Soren Staudinger

MX Fest is always a busy weekend and this long weekend was even bigger as Battle of the Clubs was running on Friday this weekend too. I took part in the dirt sprints on Friday night and while my starts were good I was knocked out of the competition in the first round as I was up against a junior 250. Saturday was a big day of racing, and I didn’t have the best starts so I was having to work my way through a really competitive class. I made some mistakes, I could have pushed myself harder and finished 9th overall for the day. We spent Saturday night watching speedcross which was fast and exciting like mini supercross and then stopped by the track again on Sunday to check out the seniors racing before heading home. It was a huge weekend away, I got some awesome news I had to process, did some riding, watched some battles and caught up with a lot of people.

Its always a good feeling to be racing back at your home track. Today was the first round of the season at Patetonga and prizegiving for the last one because our last ride day was cancelled due to covid. Practice is always wet here because the clay needs so much moisture to form good ruts. Unfortunately the pump timer didn’t turn off so the sprinklers ran most of the night and practice was like trying to ride on a clay river. We rode the twilight cut off track instead and the track dried up pretty quick into some fast and tacky lines as it always does. I won all my races today and picked up 3rd at prizegiving for 2019/2020 for my first season on the 85.

This was the first time I have entered TTs, I went out and watched last year while I was injured and it looked like heaps of fun to be blasting around a big paddock on a mostly flat grass track. While I wasn’t sure what to expect I quickly found my way on practice setting the fastest qualifying time. I had a couple of tumbles as I figured out how enter and exit corners at high speed going 3-2-3-2-2 over the two days for third overall. This was so much fun going around the big sweepers and straights, I got to hold my bike open in 6th gear and fly. I can’t wait to do this again next year and see if I can best my new best top speed record.

It’s not often I go to a sand track and can’t wait to ride. The Mercer track looked so good this morning and it was exciting to see SkyTV set up their camera towers and know that we were going to be on tv. Practice was good, the low bits of the track that usually get boggy had been built up, there were some sweet rollers down the back and a new hip jump to try out. I was sitting in 4th in race 1 when I was hit on the last lap and had to untangle tires and fought back to 8th. Race 2 was awesome, got the holeshot! I was pushing hard in 2nd when my front end felt funny so I pulled off the track and my brake calliper was barely hanging on. It sucked I couldn’t finish so I went out for race 3 hungry to finish in a positive. I was really happy with my riding today, I didn’t give up and kept my head in the right place. 8-DNF-5 for 10th overall. It was cool to be able to watch our races on YouTube after we got home and for my family in Aussie and England to be able to see what I love doing.

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.