Another round of 2017 NZSBK wrapped up, with Day 2 continuing the trend of fluctuating results and emotions. Invercargill also chimed in with a calm sunny morning, followed by heavy rain, strong winds, light rain, sun and rain at the same time, and some more sun. With some wind. We’re getting pretty speedy at wheel changes that’s for sure.
Race 1 for the day was declared wet, and where I’m generally quite happy in the wet these days, we made some suspension changes which turned the bike into a wooden bucking bronco, devoid of feeling and bumpy as all hell followed by the the craziest gyrations I’ve ever experienced trying to get the power down. A race to forget.
And then the sun came out. We took our new-found knowledge of what not to do to heart and achieved something which did the exact opposite: nice and forgiving in the bumps with oodles of grip and drive (and no theme-park style gyrations either!). I spent the entire race behind #37 Rob Gibson on the Kawasaki, I knew where I was stronger but took a while to work out how I could use it to do something useful with and make a pass. Unfortunately I left it too late and with the front-runners coming through I wasn’t able to keep close enough to make it happen, and finished 1.3seconds behind in 12th place.
So we went into the weekend hoping to get into the 1:02’s, but considering Friday’s incident I couldn’t be happier with the result. I smashed my PB with a low 1:03 which was 2seconds off last year and more than 1second off Race 1, and think there was a 1:02 there for the taking had I made it past. We got some free power by ripping out some wires, was able to ride after what looked like a bike-write-off crash, learned some stuff about suspension, and improved upon lap times – hard to ask for much more than that!
Another massive thanks to Tim White for all the help over the weekend.
Photo credit: Vanessa K Photography
