This is one of those events where everyone intends to take out the wins but Awakaponga always throws out a curve ball. I rode here last year and I had a terrible day. My starts were off and I didn’t back myself in the sawdust and sand and had heaps of accidents. This year I moved my goal from my Top 5 placing to a better finish than last year. Practice /qualifying was great, third fastest lap time and stayed upright. There was a layout change with added more turns and berms to this already challenging track but I can feel I have definitely grown in my riding over the last year because I didn’t wash out in the saw dust once today. Race 1 started well with a clean gate drop but as expected with 29 riders all heading into one corner line, someone went down and there was a mass pile up. There were a few incidents this race and heaps of us were affected. My brake lever and gear shifter ended up where they shouldn’t have been but I was able to crawl around in first gear to finish. I finished last but got some points so it was better than a DNF. Race 2 I had another good start and was in a solid battle for third when I hit something (a rock or lump of track base) and went for a tumble. Race 3 it started to rain but I refused to let this track get the best of me today. My knee what fat from getting a handlebar in the leg in Race 1, I was starting to get tired but I rode hard and finished 4th. I found a couple of sweet lines that no one else was taking and railed some corners. It felt so good. 28-9-4 put me at 13th overall today and I’m ok with this as it is heaps better than 2017. This may be my nemesis track but I will keep coming back, not give up and continue to get a better result every year.
Soren Staudinger 