Second round of the Aussie series 1st heat against Darren Treloar and Mark Mitchell and Sefton & Honk not a bad start finished 3rd the two Aussie’s not far in front very satisfying.  2nd heat had Mark Plaisted & Robbie Wilson had a great battle with Mark, he took the win and we got a 2nd.  3rd, 4th & 5th rounds won each race John Warward, Tomcat, Lionel Green been some of the opposition in some of these rounds.  No slugs on their home track these guys.  1st race of second round Darren Treloar set a new 4 lap record, next race we bet his time, a race or two later DAMM!! Russell Stuart & Andrew Parker bet the record.  To make the four bike final the top 3 points scorer’s qualified straight through the next four points scorer’s had a B final with the winner joining the top 3.  We were 3rd equal with Mark Plaisted but as he bet us in the heat he went straight through to the final.  We had the B final after 2 starts we were the only ones to finish.  To the A final having not had the chance to take our helmets off from the B final we were straight into the Main Final.  The 3 Aussies had first pick for grid we were left the outside grid.  We near had them all at the completion of the first corner but run out of room with Mark Plaisted taking the lead.  The next two laps we hounded them to finally take the lead and went on to win.  The surprising part being we never saw the other two Aussie bikes during the 4 laps.  A Huge win with the opposition we had in the final the crowd were awesome cheering us on and showing there appreciation of the race when we won.

Written by Handbag

First round of the Aussie series John and Tony couldn’t nail the track, changed gearing every heat except the last one.  A couple of the rounds they set the fastest laps but overall they came about 7th.  Unfortunately Mick & Blink had a bad crash which saw them taken to hospital, Mick ended up with bad smack on the head and blink with bruised Kidneys and lungs. Then Mick  Headland and Paul Waters went into the corner to fast and hit the wall resulting in Paul breaking his leg in 3 places and Mick with a broken ankle.  Not a good start to the first round.

Well travelled up to Rotorua in the pooring rain hoping and praying the rain will stop.  Got to the Motel and it had cleared up so off we went to the track. 

Had the first heat and John & Tony gated really well and was about 5 bikes ahead of everyone by the first corner, won that race comfortably.  Third heat and unfortunately Les & Kerv came off and couldn’t continue, Kev thinks he may have broken a couple of ribs and Les has hurt his elbow, hopefully they will be all good for the Aussie series.  Once the bikes had run their first heat the rain started, just a slight mist then a lot of rain so the meeting was called off.

I must say I love the layout of the seating at Paradise Valley, what a great setting just a shame it rained.

Next race is 1st January 2010 at Palmy.

Written by Rowena – no help from Jaxon he is playing Demolition Derby on the Computer

Jaxon with Ribbon and Trophy

Bike all going good finally – major MSD problems so a new one was fitted and Champ gave the bike a good going over and everything great. 

Qualifying was 2 races and the bikes who got first in their heat went through to Final six.  John and Tony’s first race had to be restarted unfortunately Deane and Rob had a big accident and Rob got seriously hurt (hope y0u are better soon).  So they restarted the race and John and Tony spent a lot of time trying to go round the outside and it wasn’t working so Mike & Paul (97p) won.  The second qualifying race they got a good gate and won which put them in the final.  Bit of a concern to see the Fire extinguisher been used on the bike thankfully it was only the stuff John had wrapped around the pipes got a bit hot and smoking.

The final bikes were:

97p, 11p, 3nz, 19v, 34v, 59g

First race 97p came first , John & Tony came second

Second Race John got some bad advice from Grunter (lol) changed side wheel so ended up getting last for that race which meant if they were to get a podium finish they needed a first in the final race. 

Final race they were on grid 2 and managed to get to the corner first and have a great ride to win the final making the results a 3 way tie with 97p, 3nz and 19v. 

Then they had the run off and got a good gate and keeped the lead for all 4 laps.  Final results John & Tony Manawatu Champs, 97p Second and 3nz Third.  Great racing by everyone and congratulations to the top 3.  We have one very happy Handbag, and a extremely happy Tony as this was the first time he had ever had the checker flag in Palmy a great start to the season.

Written by Rowena and Jaxon

Welllll – Bike looking good while warming up but once they got out onto the infield it decided it wasn’t going.  Tried to push start but no joy.  Thanks to Pitty and Sally they loaned Handbag and Tony their bike and to the starting line they went.  Didn’t get a great start, got out of the gate 3rd, obviously handbag wasn’t going to let that stop him, around the outside he went first passing Mick and Blink who put up a bit of fight then he caught up to Derek and Horse and again round the outside and passed them and took off to win the race.  An excellent smooth race the best one of the night loads of comments from the crowd about how great the race was.

Bike now at the Champion Hospital getting fixed hopefully nothing too serious.

Written by Rowena (Beth) and explained by Jaxon

Getting a bit of stick for not keeping the website updated, with working in Wanganui I have about 2 and half hour’s less a day to get thing’s done (yeah get the violin out) sorting the trailer and the bike that’s life i suppose. Anyway Tony and I are starting to get thing’s happenin, had a few win’s along the way the major let down was the Ray Tarrant Memorial, and getting excluded for a start line error in the last qualifying heat and missing the 1 race final. Had the kill switch come out a couple of time’s as well can’t rememeber back that far to the last time that happened, it happened again this past weekend at Kihikihi for the Waikato Champ’s in the last heat of the day equal 2nd on point’s with Les and Kervin 1nz who we were up against. Dean and Rob Millar 9g had taken the title winning the previous heat, so to the race itself on grid 6 into the corner 3rd behind 1nz and Spud and Phiilipa 39p getting into position to pass the both of them and the kill switch fall out f**K said Tony. A couple of the other team’s had mishap’s Clive and Brendon 56g not getting out of the gate and Chuck and Red coming to grief in a hole, we still managed 3rd overall. Thank You to our families and sponsor’s will try to keep this updated the best I can, Rowena may do the odd update.

Have had a team change this season with Tony Hirini swinging for me. We went out for the first time at practice and every thing went well.

Had picture taken for the Wanganui Chronicle with Mick & Blink to promote the Aussie series.

West Coast Champs time again with the Aussies in attendance, had them a bit edgy the thought of 6 on the line generally they only have 4 units line up.

The meeting in general what a buzz some of the most intense on track action I’ve been involved in for a long time, had ex New Zealand Champion’s that were watching saying it was the best racing they had seen in a long time helped greatly by a top track surface and being run at night.

The format had 3 heats of 6 the winner of each of the heats advancing straight to the final that being ourselves passing the legend from Aus Gary Moon / Mike Ing on the way, Steve/ Shaun 42p and Aussie’s Scott Christopher/ Trent Koppe.

The next qualifier involved the remaining bikes staying in there same heat’s with the 1st 2 going to a semi-final of 6 bikes, then the 1st 3 of this race joining the 3 1st round winners for a 3 race final have you got that fiqured out…….cool.

So the 3 other finalist were Gary Moon/ Mike Ing, Mark Whye/ Gordon Campbell and Phil and Simon McNabb. The 1st final heat needed a re-start Moonie apparently crossing before the 30 yard line seeing him excluded the re-run the tractor of 42p got a flyer and we couldn’t peg him back 11p Mark/ Gordy 2nd us 3rd Mark wouldn’t move over lol.

The 2nd heat we were on the wall went around all of them except for Moonie had him as well before the end of the 2nd lap and pulled away 11p 3rd, 42p 5th this gave us a point lead 11p and another point back to 42p.

The last heat was all on you could throw a blanket over the 1st 4 bikes and none of them was the Aussie boy’s 42p went on to win 11p 2nd and we got 3rd meaning a 3 way run-off for 1st.

42p drew pole 11p on 2 we had the outside so we were off 11p pulled a big wheelstand that was his change gone 42p a better gate than us to take the lead the remainder of the race was gaving it heaps to pass them around the outside but couldn’t quite nail it, so there you have it could’nt make this write up any shorter I would’nt have done the meeting justice it was unbelievable racing.

In the wash up it meant we still have not won the West Coast Title lol. Merry Christmas everyone New Zealand Champ’s next come down the pit’s and say hi see you there.

Heavy rain the night before left the track waterlogged basically so were on a hiding to nothing really.

We had 13 bikes so had 2 heats of 6 with some new boys off the back, we were in the first race on the old girl it didn’t let us down and took the win. We went straight to the infield and jumped on the new one did the practise lap and about the first 2 lap’s of the race but its not really happening for us unfortunately probable major structual changes in the front end looking likely.

It has the grunt alright but thats all we got and that was to be all the racing we had for the night the track being to rough.

The West Coast Champs are next for us on the 27th December with the Aussie boy’s here it should be interesting.

Support for the Sprintcar’s this night those yank’s were knocking on the door of a 160kph that’s a 100mph in the old language, we were doing about 115kph apparently. This was another track we had alot of fun on in year’s gone by and they have gone and contaminated it with clay also, give us a break, had 2 ride’s before time went against us won both of our heat’s Steve and Shaun 42p , Stu and Richie 52p (ex52w) had a win each also. We had hoped to have the new bike down in Wellington but the boy’s have been busy so finger’s crossed for Palmy this weekend, both bike’s painted now looking good hopefully G.T. can put up a photo of them together after this coming weekend