Hi guys,
Three weeks down in the South Island has been and gone like a whirlwind and I am now back home getting ready for more busy weeks ahead!
The past weekend, round 3 of the NZSBK championships, began dramatically as we discovered on Thursday morning that my gear bag was missing from the van in our hotel car park in central Christchurch. After a few trips to police stations and trading shops we had no luck in locating the bag or any of my gear, so a huge thank-you to Darbi for sorting me out with a helmet, Midge Smart for the loan of gloves, boots and a back protector and MNZ for sending me down a replacement license that made it possible for me to race. The team trailer on its way up from Dunedin also had a puncture so it wasn’t a good day all round for the team!
Friday practice went all good, getting a bit more performance out of my Jager engine with a new reed block & splitter.
On Saturday I managed to qualify on pole with a 1.39.8 lap time, 0.4 secs ahead of p2, but feeling a bit dismayed as I felt I could have made better use of the session but got caught up in traffic.
Race one saw me out front and a lot faster than everyone through the first sector of the track, but Jake Lewis would made it all up again through the infield, where he eventually made
a pass on the penultimate lap and put a lapped rider between him and myself to pull away for the win. I was a bit annoyed to finish 2nd and therefore eager for the next day’s racing to arrive.
Sunday morning was fine and I got a flyer of a start from pole and managed to pull about a 3second lead before throwing it down the road entering the sweeper on the 2nd lap. I remounted to finish 10th.
The final race of the day was the NZ 125 Grand Prix, and in true fashion, the weather decided to pack it in right before the 125 race. We all went out on slicks, and unfortunatley for me it turns out brand new slicks in the wet don’t hold up too well as I managed to crash for the 2nd time in one day.. on the warm-up lap. I got back on and started the race, where I was running around 3rd/4th till it was red flagged due to the conditions. Big thank you to Dad, Tim and Kev for re-prepping my bike before the race was restarted. I rode the best I could in the damp conditions to finish 2nd.
Overall results were:
2nd in NZ 125cc GP
3rd overall for the weekend
2nd in the championship points
My next event is Round 4 in five weeks time at Hampton Downs.
Thanks everyone,
Avalon.
