Hampton Downs 12 Hour Endurance 2013

A while back my dad and I went to watch the sunset portion of the 12 hours endurance race held at Hampton Downs. The field was small but the racing still very intense as teams raced into the night. Meeting with some friends in the pits, it was evident that after racing all day they were trashed, walking zombie racers. Their Subaru had been in the pits a few times over the day for repairs to the rear axle, but finished the race. Success.

Mt Wellington May 2013

Mt Wellington May 2013

I forgot to post about the last track day I attended back in May, here it is:

Another great weekend at Mt Wellington, I was really enjoying myself and got some great starts which I was pretty stoked on. In the second points race I was following Henk around as he tried and succeeded to past Dave Diprose in the mid field. Feeling very confident in myself I started to line him up too but I ran out of talent and ate shit into turn one when I grabbed too much brake. Thankfully my dad was shooting on that corner and managed a few frames of me skipping along the concrete. I got away with a solid bit of rash on my hip which swelled up pretty impressively and a sprained thumb but otherwise pretty good… bike still goes.

Time to update the 13 and 7 year old tires, get a smaller rear sprocket and some more practice I think. Never the less I still managed a 31.03s PB lap in that last race which is my best time to date on Mt Wellington. SO close to that 30s bracket!

Tokoroa GP 2013 Photos

Here are some more photos from the Tokoroa GP 2013. I cannot emphasis how awesome this event was, such great competition!

^Nathaniel Diprose took it out on his Honda NF4 RS125 powered by a 80cc watercooled Derbi engine putting out 21hp

Tokoroa GP 2013

Wow, what an awesome weekend that was! That was my first time visiting Tokoroa and it’s such a fun circuit, although hard on the body into those down hill sections. Huge thanks to the organisers, time keepers, flaggies, and everyone who drank beers with us on Saturday night. Congrats to everyone who raced and those who triumphed. The GP looked fierce, I was nervous before qualifying and I wasn’t even in the race!

I just wanted to point out that there were TEN, yes TEN Honda RS chassis’ at the GP (including a RS250) and not including the GPR diesel which is pretty much a RS. That’s more than a nationals round I believe…

Cheers to Glen for showing me a few improving lines during the track walk and to Cully for letting me pervertedly handle his RSGP125. On that note:

TOKORA GP 2013 – PITLANE & PRACTICE

On the weekend the 2013 F4 GP was held at Tokoroa Kart track. This is a simple walk through the camp ground/pit-lane on Saturday followed by some practice laps by the F4 GP class. There will be some more video of the fierce race to come. There were TEN, yes, 10 Honda RS chassis’ at the GP this year. This included one RS250 and one NX4. That is more RS’ than the National 125 rounds!

ROYS HILL ROUND 6

I haven’t posted in some time so here’s a quick catch up. The final round of the North Island Series was held at Roy’s Hill Kart Track in Hastings at the end of March. Another spectacular track and some amazing roads to get there through the gorge hills. I did pretty average, sitting at the back of A grade with a bike performing very badly and some slow lines as it was my first time there. Never the less it was a super fun weekend. The final race came down to Rick Ford and Reagan Griffith with Reagan taking the series win, congrats!

Yes the race track is located in vineyard country and is in fact built between two vineyards and a road. You really couldn’t ask for a much more beautiful area. I’m thoroughly looking forward to the next race there, and the start to the new season. Hopefully I can inspire one or two readers to join in on the incredible fun.

MAXTON TR3

One of my favourite bikes from the Barry Sheene Trans-Tasman Challenge in October 2012

Some commentary from the festivals website:
“Glen Hindle is bringing his Maxton TR3 350cc to the BSTT in NZ. Glen is the current 350cc Post Classic lap record holder at both Philip Island and Eastern Creek and was Australian 350cc post Classic Champion in 2009. Glen didnt take up road racing till his late 20s and got into ‘historic racing’ in 2004. His late dad Bryan Hindle was an Austraian Yamaha Factory rider and won a number of Australian titles. With team mate Len Atlee he won the first Castrol 6hr in 1970 on a Triumph T120 650cc Bonneville.”

North Island Round 5 – Te Puke

My dad and I went down to Te Puke – pronounced tee pokee not puke ie vomit – for the fifth round in the north island F4 series the other weekend. To say it was a great event is an understatement! I spent Friday night after work and Saturday morning building a new/quieter exhaust so I didn’t get black flagged. We arrived at Te Puke around mid day and jumped straight into practice then qualifying. I set a horrible qualifying time due to never having seen the track before, loosing out on the first practice session and a tune that wasn’t playing fun with the new exhaust set up.

Super solid weekend, cheers again to everyone who helped out, organised and drank beers with us.

Reagan put in a ridiculous 42.955s lap, brian broke two bikes after qualifying third and pushed the FXR over the line, I got smoked by B grade half due to a ill tuned bike (other half cos I suck), Warrick fended his son Josh off until he conceded (that would have been an amusing drive home), I believe Mel got her knee down, Will stepped up the pace in B grade, the track was bone dry and fun as hell…

… aaannnddd my old man took some photos of us. Cheers dad. A successful first away meeting for myself and I can’t wait for the next one.

MT WELLINGTON AMCC ROUND 5

Last weekend it was round 5 of the AMCC F4 series at Mt Wellington. I palmed off my camera to my dad like usual but this time with the 300L lens on the end, oh yeah.

It was such an awesome day and improved on my times quite a bit! I felt comfortable on the bike and I ran a new pb of 31.407 seconds anticlockwise. The last meeting my PB was in the mid 32 second block and I’m stoked it only took 4 race weekends to get into the 31 second block. Avalon Biddle was racing on Sunday who races a Suzuki GSR600 professionally and used to race a Honda RS125.

I also tried my best to learn some riding skill from Avalon, Gavin, Nigel and David who lead from the front. Unfortunately the GP125 engined RS125 which Avalon was riding was leaking gearbox oil into the crank case of the 2 stroke and fouling plugs but I’m kind of grateful for it because it let me try and follow when she overtook me haha.

The below photo is a pass around the outside of Warrick in the sweeper just after passing me in the infield, that’s some corner speed right there!

Congrats to Nigel for a new track record of 29.436s anticlockwise, a real sight to see!

I had some good battles with Warrick, Karl and Neil (mini motard)! Great riding guys

Huge respect for Karl (following me in the above photo) who put in a 30.9 second lap on a 13hp FXR with standard wheels and 5 year old worn out skinny slicks. I have some serious learning to do with corner speed clearly! It also goes to show how little you have to put into your bike to be competitive at Mt Wellington if you have the right skill.

Thanks Kamil, Cully, Tim etc who ran the event and to the flag marshals as always. Cheers dad for shooting the photos

RICK BONE @ HAMPTON FEB13

If you’re into Datsuns and you don’t already follow Rick Bones Datsun 1200, I suggest you do. Having fought hard in SS2000 for years with his incredible 205 flywheel hp A15, he’s swapped to a SR20DET and pursued GTRNZ. After a few rounds, he then got pushed into GT2 when ran times below the minimum allowed time bracket. As you can see in the video above, GT2 is a serious class with Sivias, Skylines, Porsche GT3s, BMW M5, camaros etc.

Unfortunately round 5 at Hampton Downs didn’t end to well for Rick. After reeling in the 3.6 litre Porsche GT3 that was up front, he tapped its ass out of the hairpin which only ended badly. I believe Rick has sorted the damage already which tells good things for round 6 at Manfield.

I’d like to note for those unfamiliar with the series, that the cars passing were from the class above, GT1. Also that Ricks SR20 (running a mere 8psi) is the smallest capacity engine of the field. The largest being a 6.2 litre corvette. Way to go Rick, I can’t wait to see this in the flesh and I hope the rest of the season goes well for you.