We left home at 5am in the rain so I could compete in the Waikato Champs held at North King Country MX Clubs track near Te Kuiti today and it was worth the early alarm. We came down a couple of weeks ago for a practice day and I was glad we did. It’s a clay track and has a gnarly zig zag hair pin corner downhill section straight after a step up which took me a few laps to figure out, I wouldn’t have liked attacking it for the first time in the wet. It wasn’t too soggy at the track and with the fog it felt like we were racing in the clouds. Practice went really well and I got the 2nd fastest qualifying time so 2nd gate pick for the rest of the day. Race 1 I took off out the gates and half way down the start straight 12 o’clocked my bike and ended up in the dirt. I don’t know what happened so I started the race dead last and rode my hardest and fought back up to 5th with my goggles flapping on my arm because I broke my roll offs and the film was tangled around my rear brake. In race 2 I had a much better start and spent the first couple of laps overtaking riders up the step up, through the zig zag and in the air to get myself out in front and put some space between me and second. I was so stoked with my win. Mum said it was hard to watch because I was going so fast, I felt good on my bike and really comfortable with the lines I was taking. Race 3 was the best start, I got the holeshot and for the whole race until the white flag had a half lap on the person behind me. On the last lap I took a corner wide to go around a lapper and came up on the rhythm section crooked and over jumped it landing on my front wheel and did a moto cartwheel. I had lost a few spots and was annoyed at myself so I worked really hard to get something back and finished 2nd. I was pretty gutted with my silly crash but I still finished 2nd overall for the day and for my first time racing here and in the conditions I am proud of my result.
Soren Staudinger 