Tis 4.20 and the alarm clock has not gone off yet. Today’s the day. Final shot to secure the VIC Club 150 Street stock winter series. Outa bed and get the bacon cooking. Patrick is not with us this morning as he has a ride to the track with Lani. We have 80% of the van packed as we were out last night. Bacon cooking and stuff packed in the van and the chillybin and we are outa here. 5.40. We are late. Best txt Patrick to check he is on the road. Sure is. Dannevirke and the clouds are dark and wet looking. Another wet day at Manfield. Da rain sets in as we hit the Gorge. As we come out the other side things look a bit brighter and Patrick Txted to say he has arranged for us to share a shed. Unfortunately we do not have the Pagoda from Five Star. We are going to miss that this month. It really makes the pit area like home and keeps us dry. We arrive at the track to find the shed is small and dark and quite full. Thanks to the people that offered it to us but we will opt for the grass area. As the wind is strong we struggle to put up our Pagoda but within an hour we take it down. The wind has bent and broken it. The sky’s cloudy but it is sorta sunny and dry. Let’s wing it on the grassy shingle area and make the most of the day. Bike out and pit area set.
Check the bike over and make sure tyre pressures and fuel etc are all set. Most of the work was done last week and a final touch up on front brakes and shock finished yesterday. I said no 11th hour stuff to be done on the race bike but with parts hard to find and postage taking time we only finished the bike on Thursday. Scary stuff.
Time to qualify. Bike starts and runs while Patrick gets the gear on. That’s usually a good start to the day. Off he goes and starts his warm up laps. The bike looks and sounds great. He circulates and looks like he is in the groove. Zane is still running in his bike from last minute rebuilds so is taking it carefully. The time sheet showed we had pole position. However we know that means little in this sport and prepare the bike for the first race. I note Zane’s bike got a few good laps in after a shaky start and am aware that this bike is going to be strong.
We bring the bike in and do our usual checks of tyre pressure and fuel. I note the front tyre has lost 7 psi and the rear has gained a little more than we were happy with. More pressure in the rear and a lot of poking at the front and discussion. The decision is made to put the spare rim and tyre on the bike for the race. We set the pressure for the front and the bike is ready. We put 30psi in the front tyre that has been taken off the bike and had a cuppa tea and lots of bantering in the pits to ease the stress. Half an hour later a reading of 20psi shows the tyre has a leak. Thank goodness Warrick has taught us procedure or we would have DNF on the first race with a flat tyre. Relief all round but nervousness about what is going to happen. The call goes out and Patrick is off to the grid. We are all happy with the bike and the race lights go out. Again Patrick is eaten up at the start by 3 bikes but with reconditioned forks and fresh brakes he out brakes most other bikes and runs in second place till he can pass Zane. They go head to head with Patrick taking the lead outa the corners and Zane riding past him on the straights. It became frustrating to see the power Zane’s bike is putting out and watching him take the lead time and time again in the straight parts of the track. They rode a great race and fought to the end. As the 125 GP bike had 10 laps to do their thing they lapped the 150s. Checkered flag came out and Patrick came in second. The bike had done another tortuous race but survived. In to the pits and the usual checks and measurements are taken. Again the rear tyre is too hot and has gone off on lap 5. More pressure please is the call and up she goes. Fuel is calculated and the plug read. We have the fuel calculation from Martin and with that and the plug in hand Gary and I look at each other with a note of despair. I wish W was here. We talked about how lean the bike was running and spent time looking down the plug hole and looking deep in to the plug. We had used far too little fuel per lap but the plug and piston read ok. Good actually so we left the bike for a few minutes and sat down and discussed what had happened. It finally dawned on me to divide the fuel used by ten not eleven as we were lapped by the faster bikes. Relief as we got the calculation we wanted for fuel use. We were back on track. Bike was finished and parked for race two.
Lunch was had by all and a good time was shared with the usual bantering from George and Rob. Tis great to have you two around and share your knowledge and friendship. However it is a bit unsettling to see you both still ride Yamahahahahahahas. Now here is what happens when you get relaxed at the track.
First call to the Dummy grid for 125 and 150 street stocks. Panic in the pit. Warm the bike and find Patrick. Second call for blab la bla. Holly shit are we going to make it. Adrenalin running high. Final call for 125s bla blab la. We don’t need this. We don’t have the championship in the bag yet. Off he goes and we all head to pit wall. What a stupid thing to happen. Lack of concentration on my part but we made it. Or not. Here he comes back through the pits with the bike at speed. Martin is already at our pit and holding the bike as I run over. Dam I am getting old. To hard to run too far for this old man. What the F*&% is wrong they are going out the gate. No back protector Patrick yells from in the helmet. Leathers open and off and back protector goes on. I had the sinking feeling cos the pit gates would be closed before he got back. Gloves on and away. I watch with despair as he disappeared round the corner to the gates. Had he missed it? A short gap and he rode down pit lane and out on to the track and off on the warm up lap. Shit that was close. It was only because Gary held the pit gate open, physically, that Patrick made it to the race. When Gary patted Patrick on the back as the gate opened the first time he realised he had no amour on. Bloody hell what an adrenalin rush.
Round to the starting grid and all was set. We had to finish the race and keep the shiny side up to win the championship. Lights out and off. Patrick stayed in second and third place to the first corner where he took the lead. The 125s came around for the first time at a tremendous speed. I was watching as the 125 bikes headed to the first corner. I couldn’t believe the speed they kept up with very late breaking looking obvious. One of the bikes just couldn’t do it and spat the rider off in style. No movement from the rider prompted us all to call for the red flag. The marshals, of course, were on to it and we had a red flag in no time and the bikes came in to the pit lane to wait for the ambulance to clear the track. Patrick commented on the bike feeling flat. We discussed this and decided it was the adrenaline rush from nearly missing the start. Off for a restart.
Again Zane rode around Patrick in the straights and Patrick would take the lead back in the corners. It has been obvious for a long time that Zane’s bike has more power than we could squeeze outa our 150 so it was, that we ran second in most of the races for the season.
So it continued, they fought it out on the track and Patrick worked hard to gain the lead. He did often as they circulated for nine laps. Again beaten in to first place by Zane. Frustrating but that’s motor sport.
We had the championship in the bag in the last race of the season. What a great way to end the season for a new race team and rider. Patrick gave us a demonstration of how to wear the middle of a race tyre out in the pits and great cheers went up as the smoke cleared. We have done it and hugs all around. We missed Donna and Warrick on this special day but thank them for their time and support and know we can do the summer series with them soon. No testing or measuring of anything as the bike was pushed in to the van and the pits cleared up. Off to the Pub for a beer and wait for prize giving. Beers all round and platters of food was the order of the day. We sat and chatted and had a ball. After an hour the rest of the support team joined us from the track. Some were marshalling and some were with others they support. We had most of the crew with us less George and Rob who had to ride home and other places and Warrick and Donna who had other important family things to get done. A great time was spent sitting joking and bonding as friends after what was a great race season. What a great place and space to be in. Well done Patrick.
We moved inside and Patrick received his trophy for a job well done. With a lot of hugs and back slapping we sorted out who was going with whom and we set off for home. Now that trip has some stories to tell that make for as exciting reading as the race day it’s self but that will have to stay in house or maybe someone could report on that on their Bebo page.
We did it. Thanks FiveStar and thanks to the whole team. I can’t thank you all enough. We did it in our first year and it shows what a team is. With out any one person and that includes the support team this would have been an also ran team for winter 08. But it was a win Thanks to you all.
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Doohan Brother farming partnership for donating all the hours I took to work on the bike. Sssssshhhh they never missed me. 
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Gixxer 4 ever
I had all day to sit down and read it... *wink*
Originally Posted by GurlRacer
Going to be wet I think. Both of you? If you want to stay here, you are welcome. We will be away Friday night but home 6 ish Saturday. Let yourself in. Hope to come in and have a beer with da boy Saturday night. 
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