I headed up to Hamilton early Friday morning for the last two rounds of the north Island champs over the weekend. I was lucky enough to Stay with John Ravenscroft in Te Kuiti, So I got taken out to a awesome practise area just down the road from his place. Spent a hour out riding in the wet weather running in my new set of V rubber tyres for the weekend and finding plenty of grip in the slippery conditions.
Saturday was real wet and slippery and there were a few sections in a river with some extremely greasy rocks but they actually turned out to have the most traction after moving on to the sections on the side of the hill that were pretty much just a mud slide. I won the day by a good amount of points and i was happy with how i was riding.
Sunday was defiantly the highlight of the weekend as there was just a paddock of real big round rocks. Was on a clean lap right up until section 9 where my front wheel washed out and i got a five, pretty slack really could have got away with just the one point to correct myself but no i was to focused on getting the clean. Second and third lap i lost one point then on the forth i was going for the clean lap but had to settle for a lap of three. Still more than enough to take the win again though.
A real big thanks to John Ravo for putting me up over the weekend, The Hamilton club for putting on a awesome to day event, My sponsors, Hutt boys Chopperz, Vee Rubber Tyres Spectro Oils, Motormart and of course Mummy and Daddy.
Thanks guys,
JAKEY
Hey guys,
Had an awesome week last week for the build up to the titles over the weekend. Training on the bike from Tuesday onwards up near the Montesa importers place. Me Nick and Dad had heaps of fun and we all felt really good coming into the weekend. This year we were able to go around on the Friday and check out the sections for the weekend and man, every section had at least three massive steps in and really long, so they were all tight on the 90 second time limit.
On Saturday we had a good crack at all the sections and found the three laps of the 15 sections really tough going and had a few big fives and a couple of fairly big crashes. In a way it was good to have such a tough trial as its not impossible to come back from any mistake, as every rider there was in the same boat. I was in 3rd after day one which I found a little disappointing, but was ready and keen to make up for it on the Sunday. I felt I was riding better the next day apart from a few sections that I just wasn’t quite aggressive enough on to pull them off. Towards the end of the first lap though I was having some wicked clean rides and to have all the Aussie spectators and my minder Nick and Dad cheering me on was awesome and gave me so much confidence. On the last lap we went around all the sections that I knew I could get without too much trouble and saved all the super hard ones for last, when time wasnt so much of an issue. We just had to try and get through the sections for three points as not many riders could even get through. Made it up to 2nd on Sunday about 30 points away from the win. A bit gutted as I feel I have worked hard for it this year and to come out with the same result as last year sucks. I wont be giving up on it that easy though.
A really big thanks to every one who was behind me while I was over there, My Dad for coming and giving me all the Dad advice HAHA, my minder Nick, top job mate, Tarp at Montesa Australia, Warren for coming over and doing his best to help me try get the win.
I also sympathise with Kyle Middleton for having an unlucky crash half way through Sunday and wasn’t able to finish off the weekend. Good luck to the Aussie TDN team’s go hard and make sure that trophy comes back to this side of the world.
Cheers Guys
Jakey