After the Ruapuna round we headed home to assess the situation and also the damage done to the SV's engine. Seemingly, the engine was unrepairable so we had a look for a replacement and settled on getting one in from the U.S. With days to spare a replacement engine was in and we headed off to Hampton Downs.
We were able to test the engine out on the Friday and it ran beautifully without any need to touch the fuelling, which was a relief. The weather was terrible however, and the track never dried.
Qualifying
The weather was the same the next day but for some reason the bike was playing up during the first practice session with the bike intermittently running on one cylinder.
It still wasn't running properly during the qualifying session with it conking out a few times only for me to jump start it again to get going. I was lucky enough for it to behave for exactly one lap which allowed me to get a decent time in to put me 2nd.
Race 1
We worked frantically to try and solve the problems with the bike before the race and it was looking good until the bike died going up the hill to line up on the grid. I tried to push start it again but it was impossible on such a steep incline. Eventually I missed the start and watched from the side of the track. The race was red flagged and I managed to get the bike into pit lane where we found the fuel pump cable had come unplugged under the tank. It was going to be a full race restart but the officials wouldn't allow me to start from pit-lane because I hadn't made the original start!
By now our mission was just to finish 2nd in the championship as the points gap to first was going to be too great. Still in second however, I was confident that we could finish runner up - not too bad considering our run of bad luck.
Race 2
The next day was again wet but not as much as the previous days. That was until there was an oil spill in another class and the solution was to spray more water onto the track!
I felt a sense of achievement just lining up on the grid this time and I got a scorching start. I passed a couple of riders around the outside of turn one and lined up another at the entry to turn two. I decided not to make the pass but at least block anyone else who wanted to pass me up the inside. When I pulled in the front brakes the front wheel immediately locked and it felt like the bike was floating on a pocket of air with no way of slowing down. Somehow I slipped past the other riders ahead of me and ran off the track. As I hadn't scrubbed off any speed I had to drop the bike, which as usual bent enough to make it impossible to carry on.
I was furious with my self as it was the first time I had crashed of my own accord for a while. On reflection I don't know what happened as I was braking at the usual point but that part of the track might have been affected by the oil spill and cleanup.
Race 3 (TT)
After Duncan Coutts very generously lent me some spares and with the help of Paul Buckley for the weekend, we managed to get the bike together for the next race.
The track was drying but our class was suddenly pushed up the running order, which caught everyone by surprise. I made the call to use a wet front and a dry rear for this race as it was the TT and much longer than a normal race. I was stoked to see everyone else on full wets as we lined up on the dummy grid and when we set off for the sighting lap I knew we had made the perfect choice... then it started raining.
The sneaky shower lasted just long enough to wet the track again and I was wondering what I had done to deserve such rotten luck. The track felt very greasy and I had to be extremely careful with the throttle but I felt like I could keep it upright so I lined up on the grid.
I got a good launch into turn one and although I couldn't carry much corner speed, I made sure to ride defensively for the initial laps. Other riders came past one by one but I had to bide my time until the track started to dry again. Slowly but surely my lap times started to drop and towards the end of the race my tyres came into their own. I managed to work my way back up through the field and although I would have been better off on wets from the start, by the end of the race I was the fastest rider on the track. Eventually I caught up to the rider for second in Pro-Twins but as I was passing on the inside he came across and we collided causing me to go down and him to run off track. It was basically a racing incident but I was just so fed up with the way things were going. Once again the bike was too damaged to carry on and pick up any points.
I could never have believed that I would leave Hampton Downs (probably my most successful track and where I got my first national win the previous year) with zero points! What's more I damaged my elbow, resulting in a huge hematoma, in the crash so we were feeling really down.
My only consolation was that my competition for second place in the championship had also gone down during the last race, so I was still confident of being able to finish on a high at my home track and take runner up in the points. With our terrible weekend Johnny was declared Pro-Twin champion with the points gap being insurmountable. I congratulated him and then we headed off for liquid refreshments.
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