Category: 2017

This weekend North Harbour Mini Motocross hosted their annual King of the North event. It rained for the week leading up to the race but the track was good and after everyone had had a practice round all the slippery grass areas were gone. I flipped my bike and broke my brake lever in the practice but sorted myself out and rode well in my three races taking all checkered flags. There were 13 kids in my class and I had fun racing against #94 who made me work hard for my wins. It was a fantastic event, we got t-shirts, goodie bags, and the rain held off until we had made it out of the parking paddock. I will definitely be doing this again next year.

This weekend I competed in the 2017 Inter-schools Challenge hosted by Rotorua Motorcycle Club. About 300 high school kids raced on Friday and 120 primary and intermediate kids raced on Saturday and it was awesome. My bike had a few issues during the practice laps which dad managed to fix just in time for Round 1 which I came 3rd in. I had a clean start off the gates and the holeshot but I was up against some really fast riders. I won Round 2 and after getting caught in the gates in Round 3 and high-siding one corner I fought back to finish 4th. Walking around the course before riders brief and talking over how to approach the corners and jumps made a huge difference to how I rode the track, I chose good lines and went faster than I have before. It was a surprise at the presentation to be awarded first place overall in my class – 7-8 year 50cc. I enjoyed this Inter-schools competition and have already planned to come back next year and do it again on my 50 and 65.

It has rained and rained and rained the last few days and the forecast looks like there will be more soon. Today it was only a little bit wet so we went back out to the Sandpit at Woodhill for a quick run. It is so much easier to ride on wet sand. I was able to get in and out of corners easily and didn’t have to worry about blowing up my bike. There was one corner which was a deep puddle that I came off on and ended up with soggy, sandy pants. It was fun though. And that’s why I ride.

 

Today was my first NZ club day. While we are living in Auckland I have joined the North Harbour Mini Motocross Club, a club for riders aged 4-13 years old to learn how to ride and race and have fun. Since we are still waiting for most of our gear to arrive we loaded my bike into Grandpa’s little beast with a few tools and lots of fuel. We only just made it to the event as it was raining so hard and everything turned to mud. The NHMMC runs tracks similar to Amcross which I’ve watched but haven’t done before and it was great to learn more ways of riding. I was really proud of myself today, I remembered all the stuff John had taught me last year and managed 4 holeshots and 4 wins out of 4 races. My bike was in fine form and I rode so well. I am now looking forward to riding at the Interschools Challenge in Rotorua along with other Primary School racers from all over.

It’s been about a month since I’ve been on a bike and I’ve started driving my family a little crazy with the amount of energy I have. Today Dad took me out to the Sandpit at Woodhill Forest and I did not enjoy it initially. I have never ridden in this much sand before and it was pretty hard to manage on a 50cc bike but once I learnt how to corner and accelerate out of the deep bits I had a great time riding for hours.

Yesterday the removalists came and packed all our stuff into a massive container so it can start its trip to New Zealand. We drove to Sydney and dropped Dads ute, bikes and trailer off so they can be loaded and shipped over as well. I spent some of last week helping Dad strip down and clean all the bikes so he could load them. They look pretty silly without all the plastics and stuff. Hopefully it should only take a few weeks to get there and then I’ll be able to ride again.

It has been hot in Canberra. Really, really hot. We have been doing coaching late at night, before the sun sets because it’s the only time of day that doesn’t upset the neighbours and drops under 30 degrees. Today was extra hot, especially when you are wearing all your protective gear and sitting on top of an engine. It was my last coaching session with John Prutti and my first one dedicated to riding my 65. I did pretty good, except when I didn’t know what gear I was in and stalled going up one of the big jumps and landed in a thistle patch. Big prickles in your butt hurts. We did lots of 3 lap races on a bendy circuit so I could see the difference changing down gears makes, choosing the right line and riding defensively so not to be overtaken. I stalled a few times which was frustrating but I know I’ll get it. John has been a great influence on my riding, and it’s been fun. I’ll be back later this year to watch you at the Aus-X Open!! Thank you John.

Today we headed off for a day trip to Nowra. The local track is closed for upgrading and Sydney was having a heat wave so it was time to try another new track. I really liked riding out there, the jumps were really good and it wasn’t too rutted up or muddy. The club have been opening extra days over the school holidays and working hard to keep it in good condition. It was definitely worth the drive.

Since NZ has some different rules and regulations to NSW we have been reading up and learning about what needs to be done to race Mini Motocross. I’ve had to upgrade my number plates to white on black from white on blue so I begged and pleaded to have all new graphics for my bikes. Mum agreed but there will be no more sticker changes on these bikes ever again… she’s wrapped 5 full bikes and 2 extra sets of plates in the last 18 months and is now on strike.