FOUNTAIN
RUAPUNA
ROUND FOUR
Vege and I had a huge two-day drive
down to Ruapuna, and we arrived at the
McDonald’s house after taking the scenic
inland road, which had some awesome
scenery. The McDonald’s are right into
dirt bike racing, with the boys being at the
top of NZ Enduro so I fitted in really well
spinning yarns with the boys. I’d like to
thank them for the accommodation and
awesome meals, it was real fun getting to
know them.
It was hammering down the next morning
and I was absolutely knackered from
travelling, so we decided not to do the
practice day and rest up.
In qualifying I finished 7th which I was
happy with considering I’d not done the
practice day. In Race 1 I was run off the
track by another rider who cut straight in
front of me, making me lose three places
but I managed to fight my way back to 5th.
I ended up protesting the rider and won,
which put me up a place into 4th.
In Race 2 I had an average start but
began picking off other riders. I was going
for 2nd and had two big moments with
the back end sliding, so I ended up with
another 4th.
After two very average races I knew I
had the pace, so after fixing some little
problems with the bike I was feeling really
confident going into Race 3 – the NZ Grand
Prix race.
As I was mid-battle with five other riders
there was a crash, which promoted me to
3rd place just behind the two frontrunners.
I was slowly reeling them in when they
had a collision promoting me to 2nd, just
behind the leader. Not realising third was
still with me, I took some wider lines trying
to get better drive and he slipped up the
inside, so I finished in 3rd which I was
pretty happy with. After the race finished
the winners bike was protested and looked
over. The officials found an illegal ECU on
the bike so he was disqualified. This put
me into 2nd in the NZ Grand Prix and 4th
Overall which was really good considering
all the little mishaps we’d had over the
weekend.
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KIWI RIDER 37