After seeing the forecast and the fact that I am quite familiar with Manfeild, I decided to miss the Friday test day. In hindsight, maybe this was not such a good idea.
Saturday morning was wet but warm and I had spent the night tossing and turning thinking about what tyres I would use in a multitude of different scenarios but as Qualifying got closer we ended up going with dry tyres, which was the right decision.
Qualifying
The organisers were running a fair bit ahead of schedule so it was a bit of a panic to get out in time and I hate being rushed before going out onto the track. I figured I could make do with a first or second row start so I didn’t push too hard in the dampish track conditions. I noticed that when I started pushing, the bike was not handling particularly well but I had put on a new Supercorsa SC1 rear tyre that felt awesome. To my surprise, I qualified 2nd on the grid, just behind Jason Easton.
The organisers were running a fair bit ahead of schedule so it was a bit of a panic to get out in time and I hate being rushed before going out onto the track. I figured I could make do with a first or second row start so I didn’t push too hard in the dampish track conditions. I noticed that when I started pushing, the bike was not handling particularly well but I had put on a new Supercorsa SC1 rear tyre that felt awesome. To my surprise, I qualified 2nd on the grid, just behind Jason Easton.
Race 1
We made a couple of small changes to the bike and set off on the sighting lap only to be greeted with spots of rain, often referred to as psychological rain, which didn’t really affect grip too much. The track was so warm it evaporated very quickly. The flag dropped signalling the start and I got a fairly good launch only for the bike to drop out of second gear while I was at full throttle. This killed any drive I had while I tap danced on the shifter to get some speed. Fourth into turn one and I took a couple of corners to get into a groove by which time the first four riders had made a bit of a gap.
We made a couple of small changes to the bike and set off on the sighting lap only to be greeted with spots of rain, often referred to as psychological rain, which didn’t really affect grip too much. The track was so warm it evaporated very quickly. The flag dropped signalling the start and I got a fairly good launch only for the bike to drop out of second gear while I was at full throttle. This killed any drive I had while I tap danced on the shifter to get some speed. Fourth into turn one and I took a couple of corners to get into a groove by which time the first four riders had made a bit of a gap.
I was working hard to pull them in over the initial laps but the bike was still suffering from some setup issues, which meant I was riding my balls off to catch my fellow Pro-Twin competitor in 4th place. But eventually I did and we had a hard battle to the chequered flag pretty much decided by who could get past the back-markers without losing too much time. This time it turned out that I was able to take 4th and on the cool down lap I decided that they were the hardest 8 laps of my life!
Race 2
I had learnt my lesson from Hampton Downs not to change too much between races but I knew I couldn’t leave the bike as it was if I wanted to get a good result. Fortunately Robert Taylor from CKT was on hand to tweak the bike and this is when I started wishing I had attended the test day so we could have tried things then. Anyway, we had an idea of what needed to be done so we went a bit stiffer on the front so that it could ride higher in the stroke – sounded good to me!
I had learnt my lesson from Hampton Downs not to change too much between races but I knew I couldn’t leave the bike as it was if I wanted to get a good result. Fortunately Robert Taylor from CKT was on hand to tweak the bike and this is when I started wishing I had attended the test day so we could have tried things then. Anyway, we had an idea of what needed to be done so we went a bit stiffer on the front so that it could ride higher in the stroke – sounded good to me!
The weather was fine and this time I got an even better launch but again the bike dropped out of gear (why does this keep happening!!!). So with a very similar start to this race as the previous one I set about catching my Pro-Twin competition. I could feel that the bike was riding higher at the front and this did seem a bit nicer in some areas but again it felt like something was missing and I was not able to apex corners like I normally do. My lap times got quicker as I settled into the new setup and I took 4th place with about 3 laps to go. Scott Moir had not been too far from me by the end of the first race but this time he was lapping considerably quicker and cleared off to leave us battling for a best of 4th place.
Unfortunately, I was not able to make a gap on the rider behind me and I missed my lines a few times meaning he managed to get by me again. Now, I like a hard race but this one was getting a bit dirty. We had already been side by side on the straight a few times only for me to have to grab the brakes to avoid being run off the track or into pit wall. Similarly I had put in a couple of hard passes, which he probably wasn’t thrilled about and I admit that. But it all came to an end when I was entering turn one on the brakes up the inside of a back-marker and the other rider tried to make it through a gap between us clipping my left handlebar in the process. As I was trying to turn the bike into the corner, the bike did not like having the wheel facing the wrong way and caused me to have to abort altogether, missing the unsuspecting back-marker by what felt like millimetres. After avoiding a two bike pileup I was facing the familiar situation of kitty litter surfing towards a rapidly approaching tyre wall and yes, I dropped it. Turns out a stone had lodged in the brakes and locked the front wheel so I wasn’t going to make a comeback whether the bike wanted to start or not (and it didn’t).
So, not such a good end to the day and the way the points system is stacked, a DNF really puts a dent in the championship. I haven’t given up on 3rd place overall however so we will have to see how it all works out at Wanganui.
I’d like to thank the organisers and marshals for putting on a good meeting, which ran just as smoothly as round one. Thanks to my sponsors NWA for providing me with the best Pirelli tyres and Robert from CKT for the best suspension. And especially to my family and supporters for coming to help or watch and giving me a real boost on the track.
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