Category: 2020

Taupo is a pretty special place with a cool track. Everytime we are here it is a different layout with new challenges. I came in expecting to have made more progress in my riding and set myself targets for the day which I missed. Even with other events on, because this was not the usual weekend for Taupo to run, there was still a good turnout of riders. 5-14-7 for today. I took some bad lines and ended up losing speed in deep soft corners and then had to scramble to sort out my gears. I learned a lot about needing to ride hard until the very end after I lost 3 of 4 places in race 3 in the last half a lap. There are things to work on off the track as well as on. Winter is a hard time to keep motivated – it’s cold, wet, dark and easy to get sick but this is what I want to do and I am grateful I have people backing me with so much physical and mental training knowledge and mechanical skills to keep moving forward. 1% better everyday.

After a day of riding in Tokoroa we stayed in Taupo Saturday night and it was good only driving 5 minutes to the track instead of hours. We rode a different track to last round and it got pretty gnarly again. I qualified 12th and had ok starts in races 1 and 2 finishing 12th and 9th. I wasn’t very happy with my results so I went out for race 3 with more focus and it was red flagged due to a nasty crash. I had an epic start in the restart and got the holeshot and was flying for a couple of laps until I stalled in the sand out the back and couldn’t get going again. I was so annoyed at finishing 20th. At least for a little bit I was riding Taupo how I used to on the 65s. While I still have things I need to fix I’m happy that I am getting better each ride.

On the drive up to Mercer this morning I told dad my goal today was to beat my fastest lap from the last round and to stay on my bike. I double classed in 8-10 85 and 11-12 85 and had to reset my goal after practice as I’d already smashed my targets. I felt really good on the sand today, I didn’t have any offs and enjoyed the battles. I went 1-1-1 in the 8-10 class and 6-6 in 11-12. I didn’t do the last race as I had already done 2 practices and 5 races and I was tired. I’m having fun winter riding this year, I missed it last year.

It was a really early start this morning to get to Taupo’s first round. Even though I rode here last month and had a great time clearing centrepoint and smashing out some great laps, today I wasn’t feeling it. I qualified 9th out of 42 riders and was so frustrated with my lap times. Race 1 was average and I spent the whole time fighting the bike, finishing 7th and it was so tiring. We weren’t doing the step up or centrepoint jump today, the sawdust was gnarly and there were some sloppy patches after last nights down pour. Race 2 started terribly with me hitting the tyre barrier at holeshot corner and having to start from dead last. I had to work so hard to get back up to 13th. We only had the two races today as there were big crashes on both the main and mini tracks and a chopper was called in. I’m sitting in 9th overall for today, not where I wanted to be but there’s 5 more rounds for me to get it together and get my race on.

After what has felt like forever with no racing due to COVID-19 we are finally allowed to have moto events again now NZ is at level 1. For six weeks there was perfect moto weather and now that tracks are opening again it has been raining heaps. Mercer sand track held up pretty well with only one or two sloppy corners which took some work to get around. It is always a challenge here for me as I prefer clay but my starts were pretty good after so much time off the bike and I enjoyed having some competition to battle. I finished 2nd in my first race, didn’t get to finish the second race as I got a rock stuck in my chain and didn’t start race 3 as my clutch wasn’t engaging so we stuck around and watched races and caught up with people. Hopefully we find out soon what is happening with the nationals so I can get back to training and goal setting.

It was a huge day at North King Country for the first schools round in the MX Schools series with over 400 student riders competing. My starts were a bit average, my first two I spent too much time on one wheel trying to get to holeshot corner. It felt nice to be on clay again after sliding around in sand lately. I had some really good battles and apart from taking a bad line in race 2, rode smart, changing lines as the track changed or to get around lappers. At the end of a very long day I was stoked to be on the second step of the podium with 2-5-2. The next rounds are going to be at Rotorua, Whangarei, Awakaponga and Tauranga and I’m looking forward to doing as many as I can.

Things didn’t really go in TECTs favour this season with conditions forcing cancellation of race days due to flooding and then because of no rain. Today was windy and dusty but good practice for Junior Nationals when the track breaks down and gets some mean braking bumps forming up under the soft, slippery clay dust. I rode pretty well today, focusing on my corner speed and trusting my skill on my bike. I am starting to feel more stable on softer tracks now and even with some average riding this season while we got my bike set up and I got used to riding an 85 I managed to finish 5th overall for the season against some really strong riders.

I think today was my best day racing at Harrisville so far. It was a long day on a hot, hard, slippery track and I loved it. I double classed again this weekend, in the 8-10 85s and riding up in the 11-12 85s. After doing two practices I was nicely warmed up for some good racing and enjoyed the challenge of being in the older 85 group. It was a full gate so going into holeshot corner was a bit freaky with about 35 of us all charging for the same place on the track. I was mid pack so was focused on not being involved in a pile up and as soon as we were on the track I went for it, picking good lines, committing to jumps and trying to keep my corner speed up. My 8-10 85 races I had some really positive results. Fastest lap time in Race 1 finishing second, fastest last time in Race 2 finishing second and holeshot and fastest lap time in Race 3 and the win! I also smashed my own personal best lap time around this track which was awesome. I only did 2 of the older 85 races – sitting 4th in Race 1 and 3rd in Race 2 – as the heat was tiring and I didn’t need to break myself just for track time. It feels good to be making gains again and see that the work being put in is paying off.

Today was another solid day of riding at Patetonga. The committee has put a lot of work into the track lately because the ruts formed up perfect for some really smooth, fast racing. I really like a good clay track. Since I am starting to feel stronger on the bike I double classed in the U12 85 and Junior Open classes because Junior Nationals is less than 3 months away and my endurance is still a little inconsistent. I went 2-2-3 in my 85 class with consistent lap times and no offs but I didn’t keep track of the Junior Open results as I wasn’t in it for points, just track time. The heat has been hard to ride in this summer but has it’s positives… like if we go to Queenland for the Aussie Juniors I’ll be used to sweating heaps and keeping hydrated. My highlight for today was being the lead rider for the minis who were riding a new, bigger track layout. I got to wear the hi-vis vest and show them around which was fun.

Our road trip to Woodville on Friday started a couple of hours later than planned after my cat decided to play hide and seek as we were packing and was found hanging out in the paddock next door. After a pretty good drive we got to the track to set up the pits and do a track walk. Since it’s been a long hot and dry summer the dirt track is almost hard pack but it looked really good. There was a couple of different jumps but the usual Woodville features were there. Qualifying on Saturday was ok, I did my look laps and got p13 which was annoying as I know I could have done better. I went into race 1 fired up and was unfortunately involved in a holeshot pile up, still not sure of what happened but my bike cartwheeled one way and I flew the other way. I got up and gave myself an quick checkup and was able to get my bike started and get back to racing. I had to work hard from dead last and almost a minute behind the leader to get any places back and I fought hard up to 25th. Back at our trailer we found out my bars were bent, my thighs were bruised and my stomach hurt from smashing into something. My awesome pit crew changed the bars and I went back out to race 2 just aiming to have a better start and to give it as much as I could since I had lost any chance of a winning day. I placed 11th in race 2 and finished my day with a 7th in race 3. The track was really dusty by the end but I kept pushing until the checkered flag and was so pumped to be told that 25-11-7 put me at 11th overall for the day… only a couple of points off my goal of a Top 10 finish for my first MXGP on the 85. I was happy to get out of my gear and go jump in the river to cool down before prize giving. and while I was a little disappointed to not come away with a trophy or some prize money I am proud of myself for not giving up when I had a lot of reasons to but no crashes or busted bits are going to slow me down.