It was an interesting morning in Taupo with heavy fog at the track which delayed the start of racing. Once it cleared a little we went out for practice and it was the first time I have ridden in fog like this before. I thought it would be really hard to ride in because you couldn’t see much of anything from the sidelines but when you were on the track you were able to see where you were going and what was coming up in front of you. I rode ok in the first 65 race but couldn’t find my groove in with the 85s, came together with another rider and ended up on my butt in the dirt. I had a gear change, had a good talk with dad and went out with a better plan of attack and races 2 and 3 in both classes were heaps better. I was almost clearing the massive ‘centerpoint’ jump by the end of the day and I’m starting to feel much more comfortable on the bike we are taking to Aussie. I went 3-3-2 out of 25 riders for third overall in Pro65 and 28-12-8 out of 42 riders in the 8-11 85s. Because my main focus this season is to be competitive in Adelaide I am riding at random club days, learning to turn up ready to ride not knowing what the track layout or conditions may be and making the best of it so I won’t have a very large club series trophy haul this year but will hopefully have a result I can be proud of from AJMX. My fitness is really good and I’m able to do 7 motos on a Sunday after riding two tracks on Saturday without running out of energy. My mental strength and resilience is improving too as I’m not letting a bad ride ruin my whole day, my communication with my team (Mum and Dad) is getting better and even my teachers are saying this is having a positive effect on my schoolwork too. There’s now less than 90 days to go until we are on a plane and I’m starting to get excited for the next school holidays.
Soren Staudinger 