Round 5 - Manfeild

This would be my last hurrah for a while, prior to the season starting I had already decided I would give racing a break for a while after the 2011 nationals and I hadn’t changed my mind. I even had someone lined up to buy my bike so all going to plan I would be driving back to Alexandra sans bike. After the previous weekend I had a bit of work and cleaning to do on the bike. One of the jobs was to get the swing arm stand bobbin welded back on, it was ripped off when I crashed at Hampton. I got that all sorted and headed to Manfeild where the weather forecasters had some more promising predictions for the weekends weather. Friday was a bit cold but the track was dry and I got down to business straight away, working out gearing and getting used to the interesting changes of seal and bumps that the track is well known for.

By the second session I had got into the 1.15’s which was even with my PB the first time I rode the bike here 18 months ago. I went out in the third session testing some suspension settings when on the second lap coming out of the hairpin my rear tyre started sliding and just didn’t stop. Before I knew it I was sliding on my butt off the circuit and onto the grass, luckily avoiding a highside. I was pretty furious at myself still not really knowing the cause. As is usually the case I had ripped the swing arm stand bobbin off that had just been welded on, but thanks to Greg at Feilding engineering he dropped everything and welded it back on in about 20 minutes, man what a legend! Luckily the rest of the damage was minimal and we got the bike rideable again and packed up for the night.

Saturday again was a bit chilly but the sun was out and first session I took things pretty easy just trying to get my confidence back after the crash. I went out in first qualifying and took it easy before trying to get a semi respectable lap time in. I managed a 1.15.3 on the old tyres I was running and that put me in 3rd position which I was very satisified with. I knew the rest of the guys would go faster in the next qualifying session so chucked on a new rear and better front tyre to protect my front row start. I improved my time to 1.14.5, a personal PB and consolidated my 3rd position on the grid, just what I was after.

The first race was up and I got a terrible start, running around in 5th position for the first 3 laps. On the third lap I was following Johnny Small when he made a mistake and ran wide into the final corner, I passed him to take 4th although straight away saw the red lights and flag at the start/finish line, someone had crashed and the race was stopped. I made my way back to my pits and put the tyre warmers back on to await the race instructions. We were advised there would be a full restart so I chucked in another 3 litres of fuel and went back to the grid. This time my start was much better and I came across the line on the first lap in 2nd position. Knowing Terry Fitzgerald would be hot on my heels I daren’t looked back for the entire race, thinking I could hear an engine right on my tail. I focused on riding smoothly and when the chequered flag came out I had a quick look over my shoulder to see that I couldn’t see anyone behind me and had beaten him by 6s. Shows the value of having a lap board, seeing I was only 1.3s behind race winner Jason Easton I may have been able to push a little more to try and bridge the back between us. No to worry though, there were still two races on Sunday.

Later we put on a brand new set of Continental slicks for the final day of the 2011 season and loaded the bike in the van for the final time. With a 1 hour sleep in thanks to daylight savings, we arrived at the track to another brilliant day and by the time our race was up it was nearing 20 degrees. The lights went out and I got a good start, however the front wheel started coming up and kept rising. Even though my brain was saying don’t roll off I did just that a lost 3 places in the blink of an eye. I didn’t hold back for the first two laps passing both Glen Williams and Johnny Small under brakes into turn 1 at the end of the first lap and doing the same to Terry Fitzgerald a lap later. Now I had Jason Easton in my sights and he was about 0.7-1s ahead of me. I rode very hard for the next 5-6 laps trying to bridge the gap that got as low as 0.6s. I could see the strengths and weaknesses of both bikes very apparently. From the final corner to the hairpin I would make up a decent gap, maybe 0.3s. But the drive his bike got out of the hairpin and Higgins negated my gain and probably pulled another 0.1-0.2s just to add salt into the wounds. By lap 7 the gap had grown to just over 1s and I knew I wouldn’t be able to beat him unless he made a mistake so I settled for 2nd and bought the bike home 2.7s ahead of Terry in 3rd. In the chase for Jason I managed to get my laptimes down to 1.13.3, pretty decent but still 0.1s slower than Jason’s fastest time. It was hard to know if he was having to push to keep me behind or just riding as fast as he needed to.

The third race of the weekend, final race of the 2011 season and final race of my nationals career for now was upon us. I knew that I had to get a good start and try to dice with Jason if I had any chance at a race win. However his starter motor had other ideas and gridding up to an empty pole position gave me a few butterflies in my stomach. I got a good start and tipping into the first corner in 3rd I barged past Johnny Small and got good drive towards turn 2. I was alongside Terry going into turn 2 but had the inside line. I held on for long enough to see him disappear out of my vision and had clear track in front of me. I put down several fast laps and had a quick look over my shoulder coming out of the hairpin. I could see a decent gap behind me and had to make sure I kept my head clear and didn’t make any mistakes. Those last 3 laps were very hard, knowing I was so close to my maiden nationals win but still well aware I hadn’t won the race yet. I gradually bought my braking markers slightly back and just cruised around to take the victory by a massive 5.6s. To say I was over the moon was an understatement. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I’m not ashamed to admit there was a small tear in my eye on the warm down lap.

To add icing to the cake Jason finished 4th in the race, meaning he had 63 points for the weekend and I had 65. So adding to my first nationals race win was my first nationals round win to boot. I had certainly been lucky but a win is a win. I parked the bike up and gave it to its new owner highly satisfied at how the weekend had gone. To come back from the crash on Friday was very satisfying. It is a day I will never forget.

Finally I have to thank my sponsors for helping me out over the last few years, I can’t say how much easier it has made it for me. Alexandra Panelbeaters are great, with my crashing record you’d think someone offering to paint my fairings would be pretty mental but they were happy to! Two Wheels Unlimited Alexandra and Alexandra Signs have also been very helpful along with Continental Tyres, Shoei Helmets, Silkolene Oil, RK Chains and Afam sprockets. Finally I would like to thank Chris Osborne for all the help and assistance he has given me over the last 18 months. My bike has always run really well and if you need any engine work done make sure you give him a yell.