its been a long time since I’ve had adrenaline shaking me up to that extent on a race circuit, but I LOVED it
'BEAR's" RACE TWO
Feeling much more confident this time, and moved up the grid to Pos 13. Flag dropped and I got a MINT start suddenly finding my self up amongst the front row breifly along side my team mate Nick O! On that realization I literally near had heart failure, my box of nerves that I bought for the day were all used up. I found myself backing off the throttle un-voluntarily, not sure why, the fear of being anywhere near the ‘fast guys’ with gutters each side was enough to make the 'mechanical me’ take over.
I was kicking myself for doing that by the back straight, as it had allowed another 3-4 bikes pass me by with my turn one wimp out. But not Nick P…..so I put my head down and gave it a shot to stay in front of him. Then what do ya know, he was, hard up 99’s exhaust chasing us down. He got passed me in the Hairpin, but then ran wide, I snuck back up the inside and got away, only to have him pass me back into turn one. My own mistake for not taking the defensive line. But it was so much fun dicing with him while it lasted.
I made a few mistakes trying to catch him back up, he got away but I held my position for the rest of the race. It felt cool hitting the hay bales with my knee coming down the hill into the lefty, I could even hear the crowd make ooooohh arrrrrr's, I think they liked it too.
I finished 10th in race 2, and 10th overall. I was happy with that, as I thought I had set my ‘top ten’ goal too high, but I made it…..just. Hoping I can get up to speed next year so 2 x KTL/Anglo bikes are in the pointy end
Paeroa sure is one heck of a buzz and a rush like no other circuit. Though I have the biggest bruises in the strangest places from the airborne stuff. Well worth every one of them for sure.
Huge Congrats to Nick O! 3rd in Bears (wish I could be a lot closer so I could have seen that). Seeing him bring the Duc home 8th in the King of Streets and top 10 in F1 races was just fantastic. He’s an inspiration both on the track and in the pits. Well done to Nicksta too, the smile ya had at the end of the day said it all.
Huge thank you to my sponsors.
Roll on this weekend ….Sound Of Thunder I just cant wait!!!!!
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SENSEI PERFORMANCE TUNING 
Originally Posted by Gubb
The whole day was awsome and your top 10 placing was a buzz.Keep it up...Hey and dont complain about all the new tyres we got you ok,even if it does make the van look untidy
See you friday at Ruapuna....
...but I'm thinking we will be needing them the pace Nick rides eh
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