Ruapuna Nationals
The sidecar guys were lucky enough to get there own “special briefing” from one of the MNZ stewards, the wanted a quiet “word” after a bit of Contact down at Levels the previous week between a few outfits and a couple of protests put in, briefing over and we’re one big happy family again and the protests are binned
We didn’t bother with Friday practice as it’s the home track and with it being 29 degreesI was bloody glad we hadn’t, so we check over the outfit, do the tyre pressures gas it up and we’re good to go
Qualifying 1
We like to take it easy and ease back into it so we’re not pushing to hard, we have the Wolland brothers chasing us around for a bit and swap places a few times and then pull off and find it’s put us 10th on the grid, were planning on upping the pace for the second qualifying and moving up a few spots
Qualifying 2
It’s started drizzling and with a wet track we flag doing that session as we’re not going to improve our spot on the grid
In between races Divvo wanders over to show everyone what BrakeKleen does to his scrotum as one of the Aussies gives him shot of it up the leg of his shorts, this makes a change from the “hot scrotum” contest from last week with the pyro
Race 1 Saturday
We’re on row 5 as unlike previous years we’re gridded up 2 x 2 instead of 3 x 2 x 3, Divvo gets the throttle control right off the line and we hit turn 1 in 4th with Dags/Grubby trying an outside pass, and when Divvo dials it up and it steps sideways into them, all of a sudden we’ve got their chair wheel climbing over the bodywork, Grubby gets spat off the side when the outfit comes back down and I’m thinking it’s going to get nasty for us when our outfit does a little sideways flick.
We’ve lost several places and we’ve got Burt/Ernie in their Blackbird powered outfit all over us, they’re chasing hard for three laps and then runoff when Burt misses the brake pedal into Jeff’s corner, we lap the PBR racing girls and are closing on the Macefield brothers, Harley Davidson/Marlboro Man are the next crew to be lapped and then Divvo pulls a outside pass on the Macefields between Jeff’s corner and Cockram Nissan on the last lap, knowing Goobers reputation for banging into people and in my haste to get as far away from him as possible I change to early as we go into the dipper and unsettle the outfit which results in a off track excursion across the grass in front of the marshals post and the Macefields regain the position and we come home 6th, Scrivy /Sidecarbob take the win
Scrub Session
This gives us another few laps in the morning so we can ease ourselves into the racing, with Alex/Trish chasing us around for a few laps; we try a few different lines as well
Race 2 Saturday
We hit turn 1 in 5th but exiting the sweeper on lap 1 the red flags are out and we pull back into the pits, Harley Davidson/Marlboro man have snapped an axle and when it went the abrupt right turn across the track meant Bill/Glen rode straight into them, the officials decide they’ll have the lunch break while the track is cleaned up and the sidecar guys take a few people out for rides
Race 2 restart
We don’t get offline as well as the first one and end up with a few more outfits in front of us, we get past the 666 outfit of Brian/Haydn and then we’re getting the pressure put on by the LCR “replica” of Peter/James we pull away on the straight bits and they’re trying to out brake and go around us in the corners and the Phil/Tony team are right there as well Pete/Rat have an arm up after passing us earlier have broken down, Adam/Vince passed us earlier on the Windle but have slowed and we pick them off Dags/Grubby are also slowing and we go past them and start pulling a gap on the guys chasing us, Phil/Tony give the Windle a bit of a nudge when it cuts out in front of them in the dipper, Goober/Pig hook into the hairpin a bit quick take out all the road cones on the exit go grass tracking and get a bit of airtime rejoining the track and Scrivy/ Sidecarbob have a big enough lead that they stop and push their outfit over the line for the winwith us coming home in 7th
Race 3 NZGP
We’re spinning up big time off the line and we’re in 10th spot on lap 1, lap 6 we’re into 9th and right up Perry/Leighton, it takes another couple of laps to get by them, Dags/Grubby are trying an outside pass at the sweeper every lap and we’re toasting them down the straight and they’re working their arses off to get back in a position to try again then Burt/Tim show up and for the next few laps we’re side by side, they’re trying an outside pass at the hairpin every lap and we’re running wide and blocking them, they try the same at the sweeper and we have the HP to pull a gap on the straight, then Burt/Tim go around the outside into the left before the infield sweeper and we turn in side by side, we’re on the outside down into the next right and we’ve pulled off passes through here before but they get sideways through the corner which effectively blocks our pass and we come home 9th behind them
My elbow is pretty much rooted and I cant lift anything but with wearing a shin guard on my upper arm I’ve got no more bruising and I’m pretty sure I’ve got a few cracked ribs but Think I can make a couple of changes which will stop that happening again
This week the engines got to come out as we had a problem with third gear which was really costing us through the infield, so that’s all got to come apart for a bit of attention and then next month we’re off to Paeroa
Originally Posted by scracha
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