Sally headed (no pun intended) down to Nelson, so I roped in young Mitchell McHardy to swing for me, he had done a few lap’s around Ohakea with Wingnut and is one of our up and comer’s in the Solo rank’s the week before finishing 3rd at the G.P.

So to the meeting

Race 1 in our first race we had 3nz, 42p, 49a, three quick bike’s and we beat all of them.

Race 2 won that as well after two round’s we were equal 1st with me old meeanee mate’s Dave Millar and Lewis Cox 11b.

Race 3 not as good a start as hoped never mind 21b Dave Black and swinger out in front so had to chase him down, nearly did it but they piped us on the line by about 4 inches.

The race after us was Dave and Lewis heat they managed to take the win and the East Coast title with it, we were 2nd overall awesome result, Dave Black and Swinger 3rd (will get your name next time sorry mate) they were pretty happy also. Cheer’s Mitchell hope you had fun.

Photos By Speedsport Images

Back at home base not a good day only had 2 ride’s didn’t even finish the second race, our track man too busy with his bizo to get the track up and ready, A big thank’s to you Spongy for the work you put into the track Top Man. While i’m thanking people a big round of applause to all the people in Wanganui who spent time in anyway in the staging of the N.Z. Superstock Champ’s, I wish I lived closer to of been able to of helped, that pretty good england aye.

Race 1 not a bad start had 35v in front of us got passed him within half a lap and we were gone. We had the lap box on this night the third lap was a 18.24 and the 4th lap a 18.36 the fastest lap by a superstock that night I think was a 18.8. Race 2 the S…t HIT THE FAN the referee must of gone for a hotdog when we were racing, we never hit anyone or got hit by anyone but there was alot of it happening, as well as start line irregularities this race should have been restarted or something. Race 3 42p got the gate this time round but got them by the first lap to get the flag again, so all going pretty well, bottom lip is getting off the ground now

We were ready to go for the qualifying night of this meeting the night before didn’t think the track was good enough, the other chap’s had ago for what it was worth never mind. So to the night of the 23rd won the first 3 heat’s having a ball then come the last heat we were ganged up on by our Palmy mate’s 11p and 42p the bugger’s, all good fun

Big crowd in as you would expect with a classy field of sidecar’s in attendance. Anyway had another good night won the first race easy going by the feed back, second race can,t remember now the after match may be the cause possibly, and the last race another comfortable win, took the chequered around as we do for the feature win and the crowd gave us an appreciative response which is a good buzz even after 19 year’s of racing

Had a good track to race on for this meeting helped alot as it was the N.Z. Modified Champ’s, so to the racing 13 bike’s were in attendance 2 heat’s of 6 with the old timer Chris Woodhouse making a return to the sport so he started of the back each time just to get his bearing’s again, we had three qualifying heat’s each then a top 6 final, we won all three races with the other heat’s having three different winner’s. Now to the final we were pretty confident of a good result but then we pulled grid 6 on the wall come out of the first corner last and had an uphill battle from then on. Managed to pass 2 of the bike’s to get up to 4th and couldn’t get passed the other three, to say we were gutted was an under statement the upside of it all was we were getting some win’s again. 3nz 1st, 6p 2nd, 35v 3rd

Well the date was right for a good result, but that was all as the photo shows the wheel fell off after the 1 lap practice, and the night was finished. Our Wanganui teammate’s 35v took away the title with an excellent result in second place to 21b Dave and Pete.

Following on from their awesome placing at the N.Z’S. Third place to Mike and Hayden 97p bad luck to Dave and Lewis 11b in the 3 way run off for 2nd. So we have now had our 3 problem’s clutch, throttle and wheel falling off so to the Wellington Champ’s this weekend.

First of all sorry about the lack of update’s lately, haven’t had much to write about. The Manawatu champs was a let down, were going into this meeting as defending champion’s 6 laps was all we did with the clutch giving up, this coming a day after a throttle cable broke never mind.

So to the New Zealand Champ’s themselve’s didn’t have very high hopes to be honest, more in fear of not qualifying for the finals, as the previous 2 times they were there we hadn’t. The practise on the Thursday went out for our 1st ride and were all over the place, 2nd and 3rd practice far better, the smiles were coming back alot of positive comment’s as well, all this gave the confidence a hugh lift.

The qualifying went not to bad to finish 6th, we didn’t seem to be as smooth as the last 2 practise rides the night before, never mind we were in the final’s. Had also buggered the 2nd hand clutch we borrowed oops.

The final’s night had arrived the bike was all good changed a couple of tyres during the day put another clutch in as well so were all set to go. Won the 1st heat, 2nd heat had the 2nz bike, the Trutt’s bros 61g the fastest bike around Gissy this season and our mates from Invercargill, managed a 2nd in this heat pretty happy considering the opposition. 3rd heat what a sh%^&*er bad start wheel standing coming down sideway’s, managed a 3rd that result hurt. 4th heat up against our Kiwi teammate’s to Aussie 37a ,3nz and the rising young star’s 69g, gated good got to the corner 1st all for Nick to get a good run outside of us to get the lead finished 2nd. Won the last heat which gave us 4th equal overall with 37a pretty happy with that. Thank you everyone again for all your support, to everyone in Gissy who had any part in running the event, the appreciative crowd you guy’s played your part as well, the 3 place getter’s good one see you in palmy next year

.

Photo by Speedsport Images

What an eye opener we experienced over there. Went to a track the previous Saturday called Gilmann Speedway, a meeting we were hoping to compete at this being part of the reason we flew the bike over as well as getting maximum track time before we left, politic’s prevented us from racing but what a show very fast, hooked up with a guy called Ronnie Parker and his team (these chap’s finished 4th at the gold cup) they made us very welcome so much so we got lost getting home, at the Gold Cup anything we didn’t have i.e compressor etc we could help ourselves, cheer’s guy’s much appreciated.

The Gold Cup itself had a sit down dinner on the Thursday night with speeches from the official’s, meet a few of the other competitor’s most of them where pretty good to talk to, you could tell the one’s early who were up themselves just like some of the competitor’s in the 4 wheel section here. So on to the practise on the Friday night and out first was the defending champion’s, F%^K fast Palmy is 440 meter’s long it take us 1 minute 18 to do 4 lap’s Wayville where the Gold Cup was held was 530 meter’s long these guy’s went round in a minute 20 for 4 lap’s. Our first lap in our first practise we where going backward’s into the wall (can laugh now we brought it back the right way and carried on) so back to the pit’s made a couple of changes and went alot better in our 2 following practices.

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