Napier, NZ nat series final round

The view from my bed room window

Coming into the race I had no expectations of making the top three in the series after the 18th and 11th I had from the first two races. I was just trying to focus on having a good solid race and not let any one get to far ahead over the first couple laps. I was once again lucky enough to stay at the Clarks house out on the farm and only 10min away from the race. After a few laps over the two days leading up to the race I was felling happy with the track and loving the new decent. 

Race day and I decided to do a bit more of a warm up than I have been but the legs felt like crap off the line any way, I was back in 5th or 6th into the first single track and started yelling at people letting gaps open up. I was able to make my way into the top three on the main climb and then Carl and Dirk started attacking! My legs still were not keen to pulse like that and they opened up a gap, I kept the pace on as I was going away from the rest of the field and after last weekend I knew I could finish strong (and its easy to push to deep early on this track and pay for it later). By the middle of lap two I was back on Carl and Dirk and the three of us started trading blows, one after another we would attack and the other two would have to chase. This went on for a lap and a half until Dirk was able to get a good gap and we couldnt peg him back. I lost about 45 seconds over the next lap or so and lost count of what lap I was on, thinking I had two more laps to go and then being given the last lap coke bottle. I now was thinking to my self, is this the last lap? or did my feeder give me the wrong bottle?? I decided to give a big push and hope it was the last. Turns out it was the last lap and I was able to close the gap back down to 24seconds behind Dirk and put 30ish seconds into Carl By the finish. 

With another second under my belt I had enough points to put me 3rd over all in the series. As I said at the start of this, I was not expecting to make top three but so the 3rd was a nice way to finish the series. Off the top of my head I think I have finished top three in the series every year since 2004 (except 2006).

With under two weeks to go until the Ocieania champs being in Rotorua its all about doing the last minute prep and fine tuning the legs, 

NZ national round 3, Wellington

After two weeks off from racing, It was time for another round of the National series. Held in Wellington on the Mt Vic tracks that we have raced on since the early days (mid 90s). Over the years I found the GEAX MEZCAL tyres to be awesome on these tracks, so much I fitted them at the start of the week before looking at the long range weather. This year was a little bit of a different lay out with a more compact track that came back to the same point a few times per lap to make for some good spectating. I had a good start and planed to sit in 2nd or 3rd up the first climb, this worked out for the first half of the climb but then I found my self on the front and making a small gap towards the top and leading into the decent. I had only done a couple laps in pre-ride the day before so I was still finding my lines down a couple sections, so I made a couple mistakes but was able to hold the lead for half the first lap before Dirk slipped in front of me and attacked straight away. From this point my legs and lungs didnt want to play the game for the next couple laps and I slipped down into 4th spot, At the start of lap three the legs and lungs decided they would start to work and I started to feel good on the climbs. From this point I started to pull back time on the guys in front, I moved into 2nd and started to close the gap on Drik (who at one point had over 1min gap on me). I was able to close the gap down to 22sec by the finish feeling stronger and stronger all the way to the finish line. Things are looking good for the coming weeks of racing with the final of the NZ national series being this weekend coming in Napier.