Hey everyone,
Just a bit of a write up about my weekend....
My race weekend started off with me texting MR all week organising the pick up of my bike (im living on Waiheke at the moment), buig thanks Sudeep for picking up my bike man, its hugely appreciated!!!. With that all sorted all i had to do was get to Auckland again...
Got home to Auckland on Friday night and got my gloves from Milky (who picked them up from Colemans, cheers for that) and was already to leave in the morning for practice and qualifying... I left at 7 in the morning off to Firefights house... Got there just before 8am to be warmly greeted by F/F and Mrs F/F. He then went onto cook MR and I a breakfast.... With some food in us we were now on our way to the track!!!
We were now at the track and had a riders breifing followed by a presentation to MR as it was his 21st
Practice one: As most of you will know Pukekohe has had some major drainage work for the last few months. There are quite a few new bumps out there and i had to relearn the whole track. Due to having no bikes going at the moment it was the first time i had ridden a bike in quite a while let alone race a bike. I started off nice and slowly to get used to the feel of the bike, the track and the new brakes. As always i felt really crap with the first practice and was not comfortable... there are some nasty bumps still in turn 7 (the left before the hill) and it was upsetting my bike quite alot... I got back and expected for some crappy times, which was then confirmed when i found out i had put down a best of 1:13.018.
Practice two/ Qualifying: I had been going through the track in my mind and was now ready for practice two/qualifying. Everything was feeling good, i was getting the feel for my bike and the track. My brakes were feeling good and i was getting down into the 150m mark on the back straight. I felt alot faster than i did in the first practice. I came back to the pits and checked out my times. I had put down a 1:11.259 which was now my personal best and the quickest i had ever been around Pukekohe. This time put me 7th on the grid just infront of a Ducati 750SS and a GSX-R400. The next guys infront of me were on the SV's and big bore bikes who were in the region of 1:04's to 1:07's. I was really pleased with the time i had put down, but i know that there was plenty more to come.
Race one: We started off with two warm up laps and then lined up on the grid. Red flag was waved, everyone started revving their engines... down the green flag went and we were off!!! 12 grand slipped the clutch, bugger not enough clutch, and got a bad started... pretty quickly i was in last place (not to bad for nationals) but right on the tail of the GSX-R400 and Ducati750SS... on the second lap i braked at the 130 metre mark slapped bike down the gears threw the bike into the hairpin, im right on the tail of the GSX-R400. OH NO IM IN 3RD GEAR NOT 2ND!!! slam it into second redline the bike, hook third, then BANG "WHARP WHARP WHARP!!!" the bike had slipped back into neutral.... NO!!!! I could see the GSX-R and Ducati pulling away. they now had a 100m lead on me. Time to sort my shit out and put down some fast laps. With in 2 laps i out braked the GSX-R and was up another place and closing fast on the Ducati. Last lap and im right on the ducati's tail after making up all that time. We cross the finish line almost side my side. The ducati bet me by only 0.3 seconds. Ah well thats racing and i had an awesome time. I went to find out what times i had put down, and to my amazement i had put down a 1:10.594. This i was really stoked with as it is at the top of midfield for club racing!!!
I then spent some time after the racing on Saturday trying to assess the damage to MR's bike (not the best birthday present) but we were relieved to see it was fixable.
Sunday: I got there very early (Just before 8am) because MR had said that he was going to be there at 7am. So finally he turns up at 9am (in true MR style hehehe) and i stopped freaking out.
Race 2: I had high hopes of keeping up with the two racers i had been battling with the previous day. Well the Ducati had sorted his stuff and was pulling into the distance, while i was having a good battle with the GSX-R. I lost lost count of the times that i dove up the inside of him on the back straight and stay infront only to be passed in the front straight and, or on the back striaght just for me to pass him in the corners. Turn out he had a trick fueling system, ram air and flash carbs. Hence passing me so easily on the straights. Then coming over the hill my clutch started to slip. Not a good sign at all. I felt like i was absolutely flying and felt really comfortable with the speed. I came back into the pits to find out that i had put down a 1:09.758 and all the other lap times were low 1:10's or high 1:09's... Now i was over the moon and i knew and know that i can go faster than that still.
Race three was pretty uneventful except for Jason Easton crashing at the end of the back straight and one of the SV650's having fueling problems... Hayden Fitzgerald was putting down low 1:03's on the SV650 as was Jason Easton (farking crazy stuff for F3 racing
) My clutch was slipping everywhere now and was really hurting my times, i was now doing high 1:10's and 1:11's... Ah well thats racing.
I had an absolute ball and can say that i have done an Official 1:09.7 that cant be put down to the time keeper slipping their finger (as it was timed with transponders) I am very confident of being able to do low 1:09's and high 1:08's on my bike with its current setup which should put me in the top field of F3 club racing (hopefully), I found new limits of my bike where my knee is now being sandwiched between my fairings and the race track (as in attatched photo) It was also abit of a shock to see that i was the only one not to be sponsered in F3!!!
Big thanks to MR for taking my bike down!!! Also to all the KB'ers that came along said hello and watched the racing!!! I would also like to thank Riff Raff for lending me the $$$ to get into the race, and Milky for getting the gloves...
Sorry it was so long winded....
Cheers everyone!!!
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Originally Posted by Hoon
..........Looking forward to seeing if I can still keep up with you @ Taupo! 
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